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At Amazon they walked off the job. At Starbucks and Walt Disney they launched petitions. At Google they demanded a rethink.

That is how staff at among the world’s greatest identified firms responded this yr to a rule that may have sounded outlandish earlier than the pandemic: are available in to the workplace a minimum of three days per week. Or 4 within the case of Disney.

Of all the implications of the brand new age of versatile work, the one I least anticipated was this degree of company rebel. However it has not been the one shock. Three years after thousands and thousands of workers had been ordered dwelling, the query of the place and when workers work stays remarkably difficult.

Some issues have gotten clearer although, beginning with the extent to which staff are ready to struggle for a profit that many didn’t have pre-Covid.

White collar unions have been the celebs of this story up to now. 

In Australia this month, unions gained a distant work settlement for 1000’s of federal public servants that would permit limitless days at dwelling. In addition they secured homeworking rights at one of many nation’s largest banks, and are difficult one other over a rule requiring workers to spend a minimum of half their working hours every month within the workplace.

These fights can get messy.

Greater than 150,000 Canadian federal authorities staff earlier this yr went on strike for almost two weeks over return to workplace guidelines and pay, in one of many largest actions of its form. They finally did not win the best to work from home although the federal government agreed to overview its coverage.

Additionally it is turning into clearer that distant work doesn’t essentially hurt productiveness. Strong analysis suggests a totally distant workforce could also be about 10 per cent much less productive than a totally in-person one, although losses might be offset by huge financial savings on workplace house and hiring workers globally for decrease native wages. However hybrid working appears to have a zero or barely optimistic influence on efficiency.

Likewise, the WFH backlash shouldn’t be as dramatic as you may assume from tales about BlackRock, Citigroup and different massive firms tightening return to workplace guidelines.

Three years after the pandemic took off, many workplace buildings in huge US cities are nonetheless solely half as full as they had been in 2019. And even when staff return to the workplace, they don’t seem to be staying there so long as they did.

If that sounds odd, it might be as a result of we hear much less about firms similar to Allstate, the insurer that has about 57,000 workers and permits 82 per cent of these within the US to work remotely.

Lastly, there’s the massive shock about the kind of nations the place working from house is taking off.

Researchers, similar to Stanford College economist Nicholas Bloom, anticipated to see a rich-poor sample like that in particular person nations, the place homeworking ranges are highest amongst excessive earners and fall as earnings declines.

However no. Knowledge that Bloom and others simply revealed exhibits ranges are distinctly above common in English-speaking nations: the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“That is hanging and never what we predicted,” Bloom advised me final week. So what explains the distinction? “We truthfully don’t know.”

There are a number of theories. Roomier US properties may make it simpler to work remotely than squishy flats in northern Europe and Asia. Asian nations that conquered Covid quicker had shorter lockdowns and thus much less time to experiment with homeworking.

I discover one other concept extra convincing: US firms are usually higher at measuring and assessing staff’ efficiency, so are extra relaxed about folks working from dwelling.

This issues. US administration practices are typically adopted quicker in different English-speaking nations, however then unfold elsewhere. That’s one cause Bloom thinks that although distant working ranges might dip, they’ll ultimately rise, like a Nike swoosh.

The unfold of tech that makes distant working simpler is one other issue, as is the variety of all-remote start-ups that can turn into the businesses of tomorrow. Additionally, governments scuffling with inhabitants collapses are waking as much as the deserves of distant working, which is distinctly extra standard amongst mother and father with younger youngsters.

A world recession may change this, as may one other shock like Covid. However within the meantime I think Bloom is correct to say, “I believe a Nike swoosh is a fairly secure wager.” 

pilita.clark@ft.com