Kiwi workers: You don’t even miss me at meetings

Zoom meetings and working remotely are now common - and only a small minority of Kiwi workers say colleagues would even miss them at meetings.

The new Microsoft Work Trends Index also found New Zealanders were more likely than most people overseas to report not having enough time at work without interruptions.

Only 28 per cent of workers in this country said colleagues would miss them in a majority of their meetings if they couldn’t join.

The global average was 35 per cent.

And 70 per cent of Kiwi workers said they did not have enough uninterrupted focus during their workday, compared with 68 per cent globally.

The Microsoft report derived results from a study of 1000 Kiwis across multiple industries and tens of thousands of people overseas.

More than half (58 per cent) of people in New Zealand reported struggling to have enough time and energy to get work done.

But that was at least better than the 64 per cent of workers abroad complaining about the same thing.

The study also examined attitudes to artificial intelligence (AI).

It found, among other results, that 45 per cent of workers were worried AI would end up replacing their jobs.

But three-quarters were comfortable using AI to support their existing role.

“What the research shows is that AI represents a whole new way of working, freeing us from digital debt and fuelling innovation, but we’ve got to invest in helping workers understand how to use it first,” Jane Mackarell of Microsoft said.

The Microsoft survey released this week followed an overseas study finding the work from home or remote work phenomenon was here to stay, despite the Covid-19 pandemic receding.

Broking and solutions company WTW said in its Dynamics of Work Survey most companies in the UK expected two-thirds of employees would work either fully remotely or in hybrid ways within three years.

Before the pandemic, only 21 per cent were expected to do so.

And last year, an Employment Hero report found revealed almost half (48 per cent) of hybrid and remote workers would consider quitting their jobs if asked to return to the office full-time.

According to that report, 82 per cent of respondents said working remotely at least some of the time was better for reducing the cost of living.