Workers to Employers: We’re Just Not That Into You
Early on, remote work looked like a win-win: Employees got to work where and when they pleased, and employers got more productivity. It turns out only the first part of that bargain came true. Employees still love remote work, but recent studies find no boost to productivity and a decline for fully remote work.
And yet most employers have given up on prodding staff to return to the office full time. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 62% of employers offer the option to work remotely at least some time. The Census Bureau finds that 39% of workers are teleworking from home, half of them five days a week.
It is symptomatic of a broader shift in attitudes toward work since the onset of the pandemic. Despite a historically tight labor market, pay until recently wasn’t growing much faster than inflation. One reason is workers aren’t just bargaining over money.
They are also demanding more nonmonetary compensation, such as paid leave and flexible hours. As a result they often put in fewer hours, or accomplish less in the hours they do put in. This seems to have made for a happier workforce.
The Conference Board in May reported that worker satisfaction rose sharply in 2022 from 2021 and reached its highest since the survey began in 1987. This isn’t because workers find their jobs more fulfilling, but because their jobs are consuming less of their life. Among the 18 components of the survey, “interest in work" made the smallest contribution to this year’s increased satisfaction; work-life balance made the largest.
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