London has been ranked as the worst city in the UK to work from home.
This was discovered by instantprint, an online printing specialist which found London, Cardiff, Sheffield and Bristol to be the top worst city to remote work in. Whilst Belfast, Birmingham and Nottingham came in the top as the best cities to work from home in.
Despite Belfast coming in as the best city to remote work in, it also reported the worst productive city since more people started to work from home due to the COVID-19 lockdowns.
After surveying 2,000 UK employees regarding remote working, instantprint found that attitudes towards working from home were split. Just over a third (34 per cent) said they enjoy working from home but wish to return to their workplace and another 34 per cent said they love working from home and have no desire to return to the office.
Opinions on remote working seemed to be split regarding productivity as well, as 13 per cent said they are more productive whilst working at home with 11 per cent saying there are too many distractions at home.
Children are the biggest distraction for those who work from home at 28 per cent followed by partners at 24 per cent, pets at 20 per cent and chores around the house at 20 per cent as well.
Jon Constantine-Smith, head of instantprint, said:
Working from home long-term, especially when it’s something we don’t have a choice in, can take some getting used to, and even more so if you’re limited on space and may not have the fastest internet speeds.
Whilst there are naturally more distractions for us around the home due to that space being representative of our personal lives, it’s important to try and not be so hard on yourself and remember that there were also distractions in your normal working environment, whether that be an office, a studio, or otherwise.
As such, it’s integral that we create a calm and comfortable working environment, ensuring we can make a clear separation between our work and home lives – even if they may be sharing a space for now.
In order to establish which cities are the best to work at home in, instantprint created a points system that took in to consideration a variety of factors for each city that are conducive with a smooth working day from home, they are 2020 population (as a gauge of potential noise levels), average internet download speed, 4G signal strength, average no. of rooms per property, average overall sq. footage of property (m₂), average property price 2020, average monthly rent 2020 and the average cost of living minus rent (per person per month).
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
