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Professionals most likely to do remote work

Four in ten employees, or 39%, worked remotely at some point during 2021, new CSO data shows.

Just one in 12 (8%) had availed of some form of remote working pre COVID-19.

directors and senior officials, with associate professional and technical in joint second place (51%). By comparison, skilled trade workers had the lowest level of uptake of remote working (3%).

Pre COVID-19, information-and-communication-sector workers had availed most of working remotely (30%), compared wtih employees in the human health and social-work activities sectors (2%).

Life satisfaction

Workers reported high job and life-satisfaction levels, with little difference in satisfaction levels based on working arrangements. 

Workers who were working mostly from home with a mix of office, hub or travel were most satisfied with their job (92%) and life as a whole (94%).

The CSO data is part of the third and final publication on the results of the Personal and Work-Life Balance Survey, which was carried out in Q3 last year.

The detail in this publication is a subset of the broader data collected, and today’s publication covers employees availing of remote working, the availability of remote working pre-COVID-19, and the factors influencing its availability. 

One in seven managers, directors and senior officials and professionals; and one in eight (12%) of associate professional and technical workers worked remotely to some degree pre-pandemic, compared with only 1% of skilled trade workers.

Full-time workers are nearly twice as likely to work remotely – 43% compared with 22% of their part-time equivalent.

As the size of the organisation increases, so too does the uptake of remote working among full-time workers. The overall figure of 43% of full-time workers engaging in remote working (across all organisations) increases to 47% for full-time workers in organisations of between 20 and 99 personnel, and increases further again to nearly half (49%) of full-time workers working in organisations of 100 people or more.

Off-site

Of those working remotely, more than four in ten (41%) had worked off-site during most of the previous four weeks (17 days or more).

Of these, nearly four in five (79%) worked completely from home, compared with just over 2% pre COVID-19. 

The most commonly used remote-working space is the home. More than three-quarters (76%) of those remote working in the four weeks prior to interview were home working either completely or as a blend of remote-working spaces. 

Most workers in large organisations were still largely remote working – just one in 11 (9%) was not remote working in the four weeks prior to interview, compared with more than four in ten (43%) working in organisations of between 20 and 99 personnel. 

In Q3 2021, nearly one-quarter (23%) of workers were back in the workplace fully, and did not avail of remote working in the previous four weeks, while more than one quarter (26%) of workers were back in the workplace for a number of days per week.

Statistician Maureen Delamere commented: “Very high job and life satisfaction levels were reported by workers, irrespective of working arrangements (92% overall satisfaction with life and 89% job satisfaction), with very little difference in satisfaction levels based on what type of hybrid working was availed of.

Blended work

“Workers who were working mostly from home with a mix of office, hub or travel or remote working completely at home were most satisfied with both their job and life as a whole.

“The majority (94%) of these employees were satisfied or very satisfied with their life, compared with 92% of those working mainly in the office with a mix of some office, hub or travel.

“Job satisfaction was highest for those with a blended working pattern of mostly home, with mix of office, hub or travel (92%), just one percentage point higher than for those working completely at home, or at the office with a mix of home, hub or travel.”