For some people working from home is a good fit. They claim that they can work more efficiently in their familiar surroundings. Yet for the majority of people working from home, it is not a good choice, as shown by the results in this new study. Aside from showing that 4 out of 10 people who work from home complain that they are having difficulty concentrating, another 60% feel distracted by the other people with whom they share their home.
And these are not the only challenges. Every fifth person reported that they are seeing an increase in poor posture caused by insufficient seating in their "often improvised offices", which can eventually lead to chronic pain. In addition to health risks, a third of respondents who work from home are dissatisfied with their unprofessional surroundings and lack of proper office equipment. Many also feel distracted by their doorbells, washing machines or dishwashers (click for more results on our cover picture).
In the home office, not everyone can work like a professional
This survey was conducted by Mindmetre, commissioned by Regus, and included a total of 24,000 people from large, medium and small businesses in a total of 90 countries. Many of the results found in this study confirmed some of the conclusions that we received from our last three coworking surveys.
"Even though working from home has been increasing in popularity, the more people that try it, the more apparent the disadvantages become", says Michael Barth, CEO of Regus Germany: "It is not always easy to meet the private needs of professional activity at home."
"In addition to the results from our survey, there are reports that people who work from home feel isolated and suffer from too little social contact that would normally occur on an everyday basis. In flexible, multi-user environments they get to make (...) new acquaintances."
In regards to most coworking spaces, making new acquaintances almost always happens. We at Deskmag are delighted that the people from Regus read our online magazine from time to time. However, according to our results, it is less important if you work from home, but rather how often you do. 90% of members that work in coworking spaces still sometimes work from home, but in most cases, it's not their main workspace anymore. As a result, they are able to focus better and feel much less isolated.
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