Study of 9 sectors shows charity workers least happy working from home
Melanie May | 14 May 2021 | News
A survey of workers in nine sectors shows charity workers to be the least happy at working from home.
The national average working from home (WFH) happiness rating was 6.6 out of 10 according to insolvency practitioners Hudson Weir. It questioned 3500 people across charity, education, property, tech, advertising, media, law, banking, and IT.
The average rating for charity workers was 4.3 out of 10. Those working in law were also at the lower end of the scale at 4.9. IT and tech workers were the happiest, at 7 out of 10.
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Overall, the survey also shows that over half of employees (66%) say they put in more hours of work each day when WFH than they do in their physical workplace. And over half (54%) take fewer breaks than they would if they were at the office. The longest employees said they go without setting foot outside their front door is 3.6 days in a row. Fewer take sick days however – 85% said they took less while WFH.
In terms of region, workers in the South East and the East Midlands were happiest WFH, scoring 7.1/10, and 7/10 respectively. Least happy were Northern Ireland and the North East, both at 6.2/10.
Hasib Howlader from Hudson Weir said:
“It sounds like productivity and happiness are on the up when people work from home. Perhaps when the worst of the pandemic is over, companies will look at a flexible solution, allowing employees to have the best of both worlds; the convenience of working from home a few days a week, combined with the sociability of being back in the office for the rest of it.”
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.