Half of the employees who normally work in office buildings continued to work mainly from home even after the state of emergency was lifted, a research study conducted by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox regarding the working methods of employees in Romania during the Covid-19 pandemic say.
If during the state of emergency (March – May 2020) 83% of the employees worked from home, their number decreased to 50% during the state of alert (June – September 2020), while 22% of the employees completely resumed their work from the office, and 28% practiced a mix between work from home and work from the office.
Most of the employees managed to adapt to the new working conditions, taking into account that working from home was a less widespread concept on the local market, and the return to the office was done under special conditions, in compliance with medical safety rules and social distancing norms.
Thus, 83% of the employees declared having a good experience both in terms of work from home and work from the office after returning from the alert state, the others finding this period unsatisfactory or even demoralizing from a professional point of view.
The time saved in traffic remains the main advantage of working from home, a benefit appreciated by 83% of the employees, while the additional freedom in managing working hours (56%) and cost savings (52%) represent the following favorable aspects.
On the other hand, 76% of employees feel the lack of direct communication with colleagues, almost half (48%) have difficulties in separating the personal and professional hours, and 39% do not have a suitable working space at home.
Moreover, 32% of employees consider that the relationship with their colleagues has worsened during the work from home period, and 21% have difficulties in managing the relationship with customers, collaborators and partners.
In this context, only 7% of the employees would like to work exclusively from home after the pandemic ends, the most desired schedule being a mix of 3 days work from the office and 2 days work from home, an option chosen by 26% of respondents.