As working from home continues to be the default arrangement for many amid the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems that Singaporeans have learnt overtime to better adjust to this new normal.
New survey data by employee engagement platform EngageRocket shows that overall productivity among employees have gradually increased from April to June. The report, released last week, was conducted in partnership with the Singapore Human Resources Institute and the Institute for Human Resource Professionals.
In the survey, about 23 percent out of the 20,000 respondents from 127 companies, said that they were more productive working from home in June than when they worked in the office before the coronavirus outbreak. This number was up from the 15 per cent in April, when the circuit breaker period had just begun and employees were starting to work from home.
However, working from home can be a vastly different experience for everyone. Despite the gradual improvement in productivity, challenges in working from home persist for some employees. These include space constraints at home or distractions from family members, and they can cause high levels of stress for workers.
"Even in the best of times, prolonged working from home is linked to harmful impacts on mental well-being," said the report.
However, the mental-health impact is not the same across all sectors.
For example, in the finance and technology sectors, which rely largely on a desked workforce who can more easily work remotely, had employees who were less likely to be stressed. 11 percent of workers in finance said that their stress levels were unacceptable, while 17 percent of workers at technology companies said the same.
Meanwhile, the education sector had the biggest proportion of workers – 30 percent – who said that their stress levels while working remotely were unacceptable. This was most likely linked to uncertainties during the circuit breaker when schools had to be shut and moved to home-based learning.
Even after restrictions were lifted and schools started opening in phases, 23 percent of workers in the education sector still said they had unacceptable levels of stress, and it remains the highest across all sectors surveyed.
The survey also found that 40 percent of employees who are parents said they felt more stressed while working from home, which is double the overall average. Among the reasons for parents' stress levels are the need to work longer hours than usual, family presence, space constraints, and having to play a hands-on role in their children's home-based learning assignments.
According to Ministry of Manpower guidelines, working from home remains the default mode of work for all companies. Employees should go to the office only when necessary, or to fulfil legal requirements.
However, at some companies, employees have asked if they could return to the workplace.
For example at cloud-based software company Deskera, some workers "can't wait" for the virus situation to get better so that they can go back to the office, said chief executive Shashank Dixit.
Noting that physical office interactions cannot be replaced via virtual means, he said: "For some people, it's also a social need, because people who are used to working in teams can sometimes feel like they are working in silos when at home, and feel a little lost."
Employees at public relations agency PRecious Communications have also asked to be allowed to return to the workplace, citing reasons such as the number of household members at home and poor internet connections.
The multi-ministry task force tackling the coronavirus pandemic is reviewing the work-from-home arrangements and may modify the rules, following appeals and feedback from employers who have requested more flexibility, said Education Minister Lawrence Wong.
"But I should say that even if we were to allow some modification or adjustments, we would still like to see, as far as possible, a high degree of people working from home," Mr Wong said.
He noted that working from home has been beneficial on numerous fronts, such as reducing congestion on public transport and minimising the number of people coming together in an enclosed space.
Some of the perks working from home brings also include not having to commute to and from work, more flexibility with time, and greater control over work-life balance, according to the survey.
Most respondents also said they save money on office wear, eating out and transport expenses such as fuel and parking. However, they have to spend more on electricity bills, Wi-Fi boosters and printers.
Where do you stand when it comes to working from home? We'd love to hear what you think!