Scientists have been studying remote work for four years and have reached a very clear conclusion: “Working from home makes us thrive”
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The article, at least, doesn’t seem to try to define or measure “productivity”. Well no shit people are going to be happier not being forced to go somewhere for some period of time five days a week.
Am I happier working from home, or having the choice to do so? Sure. Their data strongly backs that. Do I actually get my work done equally well? For me personally yes but anecdotally group decision-making in remote contexts is much slower.
The research here is ultimately pointless, because it drives zero action to the people who would be deciding WFH policy who are making that choice based on business goals, not personal goals. It might inform politicians if they’re driving policy to promote remote work, but without data about productivity tradeoff or lack thereof, there’s no informed decision to make.
I appreciate this as a balanced take.
I’ve done a little work from home, and it’s nice being home, but it’s still work. If you’re doing your job right, it’s still your job.
Unfortunately, I’ve also seen that while some people are great at WFH and even do better, a lot of people either don’t get anything done, or look very “productive” because they’re harassing people still at work with meaningless busywork like sending emails that don’t do anything or asking other people to do parts of their job they’d be able to do if they were at work.
I think that partially goes to the point of “what is productivity?” since someone can look busy but not be doing anything that actually does anything positive for either boots on the ground micro views or mile high macro views. “Oh, look at how many emails got sent” great, did that actually help the business run? And sometimes the answer is “yes, and we should let this WFH worker continue at all costs”, and in others the answer is “No, and we need to get this person into the office or eliminate the position because either would be better than the status quo”
It’s a bit managerial in the way to look at it, but in order to justify WFH, the people working from home must be providing enough value to justify their employment, because too much overhead waste and the business ends, maybe every business embracing WFH ends, and then all that’s left is the ones that didn’t. To be clear, that’s not a moral stance, but a purely pragmatic evolutionary stance: Those things which survive continue and those that die do not.
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That is not what they said. I could argue you are acting like a child.
They literally said they couldn’t keep them self on task.
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But people with money and power lose a miniscule amount of both so the slaves will continue to commute
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
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Ruling class, resoundingly: “we don’t care.”
Oh they do, “must stop this immediately!”
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But how would my boss and project manager continue to make my life miserable? It would take away all their power over me. They wouldn’t be able to manipulate me into submission anymore. I would be my own person and not an empty shell that can be shaped into whatever they want. I’m sorry but it just seems unreasonable to work from home and be happy.
I’m WFH and my boss makes me miserable a lot.
But at least I’m not wearing pants.
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Now we need a genius architect to convert all of that office space into homes for the homeless. That includes changing any laws that would prevent that from happening.
Converting an office building to apartments isn’t as easy as you think. For example, apartments need firewalls between them, and adding them ain’t cheap.
Might be easier to rezone and demolish, but the timelines on that are huge and there’s already a labor shortage in the construction industry.
We’ve painted ourselves into a lot of corners as a nation.
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Converting an office building to apartments isn’t as easy as you think. For example, apartments need firewalls between them, and adding them ain’t cheap.
Might be easier to rezone and demolish, but the timelines on that are huge and there’s already a labor shortage in the construction industry.
We’ve painted ourselves into a lot of corners as a nation.
I didn’t think it was easy and there are always naysayers, no matter what.
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…Right?
“This article is supported by verified sources and supported by editorial technology”
Cool… So if those sources are verified you won’t mind sharing them with me?
Maybe it should be a rule for this instance that any post about a study must have the proper citation
