One in 10 people working from home during the coronavirus pandemic did not put on a pair of trousers during virtual meetings and almost a third wore pyjamas, according to a YouGov poll.
Only 14% remote workers want to return to the office full-time when it is safe to do so and one in five said they never want to go back.
The findings come on the anniversary of Boris Johnson’s announcement of the first UK lockdown, which took place a week after the public was asked to start working from home where possible.
Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show that in the month of April 2020, almost half (46.6%) of people in employment in the UK did some work at home. In London that number was 57%.
According to the latest numbers in the week ending March 14, the number of people working exclusively from home is at 30%, a decrease of 6% points from the previous week.
Of the 2,027 home workers surveyed in the latest YouGov poll, including 1,012 from the UK, 45% said they would prefer going into the office between one and three days per week.
More than half (51%) cited avoiding the commute as the main reason for wanting to work from home, followed by gaining flexible hours (34%).
Getting more sleep (20%) and not having to wear formal clothes (15%) were additional reasons why respondents were keen to continue working remotely.
But 42% of those surveyed admitted they have experienced “Zoom fatigue” and 43% said workplace chatter was the office activity they missed the most.
While taking part in virtual meetings or calls, a third (31%) admitted they have had private conversations with friends, 30% said they wore pyjamas, 23% have shopped online and 15% said they had played computer games.
Sam Liang, chief executive and founder of the transcription app Otter.ai – which commissioned the YouGov poll – said the results showed “work will never be the same as before the pandemic”.
“Employees now demand a flexible and hybrid work set-up that meets the new work-life balance and changing attitudes created by working from home for such a long period,” he said.
“Zoom fatigue is real and meetings need to be adapted to suit our new working environment, whether that is fundamentally changing the structure of meetings or seeing employees engage with collaboration apps that help with meeting notes and allow the sharing of conversations in real time.”