The New Future of Work

Since the onset of the pandemic, people across the globe have experienced a rapid shift to remote work that upended their existing work practices. The current moment presents a unique opportunity to create a new and better future of work, one that empowers the people who return to work in an office, those that stay remote, and the growing group that will lean into a hybrid model of work.

At the start of the pandemic, researchers at Microsoft formed a cross-company initiative to coordinate their efforts with the goal of gaining a holistic understanding of the impact of remote work and identifying opportunities to support new work practices. The initiative consists of over 50 research projects, conducted by teams that span a range of disciplines (including engineering, research, marketing, human resources, and facilities) and divisions (including Microsoft Research, Office, Windows, Azure, Xbox, GitHub, and LinkedIn).

This site features the research that has come out of this initiative, including what we believe to be the world’s largest synthesis of findings related to how people’s work practices have evolved since the start of the pandemic. You can think of this site as a place to learn the science behind WorkLab, which Microsoft recently launched to share compelling stories and research-based insights about the changing nature of work. Stay tuned as we add more peer-reviewed research papers and other scholarly content.