More than 1 out of 2 employees said they would quit before they would go back to commuting and working in the office.
The number of rising coronavirus cases from the delta or omicron variant are making employees wary of returning back to their offices, with over half of people recently surveyed saying they would resign if they were forced to stop working from home.
The number of remote workers would said they might quit their jobs if they were forced to return to the office before they deemed it to be safe increased to 55% as of Jan. 6, up from 45% just a week earlier, according to Morning Consult, a pollster.
The hesitancy to return to a workplace enviroment with co-workers who could be infected with the virus is rising as the number of cases also increase. On Dec. 30, only 35% of workers said they were concerned and would leave their jobs.
The survey also found that people were not as eager to go to indoor sporting events and the movies or eat at restaurants, the weekly survey showed.
The rise in coronavirus cases has led to large staffing shortages in addition to the millions of people who either changed jobs or left the workforce, including hospitals and schools as well as United Airlines that was forced to cancel flights.
The number of employers who have changed their rules is steadily rising, as more companies are instituting a permanent work from home policy while others have pushed back return dates to the spring.
Online trading platform Robinhood Markets said the majority of its employees could work from home permanently.
Yahoo Japan told its 8,000 employees they can work from anywhere in the country starting April 1.
Tech giant Meta Platforms (FB) – Get Meta Platforms Inc. Class A Report, formerly known as Facebook, delayed the return to the office until March 28.
iPhone giant Apple (AAPL) – Get Apple Inc. Report delayed their office reopening indefinitely and has not set a new return date. Banking giant Citigroup (C) – Get Citigroup Inc. Report told its employees they have until Jan. 14 to start getting vaccinated or face being put on unpaid leave.
