83pc of Indian workforce still nervous about office return: Survey

About 83 per cent of employees in India are still nervous about going back to the office in the absence of an effective Covid-19 vaccine, said a report on Friday.

Indian employees were more likely to want to work completely from home than any other country surveyed, according to the study by Australia-based software firm Atlassian Corporation.

While people are still managing new challenges that come with remote work, many reported a sense of "relief" at being free from the usual presenteeism of the office environment.

In fact, 70 per cent of people reported their job satisfaction is better than before Covid-19 restrictions, according to the report titled "Reworking Work: Understanding The Rise of Work Anywhere."

"The research findings point to how the ‘new normal' will shape work, relationships and collaboration in the future. These are the voices of real people facing real complexities," Dinesh Ajmera, Site Lead and Head of Engineering, Bengaluru, Atlassian, said in a statement.

"Now is our opportunity to use the insights we have been presented with to adapt for the better, guided by the experiences of employees around the world."

The study commissioned by Atlassian and conducted by Australian research agency PaperGiant, is an extension of the previous global survey conducted in early 2020 with knowledge workers in Australia, Japan, Germany, France and the US using observational, qualitative, and ethnographic research methodologies.

In India, 1,425 participants from tier 1, 2 and 3 cities were surveyed for over four weeks in October.

The results showed that 86 per cent of employees in India thought the members of their team feel closer to each other now and 75 per cent thought their team worked better together compared to pre-Covid.