What Permanent Remote Work Arrangements Mean for Office Space

Demand for office space may see a huge decrease once stay-at-home orders are lifted, according to a new survey by Global Workplace Analytics.

Seventy-six percent of office workers in the world, and 82% of US workers responded that they would prefer to work from home some or all of the time.  Only 6% said they would never return to the office.

In Europe, the results were similar, though slightly lower in the desire to continue to remote work. The majority of workers seemed to prefer a balance of both remote work and going into the office, with only 16% of workers in the US saying they would abandon working in an office altogether.

The survey, which asked 2,865 workers about their feelings toward remote work, found that workers felt only 43 minutes of distraction on average at home versus 78 minutes in the office on average.  Employees reported that productivity was up at home—even with the distractions of working at home with the spouse and children—with self-reported 75% productivity at home versus 63% at the office. 

Out of all the respondents, 88 percent were working from home, and remote work was a new experience for 57% of those employees. Only 6% of respondents said they would not want to continue working from home.

The preference for working from home signals a shift in the real estate industry for office space. Global Workplace Analytics estimates that as much as 1 billion square feet of office space could be vacant if workers were allowed to work remotely. 

Anita Kamouri, vice president and Co-Founder of Iometrics, said the responses show that employees tend to prefer the flexibility of working at home. If employers make working from home permanent, such as tech giant Twitter announcing its employees will remain remote workers permanently on May 12, the result will have “far-reaching implications” for labor, transportation, regional planning, and tax and labor laws. 

As employers and companies around the global scramble to get back to normalcy, office spaces may not be in such high demand after stay-at-home orders are lifted. Social distancing measures may stay in place, and use of disposable items or one-way circulation through the office may be implemented. With so many employees viewing remote work as desirable, office spaces may become empty. 

“It won’t happen all at once,” Kamouri said. “The need for offices to accommodate social distancing will absorb much of that excess in the short run, but longer term  as workplaces are redesigned for the future of work post-COVID and leases come up for renewal, we will surely see the impact.”