Most people do not believe that workers will be returning to the office full-time following the COVID-19 pandemic, a survey for the BBC has suggested
The majority of UK workers had said that they would prefer to be working from home either full-time or at least for some of the days of the work-week.
A total of 70% of 1,684 people who were polled predicted that workers in the UK would “never return to offices at the same rate”.
But managers have raised concerns that creativity within the workplace would be affected by this change.
Half of 530 senior leaders that were also surveyed by the polling organisation YouGov for the BBC said that those staying at home would adversely affect both the creativity and collaboration of workers, against just 38% of ordinary people.
Bosses at big firms such as the investment bank Goldman Sachs and tech giant Apple have been rejecting the calls for more flexibility, with the former even calling working from home an “aberration”.
This comes after the figure for job vacancies within the UK soared to over 1m in August for the first time since records began in 2001, rising by 35% within the space of three months across all sectors of British business.
However, managers and members of the public surveyed for the BBC agreed that neither productivity nor the economy would be at risk by continuing the work-from-home policies that have carried over from the national lockdowns.
According to the research, over three-quarters of people believe that their boss will allow them to continue to work-from-home.
Maisie Lawrinson had joined TalkTalk through the government’s Kickstart jobs scheme back in July. Under the Kickstart scheme, Jobcentre work coaches match young people who are aged between 16 and 24 and are on Universal Credit to new, temporary, job roles.
While Maisie is grateful for the six-month contract, she is keen to be in the office as much as possible so that she can make a good impression.
“I’ve never had a job where I’m speaking to people online or emailing,” she says, referring to her past experience working in retail.
She adds: “I’m more productive when I am in the office because it’s more of a professional environment and you get to see people.”
Having started the job role remotely, she only got to meet her colleagues in-person for the first time recently.
“We recently had team drinks and I finally got to meet everyone. It was really nice, I got to see everyone in person and get an idea of who they are, rather than just what their email is.”
She says that she will still take the opportunity to work from home some days of the week, though, perhaps towards the end of the work-week.
This comes after industries from pig farming, to fast food restaurants have said that the lack of skilled staff members is disrupting their business. The CBI have said that the staff shortages would harm the UK’s economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic.
Over 60% of those surveyed thought that young people in the country would struggle to progress without either face-to-face contact or in-person mentoring.
As experts have since pointed out, under-25s in particular were hit hard by job losses or reduced hours at the onset of the pandemic.
The bespoke research for the BBC suggests that some inequalities may be exacerbated by the pandemic, while others might have improved.
Half of the workers surveyed thought that women’s full-time careers might be boosted by home-working, with childcare duties being less of a hindrance.
