Sometime between March 2020 and the end of 2021, “office worker” will cease to be a thing.
office Of course, neither are the jobs people typically did in offices before the pandemic. But the intrinsic link between the two was irrevocably severed, as working from home became first a necessity and then forever a possibility.
Now, working from home has become a bone of contention around the world, as workers clash with management over work location and choice. As Professor Mark Mortensen of INSEAD Business School said wealth“There’s a culture war going on right now.”
Like most wars, the fight over remote and hybrid work has multiple fronts. So where in Europe is WFH winning?
What does the data say?
The Global Survey of Work Arrangements (G-SWA), a authoritative annual study by leading economists into the behaviors and preferences of more than 40,000 workers in 34 countries, shows the UK leads Europe in the working from home league table.
In fact, UK employees with postgraduate education work remotely twice as long on average as their French counterparts and three times as long as their Greek counterparts. Meanwhile, countries such as Portugal and Italy, which are actively targeting foreign “digital nomads” working remotely, are in the middle of the pack.
Working days per week in selected European countries:
- UK: 1.8 (same as US)
- Germany 1.5
- Netherlands/Italy/Spain/Sweden 1.2 (same as European average)
- Portugal 1.0
- France 0.9
- Denmark 0.8
- Greece 0.6
Source: G-SWA 2023
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The latest data from G-SWA is from spring 2023, but the pattern appears to be continuing.
Based on data prepared by LinkedIn wealthIn April 2024, 41% of UK jobs posted on its platform were mixed, compared with 32% in EMEA.
The UK also has the highest proportion of remote working in Europe, at 9%, which is three times that of France and the Netherlands, the leading countries in remote working before the epidemic.
Perhaps the most compelling metric is transportation usage data. Analysis by the British Department for Transport found that between May and June 2024, London Underground usage reached only 75% to 87% of 2019 levels, with Mondays and Fridays always well below pre-pandemic averages.
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In comparison, by the second quarter of 2023, Paris rail user numbers had returned to 91% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the 2024 Global Cities Survey.
Why?
There are many factors that affect remote and hybrid workloads, including WiFi connectivity, different lockdown experiences, and industry mix across different countries. In short, manufacturing and retail are not suitable for working from home, while coding and publishing are.
The UK economy is more services-oriented, particularly finance and technology, than most of its European neighbours, so structurally you would expect to see more hybrid and remote working.
But INSEAD’s Mortensen says there is another, arguably more important factor: a national culture of individualism.
“The more individualistic a country is, the more people prefer and promote remote and hybrid working,” he said. He pointed out that countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have high levels of individualism, while Asian countries such as Japan and China have lower levels of individualism. The level is much lower.
“That’s another reason why the United States is very big on this,” Mortensen added.
In fact, analysis by the international economists behind G-SWA suggests that two-thirds of the differences between countries can be explained by levels of collectivism versus individualism.
This does seem to work among people in different countries explain On whether they are willing to comply with orders to return to the office. Recruitment Randstad 2024 work monitorA survey of 35,000 workers around the world found Britons are more enthusiastic about working from home than their peers on the continent.
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When asked whether they would quit their jobs if their employer tried to force them to work more in the office, 55% of UK respondents said yes, compared with only 5% of respondents in France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. 23 -26% of Spanish and 29% of respondents said yes.
does it matter?
Demand for flexible working arrangements remains widespread, with employees in countries with low levels of working from home, such as Greece and Turkey, expressing a desire to work from home similar to their UK counterparts
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, applications for remote work accounted for a proportion of the total number of applications five times higher Much higher than the ratio for remote job listings.
There is no sign, at least yet, that this preference will change. Charlotte Davies, career expert at LinkedIn, said: “Our data shows professionals are reluctant to give up the flexibility and work-life balance that come with remote and hybrid roles because they are so competitive. fierce.
If employee preference for flexible working persists, you may see companies make more concessions in the fight for top talent, especially in places where working from home is less firmly established at the moment.
This is particularly the case if legislation or trade union policies entrench the right to work from home.
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But Mortensen didn’t believe it. “When people use [pandemic era] The data and says it played out during COVID-19, which was a huge existential fear and people didn’t have any other options… Just because companies haven’t fallen apart in two years doesn’t mean remote working is the best way to organize.
He noted that companies like Microsoft and Meta have seen a “degradation of social relationships” as a result of people not being able to work together face-to-face, a lack of “cultural fit” among new hires, and a concomitant decline in higher levels of creativity and collaboration.
“We know that what’s good for the organization is often good for the individual. People feel engaged and motivated by doing something new and innovative, so maybe [being in the office] Not only is this good for the company, it’s good for me too.
In other words, if too much time at home hurts performance—and thus career development and job security—then it’s no longer that attractive to employees.
Ultimately, we are still dealing with relatively new arrangements that have unknown long-term effects. This situation is still evolving, and so is our understanding of how to manage it as employers and how we feel about it as employees – and this applies no matter where you live.
