When remote work surged in 2020, many observers assumed it would fundamentally alter workplace culture — including reducing misconduct tied to physical workplaces.
After all, fewer people in offices meant fewer opportunities for inappropriate interactions, unwanted comments or hostile environments traditionally associated with in-person work settings.
Yet six years later, the data tells a different story: sexual harassment in the workplace appears largely unchanged, despite one of the largest shifts in working arrangements in modern history.
The persistence of harassment highlights a deeper reality about the future of work — problems rooted in workplace culture don’t disappear simply because work moves online.
Harassment Rates Haven’t Meaningfully Changed Since 2019
Nearly four in ten employees (38%) say they have witnessed workplace harassment within the past five years, while 21% report being directly targeted.
The issue is even more prevalent among Gen Z workers, with 46% saying they have seen harassment and 33% experiencing it themselves, according to a report from Traliant.
For working women specifically, 40% report experiencing sexual harassment during their careers — a figure that has remained largely unchanged since before the pandemic started, according to McKinsey & Company and Lean In’s research.
Harassment can range from sexist jokes and inappropriate comments to more serious forms of misconduct.
Pandemic-Era Remote Work Didn’t Move the Needle
The stability of harassment rates is especially striking given the dramatic changes to how people work.
In 2019, before the pandemic, the vast majority of employees worked primarily from offices. During 2020 and 2021, remote work surged as companies shifted operations online.
But while office presence declined dramatically during those years, there is little evidence that harassment declined in a measurable way. In 2021, at the height of remote working, 38% of workers still reported sexual harassment — the misconduct simply adapted to new environments.
Reports of harassment during the pandemic included inappropriate messages, video meeting behavior and digital communication misconduct — highlighting that workplace culture can travel with the technology used to do the work.
Office Attendance Has Also Rebounded
While high-end, well-located properties are nearing full utilization on key weekdays, average national occupancy across all building types remains around 50%. Offices are less full than they were in 2019, but millions of employees still work in person several days a week.
This hybrid reality means employees continue to navigate both physical and digital workplaces, each presenting different forms of risk.
One of the biggest challenges in measuring workplace harassment is underreporting.
The McKinsey–Lean In research shows that only about half of women feel confident their employer would effectively handle harassment complaints, a figure that has changed little since 2018.
When employees doubt reporting systems, many incidents go unreported — meaning the true prevalence may be significantly higher.
The persistence of harassment therefore reflects not only workplace behavior but also organizational trust and accountability gaps.
Progress for Women Has Been Uneven
The continued prevalence of harassment contrasts with some areas where women have made measurable gains.
Women now hold 29% of C-suite roles, up from 17% in 2015, according to McKinsey & Company.
At the same time, structural barriers remain. Women are still less likely to receive early-career promotions, a phenomenon researchers often call the “broken rung.”
These mixed outcomes suggest that while representation has improved at the top of organizations, day-to-day workplace experiences have changed more slowly.
Harassment Is a Culture Problem, Not an Office Problem
The persistence of workplace harassment despite remote work offers an important lesson for employers navigating the future of work.
Flexible work models can impact productivity, real estate needs and talent strategies, but they do not automatically fix deeper cultural problems inside organizations.
Whether employees are in offices, at home or moving between both, the responsibility for addressing harassment ultimately lies with leadership, policies and enforcement — not the location of the work itself.
As hybrid work becomes the long-term norm, companies may need to rethink not only where work happens, but how workplace culture is built, monitored and protected across digital and physical environments.
