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Who “controls” where work shall be done?: State-of-practice in post-pandemic remote work regulation
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Faculty of Computing, Department of Software Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1744-3118
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Faculty of Computing, Department of Software Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2669-0778
University of Bari, Italy.
University of Bari, Italy.
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2026 (English)In: Journal of Systems and Software, ISSN 0164-1212, E-ISSN 1873-1228, Vol. 239, article id 112848Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The COVID-19 pandemic has permanently altered workplace structures, making remote work a widespread practice. While many employees advocate for flexibility, many employers reconsider their attitude toward remote work and opt for structured return-to-office mandates. Media headlines repeatedly emphasize that the corporate world returns to full-time office work. This study examines how companies in software-intensive industry regulate work location, whether corporate policies have evolved in the last five years, and, if so, how, and why. We collected data on remote work regulation from corporate HR and management representatives from 68 companies that vary in size, location, and preferred work modality. Our findings reveal that although many companies prioritize office-oriented work (50%), most companies in our sample permit hybrid work (84%) and only four companies are returning to full-time office work. Remote work regulation does not reveal any particular new “best practice” as policies differ greatly; however, the single most popular arrangement was the three in-office days per week. More than half of the companies (53%) encourage or mandate office attendance centrally, with additional 18% having decentralized mandates. Over a quarter (28%) have changed regulations gradually increasing the mandatory office presence or implementing differentiated conditions. Our key recommendation for office-oriented companies is to consider trust-based recommendations as an alternative to centralized office presence mandates, while for companies oriented toward remote working, we warn about the points of no (or hard) return. Finally, the current state of policies is clearly not final, as companies continue to experiment and adjust their work regulation.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2026. Vol. 239, article id 112848
Keywords [en]
Empirical study, Flexible work, Hybrid work, Interviews, Post-pandemic work, Remote work, RTO mandate, Work policies, Employment, Industrial relations, Location, Empirical studies, Interview, Office works, Work policy, Work regulations, Laws and legislation
National Category
Work Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:bth-29466DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2026.112848ISI: 001748524700001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105035786010OAI: oai:DiVA.org:bth-29466DiVA, id: diva2:2057001
Part of project
SERT- Software Engineering ReThought, Knowledge FoundationWorkFlex, Knowledge Foundation
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 20180010Knowledge Foundation, 20220047The Research Council of Norway, 357147The Research Council of Norway, 346563Available from: 2026-05-04 Created: 2026-05-04 Last updated: 2026-05-04Bibliographically approved

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Šmite, DarjaMoe, Nils BredeMendez, Daniel

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89101112131411 of 70
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