Business

WFH = Work from Home or Work from Hell?

2020/08/14

About half (51%) of employed Americans are still working from home (or that sad, pixelated beach in Zoom backgrounds). With a planning effort equal to that of the annual office fire drill, American workplaces emptied out in March 2020 and are only beginning to see a trickle of cubicle convos return.

Much to the chagrin of office managers, extroverts, and the purveyor of your Wednesday $15 health-forward (as opposed to…?) salad, workers overwhelmingly prefer the WFH lifestyle. A mere 12% of workers consider their WFH experience to be worse than their previous commutable places of employment.

Only 26% of women consider working from home to be much better than their regular workplace, compared to 39% of men. They must be less enthused about constant Zoom-to-Zoom meetings while also shepherding children, pets, and significant others (sometimes hard to tell the difference between them) through their own Zoom-topia. Unless the fellas pick up some slack (or sign out of it), home office morale will continue to suffer.

Although young workers may have a bleaker financial future than their more seasoned coworkers (hey there Social Insecurity), 67% of workers ages 18-30 are thoroughly enjoying the WFH couch-turned-conference room reality.

The results of the Great 2020 Unplanned WFH Experiment are indisputable: 55% of workers would prefer to permanently work from home even when the pandemic subsides while 36% would like a mix.