The Indecision About Work From Home

July 13, 2020
Richard Finnegan
Articles

Many of you are reading this from home. How’s it going?

I’m there, too, writing a new book for SHRM about the pandemic…and how organizations can build happiness for their employees as a result. The daily book-writing ritual has turned up a bunch of interesting data, not the least of which is about what many of us would have said is the smallest part of enduring the pandemic at work…which is working from home.

To establish a baseline for our discussion, University of Chicago researchers found 37% of all U.S. jobs could potentially be done from home,^[i] meaning about two-thirds of our total U.S. jobs are outside of WFH consideration.

How popular is working from home during the pandemic? See if you can connect the dots through these numbers:

Per Gallup, more than half of at-home workers say they would prefer to continue working remotely as much as possible once restrictions on businesses and school closures are lifted; this percentage has dropped, though, from 62% to 53% as employees have had more of the daily WFH experience.
Among managers whose employees are working from home, slightly more than half say they will allow their employees to work remotely more often as a result of this experience[ii].
Yet a Glassdoor study found that 72 percent said they are ready to return to their company’s office; Socializing with co-workers and collaborating in person topped their lists of reasons for wanting to return.[iii]
Similarly, a Korn Ferry survey revealed that 77 percent are finding it difficult to concentrate, citing the top distraction as watching news reports about the pandemic, followed by worrying about friends and family, worrying about the virus, and trying to work from home with kids present.[iv]
In a Monster survey, nearly three-quarters of at-home workers experienced nightmares, loss of focus, depression and anger, while 27 percent reported physical stress symptoms like weight loss or gain, back pain and lack of sleep; a strong majority believed stress and anxiety were impacting their job productivity.^[v]
In a SHRM study, a full 95% of employers believe most work from home will end after the threat of the coronavirus pandemic passes.[vi]
Yet a Willis Towers Watson survey indicates employers anticipate the percentage of their full-time workforce who work from home to be three times larger after the pandemic than before, resulting in 22 percent of the entire U.S workforce working from home.[vii]
While some commercial real estate professionals see an upcoming glut in office space that will drive prices down, others anticipate social distancing infrastructure changes will require even more space; one in-depth study by MetLife estimates U.S. occupied office space will continue growing at its pre-pandemic rate, predicting most attempts at full-time virtual work will fail.[viii]

So, there you have it, about as clear as mud, like the answers to most other pandemic-related questions. There are other factors, too, as working from home beats riding on a crowded subway or bus with no social distancing. And then there is the birth of management surveillance tools that take a screenshot of your at-home computer every 10 minutes.^[ix] Yikes.

I think it’s important to separate opinions about working from home before the pandemic and during the pandemic. The first was routine and the new kind is forced. No employer asked our permission to force us to work in the same restricted spaces as our out-of-school kids, working spouse or partner, or aging parent who lives down the hall. Many of us don’t even have enough laptops to go around.

This same book I am drafting also shares the top seven characteristics of happy people. Among the seven are (1) happy people have overcome adversity so they have confidence they can do so again, and (2) happy people see all life events as both positive and negative, intertwined in such a way that they find emotional balance during conflicting times.

This pandemic is providing a strong test, yes? Stay Interviews have taught us the best approach to any issue is to solve it with each employee’s input, one-on-one, to learn their true needs and preferences. For those 37% of jobs that can be done from home, managers and their individual employees should collaborate regarding what works best. This is just one area where we are training managers today to facilitate Stay Interviews effectively by asking, listening, and probing for more information…to get to the best answer for all.

Contact us to train your leaders to conduct Stay Interviews virtually with your employees today at dfinnegan@c-suiteanalytics.com.

