Report

Remote Work from the Office

Abstract: Roughly half of in-office days are spent entirely on Zoom calls or doing solo work according to a new survey of college-educated Americans. These workers commute in just to work remotely from the office. Existing measures of remote work that focus solely on working from home miss up to three quarters of its true prevalence. We use a collage of data to unpack the drivers of working remotely from the office. The biggest driver is geographic distance, which causes teammates to work in different offices or fully remotely. Other contributors include non-compliance with in-office policies, poor coordination on in-office days, and a tendency to take Zoom calls rather than booking meeting rooms even when everyone is in the office.

JEL Classification: M52; J81;

https://doi.org/10.59576/sr.1211

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Part of Series: Staff Reports

Publication Date: 2026-10-01

Number: 1211