Samenvatting

Due to Covid-19 the way of working changed rapidly. Also the change of the work environment accelerated. A ‘new normal’ emerges because organisations and employees have discovered the advantages of working from home. This influences the use of the offices and thereby the corresponding facilities. Dutch municipalities want to anticipate to the future and are seeking to find out what their employees expect when they return to the office post-Covid-19.
The aim of this research is to get insight into how different the expectations of distinct generations are on post-Covid-19 workplace design at Dutch municipalities. The following research question has been formulated: How different are the expectations of distinct generations on post-Covid-19 workplace design at Dutch municipalities?
 
This research has been conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic, which means literature about the period post-Covid-19 was not available. Based on the literature from before the Covid-19 pandemic several aspects were found to be important when looking into the workplace design at the office and looking into working from home. Aspects such as characteristics of an employee, the home situation, and personality are of influence. The literature also shows reasons why employees do not want or can work from home, just as advantages and disadvantages of working from home are given.
In order to give an answer to the research question a literature review and survey have been conducted. The questionnaire was divided into four sections: general information about the respondent, such as age, gender, and function. But also the composition of the household was asked. Experiences before Covid-19 with working from home were researched, just as experiences with working from home during Covid-19. Hereby the reason why employees were not working from home was asked, but also the advantages and disadvantages were researched. The expectations post-Covid-19 were asked regarding the preferred workplace design and the extent of going back to the office.
This revealed that there is no insurmountable difference between generations. Overall, they are agreed about the workplace design they prefer the most, and also the expectation to work more from home post-Covid-19 is similar. Aspects they think differently about are the extent to which they want to continue working from home post-Covid-19 and the suitability of their home office.