Source: ONS, January 2021
As shown in the chart, in the Autumn the majority of survey respondents that expressed a view felt that it would be at least a year before “normality” would be restored.
With delivery of the first vaccines in December, the situation changed. Now a small majority of those with a view believe that it will be less than six months.
This, however, raises the issue of what “normal” might look like – in particular, will workers go “back to the office”, or continue to work from home?
The ONS data has been consistent on this issue. Although many workers are currently “working from home”, at least some of the time, this is seen as an extraordinary behaviour, the result of Coronavirus – only a minority work from home as regular practice. Key reasons for working from home include:
- Instructions from employer 59%
- Government advice 51%
- Workplace closed 25%
- Normally work from home 25%
- Prefer to work from home 9%
Of home workers, very few (9%) say that it is their preference. This gives good reason to believe that workers will go back to their usual places of business, as soon as government advice and employer policy changes.