Why Connection Matters

In 2020, the world of office work was turned upside down in the blink of an eye. For some of us, working remotely was nothing new. But for many, it was an abrupt and radical change. The percentage of the US workforce that predominantly worked from home moved from under 6% in 2019 to over 30% in 2020. As the economy opened back up, organizational leaders have had to decide whether to call remote workers back to the office, stay fully remote, or define some new combination of the two. “Hybrid” has become the new word du jour as it pertains to work arrangements, meaning that many workers now spend part of their weeks in the office and part at home. According to data summarized in a recent Wall Street Journal article, before the pandemic, about 5% of employee days were spent working from home; in May 2020, that number jumped to 60%, and in 2022, 30% of days are spent working remotely.

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This article is co-authored by Amy Hill of Workflow + Amy Breidenthal, Glover Assistant Professor of Business Leadership at Agnes Scott University