Home office is establishing itself and changing the way we live

Working and living are increasingly growing together. This is changing the demands on our housing. Changes are also to be expected in terms of urban planning. The former separation of the areas of living, work and production produced long distances to work, dormitory towns and industrial landscapes. Today, the coexistence of different areas of life is explicitly desired.

Corona has permanently changed working conditions to a great extent. Home office use among full-time employees in Germany has levelled off at an average of 1.4 days per week after the pandemic. In neighbouring France it is 1.3, in the USA 1.6 and in Japan 1.1 days. This is the result of a study by the ifo Institute comparing 27 countries. "Never before has any event turned working life upside down so comprehensively in such a short time," says Mathias Dolls, one of the authors of the study.

The traditional scepticism towards the home office has apparently diminished: More than half of the employees surveyed say they are more productive in the home office than they had expected. The more positively employees assessed their productivity in relation to their previous expectations, the more home office days employers offer. This relationship holds in all 27 countries surveyed. Moreover, the harsher the lockdowns during the Corona pandemic, the more home office days were offered.

Employees no longer want to miss working from home. 26 percent would look for a new job if their employer only offered face-to-face work. Other studies in the US find that even more than 40 per cent of current home workers would look for a new job if their employer required a full return to the office.

This trend could have far-reaching consequences, says Dolls - for example for the organisation of work in companies and their ability to innovate, or for cities: "If older and wealthier employees move to the suburbs, rents in some cities could fall. This in turn makes it easier for young workers to live there and benefit from the networking opportunities."

(Photo: © Pfüderi, Pixabay)