Home office
What we love about it – and what we hate about it
More and more people are working in their own four walls.
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A representative survey revealed the advantages and challenges of working from home.
Among other things, 2020 is the year in which the home office found its way into the living room and kitchen of employees. According to a representative survey by the digital association "Bitkom", one in four people in Germany currently works exclusively from home, and one in two at least partially. This has advantages and disadvantages, as the survey of 1,503 employees between October and November 2020 showed.
According to Bitkom calculations, even after the corona pandemic, eight percent will remain exclusively and 27 percent partially in the home office. For many, this is good news: job satisfaction is significantly higher for one in five people and slightly higher for one in four. Without exception, all respondents stated that they wanted to continue working from home at least from time to time.
Less stress, more flexibility
For 80 percent, working in their own four walls means less stress, as there is no commute. 59 percent can better combine their professional and private life thanks to home office. Other most frequently mentioned advantages are more flexibility in terms of time (43 percent), the possibility of a more health-conscious lifestyle, for example with regard to sport and nutrition (32 percent) and fewer disturbances from colleagues (28 percent).
The advantage for the employer is that the employees are not only more satisfied, but also, according to their own assessment, are more hardworking. One in four assesses their productivity in the home office to be significantly higher. The working hours have also increased for some: 13 percent estimate them to be significantly higher.
Biggest disadvantage: there are no colleagues
The latter can, however, be a disadvantage for the employee: "One of the greatest challenges for working in the home office is the distinction between professional and private life," says Bitkom President Achim Berg. 21 percent find it difficult to separate their private life from their job, and just as many have worse working conditions at home than in the office. The biggest disadvantage, however, is the personal exchange with colleagues, which more than half of the respondents lack.
However, there are also "advantages for society as a whole", as the study points out: "Less traffic and traffic jams, fewer accidents and road deaths and, last but not least, fewer environmentally harmful emissions," Bitkom lists. The respondents also see it this way: 85 percent believe that working from home can reduce traffic and relieve the climate.