Out of 34 industrialized countries studied by the Ifo institute and Econpol Europe, the French work remotely 0.6 days a week on average – a figure which places France at the bottom of the ranking of this study released last month. The average of all the countries examined stands at 0.9 days per week. Only three countries telecommute even less than ours: Greece (0.5), Japan (0.5) and South Korea (0.4). Even in the face of its European neighbours, who telecommute for an average of 0.8 days, France seems to be lagging behind despite the profound transformations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
An Anglo-Saxon fashion
It is mainly the Anglo-Saxon countries that occupy the top of the ranking. The study counts one and a half days per week on average of “work from home” for workers in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. It is also in these countries that employee expectations and distance figures are the closest with only 0.7 days difference on average. So why this gap with other countries? Historically, there have always been, all over the world, employees working from home in manual or intellectual jobs, from seamstresses to publishing jobs. But the real take-off of teleworking dates back to the end of the 1980s with the democratization of Internet use and the arrival in homes of the first personal computers.
And it is the United States that are behind these developments in the private sector, particularly through the Apple brand. In the 90s, it was Canada which was this time a pioneer in remote working projects, and the United Kingdom which set up a real mode of organization in the 2000s. This culture of teleworking, more rooted than with us, even before the arrival of the Covid, partly explains this typically Anglo-Saxon craze.
At the same time, the American research institute ADP also highlighted, in its annual report published in June 2023, the differences in labor regulations in certain Anglo-Saxon countries. Short vacations, sometimes non-existent maternity leave… “These practices to which workers were accustomed in the United States have been disrupted since the pandemic”, explained Nela Richardson, chief economist of the institute to AFP. So many reasons that push employees to adjust their working conditions to accommodate less lenient law and no longer spend their entire week face-to-face. Thus, since the pandemic, American employers have had a hard time bringing their employees back to the office.
Cautious but conquered employees
The French only want 1.4 days of telework per week, one day less than their Anglo-Saxon neighbors and half a day less than the overall average for countries. This place at the bottom of the ranking testifies, however, that French workers see the positive in telework but do not always have access to it. The advantages highlighted by the French in the study by the Ifo institute and Econpol Europe are the time saved due to the absence of commuting (60%), savings on fuel and meal costs (44%) and flexible working hours (42%).
It is largely employers who remain cautious: on average, they would only be ready to offer 0.72 days of teleworking per week. This gap between the number of teleworking days desired by employees and the quota provided by employers also illustrates generational reluctance. Young French people appreciate the flexibility offered by the use of distance learning. A post-Covid standard has even been installed despite the mistrust of companies, with a minimum of teleworking guaranteed when hiring to attract young workers.
French face-to-face culture
Among employees, the face-to-face still has many followers. Socializing with colleagues (62%), the best working conditions in a team (54%) and the clear separation between work and private life (43%) are perceived as the three main advantages of working in the office, according to the French . Arguments that echo the concerns of executives about distance management, who complain about the difficulties of communication and coordination with their teams and the delays caused by digital exchanges.
French legislation is struggling to keep up with these new developments: what responsibility and what prevention for workplace accidents with distance management? How to control productivity and working time when a person is not in the premises? How to claim overtime? What about the right to disconnect, the separation of professional life and private life? So many questions that the National Association of HRDs (ANDRH) has already been asking the State since last March. According to a survey of their members, 84% of respondents believe it is necessary to change the labor code to adapt it to teleworking.
