Staying Home: People Would Take Pay Cut to Avoid Workplace

The coronavirus pandemic forced many companies and employees to abruptly switch to a work-from-home model. While the rollout of this new way of doing business was hurried and fraught with pitfalls for businesses and workers, it may lead to permanent changes in the definition of the workplace. Some companies are considering making work-from-home permanent, and a lot of employees are fully on board with that idea.

A new survey from RealBusinessSavings of 3,500 American employees finds the average worker would be willing to sacrifice $316 per month in salary to continue working from home even after the pandemic. The average Texan would give up $278 a month to avoid coming into the office ever again. The survey also finds 57% plan on requesting to continue working from home indefinitely, and 60% believe they are more productive working from home.

Garrison Wynn, workplace consultant with Wynn Solutions, says those numbers do not surprise him, as he has seen a growing discontent among those in the workplace. "I took a Gallup survey and found 30 percent of employees said they were disengaged on the job," he tells KTRH. "They didn't feel their supervisor cared about them, they didn't understand why what they're doing is important, and they didn't feel like there was a future there."

Employee unhappiness with jobs and bosses also cuts across age groups. "I was shocked to find how many young employees said that not only did their boss not make them feel valuable, but they felt verbally abused, talked down to," says Wynn. "At the same time, some people at 45 years old wanted to retire...not because they could, but because they didn't like working anymore."

Wynn predicts this trend will only continue after the pandemic is over. "Just wait and see in the next six months how many people do not want to work," he says. "And how many people who are willing to take a giant pay cut and reduce what it costs to live."


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