Workers want more flexibility from their employers after COVID

While there is still much love around in the media for garden offices - the Telegraph has an article today (£) about building your own garden office for "as little as 5k" - at the same time there is also a lot of chat about why everybody should get back to the old ways of working. So it's a nice corrective to see the results from a new Ipsos survey for the World Economic Forum of 12,500 employed adults across 29 countries that shows two thirds say:

• when COVID restrictions are no longer in effect, employers should be more flexible in terms of requiring employees to go to an offic
• they are more productive with a flexible work schedul
• they want flexibility in the amount of time they go into the offic

Unsurprisingly, these views are more popular among those with higher levels of education and income, women, younger adults, and parents of children under 18. 

Three in ten say they would consider looking for another job given the same salary and responsibility if their employer expected them to work away from home full time. Those under the age of 35 and parents are more likely to say so. Nearly half of those questioned in Australia and one third in South Africa and Great Britain do not expect to ever revert to the way things were.

On average globally, 35% say that, once the pandemic is over, they would prefer to work from home completely or more often than they used to (though to be fair, nearly as many (33%) say the opposite). 

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Wednesday’s posts are sponsored by Norwegian Log Buildings  - Log cabins and garden buildings for a better quality of life. Click here for more details.