Business survey shows most staff are not in the office fulltime

The pandemic has seen many workplaces adopt a 'hybrid working' model. Work-life balance, long commutes and fear of contracting COVID-19 or the flu are keeping many Australian employees comfortably working from home. But not everyone can afford that luxury, with business owners urging customers to return to the city to help with their post-pandemic recovery.

Pedestrians walking in Melbourne. Source: AAP

To work from home, or not work from home?

That is the question for many Australians as central business districts around the country are slowly coming back to life.

Hybrid working in an ever-changing world can be an enticing concept.

The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry surveyed 88 C-B-D businesses.

The results showed that office staff still prefer to spend part of their week working from home.

The survey found 42 per cent of employees are working in the office one or two days a week.

Twenty-five per cent are three or four days.

Just 19 per cent are in the office five days a week while 14 per cent had not returned to the office at all.

Almost 70 per cent of respondents did not expect employees to return to the office full-time.

Paul Guerra is the chief executive officer of the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He says the main reason for people choosing to still work from home was work-life balance, followed by the length of commute and fear of contracting COVID-19.

 

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