Remote work is on the decline — Recruitment expert reveals root causes

With more and more companies calling their employees back to the office, the sustainability of remote work has come into question. Hung Lee, editor at Brainfood recruitment JOINED Street to discuss the future of work.

Related: Amazon confirms fears about future of remote work with latest move

Full video transcript below:

CONWAY GITTENS: So let’s talk about some industry trends right now from your perspective. What do you think about remote work? Is it here to stay?

HUNG LEE: Remote work. We were very confident that it would be the game changer. And it turns out that probably wasn’t the case – we’re less confident about the status of remote work simply because economic conditions have changed so that employers have more power than they did 18 months, two years ago. By the way, telecommuting is generally a preference that workers are more in favor of, while employers and bosses are less in favor of telecommuting. So you can’t separate the political dimension on this and that tension between what’s best for an employee and what’s best for an employer plays out. I think with certain types of work that will be remote. But I think there’s also going to be a lot of pressure for people to go back to work, back to the office, I should say. What I can tell you is that the new jobs that are being created and the new jobs that are being promoted, there has been a massive decrease in remote jobs that are being promoted. That tells me that the people who are currently working in remote people who have kept their jobs for the last two years or so, but the new jobs that are being announced today, I’m telling people: back to the office.

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CONWAY GITTENS: And what about the hybrid trend? Is it just a five-day office week, or is the hybrid more of a friendlier model than full remote work?

HUNG LEE: Yeah, I think that ultimately comes down to the nature of the company and maybe even the nature, the culture of the organization. I think the hybrid is a very acceptable compromise between employer and employee. I think most people would understand that there is a need to go into the office sometimes and talk and work closely with your colleagues. And other times we recognize that it’s great to be able to work more flexibly, especially people who have, you know, primary caregiving responsibilities, for example, or have other kinds of issues that are very important to deal with. It’s impossible to cope if, you know, you spend time commuting to the office every day. I think the hybrid is the compromise that will pull for most companies, I hope he will have a mature view on this. But there will be some, some organizations that will clearly say, OK, you have to be in the office all the time or kidnap. And I think that’s where, you know, individuals are going to have to make decisions about what kind of company they prefer to work for.