The State of the Office: How Workers Are Working After the Pandemic

When offices were closed for months (or years!) during the pandemic, there was a lot of speculation about how companies would choose to bring their employees back to work. In 2020, leaders from across the country had different instincts about what would be best for employees and varied opinions about what would be best for business. 

Some were adamantly against remote work:  

“I don’t see any positives. Not being able to get together in person, particularly internationally, is a pure negative,” said Reed Hastings, co-chief executive of Netflix.

“I don’t know the future better than anyone else. I think going back to work is a good thing. I think there are negatives to working from home…We’ve seen productivity drop in certain jobs and alienation go up in certain things. So we want to get back to work in a safe way,”  said James Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Others were all for it:

“People are more productive working at home than people would have expected. Some people thought that everything was just going to fall apart, and it hasn’t. And a lot of people are actually saying that they’re more productive now,” said Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook. 

“I can’t tell you the number of CEOs I talked to who are thinking, ‘I have to solve the diversity challenge in my business, and remote work is one of the key tools… We have to let go of this very office-centric culture and incorporate people who are in a lot of geographies, ” said Hayden Brown, CEO of Upwork. 

A Group Decision 

What many of these employers didn’t realize at the time: there was a shift happening. Employees were gaining more control in the workplace. The Great Resignation was coming, and along with it, a Great Rethink about how employees approach work in their lives. 

Today, employers are left with a labor shortage where the threat of turnover remains high–meaning employees, with more power than ever before, are shaping the workplace more than ever before. 

Through this democratization of the workplace, workers’ changing tastes, attitudes, and behaviors are pushing employers to adapt their expectations and views–and that includes how their employees work together. 

Ultimately, it wasn’t just up to employers to decide how their companies would return to work. In the end, workers had their say as well. We’re seeing the actual effects of that today through increases in remote position offerings, more flexible work options in industries that didn’t previously offer them, and more.

So, where are they now? How did it all shake out? How are Americans working today with health threats lessened and restrictions lifted? Read on to learn about the different work models employers are implementing to keep their workers happy–and get the most out of them. 

Hybrid Work Model

Hybrid work is a flexible work model that supports a blend of in-office, remote, and on-the-go workers. It offers employees the autonomy to choose to work wherever and however they are most productive. Hybrid work has been proven to increase productivity and job satisfaction while addressing the major challenges of remote work, such as isolation and lack of community. In some cases, employees set fixed days for in-office work to control office capacity, reduce illness, increase collaboration, and more. 

Five in 10 employees are working hybrid (part of their week at home and part on-site). That number is expected to increase in the coming years. 

Notable Hybrid Companies: Amazon, Apple, J.P. Morgan 

Remote-First Model

“Remote-first” is an organizational strategy that makes working remotely the primary option for most or all employees. Instead of working from a centralized office, employees are expected to work from another location, such as a home office or coworking space. The remote-first model allows employers to tap into a deeper talent pool, save costs on office space, reduce commute times, and more. 

16% of companies are remote-first. Three in 10 employees are working exclusively from home. Experts predict that there will be 36.2 million Americans working remotely by 2025.

Notable Remote-First Companies: Allstate, Slack, Airbnb

Office-First Model

Office-first or office-based hybrid model requires employees to come to the office most of the time while allowing employees to work remotely for a fraction of their working time. Employees are usually given a day or two per week or several days per month for remote work. Companies that operate on this model tend to believe that physical distance is an obstacle to successful team collaboration. 

Office-First Stats: Only two in 10 employees currently work for an office-first employer, and about the same number is expected to be on-site in the future–down from a whopping 60% in 2019.

Notable Office-First Companies: Tesla, Netflix, Goldman Sachs

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