Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the world of work as we knew it as employees
were required to work from home during the hard lockdown and as the lockdown eased, they
were required to return to the office environment. Many shifts took place as employees returned
to the office. The objective of this study was to gain an understanding of the experiences
employees had returning to the office after the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically from the
perspective of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) primarily in Gauteng, South Africa. A
generic qualitative study was conducted by collecting data using the online Microsoft Teams
platform. Semi-structured interviews were conducted where data were collected from 10
participants; five being employees and five being owners of small businesses. Thematic
analysis was used to analyse the data. The results presented that the participants struggled on
their return to the office mainly due to the commute and the time spent in traffic. However, the
participants did note that working in the office was beneficial when collaborating and working
in teams as there is better productivity and efficiency. Ultimately, what would benefit both
employees and owners moving forward is a hybrid working arrangement where there is an
opportunity to work at home a few days of the week and the remaining days in the office. This
benefits both employees and owners as it aligns with their preferences, maximises their
productivity levels and saves on commuting costs which will ultimately improve the workplace
profits and the overall work environment. Understanding the effect of SME employees
returning to the office since the pandemic can provide insight as to how to further improve
their organisations in the future. Future studies could investigate the long-term effects that the
technological integration had on employees returning to the office and the effect it had on
SMEs.
Experiences of Small and Medium Enterprise employees returning to the office post Covid-19
pandemic
Keywords: SMEs, post-COVID-19 pandemic, returning to the office