5 worries employees are having about returning to the office and ways to solve them

The world’s top economies are beginning to reopen and businesses are ready to get back to normal. However, a growing majority of workers are not so sure that they want to return to the pre-pandemic lifestyle.  Several studies have been conducted in recent weeks to try to gain a better understanding of the driving forces behind this global worker revolt. 

Taken as a whole, this flurry of independent polling provides us with a robust sample set of opinions from workers in the United States, Australia, Germany, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, and France, just to name a few. Not surprisingly, the core thread underlying worker’s reluctance to return to the office is fear. 

Let’s take a deeper look at the 5 most commonly cited reasons workers gave for not wanting to return to in-person work. 

1. Fear Of Contracting Covid-19   

Not surprisingly, many workers do not feel comfortable returning to a social environment while the COVID-19 virus is not yet fully contained. The risk of contracting a deadly virus that has already claimed the lives of roughly 6.9 million people in just one year is a pretty large incentive to resist a return to in-person working. 

2. Lack Of Adequate Caregiver Support  

Many workers have been wearing multiple different hats for the past year. They have become amateur tutors, counselors, nurses, maids, and chauffeurs for their children and parents. A significant number of respondents have taken on one or more caregiver obligations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These obligations are likely to pose a significant barrier to returning to an on-site working model.

3. Lack Of Affordable Housing In Large Cities 

The widespread financial insecurity of the past year, combined with the adoption of remote work options has created a dramatic shift in lifestyle priorities for a lot of people. People are looking for ways to reduce their living expenses and downsize their lives to alleviate the overwhelming fear and anxiety about the future. Housing prices have been soaring upwards in the large urban centers where corporation headquarters, or manufacturing and distribution operations are often