A virtual home has many benefits, but surprisingly, 61% of Americans don’t have their own office

As if the Covid-19 pandemic hadn’t caused enough headaches, the average remote worker has experienced 230 technical issues over the past year while trying to do their job from home, according to a new study.

The survey of 2,000 Americans asked their opinions about working from home and the problems they faced during the transition.

Since Americans struggle with an average of four tech issues per week, it’s no surprise that the top five problems with working from home all have to do with technology.

The most common WFH problem was having to use a personal computer for work (38%), followed by software crashing mid-task (27%). Nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents also said they had problems in the last year because they didn’t have the right hardware and software to do their job.

Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of document automation software, PandaDoctorthe survey found that 63% said they had to completely reorganize their homes to have a place to work, and 61% said they missed their pre-pandemic office.

The most important thing they missed in the workplace was easy access to the software they needed – 62% said this lack of access initially made remote work difficult, and 57% said the lack of appropriate technology and software negatively impacted their productivity at work from the start to end. home environment.

However, in the last year, 72% of respondents tried new software in hopes of solving these problems.

Of these respondents, 45% said that adopting electronic signatures helped them save time during their workday, followed by digital document management tools (39%) and workflow management tools (35%).

Seventy-two percent of people who have tried new software while working from home plan to make it available across the office when they return in person after the Covid-19 pandemic ends.

“Working from home can be stressful, whether it involves homeschooling or sharing a workspace with a partner,” said Shawn Herring, vice president of marketing at PandaDoc. “The results show that one thing that has made it easier to navigate organized chaos is software that enables document sharing, collaboration and workflow automation. 70% of respondents agreed that these tools are essential to staying productive.”

Working from home isn’t that bad though; The results showed that more than half (55%) of respondents said that a flexible schedule was by far the best part of the new normal during the pandemic.

Other top benefits of WFH for respondents include snacking what they want, when they want (38%), reducing their commute (36%), and getting out of bed five minutes before logging on (35%). Being able to exercise in the middle of the workday was the top five benefit of working from home according to 25% of respondents.

Additional benefits of working from home include more comfortable and non-disruptive working conditions, such as not being distracted by side conversations and wearing pants if you don’t want to.

The results showed that companies want to make working from home easier to manage also for employees: 38% of respondents sharing information about their companies added virtual events and social activities, 35% extended or rewarded time off, and even 23 % received care packages.

“The past year has naturally had its challenges, but the results are clear that despite the initial trials and tribulations of remote working, this will become the new normal to varying degrees for many companies,” Herring added. “The dramatic shift toward remote work this year has increased the need for workflow and collaboration software, and companies and employees who have the right tools at their disposal will be positioned for future success.”

Despite the advantages and disadvantages of remote work, 69% of respondents said they would definitely prefer to stay at home rather than return to the office, with 41% strongly agreeing. This may be due to the fact that 57% of respondents also said that their job has become much easier since they started working remotely.