There has been a lot of talk recently about German companies that want to force their employees to return to their desks in the office from their home offices if necessary. However, according to a survey by the ifo economic institute, the situation remains relaxed: only 4 percent of all organizations surveyed want to abolish home offices altogether. However, 12 percent are considering tightening the regulations.
Three out of four companies that allow home office want to keep it unchanged. This is according to a survey by ifo Instituts These results refuted the view that the trend is going back to the office: only 12 percent are planning stricter regulations and only 4 percent want to completely abolish working from home. According to ifo, public reporting focuses on individual companies in which home office is to be scaled back – this exaggerates the actual development. 11 percent of companies even want to make the regulations more flexible.
Working from home is basically possible in 79 percent of the companies surveyed. This is much more common in large companies (93 percent) than in small and medium-sized businesses (75 percent). The sectors also differ: while 82 percent of service providers and 89 percent of industrial companies can offer home office, this only applies to 40 percent of construction and trading companies. Across all sectors, however, only a minority would like to limit or eliminate working from home.
