What began as a mass experiment has quickly become a lasting work arrangement, yet many managers still feel unsure about whether employees actually work when they are at home. Research from Corvinus suggests that most of these fears are unfounded – as long as companies offer not only the right technology but also real autonomy for employees to decide where they work. 

Rita Tóth, Mária Dunavölgyi, Ariel Mitev and Róbert Marciniak published their findings in Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, part of the Nature portfolio. Their study examines the impact of the freedom to choose remote work on employee performance and life satisfaction. Based on a representative sample of 809 people in Hungary, the results show that those who can decide for themselves whether to work from home, and who also experience supportive leadership, perform better and feel more satisfied with their lives. 

The central question of the study has long concerned employers. After the pandemic, “productivity paranoia” took hold: many leaders worry that if they cannot see their staff, they cannot know whether they are actually working. A global survey by Microsoft highlighted this paradox. While 87 per cent of employees feel productive in hybrid work, only 12 per cent of leaders trust that this is the case. This distrust is one of the reasons why some organisations are calling people back to the office. 

It is not remote work that reduces productivity, but distrust 

The Corvinus study shows that a lack of trust can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Flexibility on its own does increase people’s sense of control, but not nearly as much as a collaborative organisational culture grounded in trust. When employees can freely shape where they work, and when their autonomy is recognised by their managers, both their performance and their overall life satisfaction rise. 

The model reveals several links. Having control over one’s work environment – whether it is tools, working hours or task organisation – strengthens autonomy and leads to measurably better performance. Autonomy also improves satisfaction. The effect is cumulative: leaders who support autonomy not only encourage better work directly but also create an environment where employees become more effective through their own decisions. 

Better performance goes hand in hand with higher life satisfaction 

One notable finding is that higher performance alone increases life satisfaction. According to the authors, this may be because good performance is a strong signal of competence – a form of psychological capital that many employees value as highly as financial rewards. 

Rita Tóth, the study’s first author, emphasises: “When leaders build a culture based on trust, they enhance employee autonomy. This not only improves individual performance but ultimately benefits the whole organisation, while also contributing to employees’ quality of life.” 

She argues that companies benefit most when they view remote work not as a necessary compromise, but as an integral part of leadership practice. The success of hybrid and remote work depends on culture, not physical presence. Providing the technical background is now a basic expectation; the real competitive advantage lies in thoughtful, supportive leadership. When work quality is judged by results rather than supervision, employees become more motivated and “productivity paranoia” loses its basis. 

The study suggests that the workplace of the future will thrive where the office is used not as a checkpoint but as a flexible space for connection and collaboration, and where leadership focuses on results rather than monitoring physical presence. Companies need to invest not only in remote work policies but also in leadership development, organisational culture and trust-building, adopting practices and mindsets that support autonomy and strengthen commitment.