DETROIT (AP) – It’s a question that occupies the minds of millions of workers who have worked from home in the past year: Will they still be allowed to work remotely – at least for a few days – once the pandemic is gone?
On Wednesday, one of America’s corporate titans, Ford Motor Co., gave its own answer: It told about 30,000 of its employees worldwide who have worked from home that they can continue to do so indefinitely, with flexible hours approved by their managers. Their schedules will become a “hybrid” work-office: they will commute primarily to work for group meetings and projects best suited for face-to-face interaction.
Ford’s announcement was one of the clearest signs yet that the pandemic has accelerated a cultural shift in Americans’ work by erasing any stigma surrounding remote working and encouraging the adoption of technology that makes it possible . Wider evidence on the post-pandemic workplace suggests that what has been termed long teleshopping will be much more common than it was a year ago.
A report this week Indeed, the employment website says the number of ‘remote work’ job openings has more than doubled since the start of the pandemic. Such vacancies are still rising even as vaccinations accelerate and the rate of new confirmed COVID cases slows.
“When job openings are a guide, employers are increasingly open to remote work, even as some employees return to the workplace,” said Jed Kolko, Indeed’s chief economist.
Indeed, the share of Indeed jobs referring to “working remotely” or “working from home” was 7% last month, up from just under 3% a year ago. But in some industries, profits were much more dramatic, including those where remote work was traditionally not welcomed.
In legal services, for example, home work broadcasts for jobs including paralegals and legal assistants have increased from less than 5% in the second half of 2019 to 16% in the second half of 2020, according to Indeed data. In banking and finance, for jobs such as actuaries and credit insurers, the number of outsourced work assignments rose from 4% to almost 16%. For mental health therapists, they have risen from 1% to nearly 7%.
Such shifts could in turn lead to changes in people’s living environments and affect the changing economic health of metropolitan areas. Some highly skilled workers could migrate from expensive coastal cities, where they had clustered over the decade after the Great Recession, towards more affordable cities or small towns. Offices in the city center could shrink and exist mainly for joint work. Large cities’ tax revenues could fall as fewer workers visit downtown bars, restaurants and coffee shops.
“The pandemic has violated social and cultural norms for our way of working,” said Timothy Golden, professor of management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “Working remotely is much more accepted.”
Ford is just the latest company to allow more home working after the pandemic. Salesforce, Facebook, Google and other tech companies have said they will pursue the home working policy indefinitely. Target Corp. leave one of the four cities in the center Minneapolis office locations as it moves to a hybrid model for 3,500 employees. It will keep other offices in the center.
Flexible remote working is hardly an advantage for equal opportunities. It is disproportionately concentrated among higher educated, well-paid workers. The jobs of less paid workers typically require on-site work or face-to-face contact with the public.
According to an analysis of government data by the Conference Board, more than a third of Asian workers and a quarter of Caucasians worked from home because of the January pandemic., a business research group. Only 19% of the black workers and 14% of the Hispanics were able to do this.
Ford has discovered over the past year that employees and executives believe that more work can be done remotely, that they can still connect with each other, and that they have the resources to do their jobs, said Kiersten Robinson, Chief People and Employee Experience Officer. So if the hybrid schedule starts in July or shortly after, Ford will give teams a choice of when to come to the office.
Robinson said a flexible schedule will also help Ford compete for talent.
“I think we are really seeing a shift in candidate expectations,” she said.
Kelly Keller, Ford’s Chemicals and Materials Compliance Manager, will be among those happy with the new policy. Keller, who has been on a hybrid schedule since the pandemic broke out a year ago, wouldn’t want to return to work every day. Now she generally works three days from home and commutes, one hour each way, to a lab in Dearborn, Michigan for the next three business days.
When she’s home, she is sometimes allowed to take her daughter to elementary school and get to work a little late before she finishes later in the day.
“I absolutely enjoy the flexibility,” said Keller. “I would certainly be grateful for the opportunity to continue the hybrid agreement.”
Of the workers she supervises, seven commute to the lab every day; four work from home. The home workers, Keller said, have been more productive than before the coronavirus hit, as they often work during the time they would have been traveling.
“For most,” she said, “I think they put in longer days.”
A study last month by Alexander Bick, an economist at Arizona State University, and two colleagues found that nearly 13% of workers surveyed plan to work from home full-time after the pandemic – almost double the 7.6% who did so in February 2020. Another 25% expect to do this at least one day a week, compared to 17% previously. the pandemic.
According to research from consultancy PwC, business leaders overwhelmingly report that remote work has succeeded during the pandemic. According to the survey of 133 executives from mostly large companies, about 55% said they plan to allow ongoing remote work. Only 17% said they wanted employees back to the office as soon as possible. Another 26% said they only preferred limited remote working, but acknowledged that it has become popular with employees.
Ford and other companies have redesigned or are considering redesigning their offices to reduce the number of cubicles and personal offices and provide more meeting and other spaces for employees who are only on site for part of the week to collaborate.
A more flexible attitude towards workplaces could deal a blow to the largest American citiesMany Americans are already taking advantage of the remote work to leave New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and the San Francisco Bay Area in favor of Phoenix; Tampa, Florida; Austin, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; and other cheaper areas, data on real estate shows.
A telling detail: Despite the fact that the number of homes for sale has fallen nationwide in the past year, the supply of homes for sale in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles has actually increased, according to the real estate agency Redfin. And the decline in the number of available homes is much smaller than the national average in other major coastal cities, such as Seattle, Boston and Washington.
Many cities can also take a financial blow, even if remote workers don’t move. An academic study estimates that employee spending in downtown companies will shrink by 5% to 10% after the pandemic.
Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, said the pandemic has accelerated a trend that predated the virus: More Americans have sought cheaper homes in lesser-known cities and suburbs.
Fairweather herself left Seattle last summer after wildfires in Oregon left the city’s sky smoky and dark. Originally, she, her husband, and two small children planned to stay in a small town in Wisconsin, near his family, for just a month. But soon they decided to make it permanent, and Fairweather was able to work remotely.
“We liked the pace of life – we liked being around family,” she said. “It’s so affordable here.”
Rugaber reported from Washington. AP Business Writer Alexandra Olson contributed to this report from New York.