Majority of Kildare workers surveyed believe they should be allowed to work from home

90 per cent of those polled in Kildare have said people should have an entitlement to work remotely.

Overall, almost four in ten (39%) workers surveyed would choose a higher-paid job over a job which allowed them to work from home, while more than one in three (35%) would choose the job that allowed them to work from home.

Furthermore, remote working is more important to female workers in Ireland than their male counterparts.

These are some of the findings of a survey commissioned by employee benefit and pension specialists Lockton Ireland.

Three in four survey respondents (74%) said they would not be comfortable turning on their webcam while working from home if requested by their employer to do so – with almost half saying they would refuse to turn such a device on as they would consider it a ‘huge invasion of privacy’.

 The Lockton survey, which polled more than 700 workers nationwide, also found big geographical differences around attitudes towards webcams – with people in some counties much more relaxed than others about a request by an employer to turn on a webcam during the working day.

The counties with least opposition were Leitrim and Kilkenny, with more than seven out of ten of people there saying they would have “no problem” turning on a webcam. Carlow and Donegal were also amongst the most tolerant counties in this regard – with 67% of Carlow people and 62% of Donegal people happy to turn the device on.

The counties with the people most opposed to turning on webcams for work were Cavan, Laois, Louth, Monaghan, Roscommon, Sligo and Wicklow – with none of the inhabitants here stating they would have “no problem” with a webcam.

All people living in Wicklow believe that employees should have a right to work from home – if the job can be completed remotely, according to this survey. This means Wicklow is the county with the strongest support for the right to work from home, followed by Kildare (90 per cent of those polled said people should have an entitlement to work remotely), Donegal (81 per cent) and Dublin (78 per cent).

Commenting on the findings, Tom Curran, Head of Wellbeing with Lockton Ireland, said: “Our research shows just how important working-from-home (WFH) has become to so many people – and within such a short timeframe too. The WFH trend was the biggest change to hit the world of work in decades, perhaps centuries. New Census 2022 data just released reports that 750,000 people in Ireland, which is a third of workers work from home for at least some part of their week. This movement has completely transformed how people work.

However, with any new departure in the working landscape comes challenges and pitfalls that both employers and employees need to be aware of. While WFH gives employees a greater degree of flexibility, it can also blur the lines between home & work life. And this is something that all parties need to be cognisant of.

This survey shows that despite the strong support for the WFH option, less than one in seven (16%) people would be prepared to turn on a webcam at the request of their employer – even if failure to do so would prevent them from being able to work from home. It shows just how uncomfortable the thought makes Irish workers.”