People prefer flexible to hybrid working according to new poll

A new poll from MHR claims that people appear to prefer flexible to hybrid working. It suggests that a greater proportion of employees would prefer to work in the office with flexible hours (51 percent) than work from home with structured hours (41 percent). The survey [registration] of over 1,200 full time office workers across the UK and Ireland set out to find how their experience working remotely during the coronavirus pandemic compared to their usual work practices.

According to the report, around two-fifths (41 percent) of employees noticed a decrease in support from management and team members while working from home, meanwhile slightly more (42 percent) said there was a lack of conversation.

For almost four in 10 (37 percent) employees, this resulted in loneliness. The employees worst affected by loneliness were those at organisations that employ 100 or more people (39 percent) and new joiners (42 percent). Some employees felt the lack of social interaction was reflected in their work output, as a quarter (24 percent) said it made them less productive and a similar proportion (26 percent) said it contributed to burnout.

One in ten (11 percent) employees said working from home had a negative impact on their career progression and only 36 percent were asked about their preferred work environment before being told to work from home.