Will the next world be built outside of the office? Louis, 25, is convinced of this. From home, he has no problem fulfilling his role as project manager for the Federation of bicycle users, even at the moment, in the midst of a boom in bicycles and cycle paths. "In my job, everything can be done remotely," explains the young man, whose first job is. I organize myself better at home. In the office, I am less efficient… I am always tempted to go and chat with colleagues at the coffee machine ”.
Telework, discovered by a number of French on the occasion of confinement - in early May, they were a quarter of the active to practice it - seduced during the coronavirus crisis, despite certain drawbacks. According to a CSA study for Malakoff Humanis, 73% of teleworkers interviewed (and 58% of new teleworkers) even wanted to ask to practice teleworking after confinement on a regular basis (for 32%) or occasional (41%).
A logical trend, according to Marie-Françoise Crouail, personal development trainer at United Partners: "Already, after the transport strikes last December, many workers had been enthusiastic about teleworking". An OpinionWay study for Microsoft, published in early March, left no doubt as to this trend: 42% of teleworkers during strikes were "first teleworkers", and of these, 91% said they intended to continue to work from home. Once the milestone of telework has passed, the French no longer seem to want to go back…
This mode of teleworking, it will be necessary to apprehend it “at the same time as the deconfinement”, warns the director of the cabinet Empreinte Humaine, Christophe Nguyen. This means "training management to support these telework situations that can cause distress and uncertainty, set up a psychological listening line, work with occupational medicine ... Companies have everything to gain", believes the work psychologist .
Starting with better yields. Telework doesn't hurt productivity, according to a study in North America. The Valoir firm has been interested in the rhythms of Americans in telework since March 2020. As a result, their productivity has decreased by only 1% on average - even if many were new teleworkers and had never rubbed at home work experience.
Better life balance, better productivity
Even better: several studies claim that productivity increases in telework. In May 2012, a study by the Directorate-General for Enterprises estimated the average gain in productivity in telework at 22% - a rate oscillating between 5 and 30% depending on the salary categories.
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In open space, in particular, some workers have difficulty concentrating and face many interruptions in their work. A survey carried out in 2012 already noted that 77% of employees working at home believed that their productivity had increased.
This is notably due to a reduction in absenteeism and travel. Guillaume, a work-study developer who discovered teleworking with confinement, thus sees teleworking as an opportunity to escape the interminable transport times, to avoid these daily “35, even 40 minutes in traffic”, back and forth . Thibault, a lawyer, estimates that he has saved since the start of his telework more than two hours of public transport each day.
And this professional actually thinks "to be more productive, both professionally and personally". Since he telecommutes, he can take care of household chores and personal projects in parallel with his job, or during his breaks. What guarantee a better balance of life: “For example, in the evening, I usually come home around 9 pm, and I don't always have the motivation to take the time to cook. So, I sometimes go to the facility ... Being at home all day, it is easy for me to take half an hour to prepare food. I can even continue to work while the meal is cooking. ”
Guillaume emphasizes that there is only teleworking that he can "allow himself little things, like a nap ..." Result: he says he is "more relaxed" since the start of confinement.
"At the office, I am less efficient"
Especially since the office can sometimes change into an oppressive place for the most independent workers. "The office is a pretty scary space," said Louis, remembering his apprenticeship in a law firm where "no one was talking to each other." Working from home also allows, insists Thibault, to emancipate "from the reproving glance, which can exist in certain professions, when one leaves his office earlier than the others ..."
So, should we abandon offices and other open spaces? It is in any case the solution preferred by PSA. On May 6, the automotive group announced that it wanted to make remote work the “new benchmark for activities that are not directly linked to production”.
Following the example of Silicon Valley, like Google: the tech giant asked its 115,000 employees at the start of March to work from home. Quite recently, it was Twitter that decided not only, like Google, to extend the teleworking of its employees until 2021, but to make it permanent - it is in any case what emerges from an email sent by the CEO of the company, Jack Dorsey, to his collaborators.
The office market upset?
These companies have chosen, like others before them, to save a whole part of their cash intended for the rental of offices.
The coronavirus epidemic will in any case have a heavy impact on the commercial real estate market, predicts Boris Capelle, CEO of Savills France, a consulting firm in commercial real estate. Companies are faced with a choice, he explains: "On the one hand, reduce the areas through telework, and on the other hand allocate more space to work especially in the context of social distancing" . Many companies favoring telework will have to acquire, for some of their activities which cannot be carried out at home, "connected, rational and flexible buildings". What upset the office market.
"It's an unstoppable walk," asserts Marie-Françoise Crouail, "that the course of events is not surprising. “Any employee likely to telecommute will have to get started, whether they like it or not. It is a political process that is underway, linked to digital change, digital, restructuring ... ”
"In France, we have the impression that employees do not work if we do not have them in front of us"
It is difficult to obtain an updated estimate of this finding, the benchmark study dating from 2010. At the time, the European Foundation for the Study of Living and Working Conditions, however, described an average rate of teleworking in Europe equivalent to 20% of the employed population, with marked disparities: 32.4% in Finland (the countries of northern Europe are the champions of telework), 18.8% in Germany or only 5% in Italy. France was in the low average, with only 8.4% of teleworkers.
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"It's a question of managerial culture," explains Cécilia Durieu, director and co-founder of the management consultancy Greenworking. In the Nordic or Anglo-Saxon countries, or even Belgium, we cultivate management by objective. In Latin countries, there is a culture of the face-to-face ”. In other words, "in France, we have the impression that employees do not work if we do not have them in front of us," analyzes Marie-Françoise Crouail. Whereas elsewhere, "whether the person has done the work on his terrace or from his bed, what matters is that he fulfills his objectives".
"The deficit in social relations is heavy"
Are the French however ready to abandon their offices? "The deficit in social relations is heavy, nuance Louis, who spent the confinement locked up alone in his apartment. Me, it demotivates me. In an ideal world, if I had to telecommute a lot, I would like to reserve a good part of my free time to do sports, to see my friends… ”
No question either for Thibault never to leave his home to work: "If, in the future, I had the possibility of choosing to telework throughout the year, I would appreciate it if it were done only part-time… or to still be able to go to my place of work one or two days a week, to see my colleagues ”.
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