As companies weigh well-being versus productivity, which way of work will prevail?

Amid all the chaos of the past year and the fallout we’re all still processing, one thing’s pretty clear: Workers want a flexible workplace future.

A study from Harvard Business School Online bears this out. Patrick Mullane, HBS Online’s executive director, says: “Now, as we’re preparing to get back to ‘business as usual,’ it seems professionals don’t want ‘business as usual.’ Instead, they want flexibility from their employers to allow them to maintain the new work/home balance and productivity they have come to enjoy.”

Consider these stats:

• Eighty-one percent of Harvard’s respondents said they “either don’t want to go back to the office or would prefer a hybrid schedule going forward.”
• Moving forward, 27% hope to work remotely full time.
• Sixty-one percent would like to work two or three days a week from home.
• Just 18% want to go back to the office full time.
• Seventy-one percent are hesitant to go back until everyone is fully vaccinated.