New research reveals what the world really thinks of working remotely

• New report shows Gen Z leads the debate around remote working, but with a higher negative sentiment than positive
• Women want to work from home, but men make up the majority of remote workers
• Denmark, the Netherlands, and Iceland love WFH vs Italy, the UK and Germany, that prefer on-site models

Although remote working is no new concept, the debate around it is still very much alive on social media, with over nine million posts about working from home and with people mostly discussing the topic in relation to the finance market and start-ups. So, to find out exactly how the world feels about it, VoiceNation.com analysed data from Linkfluence.com and search engines to reveal what the actual sentiment is globally.

Gen z talks about it the most, but mostly negatively

Gen Z takes up 28% of the posts around working from home, although they seem to be lacking love for it. In fact, 31% of Gen Z’ers talk negatively about remote working online. Millennials come close in second (22%) and boomers are also actively taking part in the debate, making up 16% of all conversations. Interestingly, adult men in the age group 55-64 are posting badly about remote working more than women in the same age group, indicating that they could be tired of the home office and want more socialising.

Women want remote working, but it’s men that WFH the most

Women take up over half (59%) of the positive discussion around remote working globally, with the majority being younger than 45, which shows the interest in working from home might be linked to the desire for a better work-life balance. However, even if 54% of women agree working remotely affects them positively2, it’s men that manage to bag this benefit, with 19.4% of them working remotely1 vs only 15% of women.

What are the biggest questions people have about remote work

There are still a lot of doubts globally around the idea of remote working, from whether it’s good for our health, to how companies will deal with it.

People in favor of WFH are searching for ‘who is hiring in remote’ and ‘how to get remote jobs’, with some even wondering ‘why remote working is preferred by international hires’. However, with the recent shift towards a healthier work life balance, people are also concerned for their wellbeing and googling ‘can remote work cause isolation’.

Which countries embraced remote working, and which didn’t

Love it or hate it, everyone seems to have an opinion on WFH. But when we look at whole countries, which ones are more in favor of it, and which just can’t wait to go back to the office? It seems that Denmark, Iceland and the Netherlands are at the forefront of innovation when it comes to remote working. So much so that Dutch people now have a legal right to it, thanks to a law passed earlier this year5. And while people in these three countries seem to love to work from the comfort of their own home, some prefer the commuting and working in the office. Topping the list: Germany, the UK and Italy.