Next year I want to work ... at home and in the office

by Volker Weber

wfh02020605.png

I asked a very simple question on Twitter which was viewed about 5500 times. 573 people provided an answer and the results are pretty obvious.

  1. Only 1 in 20 wants to go back to the old way of working in the office five days a week.
  2. More than 8 out of 10 want to have flexibility between working from home and coming into the office, with a majority wanting to work from home most of the time.
  3. A small minority of 1 in 8 wants to work from home exclusively.

This is a self selected sample and not statistically sound. But I was quite surprised that so many people can see a future where they would like to work from home. The last months have been quite taxing and many people frankly miss going to the office.

While we are relaxing restrictions we cannot go back to the old normal anytime soon. And by the time we can, we may no longer want to. And when we want to go back to the office, we are likely going to do it only, when we need to meet other people, not for heads down work.

Microsoft employees are already enjoying this type of flexibility. It's a privilege, since only a fraction of jobs are suitable for work from home.

Comments

I would think there are two groups among those who want to go back to the office more often or even entirely. One group are indeed those whose jobs require that. The other group are those whose jobs may be suited for work from home, but their homes are not. I know of colleagues who had to setup a desk in their bedroom or use the dining or kitchen table (and obviously, clear it for regular home use) - simply because many just don‘t have an extra room in their homes. I don‘t know how big the groups are in relation to each other, but I suspect that the second is larger than many think.

Ragnar Schierholz, 2020-06-05

My employer did a survey regarding that topic and while I don't have seen the end results yet, it was mentioned that only 1 out of 4 have a dedicated space to work at home.

Patrick Bohr, 2020-06-06

I have always had one, since I was six years old, with four people living in 60 sqm. It's a matter of priorities. Things can change.

Volker Weber, 2020-06-06

Yes, that's true. It's a matter of pritorities. But why should you change your priorities, if you don't have to (in the long term) and don't want to?

Nina Wittich, 2020-06-06

20% of my people do not have an appropriate space to work from home. 50% have an extra office at home, another 25% have a desk in the living room without being disturbed.

65% use public transportation...

...100% want a flexible use of home office option.

Hubertus Amann, 2020-06-06

Nina, exactly right. If you don't want to, you will not.

Volker Weber, 2020-06-06

I suspect the same like Ragnar. For me personally having a room of my own was a privilege since the age of 13.
Not having a ‚home office‘ would always be a no-go.
I am really surprised to see how many people obviously set different priorities.

Sven Bühler, 2020-06-06

I’d be interesed to know how the actual percentage of home office hours would have been before the crisis started with those who took part it in the survey.

Friedrich Holstein, 2020-06-07

All I can say is that I have data on 45,000 employees that show a dramatic shift towards home. Unfortunately I cannot share this data.

Volker Weber, 2020-06-07

Coming back on "Only 1 in 20 wants to go back to the old way of working in the office five days a week."... I am not sure that the survey shows that, as we do not know the actual situation prior to COVID. I am sure that home office was the norm for many of the knowledge workers even before the crisis. Nevertheless, I get the point and COVID would have enable/accelerated the evolution drastically.

Dirk Rose, 2020-06-08

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