End of teleworking? Nearly one in two French people say they are ready to leave their job if they can no longer telework

TELEWORK – Ubisoft France employees are not the only ones to believe that teleworking is now a non-negotiable right. In September, the French video game giant required its employees to return to work at least three days a week, causing a strike lasting several days. Which is not so surprising, if we are to believe the YouGov survey carried out for HuffPost and published this Friday, October 25.

According to its results, 46% of active French people would be ready to leave their job if teleworking were eliminated. For those surveyed – French adults in work who can telework and looking for a job – teleworking is no longer an option but an acquired fact. Nearly one in two active French people (46%) would therefore be ready to leave their job if they were faced with a situation where their employer wanted to completely eliminate teleworking. 42% of them would not be ready and 12% are undecided.

On the panel of more than a thousand people interviewed, the gender distribution is rather balanced: 50% of men and 42% of women would leave their jobs in this scenario. And among people with one or more dependent children, the figure is almost the same: 42% would also make this choice.

A third of respondents in TT at least one day a week

A third of respondents (36%) whose work allows them to be remote do so at least one day a week. 15% are there for two to three days and 9% for at least four. 15% of them also have the right to telework, but choose to go to the office instead.

In September, Amazon announced the end of teleworking for its employees starting next January. In February 2023, the American multinational began by imposing a presence three days a week. At Ubisoft France, the decision taken in mid-September by the group to impose at least three days of presence in the office per week caused a strike.

But this trend should not become widespread in France. According to Claudia Senik, professor at Sorbonne University and the Paris School of Economics (PSE), “it is unlikely that we will return to the status quo ante”. In The World in March 2024, the one who is also director of the Well-being Observatory at Cepremap estimated, in view of the results of the various studies on the subject, that it is necessary to maintain a balance between face-to-face and distance learning, beneficial to the well-being of employees. “ Globally, a quarter of employees who actually telework one or more days per week say they would leave their job, or seek one that allows teleworking, if their employer required a full return to the workplace », she confirmed.

The survey was carried out on 1,014 people representative of the French national population aged 18 and over. The survey was carried out online, from October 22 to 23, 2024, on the YouGov France proprietary panel.

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