The balance between remote and face-to-face, key to the future of teleworking

QWhat do Amazon, Ubisoft, Publicis, Black Tiger and Wopilo have in common? Almost nothing, apart from teleworking, on which the American e-commerce giant cast shame by announcing, in September, the return to 100% face-to-face work of the group's 300,000 administrative employees from 2025. Enough to worry all French employees who, since the 2020 pandemic, have integrated teleworking into their organizational methods. “The employees didn’t really fight for it. Covid forced employers on the subject, but it is a social achievement”points out Marc Rutschlé, the union representative of Ubisoft IT Solidaires.

On October 15, 700 employees of the French number one video game company went on strike in Paris, Lyon, Montpellier and Annecy to oppose the new obligation to return to the office at least three days a week. From a purely legal point of view, “there is no acquired right to teleworking. It is a collective organization which is not irreversible”specifies Anne Vincent, associate lawyer at Voltaire Avocats. But for the trade unionist, as for the teleworkers who proclaimed it in 2023, “employees must have a choice”.

Already a year ago, the question of returning to the office arose, when a vast movement to regulate teleworking began when the agreements signed during the pandemic were renewed. It was then Publicis and Google which restricted remote working. And even – what a paradox! – Zoom, the conductor of videoconferencing, followed suit. The movement continues today. Those who were content with a unilateral charter, like Ubisoft, are taking the opportunity to open negotiations in order to enshrine the new situation in an agreement.

No reaction from the financial market

But why once again restrict this method of organization, always popular with employees? The latest edition of the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, published in October, estimates that teleworking would concern between 30% and 40% of workers in France in 2023, precisely 33.5% according to Eurostat. And that some would be ready to exchange 5% of their salary for two or three days of teleworking per week.

The impact on productivity is neither obvious nor uniform. If American studies, presented during the teleworking conference held at Stanford University from October 9 to 11, estimate between 10% and 20% the loss of productivity of employees who are 100% teleworking, they also demonstrate that returning to the office is not painless. “A return-to-office policy that is too strict can lead to lower employee retention [c’est-à-dire des départs] or require higher wages, too lenient a policy could harm productivity”note the researchers. For their study “Determinants and consequences of return to office policies”, Sean Flynn (Cornell University), Andra Ghent and Vasudha Nair (University of Utah) analyzed more than 900 listed groups: the financial market does not react announcements of the end of teleworking. “Which may indicate that there is no consensus among investors on the subject”, conclude the academics.

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