The subway work sleep from Monday to Friday? “It’s not the life I want.” Like millions of workers across the United States, Claire has taken a liking to teleworking since Covid and no longer plans to spend her entire week in the office.
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The pandemic has forced Americans to work from home and employers are struggling to get them back in the office.
And for a good reason. Short leave, sometimes no maternity leave…: “These practices that workers were used to in the United States have been turned on their head since the pandemic,” Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, a service provider to corporate staffing, told AFP Management.
According to data from Kastle, which manages entry passes for 40,000 companies nationwide, US offices are half empty on average compared to February 2020.
With big differences: The offices in Silicon Valley in California found only a third of their residents, compared to half in New York or Washington, even two-thirds in Houston and Austin in Texas.
On May 31, Amazon employees even demonstrated in front of the corporate headquarters in Seattle to protest, among other things, against the renewed obligation to return to the office three days a week.
“The world is changing and Amazon must embrace the new reality of mobile and flexible working,” the organizers pleaded in a statement, also citing an issue of equality, particularly towards women and workers with black skin or with disabilities.
Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy opined in February that “collaborating and inventing is easier and more efficient.” […] personal”.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of Twitter, has since outlawed remote working in the name of productivity and “morality”: According to him, employees would like “the worker”. [aille] at the factory, the chef at the restaurant to bring them food, but not them!”
Half empty offices
According to an ADP study published in mid-April and conducted last fall in 17 countries, a third of workers in the United States can work from wherever they want, compared to just under 18% in France.
“An employer who prescribes five days a week [au bureau]”It just wouldn’t be an option for me,” Claire, a Washington-based consultant who declined to give her last name for professional reasons, told AFP.
This 30-year-old goes to the office irregularly, every two weeks, sometimes more often. And she can’t imagine going back.
She’s replaced the subway with a stroll around the neighborhood, no longer wastes time getting changed every morning, sits outside in front of her computer in the slightest ray of sunshine, no longer runs to stock the fridge at night… And no more I also regret the overly air-conditioned office.
He certainly misses talking to colleagues “a little”, but these “informal conversations obviously make him less productive”.
Isn’t she worried about missing an opportunity for career advancement? “If I came into the office to show I was in the office and got a promotion,” that would mean a full-time presence… “This isn’t the life I want!”
A challenge”
Some leaders are acknowledging advances related to remote work. “Questions arise about the quality and efficiency of the lifestyle,” said Gayle Smith, CEO of Washington-based NGO One, which has multiple offices around the world.
“Raising kids is a little easier when you don’t have to commute every morning,” she told AFP.
Some of its employees have even left the Washington area to “be closer to aging parents” or to follow a spouse’s move.
She sees no loss of efficiency, but regrets the “positive” dynamic of face-to-face work. The equation now, therefore, is to find that imitation while maintaining those lifestyle improvements.
For companies, “It’s a very difficult challenge because it’s changed people’s lives and the way people work,” says Gayle Smith.
As such, teleworking is now “part of a range of benefits and options that companies can offer their workers,” Nela Richardson points out.
On the employee side, “the question is whether they are willing to give up professional development or salary to work completely remotely,” she adds.
But, according to the economist, “for workers, it’s not necessarily ‘I want to work from home surrounded by dirty dishes and unmade beds’, but rather ‘I want to set my own hours'”.