The data comes in the form of the Nintex Workplace 2021 Study. The study surveyed 1,000 U.S.-based full-time enterprise employees working remotely and found that many (4 in 5) senior employees feel they are more productive and enjoy the remote work environment, compared to only half of junior employees.
As businesses settle into a more permanent remote work set up (and the social and cultural changes that come with this), they need to ensure all employees of all circumstances have what they need to get their work done. While working remotely has benefitted the top, workers struggle at home too.
There were also differences within the work hierarchy, with 83 percent of business leaders (those at the Vice President level) plus 80 percent of those with even more power and money, at the C-suite level, indicating that working remotely has been better than they expected during the pandemic
Yet with the lower ranks within the corporate hierarchy, just 53 percent of entry-level employees feel the same way as their managerial masters. Whether pay and conditions is a factor is uncertain.
Different factors come into play. For example, the busier the household the more likely to miss the office. Here, 62 percent of workers with dependents are keener to return to the office as soon as possible compared to 29 percent of workers without dependents.
The extent to which workers ‘enjoy’ remote working was done the middle. Nearly half (49 percent) of employees are more sad and lonely than usual working remotely during the pandemic. However, the other half saw the experience as generally positive.
The impact on mental wellbeing affected younger people more. With this, and drawing on the tired social stratification descriptors beloved of marketing companies, the majority (83 percent) of Generation Z and millennials reported a change to their personal wellness while working remote in the pandemic. In contrast, only half (55 percent) of the Baby Boomers reported feeling the same.