Remotely of value?

Would you take a pay cut to work from home permanently? In a survey of 1022 UK office workers by Ciphr, a company that provides HR software, 73% of the respondents said that they would. For them, the lack of commute, convenience of being at home or perhaps just the ability to avoid annoying co-workers is a price worth paying for.

But not everyone is so keen on remaining remote – even part-time. In July, the University of Manchester, UK, announced that it would permanently maintain a blended learning approach to learning, with a mixture of online and in-person teaching. Tuition fees will stay at pre-pandemic levels, leading over 9000 students to sign a petition against the measure. For them, online learning has been a far less valuable experience than in-person teaching.

Money isn’t all that matters, of course. Perhaps the University of Manchester students would feel a bit less dissatisfied if course fees were discounted, but that won’t fully compensate for the social and educational experiences they feel they’re losing out on. That some employers are considering reducing pay for workers who remain remote full-time suggests that they too think that there are some things that can’t be replicated online.