AFTER gaining widespread popularity, working from home is increasingly being called into question within companies.
Many bosses are campaigning hard to get their employees to return to the office more often. And studies are proving them right, demonstrating the benefits of face-to-face working.
From Elon Musk and Bob Iger to Laxman Narasimhan and James Dyson, countless major business leaders have decried remote working, after widely deploying it during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sam Altman, creator of Open AI and Chat-GPT, declared it to be one of the tech industry's "biggest mistakes."
This turnaround is all the more surprising given the obvious advantages of remote working, from the freedom of organisation and productivity gains to reduced stress and better work-life balance.
In fact, working from home is often seen as the ideal solution for better time management.
However, it would be an illusion to think that working from home has no drawbacks. In fact, this type of organisation contributes to the individualisation of professional tasks, placing the responsibility for failure solely on the shoulders of the employee.
As a result, some workers are tempted to demonstrate their productivity by responding as quickly as possible to the slightest email or attending every meeting to which they are invited. A habit that is as time-consuming as it is exhausting in the long term.
Could remote working hinder employee retention?
Remote working is also said to hinder career advancement. In fact, several studies have shown that employees who prefer to work face-to-face spend more time developing their careers than those who prefer to work remotely, without necessarily realising it.
In recent research, the findings of which will be the subject of a National Bureau of Economic Research conference in July, US researchers found that the fact of working together in the same building has a considerable effect on employee training.
To reach this conclusion, the economists tracked the evolution of 1,000 software engineers working at a Fortune 500 company before and during the pandemic.
They found that teleworking can slow down the acquisition of the professional skills necessary for promotion, especially for women and younger workers.
What's more, they found that "the high cost of lost proximity is also borne out in these workers’ quit decisions: young workers and women are more likely to quit the firm when they lose proximity to coworkers," the researchers note.
However, going to the office is not enough to boost employees' careers, or even their professional happiness. This is why working from home is likely to become a recurring topic in the workplace, even if not all jobs are compatible with this organisational method.
This is why the "hybrid" formula, combining face-to-face and remote working, is gaining increasing acceptance among managers and HR directors. But one thing is certain: remote working is here to stay.
Maybe not full-time, but occasionally. Here, too, it's all a question of moderation. – ETX Daily Up, June 27, 2023
