Employers want to abolish remote work and return to the office in the long term. However, employees have long demanded more flexible models for working hours. Even the widely discussed 4-day workweek suddenly becomes unattractive.
- During the Corona pandemic, many companies switched from office routines to a flexible remote work system.
- In the meantime, however, many companies are returning to the office or demanding employees to be present in the office.
- Some employees use tricks to resist the office requirement, while others resign or submit to the employer.
However, the employers’ demands regularly provoke loud criticism from employees. Meanwhile, other demands are becoming louder: Moving away from rigid, fixed working hours toward more flexible options that are more compatible with family life.
Many employees demand more flexible working hours
Why are flexible working hours being demanded? According to employees, flexible working hours have the advantage that one can organize daily life more flexibly and improve the compatibility of work and personal life. While the so-called “9 to 5” model binds one to a fixed time window, flexible models allow for setting the hours.
Flexible working hours, which are being demanded by many, have two noteworthy advantages:
- On the one hand, they allow for working from anywhere and save commuting costs for both the employee and the employer.
- On the other hand, flexible systems enable employees to interrupt their workday to attend to personal or family obligations, especially when children or close relatives are sick and need attention.
The desire for flexible options has now grown so much that employees are willing to forgo money if they receive more flexible working hours. This is also shown by the annual “Labour Market Guide 2025” from Hays (PDF file): Access to flexible working hours is the second most important reason (24%) for many employees, while a higher salary is the most important reason (52%).
Even the 4-day workweek has become unattractive
What is the problem with 4 days? Officially, the 4-day workweek reduces working hours, but experts explain that this does not reduce employee stress in the long run. Mathilde Collin, CEO of the customer communication platform Front, warned in an article from FastCompany:
A simple reduction of workdays [will] not solve our problem. Rather, it could increase stress and burnout as more meetings are crammed into fewer days and less time remains for creative and reflective work.
The idea of a shorter workweek is tempting, but it does not fully meet the needs of many employees for work-life balance and flexibility. Many employees do not resign because they have to return to the office, but because they lose the flexibility that remote work provides.
A company abolishes remote work to save costs. However, employees are fighting against the employer’s plans. With surprising consequences: a quarter of the workforce resigns, and strikes shake the company: A company abolished remote work and now has an unusual problem: 25% of employees resign
