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Three cheers for hybrid work
Happier employees tend to be more productive.
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Vehicles line up as they head into the city center during the morning rush hour in Jakarta on Nov. 30, 2022. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
T
here is no shortage of hyperbole in the debate about whether companies should demand a full return to office work. According to Citadel’s Ken Griffin, the hedge fund owes its record-breaking US$16 billion haul last year to its staff’s full-time presence in the office. But such sound bites ignore all the benefits that remote work offers to employers, employees and the economy more broadly.
Naysayers dismiss employees’ preference for remote work as a manifestation of entitlement or “quiet quitting” (doing the bare minimum to remain employed). But that snap judgment is far too crude. A recent study by Harvard University economist Raj Chetty’s Opportunity Insights lab estimates that there are around 2.6 million people in the United States who should be working, but are not. At a time when many employers cannot fill vacancies, offering greater flexibility both increases the applicant pool and contributes to higher retention rates, easing the pressure on hiring.
Happier employees also tend to be more productive. Survey data on attitudes toward remote work from multiple countries show that many employees were surprised by their own productivity during the pandemic. Remote work saved them hours of exhausting commutes, and they were able to tailor their days to do their work when they felt most productive. Women and parents of young children especially came to appreciate, and make the most use of, this newfound flexibility.
More broadly, remote work offers greater opportunities for labor-market participation to talented individuals who had been previously disadvantaged by time or mobility constraints, including not just women and parents but also people with disabilities. Research by Harvard’s Claudia Goldin shows that the need to work long hours outside the home at prescribed times is one of the most important challenges that women, especially those with a college education, face in the labor market.
