Is The Golden Age Of Remote Work Over?

Finding fully remote work is getting challenging. ​​New research from Indeed found that job postings are declining faster in metropolitan areas where many jobs can be done remotely.

"Some of the pushback remote work is driven by concerns about productivity," said Kory Kantenga, senior economist at LinkedIn. "There have been some experimental studies that show that there are some productivity impacts, potentially from remote work. But those studies are also experiments, right? It's unclear how they apply to the broader labor force."

During the pandemic, remote work became the darling of the corporate world, and companies going fully remote became the new normal. The U.S. Census Bureau found that the number of people working primarily from home tripled from 2019 to 2021.

"Remote work was thrust upon us basically by the pandemic," said Nicholas Bloom, professor of economics at Stanford University. "Before the pandemic, remote work was pretty rare. All managers and professionals were basically fully remote for much of 2020. And then it turned out it's worked really well."

As the world began to open up, though, corporate America shifted its stance on remote work. Some companies have even threatened to fire workers who don't return to the office for a certain number of days.

"The laptop class is living in la la land," Tesla CEO Elon Musk told CNBC's David Faber in a sit-down interview in May 2023. "It's messed up to assume they have to go to work, but you don't. It's not just a productivity issue. It's morally wrong."

Watch the video above to learn why corporate America is pushing against remote work, how remote workers feel about the pushback, and what this workplace trend tells us about the U.S. job market.

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
2:01 - Remote work and pandemic
2:53 - Remote work and productivity
5:21 - Return to office
7:02 - The real estate problem
9:37 - What's next?

Produced and Edited by: Anuz Thapa
Animation: Alex Wood
Narration by: Jordan Smith
Supervising Producer: Jeff Morganteen
Additional Footage: Getty Images

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Is The Golden Age Of Remote Work Over?

[sdkfgnrjdi]

The funniest part of this video is that most of the interviewees are interviewed at home, including those who insist on ending remote work.😂

[Frstee]

they are just upset they are losing money on useless commercial office space

[sleepy]

It's absolutely insane that in this day and age of technology people are still sitting in hours of traffic a day to sit in front of a computer in a room.

[weizhao]

Old school bosses who love to control and bully their employees IN PERSON pushed this piece out HARD.

[LagunaRider]

What these companies don’t realize is that if I really don’t want to work, I can go to the office full time and not do anything just as easily as I could do that at home

[fairlyironic]

I think that any remote worker who is forced back into the office is naturally going to hold a grudge and will take the first reasonable offer they get to leave the conpany.

[GreenPartyHat]

Remote work has been so amazing. I have more money, sleep more, spend more time with family, more time to cook meals and eat healthy.

[kodakv]

Been working from home since April 2020. I love eating my own food at home, using my own bathroom, the time saved not having to commute.

[snchannel]

Best part of remote: No sitting in traffic to work and back. This literally took 3 hours of your day out. Remote work is game changer

[jonathankr]

When I'm in the office, it's my least productive day. Management needs to change, not the worker. The problem is narcissists need others around them to validate them.

[eschaton]

As a Carpenter who isn't a remote worker, I'm in the "Pro" remote worker camp. Traffic is back to being a huge problem for me and people are tired and less likely to have me come by and quote them an estimate for work to make their home more comfortable.

[_winston_smith_]

Prior to the pandemic it was common to see news stories stating that office workers were only productive 3 or 4 hours out of 8 hours in the office. Open plan office noise, gossip and useless status meetings run by incompetent middle managers are hugely detrimental to productivity. It is this last group that most wants a return to the office so that they can better micromanage employees and more easily take credit for the work of others.

[njmddude]

I'm a retired IRS revenue agent. I worked remotely 4 days per week (unless I was conducting an onsite tax examination) for 25 years, from 1997 to 2022. It was the best job I've ever had.

[michaelmurphy]

I find it interesting that a video about how remote work is in decline was done primarily by people in remote office settings.

[EagleLeader]

I've done both remote only and hybrid jobs since the pandemic. And hybrid has been the worse experience ever. I was brought into an office twice a week where I ended up being put in a room alone and rarely corroborated with anyone else. I was burning time and gas to do the exact same thing as I did at home. I'm in sales so I'm most effective when on phone or visiting prospects, not sitting in an office.

[lk]

We moved from TX to VA summer of 2021 when my wife got a job there. I've been 100% remote since then. With no 45-75 minute commute and with 3 young kids and a boss that doesn't hassle me if the kids get sick - its paradise. Leaving my other company a few years ago with a micromanager, old school boss, where you had to be there every minute or you were taking your vacation even though you are salary was wearing. Best move I ever made. DO NOT be afraid to move on if you are in a bad spot. You are most likely to get the raise you deserve that way too.

[scoops]

As a software developer collaborating over zoom with screenshare is literally easier and better than side by side leaning over somebody to see their screen. It also allows more than 2 people to collaborate. Even if I had to go to the office my colleagues and I would just sit in our corners and do zoom calls anyways.

[andromedach]

One issue not highlighted is a lot of executives are overly proud of their headquarters buildings and they feel personally insulted when the workers don't share that view. Then there is the real elephant in the room, if employers claim that productivity is the reason by not permitting remote work then the same concern must be made about outsourcing. If the job can be outsourced it can be worked remote.

[armandoanillo]

Love how most of these experts are interviewing from home

[limbeboy]

That's one of the most underrated parts of it. that 3 hrs out of the 24 hrs you save every day adds up.

1. More time to sleep= more productive
2. Lunch is 7 steps away = less time on break and you can eat and work.
3. Less ppl on the road = leaves roads open to first responders and actual nurses/doctors who have to commute.
4. more ergonomic working environment