G&S

The biggest challenge faced by America’s growing army of people working remotely from home is getting enough exercise, according to a snap poll conducted by G&S Business Communications on March 20 and 21.

Dealing with the effects of a newly sedentary lifestyle was cited as a problem for 45 percent of the more than 1,000 people surveyed in the online poll. Coming close behind were setting up technology (mentioned by 40 percent), managing time effectively (36 percent) and communicating with colleagues (31 percent).

Overall, the transition to working remotely seems to be going rather well. About eight in ten respondents (79 percent) who have switched to working from home due to the coronavirus say it was at least somewhat easy for them personally to adapt to remote working, while 68 percent say it was at least somewhat easy for their company as a whole to adapt to remote working.

The complications of working from home were greater for those who have children under the age of 18 living at home with them. Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of those respondents said they are balancing the need to keep kids occupied with getting work done. Almost half (46 percent) are dealing with homeschooling, and 44 percent are navigating distractions from their children.

Not surprisingly, the use of video meetings as a way to connect with colleagues is on the rise, with thirty percent of new remote workers say they are using video meetings more than they were two weeks ago.

But those video meetings are not coming without their share of anxiety. A third of respondents (33 percent) said they have more motivations to dress nicely when working from home if they know they have video meetings during the day, while 24 percent simply don’t want people to see their appearance and 18 percent think others will judge their home décor when it is seen on video.

When it comes to those who are still going in to work, 58 percent say their job cannot be done remotely, with 11 percent saying they are still going to work because they are not worried about contracting the coronavirus.

Over half of respondents going in to work at a physical location (52 percent) said that trying to maintain social distancing is tough. Over a quarter (26 percent) are finding it challenging to maintain their focus on job duties. However, 77 percent of them believe their company/organization cares about the health of employees, with 77 percent also saying their employer has done a good job explaining to employees the safety precautions that are being taken at physical locations.

To see G&S’s full “Americans Reach a Stressing Point” study, click here.