84% of employees want to keep working from home

A survey among nearly 3,000 people who started working from home following the coronavirus lockdown shows that 84% of them want to continue doing so. The survey was carried out by Odisee College’s Centre for Family Studies in Brussels.

“There are a lot of advantages to it,” said researcher Miet Timmers. “You don’t have to spend so much time commuting, which improves the work-family balance. People are asking themselves what it would be like if their children were in school and think that they would be better able to concentrate than they can at work.”

The results are in line with a previous study carried out by financial advisory firm BDO that showed that 90% of workers in Belgium would like to work at home one to three days a week after the corona crisis is over.

Timmers finds that a better idea than working at home full time. “If you work at home too much, you can feel isolated,” she said. “Then employees feel less connected and also aren’t sharing information informally, which can mean they don’t have as close of a relationship.”

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