COVID-19 has disrupted our lives. As vaccines promise to bring the pandemic to an end and employees back to the workplace, a recent survey from the workplace platform Envoy found employee attitudes about work have changed.
Perhaps the most surprising finding: Employees don’t want to return to the daily grind. Nearly half of respondents (48%) would like to keep working remotely, at least for part of the time. That desire for a hybrid work arrangement is popular even in industries that usually require on-site work, including 61% of healthcare workers, 41% of construction/manufacturing workers and 34% of retail and hospitality workers.
Employees mean it when they say they want to keep working from home. Forty-one percent of employees would be willing to take a job with a lower salary in exchange for a hybrid work model, and 47% say they would likely leave their job if it didn’t offer a hybrid work model once the pandemic ends.
They are, however, willing to return to the office based on what they need to get done for work (39%), see their boss (18% ) — and to catch up with their work friends (23%).
Much of this desire to work remote stems from the past year of working remotely, but it is also fueled by concerns for health and safety. Two-thirds of employees say they are worried about their health and safety when it comes to returning to the workplace. Those concerns are even higher among people of color (78%) and members of Gen Z, those age 25 and under (78%).
A majority of employees (62%) said they would feel safer if employers mandated workers get a COVID-19 vaccine before being allowed to return to the office.
Envoy hired the independent research firm Wakefield Research to conduct an online survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults age 18 or older who were employed full or part time in February 2021.