In 2020, 36.9% of U.S. workers who completed the Household Plus Survey reported that they switched to telework or remote work due to the pandemic.
A recent survey in February 2022, reported a total of 59% of Americans said they are working from home all or most of the time.
After an increasing shift to remote working, workers are finding new ways to pursue their careers without leaving home. But is it as effective as working onsite?
Is working remotely actually better for both employees and businesses? The data might surprise you.
Work From Home Trends Then & Now
Work from home trends were on the rise even before the spread of COVID19 started in 2020.
Statistics on remote workers showed that more than 4.7 million people work remotely half the time or more in the U.S.
Effects of the Pandemic on Working from Home
According to one recent survey, 83% of people said they had already been working from home before the omicron variant spiked cases back in December 2021. However, there’s been a decline in overall remote workers since October 2020.
At the time, about 36% of workers said that “feeling motivated to do their work,” was “very/somewhat difficult” as opposed to 64% who said it was “very/somewhat easy.”
Now the majority of teleworkers are able to choose to work from home rather than being forced to. Recent surveys show that 61% are choosing not to work in the office while 38% say their workplace is still closed or unavailable.
During the pandemic the opposite was reported with 64% saying remote work was a necessity due to their office being closed. While 36% said they chose to work from home.
Employees Prefer Remote Work
The reason also has less to do with fear of exposure and more to do with a preference for telework. About 9% to 17% have reported that they relocated away from their office. These trends were a result of more people moving to suburban areas due to the pandemic.
Most of the current remote workers reported it to be a new experience for them. In fact, 57% said they had rarely worked from home – if at all – prior to the pandemic.
Yet many teleworkers who either work completely or most of the time from home (64%), said it allowed them to better achieve a work/home life balance.
About 44% said that working from home actually made it easier for them to get work done. Only about 10% say teleworking made it harder to meet deadlines and be productive.
Are Remote Workers Happier?
Even though the circumstances that led to an increase in working from home opportunities were not ideal, are remote workers happier in the long run?
Studies have shown that remote workers reported being happier and stay in their jobs longer. One study by Owl labs says remote workers were 22% happier than workers who always worked onsite.
This might be due to having less stress, being more focused and also having a better work-life balance.
Remote workers even reported working 40 hours a week which was 43% more than workers who never teleworked.
One glaring statistic showed that the vast majority of remote workers (72%) said they feel less connected to their co-workers. This could be why the future of working from home has taken a hybrid approach for some.
That said, most (60%) also reported that they’d like to continue to work from home all or most of the time once the pandemic is over.
Pros & Cons of Working From Home
Dr. Kristen Shockley of University of Georgia focused on the phenomenon of “Zoom fatigue.” Shockley and colleagues found that too much camera time can result in feeling more fatigued.
This led to less engagement and not speaking up during meetings. This was especially true for women and recent hires. Shockley found that being on camera created more mental strain. People were thinking about their self-presentation and how others were reacting to them or judging them.
In other ways, working remotely helps people of marginalized groups feel more relaxed when working from home. For example, non-White workers and/or sexual and gender minorities felt like they could relax and focus on their tasks rather than on how they should appropriately present themselves in front of others.
Few say that the reason is a lack of space or resources or that there are more opportunities for advancement. There are even fewer (9%) who say they feel pressured to work at their workplace by a supervisor or co-workers.
Is Working From Home Productive?
In American Trends Panel results, Workers who have jobs that allow them to work remotely but choose to go into their workplace, say the major reason is productivity and preference.
According to one study, remote working revealed many benefits including increased productivity, eliminating commutes, and flexibility in the workday schedule. Remote employees save about 40 minutes daily from commuting.
In a study by Owl labs in 2021, 55% of people said they worked more hours remotely as opposed to being in the office. It also found that 36% of people felt the office was best for working individually.
For some, working remotely was more comfortable and laid back than sitting in a cubicle. Others reported stress from not having clear boundaries. Parents felt distracted by family demands.
Managers can resolve these issues by providing ongoing meetings to offer encouragement, engagement, and also check-ins to maintain structure. They can also help remote employees by purchasing supplies for their home offices. Only 20-25% of companies are paying some of the cost for home office necessities.
Remote workers tend to be more productive overall. They don’t have a commute and won’t get caught up in office small talk, which means fewer distractions, along with more downtime with family, exercise and better quality of life.
What is the Future of Working From Home?
Whether or not workers and businesses prefer remote working, in today’s world it’s here to stay. The future of working from home means finding ways to support employees from afar. For companies, that means finding ways to improve the remote working experience.
Employers have also benefited from the overall increase in productivity due to remote working dynamics.
Most prefer a hybrid arrangement in which they ideally work 2 or 3 days in the office. Hybrid working environments offer the best of both worlds and are the wave of the future, according to Tammy Allen, PhD, at the University of Florida.
This resolves the feelings of being disconnected from co-workers while still allowing for the individual productivity and comfortability that remote work brings.
The top hiring for some type of hybrid work are sales, project management, computer information technology (IT), medical and health, accounting and finance, marketing, and education and training.
While some of these industries were already pioneers in remote work such as IT, medical and health are seeing sudden surges. We may continue to find more industries finding ways to jump on these remote work trends.
How Has Remote Work Affected Commercial Real Estate?
One rising concern with the remote work trends is the major risk it poses for commercial real estate. Commercial real estate accounts for an average of 37% of property taxes in cities such as Atlanta, GA, Austin, TX, Charlotte, NC, Chicago, IL, Los Angeles, CA, Miami, FL, New York, NY, and San Francisco, CA.
An estimated 80% of jobs in industries such as finance, information, management, professional, scientific, and technical, can be remotely done. Which account for an average of 41% of total wages paid through the cities mentioned previously.
Based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), one study in 2020 projected that employment effects alone from remote working during the pandemic caused the value of the commercial real estate to fall by an average of 6%. This number varies depending on the city.
It is also projected that if remote working continues to increase, then prices and demand for commercial real estate will fall by between 12% and 25%. This results in a significant decrease in property taxes that reduces the stability of cities due to revenue loss.
Concern surrounding the crash of commercial real estate is a valid one. Especially in cities like New York where skyrocketing rent prices took a turn during the pandemic. Rent prices dropped around 20%!
Businesses are cashing out of their leases to shift workers to full-time remote environments. Take Pinterest for example, which just paid almost $90 million to get out of its lease in a building in downtown San Francisco.
Are Work From Home Trends Are Here to Stay?
There’s no way around these work from home trends that are here to stay. Each employee is different in how they want to navigate the remote working environment.
Ultimately, there are a lot of benefits to shifting to some form of a hybrid work environment. It’s clear that employees and employers are appreciating the changes that remote working options bring.
JP Boyle & Associates is a medical device executive search firm that serves clients in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
