In recent months, employees who wish to maintain their remote work routine must consider a new factor: the economic slowdown. Does working from home increase the risk of being laid off? A closer look at the issue.
First, it must be acknowledged that staying home full-time does not always put employees in the good graces of management. Survey after survey, employers have consistently shown—rightly or wrongly—an aversion to remote work. As highlighted in this statistical overview, 76% of Canadian employers required a partial or full return to the office, according to an April 2024 survey.
More concretely, a large-scale American study conducted by Live Data Technologies in 2023 on two million white-collar workers found that remote employees were 37% more likely to be laid off in the event of downsizing.
“When a hiring manager is told to cut 10% of the workforce, it’s easier to put the name of someone on the list if they have no personal relationship with them,” explains Andy Challenger, senior vice president at the staffing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, in a Wall Street Journal article referencing the Live Data Technologies study.
Examining the “Sociogram”
Francis Painchaud, an organizational consultant, provides an interesting perspective on the phenomenon. To understand a wave of layoffs, he explains, one cannot rely solely on a company’s organizational chart; one must also consider the sociogram.
“The sociogram represents the strength of the relationships between individuals in an organization. A remote employee who only sees their boss for 30 minutes a week in a Zoom meeting is likely more vulnerable than one who has a close, in-person relationship. In this sense, employees who engage in the social life of their company are probably at lower risk of being laid off when the company is struggling.”
Unless, of course, they possess critical skills essential to the company’s survival and success, he adds.
It is also worth noting the flip side: remote workers are 32% more likely to resign from their jobs, further confirming the weaker attachment they tend to develop in this mode of work.
That said, job security is no longer the ultimate priority it once was. In a recent survey, 50% of Canadians expressed a desire to become entrepreneurs… suggesting that a significant portion of workers may be willing to take the risk of maximizing the number of remote workdays allowed by their employer.
