Data around remote work – and its potential hype too. Quoting from Axios.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest report, just 7.1% of American workers teleworked because of the pandemic in June, down from 15.4% in January. That figure has been hovering around 7%-8% since April, suggesting we’ve hit an equilibrium point.
Remote work rates vary significantly based on industry. A whopping 20% of “information” workers, 19.7% of those in finance/insurance, and 17.6% of those in “professional and technical services” worked from home last month, per BLS. Compare that to just 2.2% in construction, 2.7% in transportation and warehousing, and 3.6% in retail (obviously, all fields that don’t have a ton of remote-friendly roles).
Of note, People who worked remotely before the pandemic aren’t included in the figures. Nor are people who started working remotely during the pandemic and came to love it but may no longer consider COVID the primary factor keeping them home every day. Another from WFH Research shows that people are working from home about 30% of the time — and, like the BLS data, that figure hasn’t changed much in months.
And let’s add some other data from a survey by Glean.
Nearly six in 10 (58%) of workers surveyed by Glean said not having to socialize with their colleagues outside of work was a benefit of working remotely. Younger employees are even more likely to prefer WFH for this reason, with 63% of respondents aged between 18-44 seeing not having to hang out with co-workers as a benefit of remote working.
Glean also found that 25% of workers who work in a hybrid environment spent more time chasing down colleagues for information now that employees have returned to the workplace compared to when all or most of the workforce was working remotely
35% of US workers cite a lack of accountability among colleagues and team members as one of the biggest drawbacks of remote and hybrid working
While I’m on the topic … if you want a long read, I’ll point you to the interview with the CEO of Rolls-Royce North America.. although I can sum it up with the headline. The key to managing a new era of work: Trust your people.
My general working thesis has been that those who push for back to the office are generally poor managers. That becomes pretty clear from interviews with leaders embracing the change and the data we see in surveys.
I was a bit surprised to see young people push back on socializing at the office – although, to be clear, it’s the outside of work socializing rather than in work. That’s not as much of a perk as many managers may believe. It’s called work for a reason.
I do think we’re settling in – and finding a balance. Pushing further by inadequate managers just isn’t going to do it.
Note the other insight – work from home is different in different markets. In our quest for an answer to what’s going on with the economy, don’t lose the subtle nature of varying market conditions for various industries.