Weekly Wrap: The Future of Remote Work, Unions, and Housing

The Future of Remote Work

This is shaping up to be a defining year for the future of remote work. In fact, the term itself may be changing.

A new report from Microsoft shows that half of employers surveyed either require or plan to require employees to work full-time in the office this year. However, polls by Gallop over the past year, show that 91 percent of those working remotely want the practice to continue. Of that number, 30 percent say they are likely to quit if they can not work remotely.

At the peak of the pandemic in January last year, seventy-nine percent of white-collar employees were working outside the office, according to Gallop. However, that number has leveled off at about 45 percent.

Not at Home

The terms “work from home” and “remote work” are used interchangeably. However, many remote workers are not working from home.

A study has found that over one-third of remote work is done outside the home. The report was a coordinated effort by researchers at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Third Places

The trend of working remotely from a location other than the home has generated a new term in sociology — third places.

The traditional view of remote work outside the home is of someone with a laptop in the corner of a cafe, coffee shop, or library. However, that too is changing.

Some hotels are now offering day-use rooms that can be rented for remote work.

Productivity

Employee demand for flexibility in a tight labor market will push back hard against employers who want a return to the office.

Indeed, remote work in some form has already become the new normal for many.

The two concerns about remote work are productivity and security.

A recent study by ConnectSolutions found remote workers increased their productivity. The survey found that 77 percent of remote workers were more productive. In addition, 30 percent said they got more done in less time.

“Our Remote Collaborative Worker Survey suggests there are significant benefits to be gained by both remote workers and their employers with offsite employees motivated to work harder and more efficiently to protect both the personal and professional benefits of working remotely,” reported Michael Fitzpatrick, CEO of ConnectSolutions.

Security

While productivity may increase with remote work, so do security risks.

“Security risks have always been a concern for all businesses,” according to a Servcorp blog, “but this has been exacerbated through poor remote work practices such as unsafe Wi-Fi networks, personal device usage, email scams, and weaker security control.”

There are measures businesses and remote workers can take to safeguard their business security.

Helixstorm, a provider of managed IT support services, has created a list of 13 measures both employers and remote employees can take to improve security. It includes:

Employee training
Avoiding phishing emails
Improving passwords
Migrating business applications to the cloud
Requiring employees to connect over virtual public networks
Installing multi-factor authentication

Forced Anti-union Meetings Challenged

Let’s pretend you are the sole support for your family.

One day, the boss calls you in for a private chat. The head honcho tells you your continued employment requires a more intimate relationship.

“I need someone close to me that I can count on to fulfill my needs,” the boss says, laying a hand on your knee.

Would you feel coerced?

Legality Questioned

Many employees feel mandatory anti-union meetings represent their bosses doing to them what the fictional boss above is attempting. However, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) may soon put an end to such meetings.

NLRB legal counsel Jennifer Abruzzo is preparing a brief in an NLRB case seeking to ban mandatory anti-union meetings. The brief does not argue against holding such meetings. It maintains that making the meeting mandatory is illegal.

“This license to coerce is an anomaly in labor law, inconsistent with the Act’s protection of employees’ free choice. It is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of employers’ speech rights,” said Abruzzo. “I believe that the NLRB case precedent, which has tolerated such meetings, is at odds with fundamental labor-law principles, our statutory language, and our Congressional mandate. Because of this, I plan to urge the Board to reconsider such precedent and find mandatory meetings of this sort unlawful.”

Growing Labor Action

Last year workers went on strike at John Deere, Kellogg’s, Nabisco, the Columbia University, and numerous hospitals. In addition, employees have launched unionization efforts at such firms as Starbucks and Amazon.

After 40 years of decline, now may be the time when unions begin adding members.

Union rolls shed 581,000 members from 2019 to 2021 to 15.8 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, organization efforts have increased.

Amazon

Workers at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse voted earlier this month to form a union. That vote came despite efforts by Amazon to block union support. The online behemoth paid over $4 million to anti-union consultants. Those consultants help run mandatory anti-union meetings and personally lobbied workers on warehouse floors.

Amazon has told workers they could make more, the same, or less money with a union contract, according to testimony presented to the NLRB. However, non-union workers make 83 percent of what union employees make, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Staten Island workers’ fight for a union is not over. Amazon has filed numerous objections to the vote. Those objections will be heard by the NLRB, which has given Amazon until April 22 to file evidence of its claims.

It’s Not 2008 All Over Again

With housing prices soaring, the talk of a housing bubble in 2008 is picking up steam. The burst of that housing bubble led to a financial crisis that nearly threw the world into a depression.

However, the comparison between today’s housing market and the one that crashed 14 years ago is dramatically different.

Housing Market Then

In 2008, a boom in the housing market was triggered by low-interest rates and lax to non-existent mortgage qualifications. In addition, there were derivatives.

Derivatives were issued on all sorts of debt. However, one of the primary areas of focus was the housing market.

Issuing derivatives in housing was the practice of packing shaky mortgages under a veneer of top-rated mortgages and selling the whole package based on the quality mortgages.

Many investors and institutions, such as retirement funds, bought derivatives full of sub-prime mortgages.

Defaults

All was well until the Federal Reserve raised interest rates. At that point, subprime borrowers could not pay their mortgages.

As a result, a tsunami of foreclosures swamped the housing market. Suddenly there were far more houses than homebuyers. The value of derivatives and investments tied to them tanked.

Individuals lost their homes. Some lost jobs. Investors lost large sums and one investment bank (Lehman Brothers) closed down.

Higher Lending Standards

It happened before, you say. Why won’t it happen now?

Some important things have changed since 2008. Subprime single-family housing loans are rare, according to the Fed’s Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices. That same report showed demand for housing loans was weaker in the fourth quarter.

High prices are keeping many buyers out of the market. However, a key difference between today’s housing market and 2008’s is tighter lending requirements.

“One of the big differences is homebuyer quality,” Ali Wolf, chief economist for Zonda, told BusinessInsider. “Last cycle, a dog could get a mortgage. This cycle, we have far more stringent lending rules.”

Low Supply

Another difference is the record low supply of houses on the market versus new household formation.

“The gap between single-family home constructions and household formations grew from 3.84 million homes at the beginning of 2019 to 5.8 million homes as of the end of 2021,” reports Realtor.com.

Conclusion

Tighter lending practices and a tighter market reduce the likelihood of another 2008 housing crisis. However, those things and rising interest rates make homeownership more a dream than a reality for many families.

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Max Erkiletian

Max K. Erkiletian began writing for newspapers while still in high school. He went on to become an award-winning journalist and co-founder of the print magazine Free Bird. He has written for a wide range of regional and national publications as well as many on-line publications. That has afforded him the opportunity to interview a variety of prominent figures from former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank Paul Volker to Blues musicians Muddy Waters and B. B. King. Max lives in Springfield, MO with his wife Karen and their cat – Pudge. He spends as much time as possible with his kids, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.