If there’s one trend that has transformed the creative job market in the past couple of years, it’s been the rise and fall of remote work. What was once a newfound novelty in the COVID pandemic in 2020, many businesses went on to take remote working for a long time, integrating remote or hybrid work options into their business models or employee benefits long term.
But just as it seemed like the fabric of our working lives had been changed forever, 2024 saw us move not only further from the realities of the pandemic but also from our once-open commitment to the benefits of remote work and employee flexibility.
Back in April 2020, almost half of UK workers were working from home, compared to just 31% of people travelling to work, according to Statista. By 2023, workers were increasingly making their way back to their desks, at least some of the time, with 44% of British workers working from home part-time, with the total number of people working exclusively from home decreasing by 14% between 2022 and 2023. And while only 10% of workers wanted to return to a fully remote model in 2023 according to StandOut CV, a massive 78% of remote workers reported an improved work-life balance.
These figures come as no surprise to us. In October, we shared a poll on our LinkedIn page asking how our community felt about remote working. We got 956 responses.
The comments section also lit up with debate. Some respondents felt that the conversation depends on the job; “In [the case of] motion design, [it] can be very difficult if you don’t have the best hardware to execute the job”. Meanwhile, others mentioned the cost of commutes – a conversation ignited in the pandemic that seemingly becomes only ever more relevant with rising cost of living – adding that a commute to London for two days a week costs “£80, and on a good day deprives me of 6 hours of my time”. Meanwhile, BambooHR’s 2024 Return to Work report, separates the reasons for the push for flexibility further, adding that 51% of remote work supporters say it helps them with family duties, and up to 74% of respondents just enjoy not commuting daily.
While the call for choice seems to be the conclusion overall, we are increasingly seeing many major businesses like Amazon calling for employees to be back in the office five days a week, with many others like Disney and Starbucks opting for 2-4 days in the office. This apparent push and pull, according to Forbes, is creating a different work culture “void of trust and confidence in the employees themselves”, which many CEOs defend by claiming that workers are more productive when they’re in the office. This pressure leads to a “Green Status Effect”, referring to remote workers’ tendency to keep their messaging apps open and therefore active to imply consistent work (with 64% of remote workers admitting this). The ongoing effect of this is that workers then become fixated on appearing online beyond work hours, ultimately taking away from the feeling of work-life balance.
However, the same productivity ‘demonstrations’ also take place within the office, with ‘about 42% of employees surveyed admitted to showing up at work just to be seen by their boss or manager’. While 44% of remote/hybrid employees say they have weaker relationships with remote colleagues, there is so far no hard data to support that in-office working is more productive, with both in-office and remote workers reporting spending about 76% of a typical 9-to-5 shift actively working. Instead, the preference comes down to personal taste and value systems in a changing and diverse working world, with employees increasingly seeking alignment with their employers in the job search for a better long-term fit.