Almost three-quarters of office workers have worked from a smartphone at some point, despite 47.4% claiming working from a mobile would have a strong negative impact on their work.
National Business Communications surveyed office workers to find out their thoughts and habits regarding working from their mobile phones.
Although the majority of respondents had worked from their mobile despite the negative impact, around 66% claimed that they would only be able to work between one and seven hours of their working day from their mobile, and nearly one in four office workers say they can do at least two days of work per week from their phone.
The survey also asked office workers to state the main factors that would stop them from working from their mobile phones:
-
They prefer using a larger screen (93.4%)
-
Over half of the respondents just don’t like working from their phones.
-
Around 33% say there is a lack of relevant smartphone apps needed to do their job.
-
19.7% state that their employer would not like it.
James Bolton, Operations Director at National Business Communications, said: “It’s extremely interesting that despite the clear negative impact working from your phone can cause, many people have still worked from their phone before. It’s completely dependent on each person’s role, requirements at work, and also personal preference.
“There are certainly benefits of working from your mobile – it’s extremely convenient and certain tasks such as sending emails, reading documents, and making calls. It’s also a positive given the shift of people working remotely or in hybrid roles – mobile phones really do allow us to easily work from anywhere.”
However, the survey highlighted many cons too, including a negative work-life balance effect, the risk of more distractions from texts and apps, and a potential lack of required tools and apps to complete work.
Bolton added: “Working from our personal mobile phones can certainly affect our work-life balance – it’s extremely easy for us to have a glance at our emails, even out of working hours, or see notifications coming through when we’re offline and getting cough up, it’s important to set boundaries. Other cons that came out of our survey included slower typing on phones and not having a large or second screen.”
