More and more offices plan to reopen their doors in the coming months, but will their workers show up? Amid higher productivity, 43 percent question the wisdom of returning to the workplace at all.
The new survey by The Conference Board reveals a notable shift in employees’ greatest return-to-work concerns. Once dominant fears of contracting COVID-19 or exposing family members to it now lag behind anxieties about returning at all, dropping by nearly half in the last nine months. Moreover, a clear divide among workers emerged, with lower-level employees, women, and millennials questioning the need to return to the office at higher rates than their counterparts, despite expressing more concern about mental health.
HR Technology News: Kessler Foundation Grants Prepare Jobseekers With Disabilities For Post-Pandemic Opportunities
Conducted between May 28–June 4, the online survey examines plans and opinions on reopening the workplace. More than 3,600 US workers participated, representing a cross-section of people across industries. It is a follow-up to similar surveys conducted in late 2020 and early 2021. Key findings include:
Workers question the wisdom of returning to the workplace given high productivity.
- The belief that productivity remained high while working remotely has 43 percent of respondents questioning the need to return to the workplace at all. This is a significant increase from the 31 percent who felt that way in January.
- The lower the employee level, the more they question the need to return to the workplace:
- Individual contributors: 56 percent.
- CEOs: 18 percent.
- Women question the wisdom of returning more than men:
- Women: 50 percent.
- Men: 33 percent.
- Millennials are more likely to question the wisdom of returning than other generations:
- Millennial: 55 percent.
- Gen X: 45 percent.
- Baby Boomer: 36 percent.
- While exposing family members to COVID-19 or contracting it personally were of greatest concern in September 2020, those concerns dropped by nearly half in June, to 28 and 24 percent, respectively.
- One-quarter of respondents also noted concerns over the deterioration of mental health, up from 13 percent in September and January.
- These mental health concerns were also greater among individual contributors, women, and millennials.
- CEOs, men, and baby boomers were the largest cohorts to have no concerns about returning to the workplace.
HR Technology News: Equable Institute Finds A Majority Of Public Workers Aren’t Provided An Adequate Path To Retirement Security