Workers in the USA: Majority wants home office option

The home office should remain: According to a study, this is what the majority of employees in the United States want. However, experts also see potential for conflict.

Nicholas Bloom has been working from home for 20 years. He is considered one of the leading experts in this field. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, he has regularly surveyed 60,000 workers in the United States. And according to the WFH Research Project, they all say in unison: the flexibility of working from home is like a ten percent salary increase.

“Most people want to work from home two or three days a week and come to the office two or three days a week,” says Bloom, specifying the wishful thinking of most employees. It is interesting, however, that there is a large range: “For example, it is no surprise for people with small children that they want to work more days from home, especially women with a university degree and small children. This varies depending on the ethnic group and depending on the distance to the office.”

Opponents of the home office mostly men

However, the so-called hybrid model is not well received by all companies. Stanford professor Bloom explains that the opponents of the home office are predominantly male, over 50 years old and have no small children at home. According to a report by the auditing firm Deloitte, around 62 percent of the executive boards of the top 500 companies in the USA belong to this group: “They don’t believe in working from home. They prefer the company office. If this group decides and is not consulted extensively, there is a risk that she says, ‘You all have to come back’. They think that’s the best solution, but it’s not what most employees want.”

Bloom recommends taking technology companies like Apple or Amazon as role models. You want to allow home office two days a week in the future. In addition, they offer one month per year to work from home. However, the flexible working models cause problems with scheduling. And that could end up being the killer argument in many companies. Bloom is nevertheless optimistic and in many cases believes in a compromise solution. “If you talk to employees, they say: I come to the office to meet my colleagues and absorb the energy there.”

Don’t see change as defeat

Bloom assumes that in the coming months the contradictions between employees’ freedom of choice and companies’ planning certainty will initially clash and that ultimately employers will assert their interests. “After all, in the pre-pandemic times, we also agreed to come to the office Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. That is the point of friction that I see for the coming months,” says Bloom.

He recommends that managers should not see the change to working from home as a defeat or loss. It is a win for everyone: lower costs due to less office space for companies, increased productivity among employees and more climate protection because commuting is often eliminated.