Only 14 percent of European employees want to return to the office with standard working hours, meaning from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. More than half of them claim that they have become more efficient while working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the survey were published by Samsung Electronics and The Future Laboratory on Thursday.
However, the so-called hybrid model of work, meaning partly at home and partly from the office, also has its pitfalls: More than a quarter of respondents feel they are working constantly or late into the night.
The survey also showed that 83 percent of workers are looking for more support from their employers to help them reconcile their work and personal lives. Last year, around 12 percent of employed people in the European Union usually worked from home, compared with approximately 5 percent before the pandemic, according to Eurostat.
Two-thirds of respondents have made or are planning to make household adjustments to facilitate this new hybrid way of working. For example, some of them have arranged office space at home.
According to a survey by Samsung, the world’s largest manufacturer of memory chips and smartphones, 51 percent of respondents said technology helps them set boundaries, such as with mobile alarm clocks or time management applications.
“Technology is likely to enter into the monitoring of our mental health and happiness as well as our physical health. Smart devices will become our well-being assistants,” said Meik Wiking, executive director of the Danish Institute for Happiness Research.
