My remote work, I'm talking about it! and My return to work, I'm talking about it! Two major surveys conducted among employees who suddenly discovered teleworking during the first lockdown (March-May 2020) and who gradually returned to their workplace during the easing of restrictions.

Overnight, millions of us found ourselves working...from home! For many, this was a completely new experience. At Res publica, we were already practicing teleworking, albeit in small doses, as if we didn't dare go too far with this somewhat incongruous form of work...at the time.

From day one, we organized a daily 30-minute meeting at 9:00 AM to check in and establish a routine.

Very quickly, we wondered if others were experiencing the same thing as us and how they were coping. We contacted several partners— Métis Europe , Terra Nova , the CFDT , Liaisons Sociale Magazine , and Management & RSE —and launched one of the first major surveys on remote and lockdown work: #MyRemoteWork,IsTalkingAboutIt !

We discovered that the Covid crisis, with remote working, brought about profound changes in work organization and working relationships, particularly between managers and their teams. While some criticisms were certainly noted, the general impression is that we lived through an extraordinary experience that had all the hallmarks of a trial run , as described by Gilles-Laurent Rayssac in Métis Europe and what Terra Nova, for its part, called the “ teleworking revolution ”.

Then came the long-awaited moment of reopening! Freedom returned with the warmer weather, and work could resume its normal pace. With the same partners, we launched the #MyReturnToWork,Let'sTalkAboutIt! , which aimed to understand how employees were returning to their workshops, offices, classrooms, and so on, and how employers had prepared to welcome them back. Above all, we wanted to know if the promises made at the end of winter—the increased trust between managers and their teams, and the changes in work organization—had been kept.

Truth be told, the end of lockdown felt like a “ return to reality ,” a return that has sparked numerous anxieties. But the employees who answered our questions are also strongly urging their companies to foster more dialogue about work organization, remote work, work-life balance, and quality of life at work. Remote work has left both hopes and regrets .

But, in the end, 2020 ended with the conclusion of a national interprofessional agreement (ANI) on teleworking; one of its main virtues is that it invites companies, management and employees (with their representative institutions) to dialogue about a work organization that would include more teleworking.

Meanwhile, at Res publica, we experimented with "open bar" remote working from May to October 2020: everyone worked remotely whenever they wanted. We are currently evaluating this before finalizing a company agreement that will truly change our relationship with work compared to what we were doing up until March 15, 2020...