With workplaces so dispersed and decentralized by the pandemic, the idea of a metaverse office has emerged. This presents itself as a way for employees to share a virtual space, no matter where they are physically. Some decided to dig in to see how well employees and employers welcome the concept, surveying 1,500 of them.
Less than 2% of respondents work in an environment metaverse. Only 6% of employees said they would prefer to work there. But 12% of employers said they had the space in mind for their future projects.
Overall, employers are more interested in metaverse office spaces (77%) than employees (57%). Employees who wouldn’t mind working in a virtual office said their interest was driven by:
- Increased flexibility of working from home (45%)
- An easier way to collaborate with colleagues (36%)
- Increased job opportunities (33%)
- The ability to travel virtually (33%), more social interactions (32%)
- The replacement of conference call tools like Zoom (31%)
- An infinite personalized workspace (29%)
- Obtaining a competitive advantage in the job market (25%)
- Fewer barriers for people with physical limitations (24%)
- The ability to create an avatar (24%)
- Fewer trips (23%)
- The possibility of being paid in cryptocurrency (17%)
The main employee concern about the metaverse is the privacy. A majority (63%) are worried about the access that employers would have to their data. In addition, companies with more than 500 employees are more interested in the metaverse (87%) than companies with less than 500 employees (69%).
Employers say they would record meetings in a metaverse workplace
Regarding employee concerns about being monitored in a virtual workplace, these include monitoring on:
- Real-time location (51%)
- The screen in real time (50%)
- Time tracking (47%)
- Websites visited (42%)
- Social interactions with others (41%)
- Biometrics (40%)
- Eye tracking (33%)
- Meeting recordings (31%)
- Body movements (25%)
And the least we can say is that it’s not paranoia. Indeed, employers said that they would record meetings (42%) and follow the weather (39%). They would monitor:
- Real-time location (39%)
- Screens (39%)
- Websites visited (37%)
- Social networks and interactions with others (33%)
- App usage and downloads (32%)
- Biometrics (31%)
- Eye (24%) and body (23%) movements.
Metaverse or not, many employees are already under surveillance. 79% of employers in companies with more than 500 people admit this. 68% of companies with less than 500 people also recognize this.