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Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

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Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#141

Post by adamsea »

sheeshkebab wrote: post #138
adriand wrote: post #114

I think it depends on what you want to optimize for. If you want to optimize for individual productivity (and there are no trust issues) then sure, working from home is effective. However, you may decide that the individual productivity loss of having people work in an office is outweighed by the group productivity and morale gain from having people working together. Here are some reasons from a holistic company pers…

In thech companies, the only valid reason to be in the office is that often times upper management (those who pay bills/salaries) are restless crowd that can’t sit in one place staring at screen and have grand desire to run around the floor watching people “work”. The rest of your points are absolute bull shit that can all be done remotely.

From the article:

"More than half the volunteer group changed their minds about working from home 100 percent of the time--they felt too much isolation."

And bear in mind that is from the group of people who _volunteered_ to work from home. It's reasonable to presume that a nontrivial number of people chose _not_ to volunteer because they valued in-person interactions.

So, I call BS on your calling bullshit.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#142

Post by bengale »

sheeshkebab wrote: post #138
adriand wrote: post #114

I think it depends on what you want to optimize for. If you want to optimize for individual productivity (and there are no trust issues) then sure, working from home is effective. However, you may decide that the individual productivity loss of having people work in an office is outweighed by the group productivity and morale gain from having people working together. Here are some reasons from a holistic company pers…

In thech companies, the only valid reason to be in the office is that often times upper management (those who pay bills/salaries) are restless crowd that can’t sit in one place staring at screen and have grand desire to run around the floor watching people “work”. The rest of your points are absolute bull shit that can all be done remotely.

How else will people know they're busy?

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#143

Post by Infernal »

emperorcezar wrote: post #139
adriand wrote: post #114

I think it depends on what you want to optimize for. If you want to optimize for individual productivity (and there are no trust issues) then sure, working from home is effective. However, you may decide that the individual productivity loss of having people work in an office is outweighed by the group productivity and morale gain from having people working together. Here are some reasons from a holistic company pers…

This comment is the epitamy of the tech industry... Responding to actual data with antidote and personal opinion. Followed by the crowds upvoting.

Not to be picky, just an opportunity to inform - the word you're searching for is anecdote, rather than antidote.

Also just while I'm here, normally I wouldn't point out spelling but, epitome.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#145

Post by frockington »

wolco wrote: post #122
adriand wrote: post #114

I think it depends on what you want to optimize for. If you want to optimize for individual productivity (and there are no trust issues) then sure, working from home is effective. However, you may decide that the individual productivity loss of having people work in an office is outweighed by the group productivity and morale gain from having people working together. Here are some reasons from a holistic company pers…

All of these items can be done remotely. Training/mentoring/team work/stand ups/taking accountibility. Showing clients you have employees working might seem like it will help land some clients if you bring them for a visit but more impressive is having a global remote team you can conference in.

You can't greet the client shake their hand and establish a connection over a video conference nearly as easily as you can in person. As a client I find myself paying attention to the little things. Did they offer coffee or water? Did they open the door? How was the handshake? Did they look trustworthy? If you are remoting in a global team it will be more difficult to provide the experience.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#146

Post by a_imho »

tysonzni wrote: post #90
dpark wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Randomized but drawn entirely from the pool of candidates who expressed preference for working from home.

Yeah you're right. Randomization at least ensures internal validity of the study as applied to people who are interested in WFH . Whether it generalizes to others is an open question.

If control group is selected from people interested in WFH they have incentives to validate the study too.

Or if the opportunity is presented as a privilege they might be less engaged to begin with?

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#147

Post by staticelf »

adamsea wrote: post #141
sheeshkebab wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In thech companies, the only valid reason to be in the office is that often times upper management (those who pay bills/salaries) are restless crowd that can’t sit in one place staring at screen and have grand desire to run around the floor watching people “work”. The rest of your points are absolute bull shit that can all be done remotely.

From the article: "More than half the volunteer group changed their minds about working from home 100 percent of the time--they felt too much isolation." And bear in mind that is from the group of people who _volunteered_ to work from home. It's reasonable to presume that a nontrivial number of people chose _not_ to volunteer because they valued in-person interactions. So, I call BS on your calling bullshit.

I work 100% from home. Altough I also feel a bit of isolation I kind of enjoy it most of the time and otherwise the benefits easily outweighs the negative stuff like isolation. But that is of course just me, there is no need to force people to work from home (unless the company do not have an office) but the issue is that most companies won't let you even if you want to.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#148

Post by alexandros »

emperorcezar wrote: post #139
adriand wrote: post #114

I think it depends on what you want to optimize for. If you want to optimize for individual productivity (and there are no trust issues) then sure, working from home is effective. However, you may decide that the individual productivity loss of having people work in an office is outweighed by the group productivity and morale gain from having people working together. Here are some reasons from a holistic company pers…

This comment is the epitamy of the tech industry... Responding to actual data with antidote and personal opinion. Followed by the crowds upvoting.

At least it's a tech industry-only phenomenon right? In all the other industries, people are rational data analyzers with no bias whatsoever. If there's an epitomy of the tech industry, it's blaming ourselves for being uniquely bad at things we're actually better at than most.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#149

Post by frockington »

gowld wrote: post #66
a_imho wrote: post #21

Participants were not even selected random Enter Bloom, who helped design a test whereby 500 employees were divided into two groups--a control group (who continued working at HQ) and volunteer work-from-homers (who had to have a private room at home, at least six-month tenure with Ctrip, and decent broadband access as conditions).

The journalist made a mistake. The paper says: > After a lottery draw, those employees with even-numbered birthdays were selected to work from home, and those with odd-numbered birthdates stayed in the office to act as the control group.

Don't think it was a mistake as much as a way to increase clicks. Nobody would be interested in the title "Stanford study shows people are more efficient when they work where they prefer"

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#150

Post by gravis7777 »

I don't work in IT, so I can see some differences from that field to mine. But being a functional manager in a business, I can't tell you how invaluable it is to walk outside my office to 20-30 cubicles and being able to get a quick answer or have a quick discussion on something, and how often people overhearing conversations in the office saves useless work.
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