Work-from-Home Statistics during the Pandemic

At this point, working from home is no longer the strange new phenomenon that stirred up national attention just a few short months ago. There are however many fascinating aspects of this pandemic-spurred era of remote work, according to a recently released report. 

Employment screening services and background check company JDP recently surveyed more than 2,000 Americans who typically work in offices who are now working from home full-time to try and learn more about how much they’re working, their productivity levels and whether or not their boss trusts them working remotely. 

How much are you working during quarantine?

When remote workers were asked how much they were working during quarantine compared to how much they worked previously, 42 percent of respondents said they were working less than usual. 33 percent said they were actually working more than usual, while 25 percent said they were working about the same as they would in the office. 

Why are you working more?

For those who said they were working more than usual, the top reason was they found it hard to keep boundaries between work and home life (49 percent of responses). This was followed by remote workers saying they had more work to be done than usual (42 percent of responses) and trying to be extra valuable because they were afraid of losing their job (9 percent of responses).

Why are you working less?

For those who said they were working less than usual, the top reason was they had less work to do during the pandemic (45 percent of responses). Other remote workers found it hard to focus on work while at home (40 percent of responses) and also found it hard to focus on work with everything that is happening in the world (15 percent of responses). 

How is your productivity working from home? 

When asked about how productive newly remote workers were at home, 41 percent said they were more productive, 33 percent said they were less productive and 26 percent said their productivity levels were about the same as they were in the office. 

One interesting takeaway: The study also found that remote workers were 66 percent more likely to work night and weekends than they would before the quarantine. They also reported having more distractions while working from home (54 percent) despite being more productive. 

Do you feel your boss trusts you while working from home?

Surprisingly enough, a whopping 92 percent of respondents said they believe their boss trusts them working from home and 86 percent of those respondents say they’ve taken advantage of their freedom while working remotely that they might not otherwise have in the office.  

Employee Perspective on Work-from-Home

How much are you working during the quarantine?

How is your productivity from home?

Do you have more distractions at work or at home?

Are you working different hours during the quarantine?

Do you feel your boss trusts you working from home?

Have you taken advantage of your freedom while working remotely?

Do you think any of your co-workers have taken advantage of being remote?

Matt Zajechowski is a content strategist with Digital Third Coast who was commissioned to help author the survey questions for the JDP survey on working from home during the pandemic. 

Did You Know: As a follow-up to its recent working-from-home study during the pandemic, JDP surveyed 2,000 Americans about their feelings on returning work during COVID-19 and found 86 percent favor a staggered four-day work week to limit the amount of people in the office and 69  percent said they trust their co-workers to respect their personal boundaries in regard to COVID-19.