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Gleb Tsipursky
Gleb Tsipursky

Opinion | Is remote working bad for Chinese employees’ well-being?

  • While hybrid and remote workers report being happier, and are more committed and productive, they are not immune from burnout and work-life separation issues
  • Companies can address this by clarifying employee policy and offering online mental health support

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More people in China and elsewhere prefer to work out of the office environment, either permanently or in hybrid arrangements. Photo: Getty
Gleb Tsipursky
As more Chinese workers ditch their cramped cubicles, it’s clear that remote working is here to stay. After all, it has been found to improve productivity. A recent study featuring a random assignment of employees either to fully office-centric work or to some days working remotely by Trip.com, China’s largest travel company, found that the hybrid workers had 35 per cent less attrition and that lines of code written increased by 8 per cent.
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A report in May by online job search giant Zhaopin and the National School of Development found that nine out of 10 jobseekers hoped their employers would let them work remotely, even after the pandemic. And two-fifths of Chinese employers are willing to offer permanent remote working options, according to another May survey by digital newspaper The Paper.

Yet, of the three-fifths surveyed who don’t intend to offer remote working, about half – 47 per cent – say they believe the arrangement is bad for employee well-being. Many traditionalist business leaders still think that remote or hybrid work leads to social isolation and a lack of work-life boundaries.

This is sneaky misdirection – decrying the negative impact of remote and hybrid work for worker well-being while glossing over the damage caused by stressful office-centric work.

It’s like comparing remote or hybrid working to a state of leisure. Sure, people feel less isolated if they can hang out and have a beer with friends instead of working.

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But that’s not on the cards. The alternative is office-centric work. And that often means the frustration of a long commute to the office, sitting in an often-uncomfortable and oppressive open office, having a sad desk lunch and unhealthy snacks, and then even more frustration commuting home.

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