Why do employers want employees back in the office?

The forced mass-scale shift to work-from-home during the COVID-19
pandemic has changed both employees’ and employers’ perspectives
on work location, demonstrating that more jobs could be done
remotely than we could have imagined before.
 
Since we emerged from the pandemic, there is an ongoing debate
about a full-scale return to office, as well as hybrid and remote
work.
 
Employee surveys across different countries consistently indicate
that employees prefer to remain working remotely and do not want
to return to the office full time. At the same time, many
companies are trying to bring their employees back to the
office.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro
speaks to Tatiana Andreeva about her latest work researching
employers’ experience of working fully remotely during the
pandemic and their approaches to returning to the office
following the pandemic. 

Relevant publication:
Mulcahy, D., and T. Andreeva (2023) ‘Employer perspectives on
employee work location: collaboration, culture and control’,
Working Paper 05/2023, Bruegel

This was produced within the project "Future of Work and
Inclusive Growth in Europe" with the financial support of the
Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.