Five years on since remote work was widely adopted — is working from home working?

People like President Trump aren’t happy with this state of affairs. Soon after taking office, he signed an executive order calling on heads of government departments and agencies to bring employees back to work in the office.

Some of the big multinationals are also calling time on working from home. Amazon, Dell, and PWC are just some companies that have told workers that they must return to the office for some or all of the week.

Maeve McElwee, executive director of employer relations with the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec), outlines some possible reasons why organisations are pushing to end the practice of employees working from home.

“In-person collaboration brings benefits such as team cohesion, informal learning opportunities and helping maintain company culture,” she says. “For newer employees, being in the office provides mentorship and learning that can be difficult to replicate remotely. There are also benefits in terms of innovation and even employee wellbeing, as social interaction is such an important part of work life.”

However, it appears employees aren’t necessarily in agreement with this assessment. Wladislaw Rivkin, an associate professor of organisational behaviour at Trinity College Dublin, explains the advantages they see in remote and hybrid working.

“One of the main benefits is their increased levels of autonomy,” he says. “They get to decide how they organise their work tasks during their working day.”

“Remote work also reduces the conflict between work and family life, which occurs when work tasks interfere with family responsibilities, and reduced work-family conflict is a strong determinant of wellbeing. They also eliminate their commuting time, which for some takes several hours a day,” says Dr Rivkin.

New reality

Most employees have enjoyed working remotely for the past five years and don’t want to give it up. The National Remote Working Survey, conducted in 2023, found that 44% stated that they would change jobs if their employer didn’t facilitate remote or hybrid working preferences, even if it meant a cut in their pay.

One of the biggest arguments against remote working is that employees aren’t as productive when working from home. Rivkin counters this argument with research.

He points to American research published last year that amalgamated findings from 63 different studies and concluded that remote work had more benefits than costs in terms of employee job satisfaction, supervisor-rated job performance and commitment to the organisation.

There is evidence that remote working is largely successful in Ireland. In the 2023 FRS Recruitment Employment Insights Report, some 90% of workers surveyed said they were more productive or just as productive when working from home, and 75% of employers agreed.

These positive findings could explain why Irish employers don’t appear to be as eager as the multinationals are to mandate employees to return to the office.

“Ibec’s latest surveys show that nearly two-thirds of businesses that have remote work policies in place aren’t planning any major rollback on those policies,” says McElwee.

They are adjusting their policies instead, typically by introducing mandatory attendance on certain days. “Basically, they’re shifting the rhythm of attendance, what days people come in and how teams collaborate,” she says.

This is to ensure that on days when people go to work, there are other people there for them to engage with, allowing for more opportunities for training, mentoring and social interaction.

It’s all about establishing a sweet spot between employees’ preferences and employers’ needs. “Employers know how valued flexible working arrangements are and how they can allow people to attend to caring responsibilities, alleviate long commutes and enhance general wellbeing,” says McElwee. “The key is taking a pragmatic approach that works for everyone.”

Improved remote working

Tracy Keogh is the co-founder and chair of Grow Remote, a campaign group that aims to enhance the experience of remote work for individuals and organisations in Ireland.

She believes we need to move beyond the emergency mode ushered in by the pandemic. “Covid did a lot of good for remote working because it introduced so many people to the concept,” she says. “But it also did some bad — as most people didn’t know what they were doing. It wasn’t remote working at its best.”

Grow Remote offers free training programmes to organisations and individuals who want to do it better. “We want to help businesses avoid the potential downsides of remote working by showing them how to implement effective policies,” says Keogh. “We also want to help individuals avoid common problems like loneliness and social isolation by giving them strategies to overcome this, including access to a community of remote workers who regularly meet up in towns and villages throughout Ireland for the likes of Friday evening socials, baking classes and kayaking sessions.”

She is adamant that Ireland has a lot to gain by embracing remote working. “The country would be transformed if people in towns like Kinvara had access to the same economic opportunities as people in Dublin,” she says. “There are currently 350,000 remote working jobs being advertised internationally. Securing just a fraction of these jobs here could significantly improve that access.”

In March 2024, employees in Ireland were granted the legal right to request remote working under the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act. Since then, 24% of businesses have received formal requests. Seven people denied the option to work remotely took their cases to the WRC (Workplace Relations Commission), which rejected them all.

Some suggest these statistics prove the legislation is ineffective. McElwee takes a different view, arguing that it indicates that matters are being resolved in workplaces, not in the courts.

“Existing arrangements may already be meeting the needs of many employees,” she says, suggesting that organisations should carefully consider remote working requests and explain why they are denied.

“Generally, employees accept decisions that they can see have been given fair consideration,” she says. “Also, when requests for remote or flexible working cannot be granted, alternative solutions are often put forward, which are agreed as an acceptable compromise.”

Rivkin also believes that employers and employees will likely resolve any issues with remote working without outside intervention.

“Each organisation has the right to determine its work policy, and each employee has the right to choose their employer,” he says. “I think those organisations that offer flexibility will gain a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining talent. 

"There will always be sectors like banking that offer high salaries and demand employees to work in the office, and there will always be employees who prefer that high salary to flexibility. However, if the alternative to paying a big salary top-up to attract talent is to offer a few days of remote working a week, this may be worth considering for businesses.”

He predicts there will be no large-scale return to the office.

“The time has come to reconsider our established working norms,” he says. “If it hadn’t been for the pandemic, remote work would likely have remained the privilege of the few. But despite some recent setbacks with some companies insisting that employees return to the office, I think remote work will be as normal for our children as office work was for our generation.”