One in three companies have reduced or completely eliminated the possibilities of teleworking in the last year, in the face of the constant increase in workers demanding to incorporate this modality as a stable option. Companies allege, above all, the loss of creativity in teams and greater weakness in relationships between colleagues. But employees disagree and there are already almost 60% who would change jobs if their companies did not allow them to telework.
The increasingly deep discrepancy between workers and companies in the perception of teleworking is one of the most controversial conclusions of the third edition of the study prepared by EADA Business School, Teleworking: a reality after the pandemic, a work directed by the professor and researcher Aline Masuda, which has had as a starting point more than 600 interviews with people who telework or who have staff under their supervision, and two previous studies, one in 2020 and another in 2021, which gives a concrete x-ray of how the implementation is. of teleworking four years after the pandemic.
According to the results, today 29% of those surveyed telework at least two days a week (23% one day a week), compared to 6% who do not have that option. However, in the last year, 34% of companies have decided to significantly reduce or completely eliminate the option of working from home, compared to 15% that have chosen the opposite (47% have not introduced changes). The volume of companies that do not give their employees autonomy to choose the work modality that best suits them also increases compared to 2021, rising from 30% to 39%. “Some companies are not seeing what their collaborators want,” says Luciano, a researcher who, together with Edgar Quero, was part of the study team.
“Technology companies are beginning to be reticent about the loss of what they consider unplanned conversations, spontaneous ideas, creativity, which arises in the workplace,” says Aline Masuda, who defends the hybrid work model as the most interesting and productive for both parties. “We are more prepared, especially at the level of conciliation, we have more resources and we have learned to manage and make work compatible with day-to-day tasks at home,” she argues.
Hence, 91% of those surveyed consider that teleworking is an option that is here to stay in companies and that 57% would even look for another job if their company did not allow them the freedom to telework, especially among those of the generation Z and Y (up to 40 years). “Sometimes it's not that everyone wants to telework, but that they want to be able to do so. As with the administration of medications, it is essential to find the ideal dose. The current dilemma is not whether we use it or not but what is the appropriate proportion to improve the performance and life of professionals," clarifies the director of the study.
Researchers have put on the table some derivatives of teleworking that provide arguments both for and against it, such as the possibility of hiring people from anywhere in the world or having underused offices with teleworking. Statistically, relationships with colleagues, although they improve with the hybrid format, are not as good as they should be and there is still 33% who feel that their work relationships have been weakened.
