71% employees prefer work from anywhere over being promoted: Study

71% employees prefer to work from anywhere than get a promotion, stated a study by the software company Ivanti. Despite its popularity, remote work is a double-edged sword, with 10% of respondents reporting a negative effect on their mental health, it said.   

The report noted that the toll the pandemic has taken on employees’ mental health has been significant with 70% of IT women respondents reported experiencing negative effects from remote work, versus only 30% of male respondents in the same group reporting negative effects.

Additionally, many employees are feeling the effects of losing personal connection with co-workers (9%) and being expected to work longer hours than when in the office (6%). The report also showed the further gender divide: 56% of female respondents said remote work has affected their mental health negatively, compared to 44% of men. Almost 52% of women reported having lost personal connection with co-workers, compared to 47% of men.

“Ivanti’s research shows that the remote work experience for both office workers and IT professionals varies across gender lines. More men than women report being passed over for a promotion in this digital-first culture. Women, however, are expected to work longer hours, but have benefitted the most overall from the flexibility that remote work brings. This shift in employee experience cannot be ignored. Employers must respond by adopting technology that facilitates collaboration and lessens the disparities in experience across gender lines, and that begins with prioritising employee input in every tech implementation,” said Meghan Biro founder and CEO of TalentCulture.

Also read: Jobs for women in IT sector to emerge in coming months: Monster.com

Looking at potential “future of work” models, the research found that 42% of employees prefer a hybrid model of work (a 5% increase since the last study). Thirty per cent of employees said they would prefer to work from home permanently (a 20% decrease since the last study) demonstrating that many are looking to interact with colleagues again.

This decrease could also be attributed to the fact that while remote work has brought many positive changes — respondents indicated that the top three benefits they have realized since working remotely have been time savings due to less commuting (48%), better work/life balance (43%) and a more flexible work schedule (43%) – there have been some drawbacks. In fact, 49% of respondents said they have been negatively affected in some way by remote work. Among the top concerns were lack of interaction with colleagues (51%), not being able to collaborate or communicate effectively (28%), and noise and distractions (27%).