Remote working arrangements have fundamentally changed the world of work for young graduates about to embark on their careers. Experts at business schools share their insights on how to navigate today’s employment landscape.

A report co-authored by Dr Cevat Giray Aksoy, Associate Professor of Economics at King’s College London, finds that university-educated workers around the world spend an averaage of 1.3 days working from home per week. In countries like the UK, it’s as high as 1.8 days per week, and rises to 1.9 days a week for Canadians. 

Like any disruptive force, these new arrangements offer benefits and drawbacks. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report reveals that fully remote employees are more likely to be engaged at work than hybrid or on-site colleagues. 

The global survey finds that 31 per cent of exclusively remote staff showed a high level of enthusiasm for their jobs, compared to 23 per cent of hybrid workers and 19 per cent of on-site employees with no work-from-home options. 

At the same time, remote workers are less likely to be thriving in their lives overall than hybrid colleagues, and they typically experience higher levels of stress, anger, and loneliness than their peers who spend at least some time working on company premises. 

Feelings of fatigue, anxiety, and disorientation may be partially caused by the erosion of meaningful boundaries between remote workers’ private and professional lives, according to Dr Patrick Lê, Associate Professor of Management at NEOMA Business School. 

“In this new reality, the greatest challenge is not technological or organisational, but cultural. Without clear, culturally reinforced markers to differentiate work from rest, public from private, duty from freedom—such as the commute, office attire, or the shared rhythm of lunch breaks—individuals risk losing themselves in a shapeless continuum,” he says. 

So, how can remote workers protect their well-being? 

Lê explains that organisations must adapt their management styles, moving toward a trust-based and outcome-focused leadership style. 

At the same time, employees must become the architects of their own work environments, adopting strategies such as changing outfits between “work mode” and “personal mode”, and setting clear time boundaries to help restore a sense of routine and predictability. 

At the industry level, Dr Maurizio Del Conte, Professor of Labor Law at SDA Bocconi School of Management, says changing modes of work should be accompanied by mass vocational training and representative trade union action. 

These actions will be vital in equipping remote workers with the necessary skills to take on new responsibilities related to using new technologies and maintaining data security, and establishing collective agreements with employers about the new parameters of work. 

“Traditional institutions such as overtime, holidays, time off, sick leave, and everything that has been built around presence in the workplace need to be redesigned,” he writes in an opinion article for Bocconi University. 

He identifies participation, welfare, health, and lifelong learning as key pillars around which a new network of labour protections should be created. 

These protections are important when navigating the balance between employee autonomy and managerial oversight. When employees work outside of traditional office spaces, it can be challenging to keep track of their progress, and greater trust is needed. 

Research by Dr Anett Hermann and Dr Marie-Thérèse Claes at the Institute for Gender and Diversity in Organizations, Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), finds that mobile working policies help employees construct their own careers in a way that improves compatibility with other parts of their lives. In a sense, it provides greater autonomy in shaping their careers. 

However, it can also contribute to greater anxieties around how work and commitment is perceived by colleagues and managers. For instance, it can play into stereotypical narratives against mothers, which assume they are less dedicated to work than other employees. 

The researchers suggest organisations must adapt to the changing world of work by adopting a learning mentality. A methodical approach to implanting flexible working arrangements could help to boost employee commitment and engagement, but time must be spent on discussing how such policies could impact power dynamics stemming from gender stereotypes. 

Working from home has the potential to provide new graduates with greater autonomy in shaping their career paths, but it can also be a source of anxiety and disorientation if policies are ill-managed. 

Clear communication among colleagues and between managers and their employees is needed to foster trusting relationships and alleviate performance anxiety. The result will be an environment that fosters enthusiasm and prioritises individuals’ well-being for those entering or re-entering the workforce. 

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