[i] https://brentneiman.com/research/DN.pdf

[ii] 2. Gallup new workplace: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/309620/coronavirus-change-next-normal-workplace.aspx

[iii] https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/Pages/Nearly-75-Percent-Remote-Workers-Eager-Return-to-the-Office.aspx?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial~HR%20Daily~NL_2020-5-29_HR-Daily&linktext=Nearly-75-Percent-of-Remote-Workers-Eager-to-Return-to-the-Office&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWVdJek5HRTJPR0ptTlRSaSIsInQiOiJNb0dYdDU0blRDcEJDOEgzRjUrY25HT3l3TU55cWk4XC8xVTloYVdLRGgzYVBJdjhwTldFc01iUFpwNU14Z1Y4U05kaXF1WHNWa3RTVWs4SVhwcEc2VG1DbWw1TVp4bktjYmE5TjJQUTBtY05DZnpESGtYZlp6aExWXC9mcWp1Vyt2In0%3D

[iv] 2 Employees embrace remote work: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/majority-employees-embrace-remote-work-coronavirus-covid19.aspx?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial~Talent~NL_2020-4-29_Talent-Acquisition&linktext=Majority-of-Employees-Embrace-Remote-Work&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTTJNeU1UUTBNVEF4T0dJeSIsInQiOiJ0b2JzQjFPXC9mNjNwdDFmOENOZmVsaUJwNlNUZDJCQ0pKWHRsS3Vldmg1Wmc3ejhMUzBLYlhYNkx6ak5cL3g4QklTdU5oZXNGWnlYejBBZTNVM1dnY3VMdzBzc2lcL1FmYU5RQ1VIMzh4NUJwcDExNWdTOEpGSUttVnNvcHNcL1BGXC94In0%3D

[v] https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/majority-employees-embrace-remote-work-coronavirus-covid19.aspx?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial~Talent~NL_2020-4-29_Talent-Acquisition&linktext=Majority-of-Employees-Embrace-Remote-Work&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTTJNeU1UUTBNVEF4T0dJeSIsInQiOiJ0b2JzQjFPXC9mNjNwdDFmOENOZmVsaUJwNlNUZDJCQ0pKWHRsS3Vldmg1Wmc3ejhMUzBLYlhYNkx6ak5cL3g4QklTdU5oZXNGWnlYejBBZTNVM1dnY3VMdzBzc2lcL1FmYU5RQ1VIMzh4NUJwcDExNWdTOEpGSUttVnNvcHNcL1BGXC94In0%3D

[vi] 2 WFH not permanent: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/shrm-covid-coronavirus-employers-say-remote-work-not-here-to-stay.aspx?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial~Talent~NL_2020-5-6_Talent-Acquisition&linktext=Employers-Say-Remote-Work-Is-Not-Here-to-Stay&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTkRZNVlUY3dPREkyTWpSayIsInQiOiJrMlVWbzBSckI5bWpnXC81dHZyT1RKUGdqbGlYcnk1elp4MUFoUSswcDl0eHNGek8wQUkyWVl6TzFCR0JiOUMxdTEzTVVtNHI0T05KaldZRCthTjk5U1h1Ukx1bW9QVGNmVGNpdGQyMWtDdkV3OUhPTk4zSUNlWUFcLzZhN1BlNlF4In0%3D

[vii] 2. 75% eager to return to offices: https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/Pages/Nearly-75-Percent-Remote-Workers-Eager-Return-to-the-Office.aspx?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial~HR%20Daily~NL_2020-5-29_HR-Daily&linktext=Nearly-75-Percent-of-Remote-Workers-Eager-to-Return-to-the-Office&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWVdJek5HRTJPR0ptTlRSaSIsInQiOiJNb0dYdDU0blRDcEJDOEgzRjUrY25HT3l3TU55cWk4XC8xVTloYVdLRGgzYVBJdjhwTldFc01iUFpwNU14Z1Y4U05kaXF1WHNWa3RTVWs4SVhwcEc2VG1DbWw1TVp4bktjYmE5TjJQUTBtY05DZnpESGtYZlp6aExWXC9mcWp1Vyt2In0%3D

[viii] https://investments.metlife.com/content/dam/metlifecom/us/investments/insights/research-topics/real-estate/pdf/MetLife_Investment_Management_Back_to_Work_Office_Demand_in_a_Post_Pandemic_World.pdf

[ix] https://www.wsj.com/articles/youre-working-from-home-but-your-company-is-still-watching-you-11587202201?mod=djemwhatsnews&mod=djemfoe