Find a Job You Really Want In
Have you ever tried to do a spreadsheet during a pandemic? How about pay attention to a conference call while you toddler is screaming?
Thanks to the coronavirus, hundreds of thousands of Americans have had their work environment turned upside down and are facing this brave, new world. Not only are more Americans working from home than ever before, many are doing so with their children at home, all the while trying to ignore the disturbing news coverage on their phones and laptops.
Are people managing to function in chaos? Are they still motivated to do their work?Or are they so frazzled they find themselves actively looking for ways out of work?
We hit the data to find out how the American worker is handling the new status quo.
Summary Of Our Findings
- People calling in sick is down, less than half of the yearly average. It is impossible to tell whether the decline is due to the rise in unemployment (less workers means less workers to call in sick) or more workers toughening it out while they work from home. However, the decline is significant.
- The least motivated and sickest days were both still Mondays in March. Apparently, Mondays still suck when you work from home.
- Lack of motivation is only up 11%, which considering the circumstances is pretty impressive.
- We have seen a surge of traffic for people searching for terms such as “benefits of remote work,” showing people are actively seeking solutions to work from home struggles.
How We Determined Our Results
For this data, we once again turned to our own website traffic. We analyzed traffic patterns and visitors first to our article How To Overcome No Motivation At Work. We only analyzed google traffic, sorry Bing users, Duck Duck Go, and whatever other obscure search engines we cut from our analysis.
People who land on this article are googling terms like “no motivation to work,”“no desire to work.” In other words, these people are the perfect candidates for gauging when the the most people are struggling to get work accomplished.
Similarly, we looked into traffic on Tips For Calling In Sick- Even When You’re Not. Visitors to “calling in sick” are actively looking for advice to call in sick from work.
You can see previous analysis of traffic for both these articles at the Sickest Days Of 2019 and the Least Motivated Days Of 2019.
Final Thoughts On People’s Productivity While Working During A Pandemic
While people may be slightly less motivated to work in recent weeks, the traffic decline should not be indicative of effectiveness of working from home. These are extraordinary times and people are grappling with unexpected and unplanned changes to their daily routine. Many no doubt are still adapting to the circumstances.
In fact, in light of state of emergencies and shelter in place orders, it is remarkable the change in motivation is only so slight! So, if you’re at home struggling to get your work done, take a deep breath, and remind yourself this situation is challenging, but will pass.
While it is too soon to tell the long term ramifications of so many American workers working from home, some speculate the shift will lead to more work from home workers. Since studies suggest workers prefer working from home and are more productive while doing so, that may not be such a bad thing.
Author
Kathy is the head of content at Zippia with a knack for engaging audiences. Prior to joining Zippia, Kathy worked at Gateway Blend growing audiences across diverse brands. She graduated from Troy University with a degree in Social Science Education.
