The proliferation of remote jobs has changed people’s understanding of what “the weekend” means and how much opportunity they have to travel.
Key Details
- Moody’s Analytics head of commercial real estate economics Thomas LaSalvia spoke with Axios this week.
- He says business professionals are stretching their weekends further into Friday nights and Sunday nights while taking more trips and spending more money traveling.
- The ability to work from anywhere without a commute means employees do not have to scramble Sunday nights or commute on Friday nights.
- The trend has contributed to increasing success in the service industry, with travel expenses and hotel revenues increasing over time as employees remotely work from hotels and airports.
Why It’s Important
The outbreak of COVID-19 has changed the world—for better and worse. It facilitated a new status quo where millions of people needed to be able to perform their jobs remotely without exposing themselves to a virus, leading the business world to enable remote jobs for employees who were not required to work in in-person environments.
By September 2022, the majority of business leaders and corporations had soured on remote work, claiming that its proliferation was having a negative impact on productivity, office cohesion, and mentorship opportunities while wasting billions of dollars worth of expensive office real estate. Many companies attempted to enforce return-to-work mandates but unintentionally helped spark a mass exodus of workers called “the Great Resignation” as employees sought greener pastures.
Remote or hybrid work is rapidly becoming the new status quo, with surveys showing that remote employees are happier, more motivated, closer to their families, less burdened by commutes, and eager to take advantage of desk-less jobs to travel more. As LaSalvia notes, this new flexible status quo is likely here to stay.
Notable Quote
“Fridays and Mondays are no longer huge constraints to what you’re going to do on the weekend. So it really broadens your ability to do quite a bit more from afar than you ever have,” says LaSalvia.