NEW YORK, Oct 10 — Hybrid work — combining some days of remote work with some days in the office — has become the norm in the wake of the pandemic. But this way of working is not perceived in the same way by employers and employees. Worse still, it is a source of tension between them.

In this new post-Covid-19 era, few companies can convince their employees to come to the office every day. This reflects the extent to which remote working has succeeded in disrupting the dynamics of work life, much to the great regret of employers.

The freelancer services marketplace Fiverr set out to investigate, polling 1,000 managers and executives in the US. Nearly half said that they plan to change their remote working policies in 2023 to force their teams back into the office. The reason? It supposedly makes them more productive. A third of respondents believe that employees are more motivated when they know they are being watched by their managers. All of which is a far cry from management by empowerment.

More than 40 per cent of employers also believe that face-to-face meetings allow their employees to have easier access to company resources and equipment. Another perceived benefit is that it leads workers to take fewer breaks than when they are (unsupervised) at home. At least that’s what 25 per cent of managers believe.

But money is still a key factor for a large part of the American bosses polled. The increase in working from home is a real thorn in the side of companies that rent their premises, many of whom despair at seeing so much square footage unoccupied. In fact, it’s no wonder that one in four employers are in favour of returning to the office for purely financial reasons.

So what about workers? They are very reluctant to go back to the way things used to be, after having experienced widespread remote working and the organizational freedom it allows. More than 20 per cent of the 1,000 employees surveyed by Fiverr say that nothing could convince them to go to the office every day, as was the case a few years ago. In fact, 42 per cent of them go even further and say they would be ready to quit if forced to do so.

However, inflation and the cost of living crisis are causing most employees to be more measured. As such, 61 per cent of respondents would be willing to come into the office occasionally in exchange for a pay raise. — ETX Studio