April 15, 2021
The Boulos Company Releases Maine COVID Office Impact Survey Entitled: “Where is Maine Working?”
Survey Results Released 3/25/2021
The Boulos Company has released its Where is Maine Working? survey on the impact of COVID-19. The survey, conducted September through November, provides a snapshot of the local response to the pandemic. More than 160 Maine professionals from a range of industries answered questions about working from home, productivity, office re-entry plans, and more.
Boulos conducted the survey to provide Maine’s business community with insight into how their peers have responded to the pandemic and to share critical information as they move forward in an unprecedented real estate market.
“The majority of respondents are ‘sometimes’ working from home, along with 28 percent who are not working from home—indicating that many companies have already begun a staggered approach to re-entering the office,” said Boulos’ VP of Operations & Marketing Topher Stephenson. “One clear takeaway is that while most companies plan to keep their office space, workplace re-entry will be a nuanced process, the steps for which will vary across companies and industries.”
Employee safety and comfort were common concerns and continue to drive workplace re-entry decisions. Seventy percent of respondents noted that they’re making no changes to their office footprint as a result of COVID-19, but 38 percent reported that up to 20 percent of their companies’ workforce would work from home permanently, and many indicated a desire to develop a hybrid system. Isolation from colleagues, constricted collaboration, and IT problems had a negative impact on WFH productivity, while not having to commute was cited as a common positive.
