9 out of 10 Office Workers Satisfied with Remote Work... Higher Ranks More Likely to Judge It as "Inefficient"

Jikjang Gapjil 119 Survey of 1,000 Employees
Only 33% of Senior Managers Say "Remote Work is Efficient"

Nine out of ten people with experience working from home reported being satisfied with remote work. However, while more than half of regular employees and junior staff found remote work efficient, only 30% of senior managers agreed.

According to the civic group Workplace Bullying 119 on the 29th, Workplace Bullying 119 and the Beautiful Foundation commissioned the public opinion research firm Embrain Public to conduct a survey on remote work from the 4th to the 11th of last month. The survey targeted 1,000 workers nationwide aged 19 and older. As a result, among the 191 respondents who had experienced remote work, 88% answered that they were "satisfied."

[Image source=Pixabay]

Looking at satisfaction by age group, 90.9% of respondents in their 20s, 91.8% in their 30s, and 91.5% in their 40s expressed satisfaction, with the overall satisfaction rate exceeding 90% across the 20s to 40s age groups. In contrast, satisfaction among those in their 50s was 80.6%, about 10 percentage points lower than other age groups. Satisfaction with remote work was above 80% regardless of gender, employment type, occupation, company size, or job rank.

Opinions on the efficiency of remote work varied depending on whether respondents had experience with remote work, as well as their age and job rank.

Among those with remote work experience, 70.2% said remote work was efficient, but only 50.3% of those without such experience agreed, which is 20 percentage points lower. This suggests that people who have not experienced remote work tend to be more skeptical about its efficiency.

When asked about the efficiency of remote work regardless of experience, 54.1% of respondents answered that it was efficient. By age, those in their 20s (66.5%) and 30s (62.9%) rated remote work efficiency positively, exceeding 60%, while those in their 40s (46.6%) and 50s (46.8%) gave ratings in the 40% range. In other words, the higher the job rank, the more likely they are to view remote work as inefficient.

By job rank, more than half of regular employees (59.4%) and junior staff (54.2%) said remote work was efficient, but only 33.3% of senior managers responded positively. Only 43.1% of middle managers gave the same answer.

The margin of error for this survey is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

In addition, Workplace Bullying 119 reported various cases of workplace harassment related to remote work. Representative types of harassment related to remote work included control over the use of remote work, monitoring, and discrimination.

One informant said, "When working from home, my superior would assign tasks after working hours," adding, "At first, I worked quietly because of the benefits of remote work, but after it happened several times, I could no longer tolerate it. When I said I had an evening appointment, they forced me to work overtime."

Another informant stated, "The company pressured me to resign, and when I did not voluntarily quit, they disciplined me," explaining, "Although the company operates a flexible remote work system, I was the only one required to get prior approval for remote work due to my disciplinary record."

There were also cases where, despite being regular employees, workers were discriminated against simply because their work style was remote work, such as not receiving Chuseok bonuses, belittling their work performance, and pressuring them to accept wage cuts.

Regarding this, attorney Kwon Doo-seop of Workplace Bullying 119 pointed out, "Procedures should be established to reflect workers' opinions when introducing or changing remote work policies, and as seen in the reported cases, the law should set minimum standards to prevent excessive monitoring and control of workers."