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Most Employees Choose Remote Work Over Promotion

The employee priority revolution continues, with a whopping 71% of respondents saying they would prefer to work from anywhere than get a promotion, according to the Everywhere Workplace study from Ivanti.


Despite its popularity, remote work is a double-edged sword, with 10% of respondents reporting a negative effect on their mental health.

The toll the pandemic has taken on employees' mental health has been significant with 70% of IT women respondents reported experiencing negative effects from remote work, versus only 30% of male respondents in the same group reporting negative effects.

Additionally, many employees are feeling the effects of losing personal connection with coworkers (9%) and being expected to work longer hours than when in the office (6%).

The report also showed the further gender divide: 56% of female respondents said remote work has affected their mental health negatively, compared to 44% of men. While 52% of women reported having lost personal connection with coworkers, compared to 47% of men.

"Ivanti's research shows that the remote work experience for both office workers and IT professionals varies across gender lines. More men than women report being passed over for a promotion in this digital-first culture. Women, however, are expected to work longer hours, but have benefited the most overall from the flexibility that remote work brings. This shift in employee experience cannot be ignored. Employers must respond by adopting technology that facilitates collaboration and lessens the disparities in experience across gender lines, and that begins with prioritizing employee input in every tech implementation," said Meghan Biro founder and CEO of TalentCulture.

Looking at potential "future of work" models, the research found that 42% of employees prefer a hybrid model of work (a 5% increase since the last study).

30% of employees said they would prefer to work from home permanently (a 20% decrease since the last study) demonstrating that many are looking to interact with colleagues again. This decrease could also be attributed to the fact that while remote work has brought many positive changes — respondents indicated that the top three benefits they have realized since working remotely have been time savings due to less commuting (48%), better work/life balance (43%) and a more flexible work schedule (43%) — there have been some drawbacks.

In fact, 49% of respondents said they have been negatively affected in some way by remote work. Among the top concerns were lack of interaction with colleagues (51%), not being able to collaborate or communicate effectively (28%), and noise and distractions (27%).

"The pandemic has catalyzed a monumental shift in where and how people work," said Jeff Abbott, CEO of Ivanti. "The good news is that by increasing automation of common or mundane tasks, companies can improve work-life balance for IT and security teams, plus prevent data breaches and most importantly improve employee experiences. For example, Ivanti Neurons allows IT departments to reduce complexity, anticipate security threats, reduce unplanned outages, and resolve endpoint issues before employees report them."

Automation will become increasingly important as environments are expected to continue to get more complicated. In fact, 15% of respondents said they would prefer to work from anywhere (a 87% increase since the last study). Interestingly, 22% of respondents said they became digital nomads during the pandemic, and 18% said they are considering becoming a digital nomad. Only 13% of respondents said they would like to work permanently in the office (a 11% decrease since the last study).

The study also found just under a quarter (24%) of respondents have left their job in the past year during the ‘The Great Resignation,' and 28% are considering leaving in the next six months. When looking at respondents between the ages of 25 and 34, the percentage of individuals who plan to leave their job in the next six months jumps to 36%. Return to the office policies are a key factor in driving resignations. Nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents stated that they would quit their job if their employer enforced a full-time return to the office policy.

"Employees have more options than ever before — and they're good options, too," said Biro. "They can go anywhere and work for anyone, so that means that companies have to shift their retention tactics toward implementing the best technology that makes everyone's jobs easier, and more fun."

"Amid the fierce war on talent, it's more important than ever before to build a winning, diverse, and inclusive culture where every individual is highly respected, and a company's mission and core values are demonstrated at every level," added Abbott. "People want to work for companies that are making a difference, and employees are increasingly leaving their jobs if they don't believe in the vision and mission. Companies must show they are delivering global value and not just profits, while also prioritizing work/life balance."

Looking to the future, 26% of survey respondents said they hope IT will provide new hardware such as laptops, desktops and mobile devices in 2022, and 26% hope IT will modernize the service desk. Among IT professionals, the desire to modernize the service desk rises to 32%. This should come as no surprise, as call volumes to service desks have risen during the pandemic, resulting in high operating costs and reduced employee productivity and satisfaction.

Methodology: Ivanti canvassed the opinions of 4,510 office workers and 1,609 IT professionals in the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Brussels, Spain, Sweden and Australia to understand their attitudes to remote work, points of disagreements among different demographics, and the specific benefits and concerns they have taken from the remote working experience thus far.

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Most Employees Choose Remote Work Over Promotion

The employee priority revolution continues, with a whopping 71% of respondents saying they would prefer to work from anywhere than get a promotion, according to the Everywhere Workplace study from Ivanti.


Despite its popularity, remote work is a double-edged sword, with 10% of respondents reporting a negative effect on their mental health.

The toll the pandemic has taken on employees' mental health has been significant with 70% of IT women respondents reported experiencing negative effects from remote work, versus only 30% of male respondents in the same group reporting negative effects.

Additionally, many employees are feeling the effects of losing personal connection with coworkers (9%) and being expected to work longer hours than when in the office (6%).

The report also showed the further gender divide: 56% of female respondents said remote work has affected their mental health negatively, compared to 44% of men. While 52% of women reported having lost personal connection with coworkers, compared to 47% of men.

"Ivanti's research shows that the remote work experience for both office workers and IT professionals varies across gender lines. More men than women report being passed over for a promotion in this digital-first culture. Women, however, are expected to work longer hours, but have benefited the most overall from the flexibility that remote work brings. This shift in employee experience cannot be ignored. Employers must respond by adopting technology that facilitates collaboration and lessens the disparities in experience across gender lines, and that begins with prioritizing employee input in every tech implementation," said Meghan Biro founder and CEO of TalentCulture.

