⅓ Of Professionals Know When They Are Expected To Return To The Office

As Coronavirus cases surge in the US, telecommuting is becoming more prominent. On 06/10, Blind, an anonymous community of verified professionals with 3.6+ million users, began running a survey gauging how professionals across industries are dealing with telecommuting: 

1. Has your company given a date as to when people are expected to return to the office?
2. Has your company indicated that you would be offered permanent telecommuting?
3. Do you expect the “perks” of office life (free meals and/or snacks, for example) to come back?
4. What about working in an office do you miss the most

The survey was conducted between 6/10-6/18. There were nearly 3,000 responses:

• Nationwide, 33% of professionals have been  given a date as to when they are expected to return to the office
  • Only 26% of NYC of professionals have been  given a date, compared to 41% of Austin professionals
    • 30% of Bay Area professionals have been given a date
    • 46% of Google professionals have been given a date
• Only 4% of professionals state they have been offered permanent telecommuting, but did not accept a permanent telecommuting offer 
  • 57% of professionals nationwide state they would accept a permanent telecommuting offer, but have not received one yet
    • 9% of Bay Area professionals state they have been offered permanent telecommuting, and accepted it
    • 27% of NYC professionals state they have not been offered permanent telecommuting, but would reject the offer anyway 
• 54% of professionals nationwide expect the “perks” of office life (free meals and/or snacks, for example) to come back
  • 87% of Microsoft professionals expect the “perks” of office life to come back
  • 72% of Facebook professionals expect the “perks” of office life to come back
• “No kids fooling around while I’m working” is what one Bay Area professional misses “about working in an office do you miss the most”

One employee at Google says ““Work from home”? Bah. We’re all working “at” home for the foreseeable future. It’s not like it’s a choice… “Today I’m WFH” – not really. There’s literally nowhere else to work from.

“Working remotely”… Meh. What does that really mean? I used to go on videoconference with people in the same campus as me, because we didn’t have time to walk there for a 30min meeting. Is that remote? What about an office in a different location?”

Tekla Perry, who covered the survey, said “As the COVID-19 pandemic began its explosive spread through the United States, tech workers were among the first to switch to working at home in mass numbers. By early March, before regional stay-at-home orders came into play, most tech professionals at Microsoft and Amazon had switched to working at home, others would soon follow. Since then, Twitter announced that it would offer work-at-home as a permanent option to many of its employees, and Facebook also began planning for a large work-from-anywhere staff, but indicated that salaries would be adjusted to account for regional costs of living. On the other end of the spectrum, Apple developed a plan to bring employees back to the office in phases, starting this month.” 

The uncertainty around telecommunications has a lot of underlying issues. For example, companies must ensure that their employees are trained to maintain the company’s cybersecurity. Without IT professionals around to monitor and guide employees, there is the opportunity to expose the company to hacking. This also opens the door to companies exerting security tools/ surveillance equipment. 

Access the raw data: here.