A third of workers want a Covid-19 vaccine or antibody test before returning to the office.  This is according to a new poll of 2,000 workers conducted by Canada Life.

Despite 41 per cent of workers feeling positive about returning to the office, 28 per cent are concerned and this number increases to 36 per cent amongst women.  Nearly a fifth of employees are of the opinion that it will be several years before working practices return to normal.

The poll showed that 18 per cent of respondents wanted regular temperature checks; 21 per cent wanted coronavirus testing in the office and 22 per cent wanted office spaces to be rearranged to accommodate social distancing.

Although 26 per cent of women are most looking forward to being out of the house again - against 18 per cent of men - women are more concerned about office working than male workers.   The female workers - 26 per cent - were more worried about their colleagues not taking the same precautions as themselves and 23 per cent of women were anxious about physically interacting with people again.

The poll found that 31 per cent of employees wanted the option to work from home in the future - as and when it suited them - whilst 23 per cent wanted to be able decide whether or not they returned to the office at all.

Paul Avis - Strategic Proposition Director at Canada Life - said:

 “Workers are unsurprisingly anxious about returning to the physical workplace. After such a long period of time working from home, many of us have developed new ways of working and fallen into new routines. And while lots of workers are looking forward to getting ‘back to normal’, many feel like the ‘new normal’ will never be the same as it once was. With the pandemic changing the way we’ve lived our lives over the past four months, I’m not surprised that some are understandably hoping for a vaccine or antibody testing before they get back into the workplace. But as anyone who may have spent the last few months working from a single bedroom flat will testify, a return to the workplace will come as a welcome relief alongside all the social benefits that brings. Concerns have been raised by psychiatrists that we face a tsunami of mental health issues and so a return to the workplace, noting work has been proven to be beneficial for mental health, will be welcomed by many who rely on the challenges of daily work and the social and support networks.”