File photo
File photo
The work-from-home movement brought on by the spread of COVID-19 seems to have quickly gained popularity with employees.
According to the McDonough County Voice, recent data compiled by Global Workplace Analytics finds that 80 percent of surveyed employees preferred to work from home at least some of the time and at least a third of them are willing to take a pay cut for the privilege of continuing to do so.
Even with that, Macomb City Hall City Administrator Scott Coker isn’t sure the tradeoff would be a fair one.
“I think they’re a little less efficient,” he said of the seven employees who worked from home.
“Sitting at my desk here I have a big filing cabinet that I can access naturally,” he added. “I think that our employees are staying productive... staying busy, but yeah I think the efficiency went down a little bit because we are pretty paper-centric still, and that’s a really hard thing to change.”
Coker said the practice is now expected to be used on an as-needed-basis, with a system for allowing access to sensitive information keep intact.
Locally, Western Illinois University was among the fastest companies to switch to a work-from-home model. As one of the largest organizations in the county to do so, the university heavily relied on such meeting platforms as Zoom and Google Hangouts.
Across the country, teachers are also being saluted for quickly adapting to the digital classroom scene. Though schools in Illinois remain closed due to the virus, authorities continue to make adjustments to keep the system moving forward.
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