One-third of home workers admit wearing pyjamas during meetings

23 March 2021, 08:06

By Ewan Quayle

@EQjourno

Almost a third of people working from home during the coronavirus pandemic wore pyjamas during virtual meetings and one in 10 did not put on trousers, new research has found.

A YouGov poll about working from home also suggests around 42% of workers have experienced "Zoom fatigue" since Covid-19 restrictions began, though only 14% say they want to return to the office full-time when it is safe.

One in five say they never want to go back, with many citing the need to wear formal clothing and travel long commutes as reasons they want to permanently work from home.

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The research - commissioned by transcription app Otter.ai - comes one year after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the first national lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus.

A week earlier, the public was asked to start working from home where possible.

Two in 10 said they want to continue working remotely because they get more sleep and 15% say they do not want to wear formal clothes.

The move has led businesses up and down the country to evaluate the need for office space while employees reap the financial and time savings from no longer commuting.

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But for many it has come at the cost of isolation, particularly for those with smaller homes.

Of the 2,027 remote workers surveyed - half in the UK - 45% said they would prefer a balance, going into the office between one and three days per week.

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"Our survey shows that work will never be the same as before the pandemic," said Sam Liang, chief executive and founder of Otter.ai.

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"Employees now demand a flexible and hybrid work set-up that meets the new work-life balance and changing attitudes created by working from home for such a long period.

"Zoom fatigue is real and meetings need to be adapted to suit our new working environment, whether that is fundamentally changing the structure of meetings or seeing employees engage with collaboration apps that help with meeting notes and allow the sharing of conversations in real time."

The number one reason given for continuing to work from home at least part-time was avoiding the commute (51%), followed by gaining flexible hours (34%).

Workplace chatter is the most missed aspect of office life (43%), the survey found, while poorer productivity is cited as the greatest impact by those who have suffered fatigue from video calls on Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

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A third (31%) admitted to having private conversations with friends in the same virtual meeting, as well as wearing pyjamas (30%).

A quarter (23%) also confessed to shopping online during a call and 15% said they had played computer games.