Commuters headed into Downtown San Diego are stuck in traffic on southbound Interstate 5 during the afternoon rush hour on March 12, 2024 in San Diego, California.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images
As commuters become more comfortable with flexible work arrangements, the traditional American nine-to-five workday is shifting to ten-to-four. 2023 Global Traffic Scorecard Data released in June by transportation data analytics firm INRIX revealed that compared to pre-pandemic traffic patterns, early morning trips have decreased and daytime trips have increased.
According to the INRIX report, there is now a “midday rush hour,” with travel to and from the office at noon roughly the same as at 5 p.m.
“Morning commutes are down, evening commutes are down and afternoon activity is up a lot,” said Bob Pichew, transportation analyst and author of the report. “This is the new normal.”
Commuters are also largely avoiding public transport. Sunk The economy slumped during the pandemic and never fully recovered, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
The result, Pichoux said, is a surge in traffic congestion during peak hours from midday to the evening.
“Pre-COVID, there was a peak in the morning rush hour and an even bigger peak in the evening,” he said, describing two peaks with a valley in between. “Now there’s no valley.”
“Employees are getting used to the flexibility of working from home and may only come into the office if absolutely necessary,” said David Satterwhite, CEO of Cronus, a software company focused on improving employee engagement.
“That means they might leave early to catch the train home, they might stay late, or they might pop in for a meeting and then head home,” Satterwhite added.
Other recent reports have shown that the practice of just going to work for a few hours a day – also known as “coffee badging” – has become widely accepted, or at least tolerated.
Another survey conducted in 2023 found that more than half (58%) of hybrid employees admitted to checking into the office and then quickly checking out. Owl LabA company that manufactures video conferencing equipment.
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“We used to call this the ‘jacket-over-chair-back syndrome,'” says Linda Gratton, professor of management practice at London Business School.
Whether companies impose strict office-working mandates or variations on hybrid work schedules, “organizations need to be clear about what the contracts are,” she said, “and individual employees can decide whether they want a contract or not.”
But most people say the long commute makes them avoid coming into the office, so coffee badges are the least effective compromise, he added. “It’s the worst – you’re commuting but not working hours in the office.”
Workers are suffering from burnout, which is in part due to declining levels of engagement at work.
Workplace engagement has been trending upward for the past few years, but has now plateaued. Currently, only a third of full-time and part-time employees say they are engaged in their jobs and workplaces, while about 50% say they are disengaged, which is also reflected in the rise in “quiet quits.” The remaining 16% are actively disengaged in their jobs, according to the 2023 survey. Gallup Poll It was released earlier this year.
According to a Gallup survey, employees who are disengaged or actively disengaged from their jobs account for approximately $1.9 trillion in lost productivity nationwide.
As other reports have shown, employees are now prioritizing work-life balance, flexible working hours and mental health support over career advancement, and fewer are willing to spend more time in the office.
According to a survey by Owl Labs, if working from home becomes impossible, 66% of workers would immediately start looking for a job that offers more flexibility, and the majority of them, roughly 39%, would immediately quit.
“What we need to get to is a clearer picture of what the most productive state looks like, and that requires senior leadership teams that see this as an opportunity to redesign work, rather than simply reacting to what has happened during the pandemic,” Gratton said.
