|
 Nah.
Months into a pandemic that has changed work-life balance into a
work-life M.C. Escher drawing - with the end of one and the
beginning of the other now indistinguishable - Americans say they've
actually adapted fine to home offices and dining room table
workstations, and most want to continue working from home after the
pandemic.
That's the finding of new surveys published by the Pew Research
Center and the University of Chicago's Becker Friedman Institute
with potentially ominous implications for pre-COVID-19 business
district micro-economies that had thrived on throngs of office
workers going to weekly happy hours or dropping off their dry
cleaning a block from work.
The Pew poll of 5,800 working adults in mid-October found that the
transition has been easy for most. It allowed them to remain
productive, and, on balance, has given people more control over how
they use their time - counter to the conventional-wisdom impression
of home offices as a maze of tech problems and family distractions.
Graphic - The work from home transition: https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-REBOOT/DATA/jbyvrbjbove/chart.png
Not everyone is thrilled, of course. More younger workers reported
trouble staying motivated, and parents found it more difficult to
work without interruption.
But "while not seamless, the transition to telework has been
relatively easy for many employed adults," Pew found in its survey.
The fact that people not only like but seem to function well at
their jobs in a home-based setting, "may portend a significant shift
in the way a large segment of the workforce operates in the future,"
Pew researchers Kim Parker, Juliana Horowitz and Rachel Minkin
wrote.
The rollout of a vaccine in coming months will force companies
nationwide to decide whether to keep leasing office space, let
people work where they choose, or move to some hybrid arrangement.
It will also start answering the long list of questions about
whether the changes in behavior sparked by the pandemic prove
permanent, or fade once the risk of being out in public has eased.
'SHIRKING FROM HOME' HERE TO STAY
The study published by the Becker Friedman Institute also concluded
that work from home "will likely stick," and estimated perhaps 22%
of all work days will be "supplied from home" after the pandemic.
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That's a major shift, with implications down the line for office building owners
as well as the corner cafe. Authors Nick Bloom of Stanford University, Steven
Davis of the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, and Jose Barrero
of Mexico's Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo, said the pandemic's "mass social
experiment" will cut spending in major city centers as much as 10% on a
permanent basis.
Why permanent?
The stigma of "shirking from home" has disappeared, the technology has improved
quickly, and companies and employees have adapted, the research concluded. Firms
have changed their tech infrastructure to accommodate, and the average worker,
the study found, has spent about $660 outfitting their home set up.
Large majorities in their survey of 15,000 people, collected between May and
October, said they were at least as productive working from home, if not more
so, than they were in their office, and would like to keep working from home at
least two days a week in the future.
Graphic - Long office lunches or kitchens and kids?: https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-REBOOT/DATA/oakpejzjdvr/chart.png
The dollar value of that is significant. Nearly half of workers said the
flexibility to stay at home two to three days a week was worth up to 15% of
their pay.
Graphic - What's work from home worth?: https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-REBOOT/DATA/dgkplqgqqvb/chart.png
The two studies shared other common conclusions, including the fact that the
benefits of working from home aren't universally shared.
It is, the University of Chicago group found, "a perk, but men, higher earners
and highly educated workers will disproportionately get to enjoy it."
Graphic - Work from home by income: https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-REBOOT/DATA/yzdvxjogwvx/chart.png
(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Dan Burns and Andrea Ricci)
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