A Barco survey of 5,000 white-collar workers across EMEA and the US found that seven in ten hold negative views towards hybrid work, with a quarter disengaging from work.
Barco’s report, the Barco Meeting Barometer, is an annual index that identifies worker satisfaction with their hybrid meeting environments. The report identified that more than 25% of respondents reported workplace burnout due to office stress, with a third of employees finding it easier to tell if their colleagues in the office are overworked.
Seven in ten workers reported holding some negative views towards hybrid working, while the same number also reported an inability to “switch off” from their devices in their personal time, due to work commitments.
A quarter of workers (25%) also reported feeling stressed out by the meeting technology that they are expected to use, with just under one in five stating that hybrid working has had a negative influence on their collaboration with colleagues and a third (35%) stating that they miss in-person interactions with their co-workers.
Quitting softly
Barco also identifies a June 2022 study by global analytics company, Gallup, which identified that only 14% of European employees are engaged at work, with Barco’s findings suggesting that there could be a sizeable amount of employees whose stress levels and workload pressures are going unnoticed by colleagues and managers.
Yannic Laleeuwe, segment marketing director for the workplace, Barco, commented: “While it is clear that the hybrid model is here to stay and enjoys great popularity with workers due to the flexibility it can offer, businesses must be careful to ensure that it does not become a double-edged sword. As hybrid has become a professional mainstay, remote colleagues may feel less able to communicate the pressures they are facing, masking work-related stress and overwhelm that may build into a larger disengagement issue if left unaddressed.”
Laleeuwe continued: “With many employees reporting disengagement from their work, or “quiet quitting” due to poor management and overwhelm caused by the various tech tools they’re being told to use, it is clear that the learnings from the last three years of hybrid work need a more concerted effort to be implemented correctly, to the benefit of all. If businesses expect to get the best out of their teams, they must provide them with the tools they need to feel supported and heard, wherever they are remote or in-office.”
Photo credit: Ground Picture, Shutterstock.com