CEOs Aren’t Winning the Battle Against Remote Work
Tech company executives are still largely in favor of in-office work, with one study finding 64% of CEOs went on the record envisioning a future where their employees were back in the office five days a week. Another study backed this up in another way, finding that 86% of CEOs say they’d give better assignments, raises, or promotions to in-office workers to “reward” them.
Top tech companies are continuing the return-to-office push, with Amazon recently announcing a stringent 5-day in-office policy for all its workers, starting in early 2025. This might be unsurprising to anyone who noted the ecommerce titan’s approach to defeating coffee badging, since back in July Amazon mandated teams stayed for multiple hours when they visit its physical offices.
Yet Owl Labs’ new report indicates that remote work is thriving as we near the end of 2024, in contrast to CEO hopes and dreams.
Today, full-time in-office workers constitute 62% of the workforce, which is a slight 6% drop from last year. At the same time, 38% of workers are hybrid or remote, which marks a 15% increase year-over-year.
Employees would still prefer more remote time, with most hybrid workers who are clocking four days a week in the office saying they’d rather not go in that often.
If that’s you, we might be able to help: Check out our guide to asking your boss to let you work fully or partially remotely, as well as our suggestions for how to build the perfect resume to land you a new fully remote position. Just don’t bother asking anyone at Amazon.
