Not just wok from home, employees now want to ‘work whenever’

After Covid-19 forced companies to become more flexible about working from physical offices, there’s no going back now. Employees are seeking more opportunities to work from home, even as the virus has abated. A new survey now suggests that workers don’t care for the 9-5 schedule, Business Insider reported.

Nearly 94 per cent of respondents to a Slack survey said they want flexibility in when they work, while 80 per cent demand flexibility in where they work. This trend was termed ‘work-whenever’.

Corporate employees lamented the rigid schedules, with over 50 per cent of the respondents saying that there is no room for change in their work schedules. This may be a setback for companies battling attrition, as the survey showed that employees with unbendable work hours are three times more likely to look for a new job next year.

“Dissatisfaction with the status quo has simmered below the surface for years. The pandemic has caused things to boil over. The sudden move to remote work provides the opportunity to question question decades of orthodoxy about a 9-to-5 office-centric, homogenous work culture,” Future Forum VP Brian Elliot is quoted as saying in the report.