Irish research: remote workers report less stress, but most accept return-to-office as justified
Two Fórsa-commissioned studies published this week found that 74% of Irish workers say remote work is less stressful than office-based work, and fully-remote staff are nearly three times more likely to report high work-life balance than fully office-based colleagues. Among workers who have been mandated back to the office, 55% accepted collaboration needs as a legitimate reason and 46% accepted workplace culture as a justified rationale. The research also flagged a significant equity gap: higher earners (€100,000+) have substantially more remote flexibility than lower-income workers.
Why this matters
The headline finding tells two stories at once. Remote work is genuinely better for most Irish workers on the wellbeing and work-life balance measures employers say they care about. At the same time, when workers are pulled back to the office, a majority do not push back – they accept the employer’s stated reasons even when their own experience suggests remote is working better for them. For Irish remote workers, that combination means the case for remote work needs to be made structurally (policies, agreements, arbitration outcomes like the Bank of Ireland deal) rather than individually – the data suggests individual workers will mostly accept the employer’s framing if asked to come back in.
The equity gap
The income-flexibility correlation is the part of the research most likely to influence policy. Higher earners can negotiate remote arrangements as part of their compensation package; lower-paid workers cannot. If Ireland’s right-to-disconnect Code of Practice strengthening (announced March 2026, awareness campaign rolling through 2026) is to mean anything in practice, it needs to address this gap – otherwise remote work risks becoming another perk that compounds existing wage inequality.
What to watch: Whether Fórsa, ICTU, or other Irish unions push to make the equity finding a bargaining priority, and whether the AI-at-work forum the Taoiseach announced this week picks up the same thread.