Working from home became a huge (and successful) trend during the pandemic, and even with communities now re-opening, many businesses may never go back to the every-day-in-the-office model.
But while work productivity may be improved without commuting or water cooler chat, there are some behaviors it’s easier to get away with while home working — and for some employees that means being high during working hours.
To investigate this phenomenon, the American Marijuana website surveyed a thousand remote employees to find out their thoughts on and attitudes toward getting high while working from home.
The researchers found, that overall, 15 percent of remote employees had at some time in their careers worked from home under the influence of cannabis, with most of those employees reporting feeling decreased stress (52.9 percent) and increased creativity (51.1 percent) while doing so. Over 42 percent also claimed increased productivity while working under the influence.
Comparing pre- and mid pandemic, 47.3 percent of respondents who had ever gotten high while working from home reported that the first time they had so was during the pandemic. The remaining 52.7 percent reported they had worked from home and used weed before COVID-19 came along, however.
Mostly, employees used cannabis during breaks, but 35 percent of WFH users still either got caught, or had a boss or employer suspect they were under the influence.
Of those who were caught, 28 percent had their employment terminated, so it’s a big risk to take.
This survey has limitations because of its heavy reliance on self-report. For those with a statistical bent, the authors of the report suggest the margin of error for the study based on the U.S. population of remote workers (94.3 million Americans) is 3% with a 95% confidence level.
Sources: American Marijuana, Ganjapreneur
