
Results are IN!
Some time ago I created a survey that was meant to help me understand how did mandatory home office affected work-life balance, mental health and general well-being.
Note: The survey is still open and can be found here: https://grzegorzochlik.typeform.com/to/RY1fvElk. You are most welcome to add new answers!
I asked you on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grzegorz-ochlik_help-covid-productivity-activity-6793519298984906752-QxWQ) to help me see if my observations have anything to do with reality.
Out of 1021 post views, I got 26 brave, honest (I believe :)) responses (thank you!). Job position matrix was quite broad – from Software Developer to Deputy Director through IT Recruiter, App Administrator, Delivery Lead, Project Manager and DevOps Engineer.
Majority of responses said that you work on full home office (17 answers – 62%), 2 answers 3/2 home office/office, 3 answers 4/1 HO/office, 1 answer 1/4 HO/office, 1 answer full time office work and 2 blanks (no answer).
Questions & Answers
There were 3 questions that could quantify the perception of current situation:
- I like workspace that I work in.
- My well-being and mental health state since pandemic start.
- Since COVID-19 pandemic, how do you see your or your team’s teamwork?
Answers were prepared to be between 0-10, where 0 is answer that the responder is least connected with (strongly disagree/seriously worse), 5 is in between (will not agree or disagree/no changes) and 10 is strong agreement (strongly agree/much better).
1. I like workspace that I work in.
Average answer is 7. That means that you’re quite happy with the workspace that you have. What’s worth mentioning – there were five 10s, one 0 and no 1s and 2s. IMO it’s because of relatively small response group.
Answers are as follows:
Home office only – 7
1/4 HO/O – 8
3/2 HO/O – 8
4/1 HO/O – 8
Office only – 0
Blanks (:)) – 10
2. My well-being and mental health state since pandemic start.
I am especially concerned about this point, since I observed significant drop on my mental health state. Average answer is 4, which corresponds with the answer “got slightly worse”.
Answers are as follows:
Home office only – 4
1/4 HO/O – 3
3/2 HO/O – 4
4/1 HO/O – 4 (got 1 no answer here, I did not qualify it to result)
Office only – 2
Blanks (:)) – 7
3. Since COVID-19 pandemic, how do you see your or your team’s teamwork?
This answer corresponds to how you see the way your team work together during these times. Average answer is 5, which basically means – no changes.
Answers:
Home office only – 5
1/4 HO/O – 5
3/2 HO/O – 6
4/1 HO/O – 4
Office only – 5
Blanks (:)) – 9
I added an additional comments field just to let you clarify your answers. Comments said that you work more than before, that you stopped working out and lost all your gains (+1 on that mate!) and you need a HO upgrade while no financial help from employer provided. There was one comment, that said that at first it was difficult, but then you adapted to the situation.
I want to quote one comment that trully “speaks” to me: “I think we are facing challenges we aren’t even fully aware of, and sometimes support of a counselor or someone who you can to is essential to keep things in the right perspective“.
To sum it up
From talks “behind the scenes” I see how HO and no contact with people affects well-being and I want employers to see, that productivity is not the only thing that needs to be addressed in these times.
Based on this very survey and the 26 answers (once again – thank you) I can say that mental health state is slowly but surely going down, but we (in employees and employers) try to somehow adapt to this specific situation. I am sure, that like in everything – the way that you want to work corresponds to you and you only. The key here is to balance the costs and profits in running specific work style.