Tell us: Should we say goodbye to remote work?
A growing number of employers want their workers back in office by the end of the year.
Is it time to say goodbye to remote work?
Employers certainly think so — 90% of companies want their workers back at their desks by the end of this year, according to a report from Resume Builder. After years of working from home, the majority of American workers are back to doing their jobs in person and a growing number have settled into hybrid models.
This week, Fidelity Investments, one of the largest employers in Boston, announced that its employees would be required to work in the office two out of every four weeks, starting in September. They join companies like Goldman Sachs, Google, Amazon, Meta, Disney, General Motors, and more who have rolled back or ended their remote work policies altogether.
Massachusetts has had the largest decline in employees working from home, according to a report from business industry website LLC.org. Between 2021 and 2022, there was an almost 20% decrease in remote workers. Here in Boston, the decrease was 28%.
Back in 2022, when employers were starting to float return-to-office plans, Boston.com readers gave a resounding vote in favor of continuing remote work. In a survey of more than 5,000 people, 65% said they preferred to work remotely. Another 30% said they liked a hybrid schedule and just 5% liked full-time, in person work.
“Definitely prefer remote work going forward,” said Carlos from Woburn, who works in finance. “The main reason by far: terrible commute in Boston area traffic and associated time [and] cost. I cannot go back to that. I just can’t.”
Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, we’ve polled Boston.com readers several times about their feelings on returning to the office. Each time, they made it clear they weren’t interested.
“It’s been just over a year since my office went to working remotely and I have no intention of doing the commute again,” Laurie, an executive assistant, told us in March of 2021.
And six months later, when the majority of Massachusetts residents had been vaccinated, John, a commercial real estate worker, had this to say: “Strongly in favor of remote. Drastic quality of life improvement. Don’t want to deal with the commute and can easily do my job from home so there is no point in having to trek in just to sit in a cubicle and do the same thing I can do at home.”
But this time, workers may not have a say. Unlike during the Great Resignation, the market for white collar jobs isn’t as employee-friendly. Hiring has slowed and layoffs are increasingly common, particularly in the tech industry, which boomed during the pandemic and has recently seen a slowdown.
Tell us: Should we leave remote work in the past with the pandemic lockdowns that inspired it?
We want to know if your opinion of working remotely has changed. If you still work remote, would you be more open to coming into the office? If you’re in the office, do you miss the days of remote work?
Share your thoughts with Boston.com by filling in the form below or emailing us at [email protected] and we may feature your response in a future Boston.com article or on our social media channels.
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