Remote work has taken hold of the American consciousness and it is here to stay. Recently in a Harvard Business School classroom, a guest speaker asked the students a question: what percentage them would reject a job offer if their prospective employer told the student that the employer’s policy required them to be in the office five days a week. Over two-thirds of students raised their hands. When asked about how many days in the office would be ideal if required to spend some time in person, the students preferred three days a week the most, followed by two days a week, and then four days a week.
The reactions of these students are not unique. Americans are now demanding flexibility and an ability to work from home. Among remote-capable jobs pre-pandemic, 60% of employees worked fully in the office. 32% of employees worked more than 10% remote but less than 100% remote (i.e. hybrid). 8% worked fully remote. By February 2022, only 19% of remote-capable workers were fully on site. Meanwhile, 42% of remote-capable workers were working hybrid and 39% of remote-capable workers are exclusively remote. A Gallup poll of these works indicated that 32% of those employees preferred to be fully remote, while 9% preferred to be fully in the office, and 59% preferred a hybrid arrangement. Among employees wanting hybrid work, 67% of employees answered that they would prefer 1-3 days a week in the office.
Workers are demanding remote work to make their work fit into their lives. Employees see physical offices as limiting well-being, flexibility, and productivity. The number one reason employees who prefer hybrid work want to work from home is to avoid commute time. The daily drive to and from the office doesn’t help the employer or the employee. Employees preferring hybrid work cited the second more important reason was improved well-being; whether that’s due to freeing up more time for healthy activity or to work on their own schedules. The third most important reason was the need to balance family needs, something that is increasingly important as two working parent households become more common.
These are strong preferences. 54% of employees working solely from home said they would look for another job if their employer stopped offering remote-work options. 38% of hybrid workers said the same. 35% of works would accept a pay cut to keep working from home. 39% of Millenials and Gen Zers would quit for a more flexible job.
Hybrid work advocates highlight that people need physical spaces for high-quality communication and social interaction. 38% of fully remote workers would prefer being in an office with co-workers at least 2 days a month. The biggest reasons cited are a desired to feel more connected to other people in the organization. The Wall Street Journal was one of the first news sources to highlight that the work from home world suffered not from a crisis of productivity, but a crisis of motivation. Responding to this, employers are now trying to find ways to make hybrid models that satisfy demands for flexibility and community.
The metaverse will make physical space for these purposes irrelevant. The goal of companies in the metaverse, whether it be Meta, Decentraland, Axie Infinity, Horizon, Sandbox, Fortnite, or Roblox, is to create an immersive user experience that parallels the physical world (and potentially one day to create a user continuity across platforms). The promise of this metaverse will be to create a digital experience that is comparable to physical experience. This means concerts, sporting events, and shopping will be able to be experienced and done online through 3D environments. Ultimately, many people may choose to spend time with friends in the metaverse together rather than drive or commute to meet each other at a physical location.
The social experience offered by the metaverse can and will be applied to the working context. Immersive digital spaces where communities can be built already exist. Digital workspaces can be built that have both productivity enhancing and community enhancing attributes. Metaverse-type platforms present a compelling way to create community-enhancing digital workspaces that eliminate the need to build community in physical spaces on a weekly basis.
Fully remote business models utilizing digital community space is advantageous for companies and employees. The employee benefit is clear. Online platforms can provide employees the social/community feel that makes their work meaningful and provides connectivity and motivation. Employers also stand to benefit. Companies with fully remote employment structures are free to pursue talent wherever it is located. Such companies can expand their employee base into markets without establishing time and capital-intensive regional offices and without asking employees to uproot their families. This enables employers to pivot quickly, reduce their overhead costs, and avoid paying moving expenses. Remote employers will also be able to compete for labor at lower prices, since employees have shown their willingness to take a pay cut for more flexible work. This is a clear win-win.
The physical aspect of community building won’t go away, but it will look different. People still value meeting in person and they always will. But this doesn’t need to be every week at a scrum or sync meeting. Companies pursuing remote work will likely shift to regular employee retreats or off-sites (quarterly, bi-annually, or annually) to build community on a non-weekly basis. Many companies already have such functions. Even if a company didn’t do any such activities at all today, the cost savings from eliminating office expenditures will easily provide the funds. If an employer leases 150 SF of office space per employee for $40/SF annually, eliminating office spaces provides at least $6,000 that employers can use for social events each year.
Employees preferences are changing, and good talent is hard to find. Employers will increasingly have to accommodate remote work preferences. Investments in the metaverse will make enjoyable virtual social experiences a reality in all contexts. Companies will increasingly change to a remote work model to strategically attract talent and only use physical interactions occasionally and for high-impact social events. As a result, office space will no longer be a necessity for remote-capable jobs – it will be a luxury that employers will give to their employees as an option. In this world, only office spaces that can improve employee quality of life will survive. Employers doing differently in 2032 will fail to attract the talent necessary to compete and will steadily fall behind.
Sources
The Future of Hybrid Work: 5 Key Questions Answered With Data: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/390632/future-hybrid-work-key-questions-answered-data.aspx
Rob Delaney is a JD student at Harvard Law School and an MBA student at HBS. He once said he would turn down a job offer if his employer said it was going fully remote and proceeded to write a paper about how by 2032 all remote-capable jobs would be remote.
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