Most Turkish white-collar employees enjoy working from home, survey finds

ISTANBUL

Many white-collar workers have said they enjoyed working from home and have adapted to their makeshift offices at home quickly in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, a new survey by Istanbul University released on July 24 showed.

Some 63 percent of respondents to the survey, conducted among 1,077 white-collar employees, said they had no problem adapting to the new system.

The comfort of working from home, discontent in working in offices and the problem of working in open offices were three main reasons that apparently made work-from-home enjoyable for the respondents.

“The pandemic is changing business life,” said Sayım Yorğun, the dean of Istanbul University’s Department of Economics.

Before the outbreak, the percent of the white-collar workers who thought working from office was pleasant was around 33.5. The percent of those who said they liked their new work environment, thus their houses, was 48, indicating people were liking their home offices more than their actual offices.

Those who disliked office life was 20.4 percent before the outbreak, but those who said they disliked their offices, meaning their home offices, during shelter-in-place days was 12.2 percent, also indicating people were liking their new work environments.

According to the survey, 55 percent of the white-collar workers live in houses with spaces larger than 80 meters square and have a separate room or a shared area to work.

When asked whether they were concerned about the future of their companies, those living alone and who said they were “worried” was 57.6 percent. The rate was 54.2 percent for the ones living with spouses and 52.6 percent for the ones living with elder members of their family.

The survey also found that women were suffering from burnout syndrome more than men. Some 17 percent of the women said they were burned out, while 11.7 percent of the men suffered from it too.

A white-collar worker is a person who performs professional, desk, managerial, or administrative work.