NAFCU Journal May June 2021

11 THE NAFCU JOURNAL May–June 2021 workers that the BLS found to be work- ing remotely in May 2020. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta conducted a survey of employers last May, finding that businesses expected the incidence of remote work to triple post-COVID, compared with pre-COVID. 5 Remote work advocates often point to two factors behind their optimism that COVID will provide a springboard for accelerating adoption. The first is technology. While many of the products that we have become overly familiar with over the past year certainly have their flaws, they have nevertheless enabled work to continue, and people are far more comfortable using them. As the market for these products expands, the quality of the offerings should improve. Sec- ondly, the past year has shifted attitudes toward remote work. Where previously there may have been a stigma attached to employees working remotely, pandemic conditions changed all of that, perhaps for good. Credit union adoption of remote work is likely to vary substantially from one institution to the next. For many credit unions, theirs is a business built on relationships, and physical interaction among staff is critical to carrying out the mission. But even for those credit unions that revert to a pre-COVID posture towards remote work, the issue will still be an important one as they compete with remote work offerings from other employers. Curt Long is NAFCU’s vice president of research and chief economist. 4 Jonathan I. Dingel & Brent Neiman. “How many jobs can be done at home?” (April 2020). Journal of Public Economics, vol 189. 5 David Altig, et al. “Firms Expect Working from Home to Triple.” Macroblog, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, 28 May 2020, www.frbatlanta.org/blogs/macroblog/2020/05/28/firms-expect-working-from-home-to-triple.