Return to the living room
First came the pandemic when most office workers worked from home. Then came the post-pandemic when companies tried to muscle people back into the office. Now it seems workers are breaking out of the office once again — with their bosses’ permission.
Just 31% of companies require office workers to come in full-time, down from 49% last year, while 69% offer a degree of location flexibility, according to new data from the Flex Index, which surveys US companies of varying sizes on their work policies.
At the beginning of 2023, companies were hesitant to formalize flexible work policies because they were trying to see if they could get a full return to office, Rob Sadow, cofounder and CEO of Scoop, which puts out the index, said.
“Through 2023, it started to become clear in datasets like ours and Kastle that return to office levels weren't moving,” Sadow said. “As a result, thousands of large companies came off the sidelines and set a policy, and that was policy was overwhelmingly hybrid.”
A report from Flex Index last week showed that even office hardliners have given up on getting people in on Fridays.
At the beginning of 2023, companies were hesitant to formalize flexible work policies because they were trying to see if they could get a full return to office, Rob Sadow, cofounder and CEO of Scoop, which puts out the index, said.
“Through 2023, it started to become clear in datasets like ours and Kastle that return to office levels weren't moving,” Sadow said. “As a result, thousands of large companies came off the sidelines and set a policy, and that was policy was overwhelmingly hybrid.”
A report from Flex Index last week showed that even office hardliners have given up on getting people in on Fridays.
