How French Employees Feel About COVID-19 In May: A PandemicEX Update

Business leaders should use our PandemicEX data to monitor how French workers’ fears about returning to work evolve as the lockdown is lifted and as French workers fully realize the economic and social impact of the recession. With more than 12 million benefiting from generous “state-financed partial unemployment,” French workers are the least worried in Europe about their job security and finances: Only 26% agree the pandemic will last longer than their finances will allow them to make it, compared with 39% across the five European countries we surveyed. While trust in the government is stable, we saw a significant drop in French workers’ confidence in business leaders between March and May 2020, with just 46% of French workers believing that their organization has a plan to manage the risk associated with COVID-19. French workers are worried about getting back to work: 56% don’t trust that what they are reading or hearing about COVID-19 is certain enough to know when it is safe to go back to work, while 71% want to have precautions in place at work when they do go back. While technology is a growing problem, French workers feel as productive as before, have significantly improved the way they balance their work and home life, and hope to continue to work at home once the crisis is over.