Gensler, a large global integrated architecture, design, planning and consulting firm, recently released its U.S. Work From Home Survey 2020 report.
The survey was done between April 16th to May 4th and the respondents "were required to be working full time for a company of 100 or more people, to have worked in an office environment prior to COVID-19, and to be currently working from home."
In other words, Gensler's surveyed nicely captured the views of people who typically work in an office who are currently working from home due to the pandemic.
The key study finding, as the report chart below shows (click to enlarge), is only 12% say they want to work from home full-time.
The main reason workers want to return to their offices is to interact with others. Key quote from the report:
"When asked what they miss most about working from the office, three out of four survey respondents said “the people”. Workers also report that certain activities, such as collaborating and staying informed about what others are working on, are harder to do at home, underscoring the value of physical presence."
The report chart below shows the top 3 reasons the respondents listed for going to the office.
Because of our research focus on small businesses and independent workers, we've long studied remote work and work from home. And we know from our research - and the research of others- that most people find working from home full-time leads to social isolation and loneliness.
We also know that because of this, many independent workers and remote workers join coworking spaces to overcome these problems.
We covered another study a few weeks ago with similar results - which is most people want to work from home but don't want to do it full-time.
Because of this, we expect to see most companies adopt a highly flexible, hybrid approach that allows work from anywhere, but includes time spent in the office. We'll have more on this in the near future.
