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Dr. Gleb Tsipursky explained that prior to the pandemic, the habits and mental models of work centered around a physical space belonging to their employer. “However, during the pandemic, the 56% of all workers who could do their job from home changed their habits and mental models of work to focus on the tasks they did, not where they did these tasks,” Dr. Tsipursky said.
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When asked how remote work benefits employees, Dr. Tsipursky said that the large majority found they really like working from home: that's why 87% of workers would want to work remotely for all or a significant portion of their time, if given the chance.
He explained further: “That's because employees benefit immensely from spending time working remotely. They don't have to spend two hours in traffic every day stuck in a commute. They don't have to put on fancy and uncomfortable clothing, such as hard shoes or heels. They don't have to pay for overpriced lunches in downtown restaurants.”
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Instead, Dr. Tsipursky argues, “They can spend much more time with their friends and family. They can have better balance as caretakers of children or elderly, which benefits women especially, since they are still unfortunately the major caretakers in our society.”
Moreover, “remote work is especially desirable for minorities such as African-Americans, since they still face microaggressions and discrimination in the office, as well as for people with disabilities, which is why minorities have a much stronger preference for remote work than white males,” Dr. Tsipursky explained.
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While there are so many benefits that come from remote work, it’s no secret that many companies are still reluctant to implement a fully remote work model. Dr. Tsipursky explained that this is because of cognitive biases, which are mental blind spots that lead to poor decisions.
“Many leaders feel a desire to go back to the world before the pandemic. They fall for status quo bias, a desire to maintain or get back to what they see as the appropriate situation and way of doing things.”
Moreover, “a major factor in leaders wanting everyone to return to the office stems from their personal discomfort with work from home. They spent their career surrounded by other people. They want to resume regularly walking the floors, surrounded by the energy of staff working.”
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Another problem is functional fixedness, Dr. Tsipursky argues. “When we have a certain perception of how systems should work, we ignore other possible functions, uses, and behaviors. We do this even if these new functions, uses, and behaviors offer a better fit for a changed situation and would address our problems better.”
“That's why so many companies are unable to implement effective hybrid work policies and are instead demanding that all employees return to the office,” Dr. Tsipursky concluded.
