What we think about working from home

There’s a new class of worker in this country and it’s likely you know some of them. They’re the recent office dwellers who now wear business clothes from the waist up and pyjamas from the waist down. They conduct meetings over Zoom and Microsoft Teams and have tried to stake out a part of the house that has a decent backdrop and keeps the kids at bay.

Our latest DART & maru/ Blue research poll checked in on this new workforce and found them still settling into their new lockdown-imposed workplace.

Before the pandemic upended our lives, one in 17 (six per cent) were working from home and continue to do so. But since the day in which the NBA postponed its season and this new abnormal was ushered in, one in six (18 per cent) of the Canadian population who used to work in an office setting are now working from home. Tallying that up, one quarter (24 per cent) of Canadians now work from home. For context, our research also found that of Canadian adults, four in 10 (41 per cent) were not working prior to COVID-19 and are behaving the same now, one in seven (14 per cent) have lost their jobs during the lockdown and one in five (20 per cent) are still working outside the home.

Of all of those who are working from home, many (21 per cent) love it, just as many (23 per cent) like it, most (38 per cent) say “it’s fine” and one in six (18 per cent) don’t like it or downright hate it.

For the newly decamped workers, will they continue working from home after it’s time to go back to the office? One quarter (23 per cent) say they’ll likely stay their new course, another quarter (23 per cent) want to work from home a significant amount of time but not full time, four in 10 (38 per cent) would like to work from home just sometimes and that hard-core group who dislike their new digs (17 per cent) say there’s no way they will continue working from home.

Almost half (47 per cent) indicate they’re about as productive at home as they were in the office — flanked by one group being more productive (23 per cent) and another less productive (30 per cent).

When thinking about their new workspace at home, here’s their priority list for things they would improve: better seating (52 per cent), a better desk and working space (48 per cent), an additional monitor (34 per cent), a better internet connection (23 per cent), better lighting (19 per cent), better headphones or speakers for calls (14 per cent), a speaker to listen to content while they work (seven per cent) and art for the walls (six per cent). For me, working out of my bunker basement, all I want is somebody to invent an app for a faux backdrop that’s better than what I get on Zoom or Teams. I’d be good with just that.

What the new class of home workers miss about being at the office includes in-person interactions with customers, clients and other non-colleagues (38 per cent), having better-defined work hours (23 per cent), eating out during the business day (23 per cent), getting dressed to go out of the home for the day (20 per cent) and commuting (10 per cent). The two things they miss the most are the change of scenery they get from getting out of the house (63 per cent) and the personal interactions with colleagues (58 per cent), which, if you switch the word “colleagues” with family, friends or neighbours, the feeling is pretty mutual.

Despite three-quarters believing they will eventually resume their old office routine, no one can predict how many of these new office

OF ALL OF THOSE WHO ARE WORKING FROM HOME, MANY (21 PER CENT) LOVE IT, JUST AS MANY (23 PER CENT)

LIKE IT.

deportees will continue working from home if and when the economy starts to move again. After all, most corporate chief financial officers are no doubt eyeing the commercial real estate lease costs and the bottom line, so it might be many more, not many less, who will be permanently operating from their dwellings in the not-toodistant future. If anything, it will restructure how employees are managed by their employers — maybe lunch will be delivered to their home every day at noon from a local restaurant so they’ll be forced to take a break, have a shower and get out of those pyjamas and into some more respectable clothing.

Oh, and one more thing. What many new homeworkers miss most about the office is getting away from their family for a few hours (30 per cent). Whoever thought that the office would be a sanctuary? Well, now you know.

GETTY IMAGES / ISTOCKPHOTO A DART & maru/Blue research poll checked in on the workforce and found that people are still settling into their new lockdown-imposed workplace.