Remote Employment, Dignity, and Satisfaction at Work

• In Event: 50220 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 10: Remote Work

Abstract

Many industrialized countries have witnessed significant growth in remote employment over the last decade, with such jobs expected to comprise nearly 25% of all employment by 2030, especially although not exclusively in high-tech fields. Such expansion raises important questions for scholars of work. Some existing research offers reason to expect that remote workers might express a lower sense of justice and dignity than those who work on-site, while other research suggests that remote workers might report a higher sense of justice and dignity. In this study, we ask: what is the relationship between remote work, justice and dignity? We draw on two decades of nationally representative data from the U.S. to estimate: (1) how remote workers compare to their traditionally employed counterparts on-site when it comes to perceptions of dignity, justice, and satisfaction; (2) the extent to which autonomy, pay, occupational status, and social-relational dynamics with supervisors and coworkers differ and possibly moderate any differences; and (3) the degree to which any observed effects of remote work in the aforementioned regards vary by other status attributes such as gender, race/ethnicity, age, and education. Our results point to a clear remote employment advantage relative to workplace dignity and satisfaction. This pattern is tied to and indeed partly explained by a greater sense of autonomy and seemingly better relations with coworkers and supervisors. Such effects, we show, are nearly uniform across other dimensions of status with but one exception: women in remote work perceive lower future promotion prospects compared to men in remote work, but also compared to women and men laboring on-site. We highlight the most prominent patterns in these regards and conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for classic social science concerns regarding workplace dignity, satisfaction, and sense of justice.

Authors

• Vincent J. Roscigno, The Ohio State University

• Laura Doering, University of Toronto