Older Executives Care More About The Return To Office, Study Finds

A company's attitude toward office usage versus remote work depends on how old its executives are, according to a new study.

Managers who are 50 or older are more concerned with implementing hybrid work schedules and productivity than they are with concerns about flexibility and inclusivity, according to a new study by Future Forum first reported by Yahoo Finance. Managers younger than 50 years old list potential inequalities over remote work higher among their concerns.

Future Forum, which is backed by Slack, found that 55% of workers surveyed this summer prefer to be in the office fewer than three days per week, up from 52% in February. But those who work remotely are more concerned about "proximity bias," which entails managers favoring workers who work in the office more for promotions and opportunities. These fears are most prevalent among people of color and women, who largely prefer remote work at higher levels than White men, per the survey.

Research shows that despite executives' hesitation over remote work, productivity doesn't suffer when workers don't come to the office. A Citrix survey found that 69% of hybrid workers feel more productive with this new work arrangement while 64% of fully remote employees feel just as, or more, productive than working on-site.

“Most executives have been working in offices for 20 to 30 years, so it’s comfortable for them," Laszlo Bock, a former Google chief of human resources and current CEO of Humu told Fortune in April. He said that while older executives might be tempted to go back to their old corporate ways, “productivity and satisfaction is higher amongst hybrid employees than fully in-person workers.”