WHAT are employees getting up to during work from home (WFH)?

A worldwide WFH survey from OfficeNeedle shows that 34 per cent spend over one hour watching Netflix during working hours.

Mateja Vukomanovic, senior writer, OfficeNeedle, in a piece, What Remote Workers Get Up To During Shifts, said this is only one of the distractions challenging employees who are working from home.

“With the progression of the pandemic as well as the increasing trend of companies allowing employees to work from home permanently, it is interesting to see how employees are adapting to it,” she wrote.

The survey was conducted to find out what activities employees working from home get up to during working hours that they are not supposed to be doing.

“ Netflix and other such providers allow us to watch our favourite shows, documentaries, series, and films any time we want. We have all binged it at one point in our lives or another, right?” Vukomanovic wrote.

But some 55 per cent of participants were found to watch Netflix when not supposed to — 34 per cent stated that they spend over an hour watching films and series on Netflix and/or other such streaming services. Under 10 per cent watch it for under half an hour. Meanwhile, 10 per cent spend between half an hour and one hour of their working day watching it when they are not supposed to.

Along with the Netflix binging, the survey also noted, among other things, that mobile phones are the biggest distraction for employees, some spend time doing house chores when WFH-ing, and a few even get high or drunk during working hours once a week.

With the pandemic breaking out more than a year ago, some survey participants have been working from home for over 12 months, Vukomanovic noted.

The biggest distractions when working from home were seen as mobile phones and social media, at 56 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively.

“What about other distractions, you might ask? Well, over 39 per cent of the surveyed participants also marked people they live with as a big distraction when working from home. After that, owners of furry friends also identified pets as a big distraction — over 27 per cent of all participants.

“Finally, more than one in 10 employees working from home (14 per cent) who took the survey identified incoming calls as another distraction,” she noted.

She added: “Escaping social media in our everyday lives is hard and not something we are used to. Often, we consume it even during work. You might be working and then you decide to check your social media. Next thing you know, you’ve been scrolling for minutes.”

People who work from home were asked how long they spend using social media unrelated to work purposes.

One in four (25 per cent) stated they spend under 30 minutes using social media during working hours. Around one-third of the participants (30 per cent) admitted they spend between half an hour and an hour using social media unrelated to work purposes, all while they were working from home. Finally, over 28 per cent of polled participants spend over an hour using social media during their working hours while working from home.

The online survey was conducted from May to June 2021 with 670 participants from around the globe. The majority of the respondents (66 per cent) were female and the average age was between 25 and 40 years old. They have been practising working from home for the following industries: computer and information technology (20 per cent); media and publishing (12 per cent); customer service (six per cent); sales (six per cent); education and training (six per cent); administrative work (five per cent); accounting and finance (nine per cent); fashion (1.5 per cent); entertainment (1.5 per cent) and other (24 per cent).

“We can say that employees working from home feel more at freedom than they would in an office. However, many research studies also show that employees tend to work even more from home. Both could be the result of feeling relaxed in a homely environment. Finally, work from home is a growing trend so remote workers will be adapting in the future, as well,” Vukomanovic noted.