Number of people working from home drops despite rise in Covid-19 cases

Despite record-high numbers of new Covid-19 cases in the Czech Republic, the number of people working from home is much lower than in spring, the website iDnes.cz reported this week, citing a survey by P&Q Research and the IDEA AntiCovid initiative.

According to the research, more than 20 percent of Czech employees and self-employed worked from home during the first wave of coronavirus in spring. Now, it is only around one tenth.

Between September 21 and 27, only nine percent of employees and self-employed Czechs worked from home, while in March and April that figure stood between 45 and 51 percent.

At the moment, some 74 percent of Czech employees go to the office every day, compared to 23 percent in spring working in the office.

“What is interesting is that compared to the spring months, home office is not used even in the fields that can and should use it, such as state administration, IT and finances,” says Daniel Prokop, a sociologist and one of the authors of the research.

Only three percent of employees in state administration are currently on home office, compared to 15 percent in spring. In IT and finances, that figures stands at over 31 percent, compared to over 60 percent in spring.

According to Mr. Prokop, the state should motivate companies to act more responsibly.

The survey by P&Q Research and the IDEA AntiCovid initiative shows that people working from home report 40 percent less contacts than those working from the office.

In order to curb the spread of coronavirus, some companies have also introduced a rotation system, where employees are divided into teams, which work in the office only on designated days.