Since the pandemic began, working from home has gone from a perk to normality. Because of the power of habit, many companies are discovering that their employees are reluctant to return to their offices.
Recently a study was conducted by FlexJobs. According to it, only 2% of workers are looking forward to returning to their daily office work. The majority of respondents (65%) responded that they prefer working from home even after the pandemic ends. At the same time, surprisingly, 58% of survey participants are ready to look for a new job if the option of working from home is snatched away from them in their current position.
Various reasons are contributing to the preference of WFH
At first, there is the ongoing fear of the pandemic: 49% of participants of the survey conducted by FlexJobs are concerned about the risk of infection while working in the office.
Second, remote work has contributed to improving their work-life balance significantly. Employees no longer need to waste time on getting to the office. And hence unsurprisingly, 84% of survey participants said that the lack of need to travel to work is the main advantage of working remotely.
At the same time, economic factors also play a considerable role: 75% of the respondents said that working from home saves them a significant amount of money on transportation and food expenses. 38% of people surveyed said they save at least $5,000 a year by working from home, while 20% of respondents said they saved more than $200 a week, or more than $10,000 a year.
Remote work comes with its own challenges
This WFH setting is causing overwork and burnout for many employees. Working in the office facilitates clear divisions between “work” and “home” hours. But working from home, the boundaries are blurred and employees get the feeling that they are at work all the time.
Enthusiastic workers are also affected badly because of this. Their work rhythm is most disturbing when working at home —working day gets longer, while rest and lunch breaks are reduced to a minimum. This unbalanced work schedule causes fatigue, which takes its toll while productivity drops sharply.
It is unsurprising that 56% of FlexJobs survey participants said they experienced burnout during the pandemic, while 39% believe that today their mental health is worse than that in January 2020.
How organizations solve this issue and which way of working prevails, only time will tell.
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