Home office: Man returns to the office faster in the US – 7/4/2023 – Market

Men are leaving home offices at a faster rate than women in the United States, according to June data from the BLS.

In 2022, women were more likely to work from home than their male counterparts — 41% of them and 28% of men. A year earlier, these percentages were 41.5% for women and around 35.3% for men.

On an average day, women devoted much more time to housework and child care than men. 22% of men said they had done some housework, such as cleaning or doing the laundry. At the same time 47% of women said they had done the same.

They also devoted, on average, 2.7 hours a day to housework, while men said they devoted 2.2 hours.

The Fisher College of Business at the University of Ohio recently conducted a study showing that when a couple works at home, the man tends to be more productive than the woman, who often feels overwhelmed by domestic activities. Women also said they felt more guilty if they had to spend less time with their families and more time at the office.

Overall, 34% of US workers worked from home at least partially in 2022, while 69% worked from the office.

The percentage of home office workers dropped compared to 2021, when it was 38%, but it still remains higher than it was before the pandemic, in 2019 (24%).

On average, workers who were in the home office or in the hybrid system last year worked about 5.5 hours a day, and those in the office spent 7.9 hours a day in their activities.

More flexible working arrangements also reflect an unequal scenario: employees with higher educational levels are those with greater opportunity to perform their homework.

Among workers aged 25 and over, 54% of those with a college degree were able to work from home at least some days a week — while only 18% of those without a degree had the same opportunity.

Despite the advancement of vaccination and the cooling of the Covid-19 pandemic, most workers have resisted leaving more flexible ways of working.

The centers of cities like San Francisco (California) have reflected the impact of the home office on the urban ecosystem. According to the security company Kastle, on any day of the week, commercial buildings in the city that concentrates US innovation are at 40% of the pre-health crisis occupancy level.

At the same time, some of the most important companies in the country, such as Goldman Sachs, Apple and Amazon, have been demanding that their employees return to the office at least partially. Disney stipulated four face-to-face days a week, Meta (owner of Facebook) plans for the return to take place by September.

Recent reports published by the US press have also sought to portray the arm wrestling between workers and bosses in the battle to return to the office.

The current moment, analysts say, will require a review of leadership strategies and companies will need to reformulate work dynamics for the days when teams are in the office.

For them, it will be necessary to make people feel that it is important to face the traffic and give up more time with the family and there is no point in forcing them to return.

JP Morgan, for example, circulated a memo that said managers were required to be in five days a week and could consider corrective action if staff attendance remains low—the response was a barrage of criticism from employees in the internal company forums.

The New York Times considers that the return to the office has entered a kind of “desperation phase”, in which companies have resorted to incentives to reoccupy their cubicles.

These range from rewards — such as a $10 donation to a charity of the employee’s choice (made by software maker Salesforce) — to negative consequences, such as poor performance reviews for not returning to the office, as Google recently flagged. .