Business is preparing for the big back to the office after a peculiar mode of remote work due to pandemic. But many workers are not enthusiastic about this prospect, because german wave.

“Generally, employers want to get back into old habits more than employees,” says Bert Fitzenberger, director of the Labor Market Institute (IAB) in Nuremberg. “However, business leaders should ask themselves how to make this process more attractive.” Many would prefer to continue working from home, even a few days a week. “For many young workers, the ability to work remotely is now one of the main criteria when looking for a new employer,” says Fitzenberger. The main advantage of remote work is that the employee saves at least one hour on the road every day. This is also the result of an international survey conducted in January by the American research network NBER with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Munich-based IfO Institute of Economics.

Survey participants say they save an average of 65 minutes per day by working from home. A significant part (20 minutes) is again invested in work, 10 minutes are devoted to housework, another 5 minutes to take care of children or other relatives, and the largest part – 30 minutes a day – is spent on everyone’s personal time, in sports, reading or television. Labor Market Institute director Bird Fitzenberger says businesses need to “better coordinate” to make the office attractive again. “It’s frustrating to go back to the office and be alone when everyone else is in video conference meetings,” he stresses. That is why there must be a clear prediction of who and when will come to the office, as he indicates. It’s a good idea for executives to combine a return to the office with a social activity, such as a lunch together or a casual get-together. Only in this way, Fitzenberger argues, can you achieve the “added value” of being present in the workplace.

The Federal Association of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) believes that the future of work will combine being in the office with working from home. In any case, the office will remain a center of personal meetings, synergy and joint projects. However, Christian Wille, head of service innovation at the German trade union Verdi, notes that “the main reason workers leave their offices is because they want to avoid negative factors such as noise levels, insufficient equipment premises, the obligation to deal with different things at the same time. At home, they can certainly concentrate better, work without interference. “But if the conditions at the workplace do not improve, the old problems will reappear even more acutely,” Christian Wille finally assesses.