The University of the Balearic Islands carried out a survey between March and May of this year which posed a number of relevant questions to the 1,750 people who took part in this work-life balance study at the height of the pandemic.
Without grinding my way through every possible statistic available, this study struck-a-cord with me in a couple of different areas. Firstly, and as in other similar surveys, I was surprised how quickly men and women can realign their working day to the home environment if that is what is expected of them, with a significant minority actually stating that they preferred to work from home given the opportunity. Naturally, it has to be stressed that not everyone’s job can be done from home - whatever the benefits or otherwise.
Nevertheless, this general attitude to home working coincides with my own daughters view on the subject - as she tells me that her household name employer in the United Kingdom, is now talking to its staff about working from the office on Monday and Friday - and the other three days from home. Indeed, this pandemic could well be the ‘tipping point’ in terms of how and where ‘work’ is carried out in the future.
Interestingly, when it came to the ‘Fears’ that Covid-19 engendered in the survey group - 20.2% worried about losing their job - 42.7% feared contagion - but 61.1% of those surveyed feared the economic impact the virus would have on their lives.