The argument is usually reported as employers against employees, but the Economist/YouGov numbers show the public itself split almost exactly down the middle. Asked in February 2022 where they would prefer to work if their job allowed it, 29% of Americans chose entirely from home and 16% mostly from home, while 30% chose entirely from another location and 14% mostly from another location, with 11% wanting an even split. That is 45% leaning towards home against 44% leaning away from it. What drives the conflict is not preference against preference but preference against reality: 50% said they were working entirely from another location at the time, while only 30% wanted that. YouGov's write-up frames the finding that way: demand for remote work substantially outran the supply of it. The shortfall, rather than any consensus in either direction, is what keeps the subject alive, because roughly a fifth of workers are in an arrangement they did not pick and would change if they could.