1 in 4 employees would rather quit than go back to the office

The research, from King’s College London and based on data from more than 30,000 full-time workers across 27 countries, also found that employees around the world see working from home for two to three days as being as valuable as earning five percent more pay.

The paper argued that great changes in working arrangements have historically happened gradually, such as the move from the Industrial Revolution to a service-based economy. The move to working from home, made possible due to the Pandemic, on the other hand has been ‘dramatic’.

“The rise of the internet, emergence of the cloud, and advances in two-way video before the pandemic created the conditions that made possible a big shift to working from home,” says the paper.

The research sought to examine workers’ feelings towards working from home, and how workers and their employees act on their preferences.

Most workers questioned said they value working from home because it saves on time and money costs of commuting and grooming, offers greater flexibility in time management, and expands personal freedom.

However, the average time people work from was still relatively low at 1.5 days a week. The lowest rates were found in South Korea where the average was 0.5 days. In the UK it is two days per week on average.

Women, people with children and those with longer commutes particularly value the option to work from home.

Researcher Dr Cevat Giray Aksoy, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic triggered a huge, sudden uptake in working from home, as individuals and organisations responded to contagion fears and government restrictions on commercial and social activities.”

Read the paper: bit.ly/3dNUNv5