Remote Working vs. Office Life: is the Grass Always Greener on the Other Side?

We’ve moved past the days where in order to get a job, it was essential to go into a corporate office every day to get your work done. With an eye on understanding how the ability to work remotely has transformed corporate culture & productivity, we surveyed 1,936 of our members aged 18 to 64 who work in a job that requires regular use of a computer.

While a third of our respondents indicated their job allows them to work remotely at least occasionally, just 10% overall are able to work remotely “all the time”.

Interestingly, the strong majority of those who can work remotely half of the time or less frequently appreciate the social interaction aspect of going into an office and getting face-to-face time with their team.

Despite these social benefits, the majority of occasional to full-time remote workers also view commuting as time that could be spent more productively on their work. Half also indicate another unpleasant downside of going into an office: “it can be hard to concentrate in my office.”

So is there an ideal divide between hours in an office and time spent working remotely?  When asked to choose between having the ability to work remotely 50% of the time or receiving a 10% raise, while four-in-ten would choose to work remotely, the rest would rather get that cash. The scale tips even further when choosing between a 20% raise and the ability to work remotely 100% of the time, with 73% of our respondents preferring the bump in pay.

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