This is evident from new ones Numbers from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
One in four Dutch people who work from home usually do so, the remaining 75 percent work from home at most half of the time.
After us, residents of Sweden, Finland and Luxembourg also work from home relatively often. Romania and Bulgaria are the least likely to work from home. In previous years, the Netherlands was also a champion of working from home.
Go to the office more often
The number of home workers has increased in our country in the last two years, but the total number of workers has increased even faster. As a result, there was a small decrease in the percentage of Dutch people who sometimes work from home: from 54 percent in 2021 to 52 percent last year.
There is also a shift in the Netherlands from ‘usually’ working from home to ‘often’ (i.e. less than half the time). Employers would prefer that workers come to work more often after corona, according to CBS spokesperson Luuk Hovius.
‘But working from home is an employment condition’
Yet the figures confirm that working from home has become a normal employment condition, says Ton Wilthagen, professor of the labor market at Tilburg University.
Younger generations in particular, especially if they have young children, are very keen on working from home, he says. If that is not possible, employees would rather work elsewhere, says Wilthagen. He sees no reason why Dutch people should work from home less.
A difference with other countries where many people work from home is that in Sweden, Finland and Ireland, among others, relatively many workers do not sometimes, but usually work from home. This probably partly has to do with the distance to work, says Hovius.
ICT and creative professions
In the Netherlands, it is mainly IT professionals and people with a creative or linguistic profession who often work from home. Nine out of ten did. Managers also work relatively long hours at home, but they mainly work from home occasionally.
In some professions it is logically difficult to work from home. This applies, for example, to the transport and logistics sectors.
More productive
The fact that many workers in the Netherlands regularly work from home is because we are strongly focused on a good work-life balance, says Wilthagen. According to him, another factor that plays a role is that we have good internet.
According to Wilthagen, productivity does not have to suffer if we work from home. Sometimes you work a few more hours at home, he says, but all in all, according to him, workers at home still do a bit more work than at the office.
‘More vacant offices’
The fact that we work from home so often means that less office space is needed.
Office space is often rented for five or ten years. Now that these leases are expiring, you see that a new contract is being concluded with 20 to 30 percent less floor space, says Madeline Buijs, chief economist at real estate advisor Colliers.
“There is not much point in having very expensive housing if you can get by with less,” says Wilthagen. According to him, this is good news, because then office space can be converted into homes.
Working conditions
Wilthagen fears that working conditions at home are not equally good for everyone. “It may well be that we will have more ergonomic problems in 25 years’ time. We are already European sitting champions.”
Furthermore, some people run the risk of becoming socially lonely, he thinks.
2024-03-14 23:01:26
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