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5 days in an office is history

5 days at an office is history

It’s no surprise that the pandemic has led to insights on how we want to live our lives. This also goes for working behavior and preferences. The trend is clear: working fulltime 5 days a week in an office belongs to the past.

Working preferences 2020 vs. 2021

In October 2020, Stora Enso initiated a market study on pandemic related changes in attitudes towards for example working from home, commuting and copy paper use. Answers from 3400 participants from the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden showed that 54 % preferred a mix of home and office working, and 31 % preferred full time home working. Despite this quite clear preference, 83 % of these respondents expected to return to an office environment within 3 or 6 months.

One year later, the preference for remote working seems to remain strong.According to a follow up study conducted by Stora Enso and Multicopy ,the full results will be presented in full shortly, the preferred mix seems to be 3 days at the office and 2 days working from home office. Companies are having to adapt to this preference. According to PwC statistics from January 2021, “employees want to return to the office more slowly than employers expect”.

Changed printing behavior?


After the past one and a half years, people value things such as flexibility and not having to commute – some of the perks of home working. According to a study, many people value remote work ”for work-life balance, stress and anxiety levels, productivity and overall satisfaction”. But of course, there are also aspects of office working that we suddenly find ourselves missing from home.

A study conducted by flooring and surface manufacturer Tarkett, focused on what the post-pandemic workplace looks like, shows that one thing that employees miss the most from working in an office, except the social connection, is the printer.

Even if many people have a printer today, it is not as common to use it at home as in the office – perhaps because it’s more difficult to see the necessity when it’s only for you. However, research also shows that 79% believe they become more productive thanks to the possibility to print at home. Since it seems like many of us still value printed material, it could be a good idea to promote a sustainable and responsible printing behavior at home (and in the office): printing only what we need and always using high quality and carbon neutral papers. Read more about the Tarkett study here.

More insights to come

Multicopy is currently compiling the results from a follow up-study to the one conducted last year, on post-pandemic working and printing behavior. So keep an eye out for more interesting facts and insights coming up soon!

79% Believe they are mote productive with a printer at home

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