Clumsy remote workers are constantly damaging their work devices at home

By Sead Fadilpašić
published

Laptops and mobile phones get damaged all the time

technology
(Image credit: Pixabay)
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Working from home (opens in new tab) may be great for productivity, but it’s a disaster for the health of the devices being used, a new report has claimed. 

A survey from Direct Line business insurance found that most workers have managed to damage the devices given to them by their employers during the pandemic. 

Those were mostly laptops (opens in new tab) and mobile phones (opens in new tab), but some had managed to damage PCs, desk phones, and tablets (opens in new tab). Polling some 2,000 UK workers for the report, Direct Line found that 52% admitted to damaging the gear, and 62% took the blame for it. The rest blamed it on their children, housemates, or partners.

A third said they had more accidents since they started working from home, with spilling food and drink on the equipment being the most common reason for the damage. Tripping and falling over the gear, leaving it on a hot surface, or outside, were also listed as common reasons. In many cases, a partner or housemate using the equipment lead to damage.

Electrical faults, including power surges, were cited 23% of the time. 

Repair takes days, sometimes weeks

In most cases, the average damage surpassed $680, but in some cases, it went above $1,300. That’s why employees weren’t as eager to report the damages. More than four in ten thought they could fix the problem themselves, while some decided to remain tight-lipped as they could still use the gear. 

A quarter were worried about having to pay for the damages themselves, while a fifth didn’t want to be told off by their boss. 

Another problem is that solving these issues takes time. For almost a third, it took anywhere between three and five working days to get the issues resolved. For a quarter, it took anywhere between one and two weeks.

London seems to be quite a clumsy city, as 77% of its citizens managed to damage their gear during the pandemic.

Sead Fadilpašić

Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.

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