Two-thirds, or 66%, of workers globally want to work flexibly when the Covid-19 pandemic is over, according to an Ipsos survey for the World Economic Forum.

The survey of 12,500 employed people in 29 countries found that a majority want flexible working to become the norm. And almost a third (30%) said they would consider looking for another job if they were forced to go back to the office full time.

While over half of those questioned were missing their colleagues, 64% said they were more productive with a flexible work schedule, and a third complained of burn out. Only one in three said they felt disengaged from work when working remotely.

Globally, a quarter of people want to work in the office five days a week as soon as the pandemic is over, with the strongest support in Mexico (40%). More than a third of people in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Peru, India, and the US also want to return five days a week.

Among those favouring flexible working, the average number of days per week people want to work from home is 2.5. Workers in China, Belgium and France are least keen, favoring 1.9 days a week from home while people in India are the most enthusiastic, wanting 3.4 days.

Before the pandemic 53% of workers globally said they mostly or always worked in an office. At the time of the survey, conducted between 21 May and 4 June 2021, that figure had dropped to 39%.

The extent to which people are working mostly or wholly from home varies widely between nations from least half of people surveyed in South America, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa to 21% in Russia and just 15% in China.

Before the pandemic, fewer than a quarter (24%) worked mostly from home globally. Today this has risen to almost two fifths (39%) with a further 22% working outside their homes but not in an office. Three quarters (76%) now working from home say it's a consequence of Covid-19.

While a majority want to retain the work flexibility they’ve been given during the pandemic, many think it's inevitable that they will be back to the office eventually. Over a quarter of people (27%) think it will happen within six months and a further 24% within a year.

Almost half of remote workers in France, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, and Hungary expect to return to the office within six months.

However, a third or more of workers in Australia, South Africa and the UK don’t expect the world of work to return to the way it was before the pandemic, a view shared by almost a fifth (18%) of the global workforce.