- Published on: Friday 9 December 2022
Employers have largely been calling for their employees to return to the office, while the latter are demanding flexibility, creating a struggle that has yet to be resolved as the end of 2022 approaches.
Hybrid arrangements, where workers go to the office for part of the week, have been widely accepted as a compromise. But many employees are resisting, even as some companies ask for a full-time return.
Globally, office real estate is shifting towards shorter leases and flexible working arrangements, according to a September JPMorgan Chase report.
In New York, for example, while more new businesses have opened in the past year than lost during the pandemic, their geographic spread has changed, said Kathryn Wylde, chief executive officer of the Partnership for New York City. Manhattan, where most offices are located, has lost business, while boroughs like Queens and Brooklyn, where many people live, have gained.
Then the evolution of the workplace is at stake, which could determine whether some people who left the workforce during the pandemic will return. This, in turn, could have an impact on the labor shortage affecting many economies and sectors.
For employers, the model they would choose would determine their appeal to employees, especially the younger generation who require more flexibility and a better work-life balance.
While companies could save on real estate, hybrid working could come with other costs, from lost productivity and collaboration worries to mentoring and organizational culture. In regulated industries like finance, even remote environments could hinder compliance.
The nature of the workplace could also exacerbate the inequalities revealed by the pandemic: racial and ethnic minorities were overrepresented in frontline duties where remote work was not possible and they faced a higher health risk. Not much has changed for them.
A Microsoft report in September said the number of weekly meetings had increased 153% globally for the average Teams user since the start of the pandemic, and 42% of workers were multitasking in those meetings. However, 85% of executives surveyed feel they lack confidence in their employees’ productivity in a hybrid workplace.
Next year could determine who gets the upper hand in determining what the job looks like in the future. A booming economy and labor shortages have given workers more of a voice; a recession could have the opposite effect.
