Working from home isn’t for everyone — let alone people living in tiny, cramped condos with partners, roommates, kids, or even pets. Has your cat ever shown his asshole to all of your co-workers in a Zoom meeting? Because mine has (sorry, Greta.) And I’m not alone.

But, virtual meeting issues and less ergonomic kitchen workstations aside, many people actually prefer the world of remote work to office life.

According to the results of a recent Angus Reid poll, the vast majority of Ontario residents currently working from home hope to continue to do so (at least some of the time) as things open up after the pandemic.

This represents a significant shift in attitudes towards remote working from what was seen at the start of the pandemic when everyone felt isolated and sick of their sweatpants.

In fact, only 4% of the 2,550 Canadian adults surveyed between March 1-4, 2022 indicated that they would rather return to their workplace as they did before COVID hit.

In Ontario, that figure is three per cent, with 36 per cent of people in the province indicating they want to continue working from home full-time and all others preferring a hybrid model in which they split their time between the two locations. (Mostly at home with some trips to the office for the majority of hybrid respondents.)

Of Canadians currently working from home, only 4% overall want to return to the office full-time. Image via Angus Reid Institute.

This latest workplace attitude survey follows a similar survey conducted by Angus Reid in August 2021. Comparing the results, the researchers found that people are generally less likely to return to the office now than they were. last summer, which is interesting given that offices are just starting to reopen en masse.

Contrary to what the majority of workers were saying at the start of the pandemic, many got used to working from home after two full years.

The Angus Reid report explores how “the great pandemic-driven home office reorganization” has not only impacted remote workers’ job satisfaction, but also improved their sense of work/life balance, relationships with spouses and life in general.

“Overall, Canadians are more likely to say the work-from-home experience hasn’t hurt their productivity – four in five say it’s ‘good’ or ‘great’ – though they are more split regarding its effect on their relationships with co-workers,” the report read, noting that about half of remote workers surveyed found it harder to connect with co-workers digitally.

“However, it may be non-work considerations that are the main reasons home-based workers are less enthusiastic about returning to the office full-time. Canadians who work from home are more likely than those who don’t say their work/life balance (35% vs. 21%), relationship with spouse (32% vs. 21%) and life in general (30% vs. 18%) have improved during the pandemic.”

The majority of Canadians prefer a hybrid work model in the future, with 23% saying they would quit and look for a new job if forced to return to the office full-time. Image via Angus Reid Institute.

One of the most interesting data points from the survey concerns what people actually plan to do if and when they are told to come back to work IRL full time.

“Suppose your employer requires you to return to the office full-time, what would you do in that case? reads a question posed to all respondents currently working remotely.

A staggering 58 per cent of the group in Ontario said they would immediately start looking for a new job. Twenty-two percent of the total group said they would resign immediately when called back to the office or had already done so.

Thirty-six percent said they would return to the office full-time while looking for another job, while thirty-six percent said they would “deal with it and go back to work full-time.” Canada-wide, that percentage jumps to 39.

“This is a marked change in the attitude of Canadians working from home compared to last summer. Then two in five (39%) said they would accept and return full-time without complaint. Now three in ten (29%) say the same,” notes the Angus Reid Institute.