The WFH fight: Bosses and workers continue to disagree

Despite remote work gaining traction over the past three years – and clear evidence providing it has benefits for productivity and wellbeing – employers and employees still disagree over the number of days per week workers should be able to work from home.

A recent global study from WFH Research (a group that includes German think tank Ifo Institute and Nick Bloom from Stanford University) found that although employees want to work an average of two days from home, but employers are only planning on half of that (1.1 days).

According to the data from 34 countries across the world, currently 67% of employees are working five days a week on company premises.

26% are hybrid, and 8% are fully remote. To knowledge workers these proportions may seem surprising but remember there are some jobs that are much harder to do from home than others.

This data from 34 countries globally is being borne out in reality. A lot of companies are rolling back on their COVID-19 time commitments, and mandating a return to office.

Notable examples include Snap, BlackRock, Disney who are all calling employees back in the office at least four days a week, while the likes of Amazon, Apple, Meta, Salesforce and Starbucks are asking corporate employees to return three days.

Some companies like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, whose CEOs have long expressed their distaste for long-term remote work, are moving back towards five-days a week on-site work for all employees.

The pros and cons of remote work

Writing about the findings on LinkedIn, Stanford’s Nick Bloom shared that he thinks, in the long-run, that “employees will win” this battle with bosses, meaning working from home will continue to be an important part of the future of work.

Central to this reasoning is that the labor market is still controlled by employees, rather than employers. Despite challenging economic conditions, employees are not scared to leave their jobs in search of new, better opportunities, including those that allow more flexible working.

Recent global research by Gallup found that employees know that now is a good time to find a new job (53%) – this is close to the 2019 high, and a significant increase on the 2022 figure of 45%.

Plus, as the WFH Research report found, there are huge benefits to employees – and businesses – of working from home. The pros are that they didn’t have to commute (60%), they saved money (44%), they could flex when they work (42%) and they had more individual quiet time (35%),

Of course, this is not to say there aren’t pros of in-office work – notably socializing with coworkers (62%), face-to-face collaboration (54%), and clearer boundaries between work and personal lives (43%).

The pros of both in-person and remote work explain why hybrid has emerged as the dominant model.

And, with the exception of certain aforementioned mega banks, the compromise of hybrid, at least, is something that employers and employees can agree on.