Work in Lithuania survey: Clear majority favor fully remote work

At Web Summit Rio 2023, Work in Lithuania surveyed hundreds of attendees about work and their careers. Here’s what they had to say.

Web Summit Rio gathered 21,367 attendees from around the world. Each attendee brought their own unique life experience to the event, and their own views on what the best working environment is.

When it comes to work culture, maintaining a healthy work-life balance is probably the thing Work in Lithuania cares the most about.

At Web Summit Rio, they were keen to learn what people around the world care about when it comes to building their careers. That’s why their survey asked people about the work cultures they like and about what motivates them in their job.

Here are the key findings:

How would you define your ideal work culture?

Attendees were asked to describe their ideal work culture by indicating the degree to which they want to work remotely (fully remote versus onsite) and the factors that drive them (roles defined by a sense of purpose versus roles defined by salary and benefits).

The Work in Lithuania content survey wall on Day 1 of Web Summit Rio. Image: Amanda Melo/Web Summit (CC BY 2.0)
By the final day, the largest number of votes supported fully remote work with roles defined by a sense of purpose. Fully remote roles defined by salary and benefits was in a not-too-distant second place. This clearly demonstrates that people prefer fully remote work to onsite work, despite continued noise from executives about the return to onsite work.

Both onsite work categories were relatively unpopular, with roughly equal numbers opting for onsite roles defined by purpose and onsite roles defined by salary and benefits.

What is the biggest challenge when building a successful career?

Attendees were asked to indicate whether work-life balance, slow career growth, a highly competitive job market, inability to change career paths or difficulty gaining a comfortable salary was the biggest obstacle to a successful career.

The Work in Lithuania content survey wall on Day 1 of Web Summit Rio Image: Amanda Melo/Web Summit (CC BY 2.0)
The most popular answer was work-life balance, with 284 total votes – nearly twice as many votes as the other options combined.

On this point, the Work in Lithuania team had this to say: “In this day and age, people often prioritize their life outside the office rather than long hours at work. And good work-life balance is a key part of Lithuanian work culture.”

A distant second place went to slow career growth, with 55 votes, and difficulty gaining a comfortable salary came in third, with 47 votes. Trailing behind these was inability to change career paths with 27 votes, and a highly competitive job market, with 24 votes.

What motivates you to perform your work best?

Attendees were asked whether they were motivated more by rapid career growth, the ability to impact real-life outcomes, sociable colleagues and a sociable workplace, a good salary and benefits package, or personal pride in meeting targets.

The Work in Lithuania content survey wall on Day 1 of Web Summit Rio Image: Amanda Melo/Web Summit (CC BY 2.0)
While not quite as overwhelmingly definitive as the previous question, there was nevertheless one clear answer from attendees to this question: the ability to impact real-life outcomes was by far the most popular answer, with 193 votes.

A good salary and benefits package came in second, with 89 votes. In third place was sociable colleagues and a sociable workplace, with 74 votes. There was a significant drop between this and personal pride in meeting targets, which netted just 38 votes. Rapid career growth appears to motivate people the least, getting just 34 votes.

Want to explore more opportunities for achieving work-life balance? Visit Work in Lithuania to discover what the country has to offer.

Main image of Work in Lithuania survey wall on the Web Summit Rio event floor: Amanda Melo/Web Summit (CC BY 2.0)