U.S. workers aren't ready to go back to the office; many want to stay home

More than half of U.S. workers say they are still uncomfortable returning to the office because of the COVID-19 pandemic, even amid the current vaccine rollout. That’s according to a recently published survey from Digital.com, a business software review and analytics website. Most said they would be OK with going back once all employees are vaccinated.

Employers feel much the same way. More than 50 percent said that they will require employees to be vaccinated to return to work.

One employer that took part in the survey seemed to represent the feelings of many bosses. “I would not require vaccines, though I would encourage people to consider them. My personal view is that people need to get back to work to feed their families,” he said.

Many of the surveyed employers also seemed to think that working from home is here to stay. “Working remotely doesn’t change anything. Working in a physical office, in my view, is an antiquated system that is completely unnecessary if you have good hiring practices, systems and processes in place,” said one company owner. And employees want to continue to work remotely. While half said they prefer working from home, 41 percent said they would take a pay cut to not have to return to the office.

A full one-quarter of employees said they would quit their jobs if their employee made them return to the office before they felt comfortable.