What Bosses Really Think About Returning to the Office
By
Ben Johnson
June 9, 2014
The return-to-the-office phenomenon isn’t a new one, but today we’re focusing on what executives think of it. Specifically, we asked them to rank the pros and cons of returning to the office, and they ranked them from one to seven, with the most prevalent responses being 1 and 2; there wasn’t much else to rank. It’s an unusual result, but one with some important implications.
The return-to-the-office trend started back in the late 1990s, according to a 2011 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. But it’s grown in recent years, with employees now willing to work from home more often. And it’s been picking up steam, with more companies announcing that they’re offering remote work. According to a 2013 survey from the Society for Human Resource Management, more than 60 percent of workers say they’d like to work out of the office at least once a week. These numbers are up from just under a third in 2010 and just under 50 percent in 2006. There’s a reason: More and more employees are making the move to remote work to be more productive.
That said, the question of whether returning to the office helps employees remains a key consideration for bosses. And with the prevalence of remote work and the return-to-the-office trend, the answer could be one of both.
The pros of returning to the office, according to the majority of the bosses we polled, come down two-fold: first, by working in the morning, they’re not as likely to be interrupted by the kids at school or other interruptions; and second, by working at home, they’re able to save time commuting and potentially saving on their transportation costs, so that they’re not just saving money to pay less tax. Of this, the majority of bosses think that it’s worth it—and that they could both spend more time working and save more money working out of the office.
Here’s what some of them had to say about their experience.
“Having the ability to work from home is incredibly beneficial both as a personal productivity booster and as an overall business development move.”
I have returned to our office for