About 75% of employees went to the office despite work from home advice

Even though the Cabinet's advice is still to work at home as much as possible, roughly three-fourths of employees worked on location at the end of last year amid Omicron concerns and harsher lockdowns being implemented. TNO came to this conclusion in a survey of 8,000 employees in November and December 2021, the Volkskrant reports.

The survey also shows that people were no longer sticking to Covid-19 measures religiously. A third of employees went in to work with mild symptoms. Nearly 60 percent did not always maintain social distancing with third parties, and 40 percent did not stay 1.5 meters apart from their colleagues. Face masks were also used less often.

Of people who did work from home, at least some of the time, 90 percent believe that the pandemic changed working conditions permanently. Some 80 percent want to continue to work from home.

On Monday, employers' association AWVN announced that concrete agreements about a work from home allowance had been made in 90 collective labor agreements, covering 1.1 million employees. "The line is clear," spokesperson Jannes van der Velde said to the Volkskrant. "There are companies that see more disadvantages than advantages to working from home, and it is not possible in all sectors. The employer remains responsible for a safe workplace. But hybrid working has become a keeper."