Before the pandemic, Kristina Durante had a hard stop in her workday at 5 p.m. to leave to pick her daughter up at aftercare. Like many others, she has enjoyed the increased flexibility caused by remote work in the pandemic. Durante, associate professor and marketing department vice chair at Rutgers Business School, saves time on her commute and is available to communicate with colleagues outside of normal business hours.
“Now I can kind of take care of those things around the house whenever I have a moment, so I’m kind of always reachable,” Durante said. “So, from the business side of it, that is a benefit.”
In more than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic began, it’s been rare to find good news for businesses. One silver lining as employees and businesses navigate the next steps could be the shift to remote work.
Employees across the state and beyond have enjoyed the increased flexibility that’s come with remote work in the pandemic. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Flexibility Gives More Choices to Employers and Employees
Kelli Wingo is the founder and chief visionary officer of KMW Consulting, a New Jersey-based company that advises entrepreneurs. Before the pandemic, Wingo said many employees wanted the flexibility of remote work while businesses were hesitant to embrace it.
At the same time, Louis Lessig, a partner in the labor and employment law practice at Brown & Connery LLP and statewide chair of the Garden State Council of the Society for Human Resource Management, stated that U.S. employers were facing a potential employee shortage along with a limit on the number of foreign worker visas available. The increase in worker flexibility expands the pool of potential employees. “If I get someone to do the work and they’re in Oklahoma, who cares?” he said.
Businesses may adopt a work rotation schedule in years to come to allow employee flexibility and limit the office footprint. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Cost Savings in Travel and Office Space
Another upside of remote work is the reduction of expenses on things such as real estate and travel. For example, Michael Egenton, executive vice president of government relations for the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce, said that before the pandemic, a chamber board member in Cape May might opt out of attending a meeting that’s a two-and-a-half-hour drive away in Newark. When the organization’s board meetings shifted to all-remote, “attendance went through the roof” and has been in the 70% to 80% range.
Wingo anticipates that businesses may adopt a work rotation schedule in years to come to allow employee flexibility and limit the office footprint to save on real estate costs.
A Rutgers University survey found that men’s participation in household chores and childcare increased during the pandemic, a potential sign that remote work has helped correct gender imbalances at home. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Intangible Benefits of Remote Work
Some benefits can’t be measured in dollars and numbers of workers. Durante hopes the pandemic takes away the stigma for men of seeking flexible work arrangements and corrects the gender imbalance of remote workers. “Potentially, it can change the social norm,” she noted.
In the fall of 2020, Durante and her team at the Center for Women in Business and the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University released the results of a survey conducted at the height of pandemic closures. Using a sample of 1,500 participants, the survey found that men’s participation in household chores and childcare (at least five hours daily) was reported to have increased during the pandemic by nine and 14% respectively. Currently, a follow-up survey is being conducted of married, dual-career couples to determine whether these trends have continued.
Some employers have noticed increased attendance at meetings once the option of joining remotely was made available. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Wingo mentioned another mindset shift that could benefit businesses and employees: an increase in creative, results-oriented solutions. “You need the results. How you get to that may be a number of different ways,” she said.
Companies that can benefit from this shift are “those who see it from an empowerment standpoint,” Wingo said. She encourages her clients to hire new employees with an ownership and innovation mindset by asking questions during the interview process such as how the candidate handled a past challenge.
According to Durante, “One of the great things about the pandemic is humanity has come to the fore.” She said this is like “the idea of the Tupperware party.” Even if customers don’t need new storage containers, they are more likely to purchase from someone they trust and like. Similarly, the pandemic experience could open the door to more business opportunities and collegiality among coworkers, with contacts seeing each other on video calls and thinking, “You wear crazy hair and sweatpants, just like me.”
There are complications to remote work, like the blurred line between work and home life late at night. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Businesses Must Maneuver Remote Work Challenges
For all the potential benefits of remote work, there are complications.
While the ability to set a schedule outside normal business hours can allow employees to attend to nonwork priorities while still being available for work, this also presents challenges for both employers and employees.
“When is the ‘on’ and when is the ‘off?’ ” Lessig asked. When an employer receives an email from an hourly employee outside of business hours, he said there are potential implications under wage and hour laws. Lessig also noted an increase in harassment taking place online and said employer liability can depend upon whether an employee is using their own computer or a work computer.
In addition, employees also must consider whether they need to pay taxes in both the state where their employer is located and where they do remote work. In December 2020, New Jersey and three other states filed a friend of the court brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case brought by New Hampshire against Massachusetts. The case involves a COVID-related law passed by Massachusetts requiring out-of-state employees of Massachusetts businesses to pay state income tax for remote work. “Employers are experimenting with how to restructure work, where work hours or workweeks are staggered to reduce the number of employees who are in the office at once,” New Jersey’s amicus brief noted.
While most large, multistate businesses have already considered the issues arising from remote work across state lines, Lessig said such challenges will disproportionately affect small businesses that did not previously need to consider these questions.
Durante said she fears a “class system” where remote workers will be excluded from benefits of in-person work, like networking opportunities of after-work happy hour. Conversely, certain employees may be unable to take advantage of remote work due to the type of work, unavailability of internet connections or home workspaces, or attention issues.
Lessig is an amateur sailor who enjoys spending time on the Delaware River in an easy-handling, J/27-type sailboat. When he encounters a tanker on the water, he said he follows the “big boat rule,” moving his more maneuverable small craft out of the way of the tanker. In the new remote work world, Lessig said businesses are the tankers. While the remote work movement began on short notice, employers now need to maneuver their businesses through the next phase as work moves toward new models. “This is very much not cookie-cutter,” Lessig said. “I’m excited to see what it means.”
Suzi Morales is a New Jersey-based freelancer who writes about business, careers and networking, law and fitness.
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2021 issue of Jersey’s Best. Subscribe here for in-depth access to everything that makes the Garden State great.