by Kandiss Edwards
January 16, 2025
Remote workers are “grandfathered” in their roles. New hires are not so lucky.
Work-from-home opportunities are dwindling as more companies demand employees return to the office. Current remote workers are finding it increasingly challenging to secure new work-from-home positions.
Indeed tracks remote job listings. According to its data, 10.2% of American jobs were remote in 2022, but that figure declined to 8% in 2024.
Julia Pollak, the chief economist at ZipRecruiter, spoke with Business Insider about the decline in remote positions and its implications for current and future employees.
While companies try to keep long-term employees happy, they are becoming less flexible with return-to-office mandates. Some companies have even reversed their return-to-office policies to retain current staff. However, new hires are not benefiting from such “grandfathering” and are subject to new policies requiring physical office presence.
“We know that companies frequently make exceptions to return-to-office mandates for employees to avoid losing them so that policy changes might affect new hires more than incumbent employees,” Pollak said.
Kory Kantenga, head of LinkedIn’s Economic Graph Institute, agrees with Pollak’s assessment. New hires will likely face daily commutes, while current employees may continue to enjoy the benefit of working from home, at least part-time.
“If you already have a job and are grandfathered into this flexible work, you’re maintaining it in many cases,” Kantenga said. “Companies are using those new positions to roll that flexible work back a little bit, but they’re not necessarily rolling it back for the workers who already have it.”
JPMorgan Chase is the latest company to require a five-day return to the office for existing employees. According to Forbes, the announcement was met with backlash from the company’s 300,000 employees. Workers voiced their dissent on the company’s internal messaging system, even suggesting the creation of a union.
In response, the company shut down the message board, citing the large reaction “might overwhelm the moderation team.”
CEO Jamie Dimon argues that remote work stifles creativity and undermines the “apprenticeship model” that fosters growth in large companies. He remains committed to moving forward with the plan.
“Most professionals learn their job through an apprenticeship model, which is almost impossible to replicate in Zoom. Over time, this drawback could dramatically undermine the character and culture you want to promote in your company,” Dimon said.
While company culture and character are not easily quantifiable, productivity is. Studies have shown that remote workers tend to be more productive throughout the workday.
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