Across the country, businesses are trying to figure out when (and how) to reopen amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a new survey from Blind, which anonymously polls technologists, many of those companies have given their employees a definitive date of return.
As you might expect, the percentage of technologists who’ve been informed of their reopening date varies wildly from state to state and even city to city. For example, only 26 percent of technologists in New York City said that they had a definitive date, which likely reflects the state of New York’s determination to open in as careful a manner as possible. In Austin, meanwhile, 41 percent of professionals know when they’re heading back in—Texas, as you might be aware, has been determined to reopen fairly speedily, although a rising rate of infections might curtail those plans.
On a national level, a third of professionals have been given a date for their return to the office. But that doesn’t mean they want to go back; some 57 percent of technologists reported that they would “accept a permanent telecommuting offer, but have not received one yet.” Only four percent have received such an offer.
When you break things down on a company-by-company basis, though, it’s clear that many technologists still don’t know when they’re going back in:
Meanwhile, more than half (54 percent) of professionals told Blind that they expect the “perks” of office life, such as free snacks, to return once COVID-19 subsides. When the pandemic began, many of these companies announced that, once office life resumed, many of these perks would be shut down in order to minimize office workers’ face-to-face contact.
On a company-by-company basis, it seems that many employees fully expect the perks to return:
Despite the lockdowns and general uncertainty connected with COVID-19, surveys by Dice suggest that technologists are increasingly comfortable with remote work. They find that working from home makes them more productive, and frees up time to spend with family—plus, the commute is a mere 50 feet between bedroom and home office.
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