[ti:Vaccine May Not Bring Americans Back to Offices] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]We are now ten months into a pandemic [00:04.92]that has changed work-life balance for a lot of people. [00:11.04]And many Americans say they are doing well [00:15.44]in their home offices and dining room workstations. [00:21.52]Most want to continue working from home after the pandemic. [00:28.28]Several kinds of businesses [00:30.72]that had depended on office workers may be affected. [00:36.60]For instance, many office workers attended weekly happy hours [00:43.20]or paid for their clothing to be dry cleaned. [00:47.96]These are the findings of new studies published by the Pew Research Center [00:54.28]and the University of Chicago's Becker Friedman Institute. [01:00.60]The Pew study of 5,800 working adults in mid-October [01:07.56]found that the change has been easy for most. [01:13.12]They have remained productive. [01:15.96]And, on balance, it has given people more control over how they use their time. [01:25.72]That is different from the common ideas that home offices [01:30.64]are full of technical problems and family distractions. [01:36.32]Not everyone is happy, of course. [01:39.08]More younger workers reported trouble keeping up the desire to work. [01:46.72]And parents found it more difficult to work without distractions [01:52.44]since many schools are closed due to the pandemic. [01:57.92]But even so, the Pew study found, the move to working from home [02:03.68]"has been relatively easy for many employed adults." [02:09.88]Kim Parker, Juliana Horowitz and Rachel Minkin are Pew researchers. [02:18.36]They wrote that the fact that people are doing well working from home [02:24.28]may mean a big shift in how the workforce operates in the future. [02:31.84]In the coming months, the coronavirus vaccine [02:35.36]may force U.S. companies to make a few decisions. [02:40.32]These include whether to keep renting office space, [02:45.08]let people work where they choose, or make a plan that includes both. [02:53.00]It will also answer questions about whether the changes in behavior [02:58.40]will stay or go once the risk of being in public has eased. [03:06.12]The study published by the Becker Friedman Institute [03:10.28]also found that work from home "will likely stick." [03:15.76]And it estimated that maybe 22 percent of all workdays [03:21.64]will be "supplied from home" after the pandemic. [03:26.48]That is a major shift and, in the future, [03:30.60]could affect office building owners as well as eating places. S [03:37.40]ome experts say that the pandemic's "mass social experiment" [03:42.96]will cut spending in major city centers as much as 10 percent permanently. [03:50.80]They include Nick Bloom of Stanford University, [03:55.28]Steven Davis of the University of Chicago [03:58.92]and Jose Barrero of Mexico's Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo. [04:07.92]The idea of ignoring work responsibilities from home has disappeared. [04:14.92]The technology for performing these duties has improved quickly. [04:20.96]And companies and employees have adapted, the research found. [04:27.52]Firms have changed their technological set-ups to help workers do their jobs. [04:35.88]And the average worker, the study found, [04:39.72]has spent about $660 on equipment for their home setup. [04:47.56]Out of 15,000 people who replied from May to October, [04:53.84]most said they were as productive at home, [04:57.60]if not more so, than they were in their office. [05:02.80]And they would like to keep working from home [05:06.12]at least two days a week in the future. [05:10.44]The dollar value of that is meaningful. [05:13.96]Nearly half of workers said the ability to stay home [05:19.88]two or three days a week was worth up to 15 percent of their pay. [05:27.60]The two studies shared other common conclusions, including [05:32.64]that the ability to work from home is not shared by everyone. [05:39.48]Who gets to enjoy work from home? [05:42.44]The University of Chicago group found it is mostly men, [05:47.92]higher earners, and highly-educated workers. [05:52.12]I'm Alice Bryant. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM