Recently, I read two news articles, The Guardian’s “‘The new normal’: work from home is here to stay, US data shows” and Fortune’s “Working from home increased for the first time since the pandemic”. They said an annual survey from the US Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released at the end of June found that 35% of workers did some or all of their work at home in 2023, up from 34% in 2022, even amid growing calls to return to the office. “A sign that remote work is here to stay.”
This is exciting because I have been writing and talking about remote / hybrid work for the past 4 years.
The Guardian continued, “Working from home is largely a benefit for those with a college degree. More than half of those who are 25 and older and have at least a bachelor’s degree could do some work at home, compared to 22% of those without a college degree, according to the survey. For knowledge workers…”
What? The ability to work from anywhere has nothing to do with college degrees. It has to do with the type of work. To imply that knowledge workers are people with at least a bachelor’s degree is wrong. Knowledge workers are ones whose work can be done solely on a computer with internet access. So long as they have a laptop and there is internet access, they can work anywhere. Many people working in the lab or in the medical fields have advanced degrees (PhDs, Masters, MDs), but they have to work onsite because of their types of work.
Fortune said, “One of the reasons employees value remote work so highly… is that it gives them the time to manage their own schedules. What that means specifically is that they often work fewer hours when they work from home. When people worked remotely they did so for an average of five hours a day compared to eight when they went into the office, according to the BLS data.”
The Guardian quoted Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom, also known as the ‘Work From Home Guy’ for his decades-long research on remote work saying, “Get the stuff done, but you can probably only work half a day. And that’s a huge perk.”
Stop! Working remotely doesn’t mean working from home. It means working from anywhere other than the office: home, cafe, a co-working space, etc. Also, remote workers routinely work more hours than when they are in the office, generally between 10-12 hours a day. They just don’t necessarily work during the traditional “office hours”. They work early in the morning and log back on in the evening after supper.
It’s sad to see that misconceptions persist even though recent data show remote work is here to stay. As we embrace this new norm, it’s crucial to separate fact from fiction and recognize the diverse nature of remote roles and the commitment of those who work beyond traditional hours.