Bloom points to three specific reasons for this.įirst, workers, when surveyed, consistently choose Monday and Fridays as their preferred work-from-home days, according to Bloom. In other words, businesses should not let employees decide which days they want to be in the office or at home. While companies still deciding their return approach may want to poll workers to gauge their expectations, the important thing, Bloom said, is that organisations establish a uniform policy that applies to all employees (and managers) or specific teams.
These activities – large team meetings, business lunches and other social events – can take place during the three in-office days, while work that requires a quieter setting, including writing emails or reports, preparing presentations, analysing data and one-on-one meetings, can be reserved for the work-from-home days.
“For a typical worker 50 percent of that is activities that are social and best done face-to-face.” “Think about a typical office week and think about what we do,” Bloom told Al Jazeera. He recommends companies try a three-two hybrid model in which all employees on specific teams work the same three days in the office and the other two at home. headquarters in New York, United States in July Office workers walk towards the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. This indicates that in order for firms to stay competitive, they will have to offer some sort of remote work option, says Bloom. Employees who say they’re more efficient in a work-from-home setting cited saved commute time and a quieter work environment as the primary reasons. Not only does research show remote work boosts productivity, but workers are also demanding work-from-home days post-pandemic, according to Nicholas Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University who has studied work from home for years.īloom and a team of researchers have conducted monthly surveys of 5,000 Americans and found that most US employees on average want to work from home at least two days per week after the pandemic ends. While there is no one-size-fits-all answer, economists and analysts say, one thing has become clear: some version of remote work is here to stay post-pandemic, with the future of work centred on hybrid. This patchwork of the “great return” models has many questioning whether there’s an optimal approach – for workers and the bottom line. Others, including Facebook, Twitter and PricewaterhouseCoopers have announced they’ll allow many employees who can (and want to) to work from home permanently. Microsoft, meanwhile, postponed its return indefinitely last month amid a surge of COVID-19 cases, saying it will instead focus on a site-by-site approach. The major banks were among the first to begin bringing their workers back to the office, at least on a rotational or part-time basis.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon earlier this year called work from home an “aberration.” JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon took a similar tone, saying he was “done with” Zoom meetings. Plans have been delayed and confusion has set in as companies navigate local COVID rules, concerns over the Delta variant, and employees’ needs and expectations. The “great return,” however, has been slow. After more than 18 months at home, workers worldwide have started to trickle back to the office.