More Than Just #FOMO: How Hybrid Workplace Models Exacerbate Gender Inequality

Covid-19 abruptly stalled progress towards a more gender equal labor market, but the hybrid model which many organizations are touting as a post-pandemic norm, could be about to make everything much worse. 

A recently published study of more than 30,000 Americans found that among college graduates with young children, women want to work entirely from home almost 50% more than men. That study echoes the results of a survey of 2,300 business leaders conducted at the end of last year in the U.K. which show that 69% of mothers wish to work from home at least one day a week after the pandemic compared to just 56% of fathers. 

As vaccination rates across many countries continue to trend higher, enabling offices to open up physically, that gender divide seems to be becoming increasingly pronounced, making the prospect of male-dominated physical offices ever more realistic. 

“It’s very worrying,” says one woman, working in tech in Manhattan, who asked not to be named. “Some of my male colleagues have been going into the office regularly for months now, but I’m still working entirely from home because I just don’t yet feel comfortable commuting just yet,” she adds. “What I’m feeling is more than just FOMO - fear of missing out. I’m genuinely scared that I’m just being forgotten: out of sight out of mind.” 

Bhushan Sethi, a consultant who co-heads PwC’s People and Organizations practice, published a report earlier this year in which he warned of a considerable risk of bias emerging in favor of those who are physically working on site, while those working remotely become stigmatized for doing so.

“It’s a subconscious bias that can lead to managers or other decision makers offering more or better opportunities to the people they see, rather than the employees on the phone or video” he wrote, which in turn “could create an unhealthy ‘us versus them’ culture between people who regularly work in the office and those who work remotely”.

Speaking at a conference in early May, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive officer of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co, said that exclusively working from home “doesn’t work for those who want to hustle,” prompting backlash from some employees of the largest American bank, who accused his rhetoric of polarizing the workforce and undermining those for who either don’t feel safe returning to the office, or are struggling to do so for logistical reasons.

“It’s statements like that,” the woman working in tech says, “that would just make me want to quit.”

A Culture Problem

Gem Dale, a lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University in the U.K., says that it’s important to remember that hybrid working arrangements do have the potential to tackle some of the most pressing inclusion and equality issues in the workplace.

In fact, she says, a lack of availability of flexible working has historically cemented and augmented the gender pay gap as well as other wealth gaps. But unless a hybrid workforce is designed specifically with inclusion in mind, problems are very likely to arise. 

“Drawing on pre-pandemic research we [...]  know that we often have proximity bias, defaulting to people in the office over those who are remote, leading to poorer outcomes for those working more remotely than those more often in the office,” she says, agreeing with Sethi.

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