According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, remote workers are 35 percent more likely to be fired than their in-office counterparts. Archive Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), remote workers are 35 percent more likely to be fired than their colleagues.
Analysts told the magazine that it’s easier to fire someone you don’t have a personal relationship with.
At the same time, those who work from home are also more likely to quit their jobs, reports the WSJ.
This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Business Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by an editor.
The year started off with a nightmare in the US, with mass layoffs in the technology, retail, finance and media industries. A new analysis of two million white-collar jobs shows one feature that increases the risk of layoffs: working from home.
The analysis from employment data provider Live Data Technologies showed: Employees who work entirely from home are apparently 35 percent more likely to be fired than their colleagues who work in the office or in mixed work arrangements, reported das “WSJ”. The study found that 10 percent of full-time remote jobs will be eliminated in 2023, compared to 7 percent of office jobs.
Research from the University of Pittsburgh shows that working in an office does not improve company value or employee performance. But analysts say the reason remote workers are more likely to be fired is simpler than measuring the value they represent to the company.
“When a hiring manager gets the news that they need to cut 10 percent of their workforce, it’s easier to put someone on the list with whom you don’t have a close personal relationship,” said Andy Challenger, senior vice president at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement company, “WSJ”.
Although they are more likely to be fired, remote workers – who see flexible work as equivalent to an eight percent raise – are also more likely to quit.
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The analysis cited by the WSJ found that 12 percent of remote workers quit their jobs in 2023 and started a new position within two months, compared to 9 percent of hybrid and office workers.
Strict Return To Office (RTO) policies may be partially responsible for talent turnover. A former Amazon software development manager decided to quit his six-figure paying job after the company asked him to move across the country to return to the office. He was part of a growing number of employees at the tech giant who quit due to the strict RTO mandate, layoffs and “lack of respect” in the company.
Other tech workers are “loudly quitting” — or defying management while collecting a paycheck and looking for a new job — to protest office rules.
“The people who are in any kind of managerial or leadership role, who have to see people, who have to see butts in chairs to believe that people are working, don’t know how people work,” said Danielle, a digital manager Marketing who quit her job amid a push to return to the office, Business Insider.
Read the original article Business Insider.
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