But there are evidentiary conflicts aplenty, and some studies have found that work-from-homers have been perfectly effective and improved workers’ quality of life, while others have found that not only has productivity decreased but that culture has also suffered. So, who do we believe? Or does it simply depend on your perspective? Or have they all got it wrong?

I was intrigued to read that in 2023, articles on flexible and remote work – and its impact on culture – dominated the list of “most engaged” stories on the LinkedIn platform. It’s clearly an issue of great concern to both employers and employees alike. In our so-called “post-pandemic” period, the future of work is being debated like never before.

From a four-day work week to work from home, telecommuting and flexibility, opinions are as polarised as the Republicans and Democrats in the race to the White House. And while we must respect all sides of the debate, I struggle to see why we look to measure time, clicks, and keystrokes when, at the end of the day, all that both sides should be concerned with is value creation.

There are at least a couple of truisms when it comes to remote work; it greatly enhances work/life balance, but it also negatively impacts culture (and in one view, productivity). A 2023 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report has seen a “decoupling” of wages and productivity, perhaps due to the confluence of labour market shortages driving up wages while enforced and unplanned work from home brought with it productivity declines.

But, with the labour market pendulum beginning to swing back in favour of employers, do we risk seeing real wages erode as SMEs take steps to tighten the expense line and balance the budget?

The most immediate price paid by home-based employees was their privacy, as paranoid employers engaged with technology to monitor metrics such as activity on a keyboard and even mandated that cameras be left on so that managers could “watch” their pyjama-wearing workers in all their diligent and compliant glory.

However, if the OECD study is right, this surveillance by stealth did little to improve productivity. A period of “quiet quitting” was then the high-water mark of a labour market cycle in which workers held all the aces – a phenomenon that did little to enhance the national gross domestic product (GDP).

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So, what does the near future hold for remote workers? My guesses:

1. Organisations that want to emphasise collaborative practices will adopt policies of paying more to staff who work full-time in the office.
2. Most professional service employers will develop policies that enable a balance of remote and office-based work by adopting technology-based measures of productivity.
3. Key performance indicators (KPIs) will shift to focus on metrics of value creation rather than tasks or time on the keyboard.
4. Employees will make career decisions based on their personal circumstances and will sacrifice income or career progression if they value flexibility or family time more highly than their short-term career aspirations.

To my mind, time and energy spent formulating and complying with rigorous policies and then arguing about exceptions would be much better spent on creating value for stakeholders of the organisation. And time at the desk doesn’t equate to productivity!

What “value creation” looks like will vary from one business to another, and measuring it isn’t always easy, but organisations that make it their strategic focus will inevitably outperform their time-focused competitors.

To me, technology, training, and balance are the keys to releasing the remote work tension and ensuring sustainable businesses. Just as total flexibility has too high a price on performance and culture, so too does stubborn inflexibility come at a cost too high for organisations to bear.

If my guess is right, within five years, most professional services firms will forget measurements of units of time, clicks, or keystrokes but rather will have invested heavily in tech, systems, processes, and policies that enable flexible but part-time work-from-homers to deliver measurable value while providing employment conditions that respect a new post-COVID-19 normal.

Travis Schultz is the managing partner of Travis Schultz & Partners.