The survey was conducted online and polled more than 200 employees who normally work from the office but have been working from home in the last weeks, as part of the social distancing measures adopted to limit the spread of Covid-19. The respondents have an average age of 36 and work mainly in Bucharest (88%), in various sectors of activity, such as professional services (24%), financial (18%), real estate (17%) or technology and telecommunications (13%). On average, respondents performed their activity at home for 15 working days before completing the questionnaire.
The survey showed 80% of respondents appreciated saving the time previously spending in traffic, as employees in Bucharest had an average commute time of 45 minutes on a regular day.
The next upsides mentioned were financial savings (for 49% of the respondents), the improvement work-life balance (43%), more freedom to manage working hours (40%), as well as extra leisure time (33 %).
On the other hand, the biggest downsides cited were lack of direct socialization with coworkers (74% of the respondents), followed by difficulties in separating working time from personal time (44%), lack of a proper working space (33%) and lower capacity to focus, due to disturbing factors in the home (33%).
Other issues reported were difficulties in managing the relation with clients and collaborators (29%), technical issues (26%) and lack of direct feedback on the activity performed (24%).
The survey showed a certain balance in terms of the general description of the work from home experience. Thus, 38% of the respondents consider this period as very good or excellent, 34% good, while for 28% working from home time is unsatisfactory or even frustrating.
Just 3% of respondents would prefer to work exclusively from home once pandemic-related restrictions are lifted, while most would opt for a flexible program of 4 days working from the office and 1 day from home (39%) or 3 days at the office and 2 at home (27%).
On average, the employees polled would choose, if they had the opportunity, to work 3.4 days from the office and 1.6 days from home.
“The current context has determined companies to take radical measures to protect the health of their employees and limit the spread of Covid-19, therefore about 80 – 90% of the employees working in office buildings are currently working from home. This massive migration comes with both advantages and disadvantages, which must be seen from the perspective of a temporary and somehow mandatory nature of these measures. It is encouraging that many activities belonging to the services sector were able to be continued from home, thus avoiding blocking an additional number of companies. However, we consider a mixed solutions future, where the office continues to have priority, as it doesn’t represent only the physical space, but also a place where people socialize and collaborate, which also reflects the values and culture of each organization,” said Madalina Cojocaru, Partner Office Agency at Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.