Being able to work from home has, for many people around the world, been one of the few perks of living through the coronavirus pandemic. As the final restrictions are being lifted in the Netherlands, a recent survey found that working from home is no longer an added bonus, but has become an acquired right, with many employees saying they'd look for other work if their employer were to require them to return to the office full-time.

Dutch workers hope employers will adopt hybrid system

The latest Hybrid Work Monitor conducted by Dutch telecommunications company KPN has, like so many other surveys before it, revealed how much people in the Netherlands enjoy the ability to work from home - either part-time or full-time.

KPN found that one-third of people with jobs in the Netherlands would quit and look for work elsewhere if their employer demanded they return to the office full-time. 85 percent of survey respondents said they would like to be able to decide for themselves which days they work from home and how often they work from the office.

“In the current tight labour market, there is a good chance that dissatisfied employees will find work elsewhere,” KPN concludes. “A complete return to the old situation will therefore often not be an option.” Only 5 percent of those surveyed said they believed hybrid working would soon be a thing of the past.

Many in the Netherlands continue to split time between office and home

Interestingly, researchers at KPN discovered that, in spite of the fact that the Dutch government relaxed the home working advice in February, the number of people spending more time at the office hasn’t changed much. In October, 62,6 percent of respondents went into work two or three days a week - this figure has risen slightly, to 65,2 percent in March.

The days that have proven most popular for office working are Tuesday, Thursday and Monday, while, unsurprisingly, Friday remains the least popular, with 77 percent of respondents opting to work from home on the last day of the week. 93 percent of those taking part in KPN’s research said they felt they’d established a healthy and productive balance between working from home and working from the office.