Remote Work 2 Years Later: What We've Learned

After more than two years, the view from home offices might not have changed. But much about the day-to-day of remote work has. 

When the pandemic began, one of the biggest collective changes was that nearly all but essential workers found their offices and homes became one. At the time, we looked at how this exploded many of the myths that had surrounded the impossibility of largely remote workforces, and after a year had gone by, we fully realized some of the short-term and long-term challenges of working from home. Today, we're facing new ones, as companies and their employees struggle with the new normal.

Once the nation had the opportunity to get vaxxed and boosted last summer and many local COVID-related mandates were dropped, it seemed offices would soon teem with employees. But after waves of Delta and Omicron variants, plans were pushed back and many workplaces braced themselves for an indefinitely remote future. 

This uncertainty has led to a haphazard situation for many companies and a confusing one for employees. Some employees have taken their first steps back into the office, either part of the time or full-time. Others have either moved too far away to go back or have deemed a commute unworthy of their time or money, especially given rising gas prices. 

The 2022 Microsoft Work Trend Index reported that 50% of mid-level managers said their companies are making plans to return to in-person work five days a week in the year ahead, but 52% of employees are considering going hybrid or remote. 

Company Expectations vs. Employee Preferences

Tech companies have delayed return-to-office dates many times over, but more solid plans are being enacted this spring. All eyes are on the big four—Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta (Facebook)—as smaller companies look to take cues from their moves. 

Amazon hasn’t made too many announcements about its policies but has left the return to work for corporate employees up to individual teams. As of April 11, Apple requires that its corporate employees work from the office one day a week. On May 2, they’ll be required to be there two days a week, and on May 23 that goes up to three days a week. Google’s campus has begun to fill up again, as of April 4 when it said most employees should be in the office three days a week. Google employees can apply for a remote-work extension if they do not want to return to the office quite yet. Meta employees started returning to the office on March 28, though they had the opportunity to request an extension to work from home for up to five more months or to be moved to full-time remote work.

The more stringent the policy, the more it’s been met with resistance from employees. Bloomberg reported that Apple employees haven’t taken the dawn of the return to the office well. It quoted one anonymous former employee who left the company partly over the policy, “Everything happened with us working from home all day, and now we have to go back to the office, sit in traffic for two hours, and hire people to take care of kids at home. Working from home has so many perks. Why would we want to go back?”

It’s a prevalent attitude that’s reflected in the Microsoft Work Trend Index. Fifty-four percent of managers said they feel that leadership at their company is out of touch with employee expectations.