Looking at potential "future of work" models, the research found that 42% of employees prefer a hybrid model of work (a 5% increase since the last study).

30% of employees said they would prefer to work from home permanently (a 20% decrease since the last study) demonstrating that many are looking to interact with colleagues again. This decrease could also be attributed to the fact that while remote work has brought many positive changes — respondents indicated that the top three benefits they have realized since working remotely have been time savings due to less commuting (48%), better work/life balance (43%) and a more flexible work schedule (43%) — there have been some drawbacks.

In fact, 49% of respondents said they have been negatively affected in some way by remote work. Among the top concerns were lack of interaction with colleagues (51%), not being able to collaborate or communicate effectively (28%), and noise and distractions (27%).

"The pandemic has catalyzed a monumental shift in where and how people work," said Jeff Abbott, CEO of Ivanti. "The good news is that by increasing automation of common or mundane tasks, companies can improve work-life balance for IT and security teams, plus prevent data breaches and most importantly improve employee experiences. For example, Ivanti Neurons allows IT departments to reduce complexity, anticipate security threats, reduce unplanned outages, and resolve endpoint issues before employees report them."

Automation will become increasingly important as environments are expected to continue to get more complicated. In fact, 15% of respondents said they would prefer to work from anywhere (a 87% increase since the last study). Interestingly, 22% of respondents said they became digital nomads during the pandemic, and 18% said they are considering becoming a digital nomad. Only 13% of respondents said they would like to work permanently in the office (a 11% decrease since the last study).

The study also found just under a quarter (24%) of respondents have left their job in the past year during the ‘The Great Resignation,' and 28% are considering leaving in the next six months. When looking at respondents between the ages of 25 and 34, the percentage of individuals who plan to leave their job in the next six months jumps to 36%. Return to the office policies are a key factor in driving resignations. Nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents stated that they would quit their job if their employer enforced a full-time return to the office policy.

"Employees have more options than ever before — and they're good options, too," said Biro. "They can go anywhere and work for anyone, so that means that companies have to shift their retention tactics toward implementing the best technology that makes everyone's jobs easier, and more fun."

"Amid the fierce war on talent, it's more important than ever before to build a winning, diverse, and inclusive culture where every individual is highly respected, and a company's mission and core values are demonstrated at every level," added Abbott. "People want to work for companies that are making a difference, and employees are increasingly leaving their jobs if they don't believe in the vision and mission. Companies must show they are delivering global value and not just profits, while also prioritizing work/life balance."

Looking to the future, 26% of survey respondents said they hope IT will provide new hardware such as laptops, desktops and mobile devices in 2022, and 26% hope IT will modernize the service desk. Among IT professionals, the desire to modernize the service desk rises to 32%. This should come as no surprise, as call volumes to service desks have risen during the pandemic, resulting in high operating costs and reduced employee productivity and satisfaction.

Methodology: Ivanti canvassed the opinions of 4,510 office workers and 1,609 IT professionals in the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Brussels, Spain, Sweden and Australia to understand their attitudes to remote work, points of disagreements among different demographics, and the specific benefits and concerns they have taken from the remote working experience thus far.

Hot Topics

The Latest

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

Today, organizations are generating and processing more data than ever before. From training AI models to running complex analytics, massive datasets have become the backbone of innovation. However, as businesses embrace the cloud for its scalability and flexibility, a new challenge arises: managing the soaring costs of storing and processing this data ...

Despite the frustrations, every engineer we spoke with ultimately affirmed the value and power of OpenTelemetry. The "sucks" moments are often the flip side of its greatest strengths ... Part 2 of this blog covers the powerful advantages and breakthroughs — the "OTel Rocks" moments ...

OpenTelemetry (OTel) arrived with a grand promise: a unified, vendor-neutral standard for observability data (traces, metrics, logs) that would free engineers from vendor lock-in and provide deeper insights into complex systems ... No powerful technology comes without its challenges, and OpenTelemetry is no exception. The engineers we spoke with were frank about the friction points they've encountered ...

Enterprises are turning to AI-powered software platforms to make IT management more intelligent and ensure their systems and technology meet business needs for efficiency, lowers costs and innovation, according to new research from Information Services Group ...

The power of Kubernetes lies in its ability to orchestrate containerized applications with unparalleled efficiency. Yet, this power comes at a cost: the dynamic, distributed, and ephemeral nature of its architecture creates a monitoring challenge akin to tracking a constantly shifting, interconnected network of fleeting entities ... Due to the dynamic and complex nature of Kubernetes, monitoring poses a substantial challenge for DevOps and platform engineers. Here are the primary obstacles ...

The perception of IT has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent years. What was once viewed primarily as a cost center has transformed into a pivotal force driving business innovation and market leadership ... As someone who has witnessed and helped drive this evolution, it's become clear to me that the most successful organizations share a common thread: they've mastered the art of leveraging IT advancements to achieve measurable business outcomes ...

More than half (51%) of companies are already leveraging AI agents, according to the PagerDuty Agentic AI Survey. Agentic AI adoption is poised to accelerate faster than generative AI (GenAI) while reshaping automation and decision-making across industries ...

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Pagerduty

 

Real privacy protection thanks to technology and processes is often portrayed as too hard and too costly to implement. So the most common strategy is to do as little as possible just to conform to formal requirements of current and incoming regulations. This is a missed opportunity ...

The expanding use of AI is driving enterprise interest in data operations (DataOps) to orchestrate data integration and processing and improve data quality and validity, according to a new report from Information Services Group (ISG) ...