How Different Perspectives Affect the Debate on Remote Work

Excerpt from shrm.org

Technology developed in the past two decades has enabled many employees to work from home or other remote environments. In particular, laptop computers and wireless Internet connections with virtual private networks (VPNs) have created opportunities for people to complete their tasks in many different physical locations.

Despite this, remote work had not been the norm prior to 2020. Even when some high-profile companies ventured down this path, the experiment often ended on a CEO’s whim. As one example, the work-from-home program at Yahoo lasted from 2007 until 2013. And importantly, the decision to scrap it did not appear to be based on evidence of the program’s failure, but on a belief in the intangible benefits of in-person interactions.

Regardless of these early setbacks in the movement toward remote work, continued advances in technology and more frequent (though brief) employee experiences (e.g., while on sick leave) positioned the workforce for early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid, large-scale experiment with the practice. By October 2020, Pew Research determined, 71 percent of employees with jobs that could be done remotely were working from home all or most of the time—a marked increase from the 23 percent who worked remotely before the pandemic.

Because the threat from COVID-19 has waned, some employees have returned to normal onsite work, many have partially returned (e.g., with limited specified days in the office) and some have not returned at all. According to the Kastle Back to Work Barometer, the U.S. weekday building access rate for September 2022 was less than half the rate prior to March 2020. It remains to be seen if employees will ever come back in numbers similar to pre-COVID-19 days.

 

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