Six-in-ten of these workers say a major reason they rarely or never work from home is that they prefer working at their workplace, and a similar share (61%) cite feeling more productive at their workplace as a major reason. Although pre-pandemic time use data show average full-time workers spent more time alone when they teleworked, which led to an increase in loneliness for some, recent ACS demographics imply that homeworkers are not especially isolated. Their households are somewhat larger than households of those who work on-site. In fact, 27% of teleworkers lived in two-person households, compared to 33% of non-teleworkers. Teleworkers are more likely to be married (60%) compared to non-teleworkers (51%), but are about as likely to have children (42% vs. 40%). Forty percent of the married households and 38% of the households with children teleworked.
This group of individuals who have been WFH extensively, even before the outbreak, normally have a relatively long commute distance (longer than 20 miles) and older age (older than 60 years old). These individuals are not enthusiastic about in-person interactions, and their prior experience with working from home, most likely increasing familiarity with things like online meetings, made the transition to WFH every day during the pandemic smoother. Moreover, continuing their WFH pattern during the outbreak does not cause more family conflict, and they are generally against the opinion that WFH increases family conflicts. Cluster correspondence analysis (cluster CA) combines dimension reduction with cluster analysis for categorical data.
4. C4 – Strongly support WFH
Recruiters, project managers, technical writers, product marketing managers, customer success managers and graphic designers also feature prominently on the list of remote roles. The wide variety of these roles signifies the expanding scope of remote work across different fields.
- These individuals are often eager to go back to their ‘normal’ work environment and have no intention of WFH after the pandemic.
- To do this, we surveyed 5,775 U.S. adults who are working part time or full time and who have only one job or who have more than one job but consider one of them to be their primary job.
- And higher shares of upper-income workers (67%) are working from home compared with middle- (56%) and lower-income (53%) workers.
- Methods for combining data and calculating summary statistics using replicate weights are described in the source and accuracy statements for each data release.
For employers, managers, and leadership teams, understanding what employees want is essential to recruiting and retaining top talent, and keeping current employees engaged. It also requires listening, learning what works for your employees, and collaborating to find new ways to support teams in the evolving workplace. The research also confirmed that higher-paying jobs that require more education have a higher capacity to become remote jobs, highlighting concerns about inequality.
Most employees want flexibility, but the averages hide the critical differences
Among four-year college graduates who are working from home all or most of the time, 64% say they often use video calling or online conferencing. In contrast, 48% of teleworkers without a four-year college degree say they do this often. Similarly, 69% of upper-income workers often use these types of services, compared with 56% of middle-income workers and 41% of lower-income workers. With widespread school and daycare closures, many working parents have their children at home as they’ve transitioned to remote work. This difference persists across genders, with both mothers and fathers more likely than their counterparts without children to say this has been difficult for them. Most also say it’s been easy for them to meet deadlines and complete projects on time, get their work done without interruptions, and feel motivated to do their work.
Similar shares across age, income and racial and ethnic groups say they’d want to work from home all or most of the time after the coronavirus outbreak is over if they had a choice. Among employed adults with some college or less education who say they can do their job from home, 60% say they would want to work from home all or most of the time post-pandemic, compared with half of those with at least a bachelor’s degree. Faced with worker shortages and the cost of office space, employers are also offering telework to broaden recruitment pools, reduce remote work statistics turnover, and moderate employee compensation. Around 40% of U.S. firms surveyed over the last year reported they had expanded opportunities to work from home or other remote locations (see chart). Eurofound’s e-survey found employers plan to permit an average of 0.7 days per week at home after the pandemic, although workers, especially women, parents, and those with longer commutes, want 1.7 days. The results confirmed high levels of COVID-related remote work, which the researchers define as working from home at least two days per week.
COVID-19 has accelerated three broad trends that may reshape work after the pandemic recedes
Employers should be aware that when a candidate is deciding between job offers with similar compensation, the opportunity to work flexibly can become the deciding factor. Changing telework patterns have been a major feature of the COVID-19 pandemic, as many workers transitioned from commuting to a workplace to working from home. Among those in poor health, 4 in 5 (79.9%) reported that no one in their household switched to telework or changed their telework habits, compared to just over half (52.4%) of those in excellent health.
- When it comes to other aspects of work, many of those who rarely or never work from home say their arrangement is neither helpful nor hurtful.
- Given the limitations of online surveys,1“Internet surveys,” Pew Research Center.
- Remote workers, in comparison, make an average of $19,000 more than those in the office [1].
Employers are wise to invest in technology, adapt policies, and train employees to create workplaces that integrate people working remotely and on-site (without overcompensating by requiring that workers spend too much time in video meetings). The survey results identify obstacles to optimal performance https://remotemode.net/ that underscore a need for employers to support workers with issues that interfere with effective work. Companies will want to be thoughtful about which roles can be done partly or fully remotely—and be open to the idea that there could be more of these than is immediately apparent.
Report on the topic
Most employed adults don’t have the option of working from home, and some of those who do are still spending some time in the office or at their workplace. For many of these workers, the pandemic has brought a new concern about their health. About half are concerned that they might unknowingly spread the virus to the people they interact with at work (19% are very concerned). In contrast, only 20% of teleworkers who don’t have children under 18 say the same. Mothers and fathers are about equally likely to say this has been difficult for them. The abrupt closure of many offices and workplaces this past spring ushered in a new era of remote work for millions of employed Americans and may portend a significant shift in the way a large segment of the workforce operates in the future.
Using synonyms like remote work or telecommuting is consequential, as not everyone working remotely is doing so at home or via information technology. Overall, about a quarter (23%) of workers who are in the same job say they are less satisfied with their job compared with before the coronavirus outbreak, while 13% say they are now more satisfied. On each of these, smaller shares note an improvement in the way things are going compared with before the coronavirus outbreak. In turn, a higher share say they now have more flexibility to choose when they put in their hours (19%) than say they have less flexibility (13%).
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