NEW YORK — The majority of remote workers are so fed up with their faulty work laptops that they would rather throw them out the window than continue to work on them.
A survey of 2,000 employed Americans found more than half (58%) describe their work devices as awful to work on. Two in three want to toss their devices out of frustration because of their poor performance. While nearly three in five employers (58%) issue company laptops to employees, 62 percent of those employees say their devices prevent them from maximizing their productivity.
Technical difficulties with work laptops
Commissioned by LG Electronics and conducted by OnePoll, the study revealed 47 percent of employees believe having high-quality tech is the key to having a productive workspace. Seventy-one percent would enjoy their jobs more if their tech devices were of higher quality.
Meanwhile, 59 percent noted that they’re most productive when working in a comfortable environment — and at the center of their comfy workspace is their desk. Nearly nine in 10 (88%) working Americans have a desk at home — topped with a laptop (52%), monitor (32%), a cell phone (32%), and pens or pencils (28%).
More than half (55%) of those with a desk admit it’s cluttered beyond recognition, prompting the average respondent to spend two hours cleaning the mess off their workspace. People will also spend over five hours at their desk on a standard workday and more than half the poll (56%) will only sit at their desk for important video calls.
After an average 32 minutes in their morning spot, remote workers are off to find a new spot to work from. At home, the most popular places to work from are the bedroom (13%), kitchen (6%), and from their vehicle (4%). Some of the strangest places respondents have worked from while at home include the pool, at a golf course, and — yes, it’s true — even from the bathroom.
“Comfort should be at the center of every work from home environment,” says LG’s senior director Tim Alessi, in a statement. “To achieve that, people need a laptop that is lightweight, has a long-lasting battery, and delivers a flexible workspace experience allowing for maximum productivity.”
Side gig season
For 44 percent of respondents, the pandemic has inspired them to start up a new side gig in their off-time. More than four in five (83%) of those with side gigs admit to using their work-provided devices for their personal projects.
In fact, many Americans confess to using their work machines for all kinds of personal tasks. A third (34%) use them for personal communication. Nearly as many also use their work devices for personal shopping (28%) and scrolling through social media (27%).
Unfortunately, respondents with side gigs reported a number of issues that slow down their personal projects too. Those include poor internet connection (18%), poor-quality tech (15%), and a lack of funds (15%).
“As the results of the survey indicate, the quality of your technology can make or break your remote work experience. Consider upgrading to a laptop that offers a 16:10 display. Designed to boost productivity, a display with this aspect ratio allows for more time focusing and less time scrolling,” Alessi recommends.
Even in business laptop models the PC makers seem to be cutting corners on cheaper models.
I even see many businesses trying to say money buying consumer branded laptops. I recently bought my wife a new Dell latitude laptop for her own use as a teacher. I was taken back by the lousy consumer like cheap feel of the laptop. Nothing about it felt durable or long lasting. There is defiantly a lot of crap out there in terms of build quality and cheap hardware specs. Unfortunately this appears to have spilled over to business type laptops as well. Do we really need to spend 2 grand on a laptop today to get any kind of decent specs?