Few workers who work from home want a return to full-time at the office

While the pandemic may be receding into distant memory, one legacy remains – working from home.

Despite criticism from bosses and multiple predictions of its demise, a YouGov survey in September finds that half of workers say they are working from home. This breaks down to one in six workers (17%) say they work from home the whole time and 33% say they do so some of the time. The remaining 50% say they never do.

These figures represent a significant increase since early December 2021* when 43% of workers said they do so. Most of this change is in the “WFH some of the time” category, which has risen ten points from 23%.

Asked what their preferred working situation would be, 29% of workers would prefer work to work from home the whole time, while 43% say some of the time, and only 21% never want to work from home.

This represents a significant shift in preferences towards working from home since late 2021, with only half as many Britons now saying they never want to work from home.

There is only limited appetite among workers to work from home less than they currently do. Among those who work from home the whole time currently, only 15% want to switch to only working from home some of the time, and just 1% want to revert to the workplace the whole time.

Likewise, among those working from home some of the time, just 2% want to give that up entirely to spend all their time in the workplace, compared to 25% who would rather switch to working from home the entire time.

By contrast, only 40% of those who never work from home are happy with that arrangement. Almost as many (34%) want to be able to work from home some of the time, while 14% never want to set foot in the office again.

*During the pandemic period, although restrictions were not in place at this time, nor was work from home guidance in effect

See the latest results here and the 2021 results here

Photo: Getty

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