Older and younger bosses don't agree on remote work

Bosses and workers rarely agree on what matters when it comes to the future of work. But there’s division even within the C-suite, particularly regarding the disparate treatment remote and in-office workers can face.

Younger executives cited those inequities as their top concern around flexible work arrangements, but the same issue ranked dead last among their older counterparts, according to the Future Forum, a research consortium backed by Slack Technologies Inc. The group of about 100 older executives, most of whom were in their 50s, said coordination of hybrid-work schedules was their top concern, followed by productivity and learning. The 400 or so younger execs also fretted about scheduling, along with culture. 

The research exposes a generational divide in which executives closer to retirement age, who’ve spent decades in offices and prefer to manage workers they can see in person, differ from younger managers in their 30s and 40s, who are generally more accepting of hybrid arrangements and keen to make sure they benefit everyone. Previous Future Forum surveys have found that women and minority workers are more likely than other groups to want to work from home, adding to fears that the push to return to offices could exacerbate existing workplace inequalities.