The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally altered daily working life for millions of employees. At the onset of the pandemic, many employers allowed their staff to work from home whenever possible and in some countries, organizations were even legally required to offer remote work options. Even several years after the pandemic, remote work remains widely available. Working from home is particularly attractive for parents seeking to better reconcile professional and family life.

Before the pandemic, using flexible work arrangements or working remotely was often associated with stigma. Prof. Hipp will present a study that investigates whether this so-called “flexibility stigma” still exists in the post-pandemic labour market. 

The findings show that applicants with flexibility requests—in particular requests regarding remote work—experience employer discrimination. However, these penalties do not vary between different groups of workers but only across different occupations and types of organizations. The findings also suggest that penalties for requesting remote work are due to lack-of-fit rather than productivity concerns. With these insights, our study delivers important insights into how organizations and their employees can address concerns surrounding remote work.

About the speaker

Prof. Lena Hipp is Professor of Social Inequality and Social Policy at the University of Potsdam and Research Professor in "Work, Family and Social Inequality" at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center.