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From Home Furnishing Business
AHFA Conducts COVID-19 Stay-at-home Study
April 15,
2020 by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Designer Weekly, Industry 
With stay-at-home regulations, physical distancing and quarantine measures in place, the American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA) conducted a brief consumer research study to explore who is working from home and how time is being spent in these at-home “offices.”
Exclusive data was collected by a Wakefield Research survey of 1,000 U.S. office professionals, age 18 or older, between March 27 and April 8, 2020, using an email invitation and an online survey. The results indicate:
- Approximately 74% of American office professionals are working from home due to COVID-19. This includes about 80% of professional men and 67% of professional women.
- 49% of Americans working from home are under a workplace mandate; 16% are following a company recommendation; and 13% are abiding by a state-level mandate. Additionally, 3% elected to work from home on their own accord, and 3% worked from home before the COVID-19 outbreak.
- 23% of office professionals are not working from home.
- Millennials are most commonly working from home (83%), followed by Gen X (72%) and Boomers (65%).
- Since they began working from home, 67% of the respondents said they are watching more TV or streaming movies, 59% are spending more time with family, and 48% are cooking more frequently.
- 48% of Americans are doing more household chores, 44% are working more, 38% are playing more games, 38% are reading more, 37% are sleeping more, and 18% say they are gardening more.
- Men are more likely than women to say they are spending more time with family (63% vs. 53%) and playing games (42% vs. 32%).
- Women are more likely than men to say they are cooking more often than men (60% vs. 40%) and doing household chores (54% vs. 44%).
- Of those who are working from home due to COVID-19, 47% have a separate room or office in which to work. 24% work in more than one place within the home.
- Men are more likely than women to have a separate room in which to work (53% vs. 38%).
- Other common at-home workplaces include bedrooms (28%), dining rooms (24%), kitchens (12%), basements (10%), sunrooms or screened-in porches (6%) and garages (3%).
- Of those who are working from home due to COVID-19 but do not live alone, 41% do not share their workspace with any other member of their household.
- Among U.S. office professionals currently working from home due to COVID-19 and living with others, 38% share workspaces with one other person, 14% share with two people and 7% share with three people or more.