Working from home during the pandemic has brought change — more than half say it improved their mental health — but returning to the office is raising questions as well. Healthcare staffing firm CHG Healthcare surveyed more than 850 US workers to get their thoughts. In addition to the mental health question, it found many are interested in hybrid office/work-from-home arrangements going forward and relatively few are interested in going back to the office on a full-time basis.
“CHG Healthcare is one of many US companies that chose to move all employees out of our offices and into their homes back in March of 2020,” said Kevin Ricklefs, chief culture officer at CHG Healthcare. “We are still determining what returning to the office will look like for our organization and know other companies are in the same boat.”
Among the findings, 54% say working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic has improved their mental health. This compares to 26% who say working from home has had a negative impact while 39% said working from home resulted in no change to their mental health.
Of those who say working from home negatively affected their mental health, 82% believe returning to the office will improve it.
The survey also found that when offices reopen, 54% of respondents indicated they are interested in a hybrid in-office/work-from-home schedule. Nearly 32% have no interest in returning the office, and only 9% want to go back to the office full-time.
Safety measures are also important; 79% want employers to enforce extended time away from the office when an employee falls ill. And 17% want other increased safety measures, including masks, spacing between employees and limited social gatherings.
In addition, 44% prefer their employer require employees to be vaccinated before returning to the office, while 33% don’t think the vaccination should be required before returning and 23% don’t have an opinion.
