Very high levels of job and life satisfaction have been reported by Irish workers, according to new research from the Central Statistics Office.
The CSO's Personal and Work-Life Balance Survey shows that employees who worked remotely, either during the pandemic or pre Covid-19, had higher job and life satisfaction ratings, when compared with those who had not worked remotely.
92% workers who had worked remotely in the previous 12 months were satisfied or very satisfied with their job, compared with 86.9% of persons who had not worked remotely at all in the previous year.
The findings were similar for life satisfaction.
94% of those who had worked remotely in the previous 12 months were satisfied or very satisfied with their life as a whole, compared with 90.8% of those who had not availed of remote working.
The survey shows that almost four in ten employees worked remotely at some stage during 2021 and that one in 12 employees had availed of some form of remote working pre Covid-19.
Full-time workers in large organisations were most likely to have worked remotely in the 12 months prior to interview.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
"Very high job and life satisfaction levels were reported by workers irrespective of working arrangements with very little difference in satisfaction levels based on what type of hybrid working was availed of," according to CSO statistician Maureen Delamere.
Workers who were working mostly from home with a mix of office, hub or travel or remote working completely at home were most satisfied with both their job and life as a whole.
The majority, 94%, of these employees were satisfied or very satisfied with their life, compared with 92% of those working mainly in the office with a mix of some office, hub or travel.
Job satisfaction was highest for those with a blended working pattern of mostly home, with mix of office, hub or travel at 92%, just one percentage point higher than for those working completely at home, or at the office with a mix of home, hub or travel.
Professionals were most likely to have worked remotely, followed by managers, directors and senior officials.
Skilled trade workers had the lowest level of uptake of remote working at just 3%.
In the third quarter of 2021, nearly one quarter of workers were back in the workplace fully and did not avail of remote working in the previous four weeks.
This report from the CSO is the third and final publication of a series of surveys on work-life balance.
