According to a December Gallup poll, a quarter of all full-time workers were still remote, but return-to-the-office dates set by Microsoft and Meta could be signaling an end of the pandemic-era trend.
Starting February 28th Microsoft Employees will have 30 days to adopt working preferences with agreed to with their managers, and Meta employees have until March 14th to decide if they will return to the office, or request full-time remote work. UNO Business Professor Mark Rosa told WWL they’re joining large brokerage firms and international banks who are drawing a line in the sand over remote work.
“That type of inefficiency I think it just too much to bear on the long haul,” said Rosa who added that corporate leaders feel office work offers productivity and customer service advantages over remote work.
Another Gallup poll showed 50% of all full-time workers believe their job could be done remotely, and of that 50% 30% said they don’t ever want to come into the office again, while most of the rest would prefer a “blend” of one to four days a week in the office.
Major firms are culture setters in the business world and Rosa expects this move away from pandemic era remote work options will trickle down to mid-sized and small businesses fairly quickly.
“I can’t see them fighting against that trend when you have the biggest of the big pulling people back in and you feel like you are very vulnerable working for a small company,” said Rosa. “You know I got 150 employees, what, am I going to push Bank of America out of the way? None of that is going to happen.”
While Rosa projects the long-term future of work culture will be a return to the office, it could come with some added benefits.
“You have some flexibility there, and it might be that I am going to work from home this afternoon, you know on a Friday I’m going to be home the rest of the day,” said Rosa.
