Nearly half of staff care less about their careers since Covid

If you’re less focused on climbing the corporate ladder since the coronavirus crisis forced us to work from home, you’re not alone.

That’s according to a study by Aviva, which found that 47% of employees were less career-focused due to the pandemic.

About two in five people said they could never stop working.

“One of the results of this ever-active and ubiquitous culture is that 40% of employees are concerned about work-related burnout,” the insurer said.

Half of the people complained that the line between work and home had become “more and more blurred”. And the impact of that has disproportionately affected women, with 46% concerned about burnout – compared to 35% of men.

Meanwhile, 24% of women said the pandemic had negatively impacted their work-life balance. This compares to 16% of men.

Debbie Bullock, welfare manager at Aviva, told the BBC’s Today program that the pandemic and the lockdown had “given people a break to think about where work fits in their lives.”

She added that technology and the digital age have meant that it has “become more difficult for some people to disconnect” from work.

“The pandemic may have been a collective experience, but the impact has been fragmented in many ways, with women facing particularly acute stress due to blurring of the lines between home and work,” Ms. Bullock.

She said it was important for employers to be aware of and respond to the difficulties staff are facing and take action to help: “If you don’t take the time for wellbeing, you will potentially have to take time to disease.”

The study of more than 2,000 employees of large companies found that only 14% of them would favor a return to the office full-time, with 15% saying they would prefer to work from home five days a week.

Gender divide

Men were more likely to favor a full return to the office, while more women said they would prefer to work from home full time.

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Aviva said employers should “carefully consider” how they bring staff back to avoid widening the gap between men and women.

He warned of “the risk that those – often women – with primary care roles for their children or parents will come under increasing pressure.”

“The path to the workplace of the future has been accelerated by the pandemic,” said Ms. Bullock of Aviva.

“Employees will look for something in return to encourage them to return to the office, and employers need to ensure that offices become a destination for collaboration, mentoring and socializing to rebuild relationships.”

Last month, the Bumble dating app closed its offices for a week to tackle stress at work. Its 700 employees around the world have been asked to switch off and focus on themselves.

A senior company executive tweeted that founder Whitney Wolfe Herd made the decision “to properly understand our collective exhaustion.”