The WFH ‘culture war’ has raged across Europe, with the UK leading the way as a WFH-friendly country, while France lags behind.

Offices it didn’t, of course, and the kind of work people used to do in offices before the pandemic. But the connection between the two was irretrievably severed, as working at home became first a necessity, then a permanent possibility thereafter.

Now, WFH has become the site of a global conflict, as workers clash with management over where people work and who gets to choose. As Professor Mark Mortensen at the business school INSEAD tells Good luck“There’s a culture war going on right now.”

Like most battles, the long-range and hybrid performance struggle is multi-faceted. So where does WFH win in Europe?

What does the data say?

The UK leads Europe in the domestic league table, according to the Global Survey of Working Arrangements (G-SWA), an annual authoritative study by leading economists on the attitudes and preferences of more than 40,000 workers in 34 countries.

In fact, the average highly educated British worker spends twice as much time away from work as his French counterpart—and three times as much as his Greek counterpart. Countries with a strong focus on ‘digital nomads’ working remotely, such as Portugal and Italy, meanwhile, have average levels.

Working days of the week, selected European countries:

• UK: 1.8 (same as US)
• Germany 1.5
• Netherlands/Italy/Spain/Sweden 1.2 (similar to European average)
• Portugal 1.0
• France 0.9
• Denmark 0.8
• Greece 0.6

Source: G-SWA 2023

The latest G-SWA data was from the spring of 2023, but the pattern appears to be holding.

According to LinkedIn data prepared Good luck41% of jobs posted in the UK on the platform were for mixed roles in April 2024, compared to 32% in the wider Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

Britain also had the highest proportion of remote roles alone in Europe, at 9% – three times higher than France and the Netherlands, which were the pre-pandemic leaders in remote working.

Perhaps the most compelling indicator is transportation usage statistics. Analysis by the UK Department for Transport found that between May and June 2024, London Underground use only reached between 75% and 87% of 2019 levels, with Mondays and Fridays remaining well below the pre-pandemic average.

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In comparison, according to the Global Cities Survey 2024, Paris Rail had returned to 91% of pre-pandemic usage in the second quarter of 2023.

Why?

Different factors affect remote and hybrid performance ratings, including wifi connectivity, different experiences of local lockdowns and industry mix in different countries. Simply put, manufacturing and sales don’t lend themselves to WFH, while coding and publishing do.

The UK economy is more service-oriented than many of its European neighbours, particularly in finance and technology, so structurally you can expect to see a mix of jobs and far from there.

But there is another, more important factor, says INSEAD’s Mortensen: the country’s culture of individualism.

“The more a country likes the individual, the more people like and want to work in remote and mixed areas,” he said, pointing to high levels of individualism in countries like the UK and the Netherlands, and very low levels in Asian countries like Japan and China. and South Korea, where performance from domestic levels is also very low.

“That’s another reason why the US likes to be big on it,” Mortensen added.

In fact, an analysis by international economists behind the G-SWA suggests that two-thirds of the differences between countries can be explained by their level of collectivism versus individualism.

Of course it seems to play on that people in different countries say about how willing they are to comply with instructions to return to the office. Recruiter Randstad’s 2024 Activity Monitorwhich surveyed 35,000 workers around the world, found that Brits were more attached to working from home than their peers on the continent.

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When asked if they would quit if their employer tried to force them to work in the office more, 55% of UK respondents said yes, compared to only 23-26% of French, German, Italian and Dutch respondents, 29% of Spain and -30% of the Swedish population.

Does it matter?

The demand for flexible working arrangements is widespread, with workers in countries with low levels of WFH, such as Greece and Turkey, expressing a desire to work from home compared to their peers in the UK.

In the Netherlands, on the other hand, remote job applications make up half of the total applications fivefold there is a remote task list assignment.

There are no signs of this preference changing, at least not yet. “Our data shows that professionals are unwilling to give up the flexibility and work-life balance that comes with remote and hybrid roles, with competition for these jobs high,” said LinkedIn Career Expert Charlotte Davies.

If flexible work choices continue, you can expect to see more concessions from companies competing for top talent, especially where WFH is less concentrated.

This is especially the case when legislation or union policy reinforces the right to work from home.

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Mortensen, however, is not convinced. “It drives me crazy when people use it [pandemic era] data and they say, it worked well during the COVID, which was a big shock and people had no other choice….the company not falling within two years does not mean that working remotely is the best way to plan. “

He points out what companies like Microsoft and Meta are finding about the “collapse of social relations” for people who don’t work together face-to-face, the lack of “motivation” for new startups, and the decrease in creativity and collaboration that goes along with high levels. of working at home.

“We know that things that benefit organizations often benefit individuals. People feel involved and motivated by doing something new and innovative, perhaps [being in the office] “It’s not just good for the company, it’s good for me,” Mortensen said.

In other words, if too much time at home hurts performance—and therefore job continuity and job security—it will stop looking all that attractive to employees.

Finally, we are still working with new programs that have an unknown long-term impact. The landscape is evolving, along with our understanding of how to treat ourselves as employers, and how we feel as employees—and that applies wherever you live.