The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all to stay locked indoors, and carry out our daily routines while being at home.?
People initially were really happy working from home as it allowed them to spend more time with their families and also cut money and time spent in commuting.
However, nearly six months on and people are feeling the positivity phasing out, with the line between work and home completely vanishing as bosses try to blame COVID-19 and poor target numbers to make employees churn harder than before,?
And now a recent study has revealed that workdays have lasted nearly an hour longer every day in COVID-19 affected work from home.
The study included 3.1 million people at over 21,000 companies across 16 cities in North America, Europe and the Middle East. The researchers looked at employee behaviour over two 8-week periods before and after COVID-19 lockdown.?
They specifically looked at email and meeting meta-data and discovered that for the employee, the workday lasted 48.5 minutes longer than before. Moreover, the number of meetings also spiked a considerable 13 percent. Moreover, people sent 1.4 more emails every day to their office colleagues.?
In cities like LA, Chicago the average workday length was similar to what it used to be before the pandemic wreaked havoc. However, for people working in New York City, San Jose and other parts of Europe, the workdays have gotten considerably longer.?
Not all was negative, as researchers highlighted that even though there was a spike in the number of meetings, the time frame for the meetings got considerably shorter.?
There have been several types of research looking at the effects of the work from home and how it is affecting the productivity of people. Experts reveal that people are procrastinating more than ever before, severely impacting their overall productivity. While other studies have highlighted that they feel more productive working from home than actually at their desk.?
What has your experience been like? Do you feel your work hours getting more too? Tell us in the comments below.?