Remote working or teleworking has grown steadily since the 1970s, before experiencing a sharp acceleration and coming into the spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, barely 55 years after its advent, this practice, touted as a model of flexibility and productivity, is now being rejected by a growing number of companies across the Atlantic, which already see it as a threat to both collaborative work and corporate culture.
Teleworking was born in the 1970s. At the time, the leading telephone service provider in the United States, American Telegraph Telephone, was a pioneer in this field. France had to wait 23 years and the government of Edouard Balladur before teleworking began to be taken into account in 1993.
With Covid and the first lockdown decreed in France on the evening of March 16, 2020 by President Emmanuel Macron, teleworking is seen as a temporary means for many companies to continue their activities. Indeed, those declared “vital” are required to continue operating (health, food, water management, research, banking, communication, information, etc.). Others were asked to close their doors for a while.
In the United States, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the first to require his employees to return to the office in 2022. This RTO (Return to Office) policy is quickly adopted in 2024 by Amazon, JP Morgan, Starbucks, and Boeing. In France, Amazon, Publicis, and Ubisoft are following suit.
52% of the world’s population
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the first quarter of 2024, 35.5 million people in the United States were working remotely, representing 22.9% of the working population.
In 2023, more than a quarter of French employees, or around 6.1 million people, were teleworking at least occasionally.
While there are no precise figures at the international level, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated in 2019—before the pandemic—that there were approximately 260 million “home-based” workers (including telecitizens, freelancers, etc.), representing around 7.9% of total employment worldwide.
More recent studies suggest that nearly 52% of employees worldwide work remotely at least once a week.
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