New research conducted reveals that employers may be putting pressure on workers to go into the workplace despite employees being able to complete their job role from home.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has carried out polling which reveals that up to one in five have been going to the workplace despite their work being able to be carried out at home.
The TUC has warned against employers pressurising their staff to return into work, stating that it adds to the rising number of COVID cases and puts workers at unnecessary risk.
The survey conducted found that just under half of workers (42 per cent) always work from home whilst over a third (36 per cent) conversely stated that they never work from home as this is not possible in their job role.
Worryingly, over one in 10 (12 per cent) stated that they “sometimes” go into the workplace despite being able to complete the job from home.
A further 7 per cent of respondents confessed that they “always” physically go into work even though their work could be completed from home. This means that almost a fifth of respondents are not heeding government guidelines to work from home where possible.
When questioned on why this was, two-fifths (40 per cent) stated that this was driven by pressure from their bosses who insisted that the employee work from the office.
However, over a quarter (27 per cent) confessed that this was a choice that they made as they either preferred to work in their office or liked switching between their workplace and their home.
A small minority of employees (7 per cent) stated that working from home was not possible for them due to their home environment or situation.
As such, the TUC has since called on the Government to re-emphasise the message that employees must work from home if they are able to do so. The body also stated that workers should not be pressurised to come in to the office by employers and should not be given this choice voluntarily either.
Frances O’Grady, General Secretary for the TUC, stated:
No one should be forced into the office or another workplace if they can do their job from home. Bad bosses are needlessly putting workers at risk and increasing transmission in local communities.
*In order to obtain these results, YouGov, commissioned by the TUC, conducted an online poll of 2,068 people.
Monica Sharma is an English Literature graduate from the University of Warwick. As Editor for HRreview, her particular interests in HR include issues concerning diversity, employment law and wellbeing in the workplace. Alongside this, she has written for student publications in both England and Canada. Monica has also presented her academic work concerning the relationship between legal systems, sexual harassment and racism at a university conference at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
