In April 2022, 23% of UK businesses reported they were either already using, or were planning to implement remote working permanently in their business models.
Curious to find out whether home workers are more productive than those who work at the office, experts at Reboot Link Building Company conducted a UK survey of 5,265 people to discover workers from which job sector waste the most working hours per week.
These top 15 sectors office workers waste the most hours working in the office
| Maximum Time Wasted per Week (Hours) | |||
| Profession | WFH | Hybrid | WFO |
| AVERAGE | 2.50 | 2.71 | 4.26 |
| Public Services and Administration | 3 | 3 | 10+ |
| Retail | 5 | 3 | 9 |
| Sales | 3 | 5 | 9 |
| Advertising and PR | 3 | 3 | 9 |
| Energy and Utilities | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| Leisure | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| Media and Internet | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Hospitality and Events Management | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Information Technology | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Recruitment and HR | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Environment and Agriculture | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Law Enforcement and Security | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Sport and Tourism | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Property and Construction | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| Social Care | 3 | 5 | 3 |
The survey results showed that public services and administration workers who work from the office waste the most working hours – more than 10 hours per week. For comparison, workers from the same sector who work from home waste just 3 hours per week (7 hours less). The same amount of hours is also wasted by hybrid workers.
Following are workers from the retail, sales, advertising and PR, and energy and utilities sectors, who waste a total of 9 hours per week, when working from the office. Interestingly, hybrid energy and utilities workers, along with those who work remotely, waste only 1 working hour per week. While retail and advertising and PR workers waste the least amount of hours (3 hours) on a hybrid work schedule.
Workers from the hospitality and events management, information technology and recruitment and HR sectors are next, where office workers waste hours – in average 5 hours per week working from the office. Information technology workers waste the least amount of time, when working from home – only 1 hour. Hybrid and working from home recruitment and HR workers also waste only 1 hour per week.
And the sectors wasting the least amount of hours working from the office are…
Science and pharmaceuticals and engineering and manufacturing workers waste the least amount of working hours per week, when working from the office – only 1 hour.
Methodology
- Reboot Link Building Company sought to find out the workers that waste the most working hours.
- A UK survey was carried out, asking participants the following questions:
- What region do you live in?
- Do you work from home?
- What sector do you belong to?
- What is your mode of work?
- How much time would you say you waste each week in hours?
- What activity do you waste the most time on when working from home?
- What activity do you waste the most time on when working from the office?
- If experienced both, do you think you’re more productive working at home or in the office?
- In total, 5,265 people aged between 18 and 65 completed the survey.
- Results were then ranked based on the amount of hours people from the different job sectors waste, so that the sectors which waste the most time could be determined.
- The survey was conducted in September 2022.
