Three Things to Know About Employee Attitudes Toward Flexible Work

Five years into the large-scale shift to remote working — and with mandates to return to the office proliferating — what are current employees’ attitudes toward flexible work? We conducted a survey of 1,450 professionals across the U.K. and U.S. in 2024 to learn how much workplace flexibility is valued by employees of all ages. Here’s what we found:

1. Employees want (a little) more remote time in their workweek. Most employees aren’t interested in working from home all the time. Overall, they spend about 30% of their week working remotely but would prefer a ratio closer to 40%. Three-quarters of employees reported not working their ideal remote-work ratio. Among the age cohorts, Generation Z employees spent the most time working remotely (33.5% of weekly hours) and were most likely to favor working remotely more often. They were also the age cohort most likely to leave an employer that didn’t support their ideal remote-work scenario.

2. Demand for condensed workweeks is expected to rise. More than half of surveyed workers nominated the standard “9-to-5, five-day week” as their current and preferred work pattern, with many of those hours spent working remotely. But condensed weeks are poised to rise in popularity: Only 12% of respondents reported working a three- or four-day workweek, but 20% expressed a preference for it. (See “The Surprising Viability of the Four-Day Workweek.”)

3. Many (not most) workers are willing to sacrifice salary for remote work and their ideal work pattern. Almost one-quarter of respondents said that they were prepared to sacrifice part of their salary to achieve either their ideal remote-work ratio or weekly work pattern. For these employees, their ideal ratio was worth sacrificing about $6,000 annually (14% of their salary) and achieving their ideal weekly work schedule was valued at around $7,700 per year (19% of their salary). Gen Z employees were the most willing to take a financial hit for their preferred work schedule, with 39% of them prepared to sacrifice 30% of their salary, on average.

Given these varying preferences, leaders should consider finding ways to give employees more autonomy and flexibility to set their schedules and working locations, rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.