Survey Shows Impact of Extended Lockdown on Home Working

With news of the three week lockdown extension, a new national survey of 2,000 people into the experience of home working shows that 37% are finding it more and more difficult to work from home, but are prepared to carry on. The survey commissioned by Moneypenny, the leading outsourced communications company, showed that a further 6% said they don’t feel they can work from home any longer, while 52% said they have got used to home working and won’t mind a longer lockdown.

Workloads seem to be reducing for some, as after more than three weeks in lockdown 24% of respondents said they feel like work is drying up, while 17% say they spend fewer hours on work each week compared with pre-lockdown times and admit to feeling guilty about this. However, 12% said they are actually spending more hours working than they would in the office.

Working at home also seems to have reduced communication with work colleagues for most, as 72% of those surveyed admitted they don’t speak to anyone from work for a full day and of these, almost a third (32%) said this lack of dialogue goes on for more than a day.

Lockdown seems to have blurred the boundaries between work and free time, as 73% said they are answering calls and emails after working hours. However, far from working in their pyjamas, 19% said they dress up properly to feel like they are going to work. In terms of getting ready for work, 42% said they get up about an hour before their work starts, 17% get up about 30 minutes before work and 5% get up around 10 minutes or less before work.

The experience of working from home has not be aided by many companies, as more than half (53%) of those surveyed said their company didn’t provide anything to help them set up their home office and only 16% said they received vouchers or cash to buy what they need for this. Only 13% already had a home office set up at home, while 24% are using their living room as a home office, 15% the dining room and 12% their bedroom.

Joanna Swash CEO of Moneypenny, commenting on the survey findings, said:

‘It’s clear that many companies are relying on their staff having a full home office to enable them to work from home and companies should be auditing the facilities their staff need and providing them.

We also have research that shows that 1 in 10 UK business are still sending staff into the office to answer phone calls which is not necessary when there are so many tech solutions available that don’t cost a fortune and can help provide efficient communications.’

Moneypenny is the world’s leading provider of telephone answering, outsourced switchboard, live chat and customer contact solutions. Moneypenny works with businesses of all shapes and sizes, from sole traders right up to multinational corporations. Moneypenny has over 1,000 staff based in the UK and Charleston, USA. The company was founded by a brother and sister team in 2000 and currently handles over 15 million calls and live chats for 13,000 businesses. Moneypenny is proud to have won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise and has been recognised in The Sunday Times ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ six times.

For additional information on Moneypenny visit their Website

*Survey commissioned by 3GEM between 3rd and 15th April of 2,000 UK adults nationwide aged 18+.