Working from home makes it easier to quit your job and find a better one — a recession would threaten that freedom

• Remote workers say finding a new job is easier when they're not under a boss' watchful eye.
• The relative ease at which workers can pursue these jobs has partly driven "The Great Resignation."

For some workers, switching jobs is easier than ever — especially those who can interview for new positions from the comfort of their homes.

Lucy Samuels, a career coach of roughly five years, can attest to this.

Samuels, who has a certification in interview coaching, has helped a wide variety of job seekers undergo their search process. She also has a wealth of personal interviewing experience over her 20-year career, during which she's worked both in-person and remotely — the former being a much more stressful environment in which to job search.

"I would come to work kind of business casual, but then I would put the blazer part of my outfit and my shoes in a random drug store shopping bag, so it looked like I was just going to run errands," she says. "I was always changing in the cab, the elevator, last minute stuff."

Samuels sees the flexibility of remote interviewing as a "huge factor" pushing people to seek new opportunities. It could be one of the forces fueling "The Great Resignation".

In May, 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs, still near all-time highs after more than a year of record quits. Largely, these "quitters" aren't staying out of the workforce for long — most soon find a better opportunity with some pursuing remote work as their employers nudge them back into the office. As recession fears heat up, some of the power workers gained by having the option to job-hop could get walked back. Employers could slow hiring, causing many workers to bow to their requests, including going back to the office or accepting lower pay.

In the office, browsing jobs during down time wouldn't be worth the risk of a co-worker – or even worse, a boss — noticing. Interviewing from home can be easier as well. An April WFH Research survey of over 2,000 employees that had sought a new job while working remotely reported that 46.4% felt working from home had made it "easier" to interview for their new roles, compared to 30.9% that said "no difference" and 22.7% that said "harder".

For Samuels, even phone interviews were a challenge, particularly in an area as busy as Manhattan, where she worked many years.

"You go to Starbucks, there's loud music playing," she recalled. "There's absolutely no place to have a conversation. I tried the stairwell — didn't get a good signal on my phone. I didn't have an office and even if you did, there's no guarantee someone's not going to barge in."

Samuels once resorted to renting a co-working space for a phone interview, but then the company rescheduled. "And I had already rented this space," she says. "It was ridiculous."

Remote job searching is a privilege not everyone can afford — but it makes things a lot easier

When Samuels was working in person, she did her best to schedule interviews outside of working hours, but at times she felt taking time off was her only option. Interviewing while working remotely, however, has largely been a "fantastic" experience, she said.

"I was actually able to just take time off from work or use my lunch break or whatever. And no wardrobe changes required, because if anything, I'm already dressed, wearing a regular shirt and I could just put something nice on top of that, and I can do an interview and get right back to work."

She thinks the flexibility of remote job-searching and interviewing has made it easier for her and others to explore a wider range of opportunities as well.

"If I was going to go on an interview, I had to really, really want to, and I had to make sure that it was the right time where I wasn't swamped with work. So, I think that knowing that it's now a lot easier to manage the logistics makes it more likely that people will go ahead and do it."

Of course, many people still don't have the option to work and interview for new jobs at the same time. The BLS reported that in June, 7.1% of employees teleworked because of the pandemic, which would equate to over 10 million Americans. This figure excludes those working remotely for non-pandemic reasons — workers who will remain remote even as the pandemic eases. That still leaves a large chunk of the US workforce working in person and navigating the same pre-pandemic challenges if they choose to start looking for a new job.

When an in-person interview is required, even remote workers will have to get themselves into an office. But only 38.0% of early-round interviews are currently in-person, per a new Atlanta Fed, University of Chicago and Stanford survey provided to Insider of roughly 500 firms weighted to represent the US economy: 38% of those are conducted over the phone, while 25% are video interviews.

For those lucky enough to make it to the final-round, the survey found 86% of these interviews are still conducted in person — but that leaves 14% remote the whole way through. The survey found 11% of final interviews were done over video, with 3% over telephone.

Despite its benefits, Samuels doesn't think remote interviewing is perfect. First, one has to be tech-savvy enough to navigate the video interviews, though as she points out, the pandemic has turned many people into "Zoom experts."

She also says she's seen a fair amount of "ghosting" — interviewers not showing up to video interviews. "Not showing up to a Zoom meeting is different than having someone sitting in the lobby."

But if she or someone she's working with is "ghosted", she thinks this could be a red flag a candidate should take note of.

"It gives you an opportunity to see how the company works," she says. "Not everyone does remote work really well."