A recent survey reinforces the idea that women are more attached to telework than their male colleagues. So much so that only 59% of them would accept a full-time, face-to-face job, compared to 66% of the men surveyed.
Would you accept a job involving coming to the office five days a week, without the possibility of telecommuting? A question that we might have barely asked ourselves a few years ago, but which seems more than natural since the onset of the pandemic. In fact, the answer is far from universal and varies considerably depending on several criteria associated with the worker’s profile. Starting with gender, as confirmed by a recent survey carried out by the English office rental agency Space32.
Well-being and telecommuting
Carried out among 2,000 British adults, the survey reveals that women are more likely than men to refuse a job if it involves going to the office every day. And this is also valid if it is the ideal job: according to the survey, only 59% of the women questioned say they are ready to go to the office five days a week, including to exercise a job that makes them dream. , compared to 67% of men. At the same time, 60% of men surveyed say they are ready to increase the number of days they are in the office to promote their career progress, while this is the case for only 50% of women.
Contrary to what one might think, young people (all genders combined) consider themselves more ready to give up hybrid work if they manage to get the job of their dreams: 78% of respondents aged 25 to 34 indeed stated that they would be willing to come to the office five days a week if that were the case.
Increased mental load and career brake
The Space32 survey is far from the first to note a greater penchant for teleworking among women than among men. In a YouGov poll published in 2022 and carried out among 4,000 Americans, 43% of men questioned consider it “acceptable” to come to the office every day, compared to only 28% of women. The survey also suggests that women place greater importance on flexible working hours than men: 57% versus 44%.
While these two surveys do not strictly speaking explore the reasons why women seem to specifically prefer teleworking, we do, however, know very well the motivating factors of the followers of this practice, regardless of their gender: better management of their time, stress reduction, productivity gains, optimization of their schedule… But for women, these work habits can be a double-edged sword. Last February, the High Council for Equality pointed out the risk that teleworking would increase inequalities between men and women. The HCE report recalls in particular that, during the first confinement, more than a third of women who teleworked six hours or more spent at least two hours on domestic chores, compared to one in five men on average. Although it brought it to light, the advent of telework during the first confinement therefore did not reduce this mental burden that weighs on women.
Another recent study (American this time) highlights another kind of problem. The research assumes that the regular practice of telework would be likely to slow down the career of women (as well as that of young people) insofar as it could delay the acquisition of professional skills necessary for promotion.
