Remote Work Opportunities and Preferences Among Public Health Employees: Implications for Job Satisfaction, Burnout,...

The purpose of this study is to describe individual and organizational characteristics among those who report working remotely and examine how concordance between public health employees' work preferences and their actual work situations relates to burnout, satisfaction, and intention to leave.

This cross-sectional study utilizes the 2024 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS). Bivariate relationships were analyzed by conducting chi-squared tests of individual and organizational characteristics by respondents' reported work situation, work preference, and concordance between work situation and work preference. Multivariate logistic regression models of workforce outcomes were performed holding race/ethnicity, gender, age, education level, public health degree attainment, role classification, tenure at current agency, current employer, current employment status, full-time employee, supervisory status, setting, and governance constant.

A nationally representative sample of government public health employees.

55 742 government public health employees.

Job satisfaction, burnout, and intention to leave.

Among respondents, most worked in-person, and 52.2% reported that their work situation matched their preference. Job satisfaction was high for the majority of respondents. Nearly 20% reported burnout, and 24.8% reported that they intended to leave their organization within a year. Work situation and preference varied significantly by age, education, tenure, employment status, and organizational setting. Older and less educated staff were more likely to work in their preferred setting (in-person). Multivariate models showed that concordance between work situation and preference was significantly associated with higher satisfaction and lower burnout and intent to leave.

Findings show that employees whose work situations align with their work preferences report higher job satisfaction, lower burnout, and decreased intention to leave their organizations. These effects are most pronounced among younger and highly educated workers, who experience more difficulty in achieving this alignment.