Nearly two-thirds of UK employees who are now remote working are nervous about the prospect of returning to the office following lockdown.
This was discovered by research from One Year No Beer, a website that helps people to focus on diet, exercise, their mindset and creating habits for a healthier life, who found that 60 per cent of workers are nervous regarding the idea of returning to work.
It appears that women are more nervous than men, as 70 per cent of females are reluctant to return to work compared to 49 per cent of males. Also, 61 per cent of 18-34 year old workers stated they were nervous about returning to work, where as more mature workers aged 55 and over are less worried.
More than half (51 per cent) of employees in the South are relatively relaxed about the idea of returning to work and wish to do so. Having children did not seem to have a big influence on employees being nervous about heading back to the office as 63 per cent with children and 60 per cent without children were anxious about the notion of returning to the workplace.
Ruari Fairbairns, founder and CEO of One Year No Beer said:
As the CEO of a company that operates its entire workforce remotely, I’m not sure why there is such a sense of urgency from employers to get their staff back into the work place, especially if they still feel so uncomfortable returning to work at this stage of the pandemics lifecycle.
With so much access to technology and productivity software, there is no need to be sitting in an office with each other right now (or ever) and the flexibility and freedom that working from home affords, by far outweighs any benefits of working in an office. We are personally urging CEO’s to review their thought processes and empower their staff to work from which ever location makes them feel safest and most comfortable.
On behalf of One Year No Beer, YouGov conducted a survey of 2,421 UK employees to gather these results.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
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