When it comes to work-from-home versus return-to-office arrangements, preferences vary substantially by occupation and sector, a McKinsey survey reveals. Hybrid work, however, tended to be the most favored option, particularly among office-based workers. Rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach, employers can benefit from customizing work arrangements to align with the unique demands of their sector and the roles they are filling, say Senior Partner Nora Gardner and coauthors. Real estate firms, in response to evolving work patterns, can adapt by designing office, residential, and retail spaces that support both professional and personal success.
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A clustered bar chart displays the current remote work arrangements and worker preferences across various occupations, based on a survey of 4,710 full- and part-time respondents. The occupations are categorized as the following: overall, business and financial operations, office and administrative support, computers and mathematics, management, sales, educational instruction and librarians, healthcare practitioners and technical support, transportation, food preparation and serving, and installation, maintenance, and repair. For each occupation, 2 sets of bars are presented. The lighter-blue bars represent the percentage of respondents in each occupation who currently work sometimes remotely and fully remotely. The darker-blue bars depict the percentage of respondents in each occupation who would prefer to work sometimes remotely and fully remotely. For example, in the overall category, approximately 15% of respondents currently work fully remote, while approximately 50% work sometimes remotely. Their preference shows a higher percentage for remote work, with ~18% preferring fully remote work and about double that percentage preferring a sometimes remote arrangement. This pattern varies across different occupations, with some showing a higher percentage in fully remote work (both current arrangement and preference) compared with others.
Note: This image description was completed with the assistance of Writer, a gen AI tool.
Source: McKinsey American Opportunity Survey, Summer 2024.
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To read the article, see “Flexible work’s enduring appeal affects workers, employers, and real estate,” May 6, 2025.