A shocking 35% of UK remote workers say they have taken less than a week off work since March 2020, according to new research.
Another 47% claimed that they were working more than eight hours a day, while 68% have taken on full responsibility of childcare or caregiving duties at home.
The report reveals that despite the large scale shift to remote working for many people in the UK, many believe that their bosses aren’t doing enough to support them.
Despite large-scale shifts over the past year to accommodate working from home, it’s clear that businesses need to make decisions now rather than delaying until offices reopen, with 36% saying that they need more flexible hours to enable remote working, while 42% feel they need more support from managers.
The UK research which has been released today are additional findings from HubSpot’s 2020 Remote Work report, which surveyed 1,000 of full-time remote workers (non-HubSpot employees) across the world. HubSpot has also revealed the proportion of its own employees that have chosen new working patterns, with only 18% opting for a full-time office role.
Further findings from the HubSpot 2020 Remote Work report show that:
- UK respondents have been struggling with working from home, with 31% claiming that they are feeling more burnt out and stressed, while 38% think their work performance has been negatively impacted
- 60% agree that they’re expected to always be online and contactable to prove they’re working to their manager, while 48% found it harder to participate in meetings
- 35% of UK remote workers said that they have taken less than a week of annual leave since March 2020, while 47% are working more than eight hours a day
- Parents working from home have been trying to balance work and childcare, with 68% having taken on full responsibility of childcare or caregiving duties at home since COVID-19
“This report reveals that although many organisations now think they have remote working sorted, many workers still don’t feel they’re being supported effectively,” says Christian Kinnear, VP of Sales & Managing Director EMEA, at HubSpot. “At HubSpot we made sure to listen to our people right from the start and saw that flexibility and choice was the key to helping our employees and business to work smoothly. We announced our new hybrid working approach back in August which allows all employees to choose to work in the office, remotely or in a hybrid mix of the two. It was clear to us then, and this report shows that the desire for flexibility isn’t going anywhere, so businesses should act sooner rather than later.”
The most popular choice in this new hybrid model was flexible working at 43% (two or fewer days with a hot desk), followed by working from home at 39% (majority at home, occasional office visit). Only 18% of HubSpot employees chose a fully office-based role.
HubSpot was named as the #4 Best Place to Work in 2021 by the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards. HubSpot was also honoured as one of the top three companies with the Best Company Culture in 2020 in Comparably’s annual Awards.