Remote working regime is not a panacea: not all Russians like to work from home

Experts continue to explore a new reality in the labor market brought about by the coronavirus pandemic: teleworking. Yelena Vasiliyeva, Doctor of Economics, conducted her research on this topic.

The expert interviewed respondents from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Leningrad, Volgograd and Lipetsk regions, Altai Republics, Crimea. Most of those who took part in the survey are specialists and managers of the middle and lower levels of information technology, finance, advertising and marketing (ie representatives of the "office world"). Some of Vasilyeva's conclusions are quoted by the Proeconomics channel:

- A third of respondents have been working in a remote format for a year already, almost the same number - from 2 months to six months, 16.1% have been in this mode for more than a year; 70% of those surveyed assessed as high the likelihood that companies will introduce large-scale work from home.

- Many respondents noted that the main difficulties arose due to the lack of live communication with colleagues and clients. Also, a number of difficulties arose with the adaptation of the company's processes to new conditions, however, most of them were overcome in a short time due to the introduction of new information systems.

- A quarter of respondents were able to reallocate their working hours and thereby reduce it from half an hour to 2 hours, 49% noted that switching to remote work hours increased their working hours from 1 to 3 hours, and 13.3% answered that it had grown so much that became endless.

- The most significant opportunity given by the remote format, most people called the reduction of the time lost on the road to the office: for 9.7% it took more than 2 hours, for 19.4% - more than an hour, for 51.6% - from 30 minutes up to 1 hour.

- 15% of respondents do not agree to continue working remotely, 26.7% answered that they would not mind, but do not have this opportunity, 16.7% have already been transferred to this format, and 40% voted for a flexible schedule of presence in the office.

For comparison, we present data from international studies in this area. JLL surveyed 3,000 office workers in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, China, India, Singapore, Australia and Japan. As a result, she identified a certain trend that more than half of employees feel uncomfortable working remotely.

Thus, 52% of respondents answered that they did not feel productive at home, 58% missed the office, and 44% indicated that they lacked personal communication during isolation. Despite this, the majority of employees (66%) are ready to continue working remotely, and almost a quarter (26%) do not want to return to the office at all. At the same time, half of the respondents (50%) do not care, they are ready to work both remotely and in the office.