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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

#251

Post by lev99 »

OpenDrapery wrote: post #179

As usual, the workers and managers are playing different games. As a developer, it's easy to assume that productivity is the game. Form a strong team and add business value through execution, right? Wrong. Management is playing a game of consistency and control. Blanket policies are the name of the game. I don't care if you are 100x more productive at home. I can't have all these other losers asking me why they aren'…

Wow. This really highlights the differences between a small company and a large company. I have a hard time justifying keeping B- employees on my team, I couldn't imagine calling people under me in the org chart "losers" without having an active plan to remove them.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#252

Post by ryanmonroe »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #188
swat535 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes.. we should sacrifice productivity for the sake of "vibrant company culture", whatever that means. I have been working remotely in a large company and allow me to refute your points. > - To more effectively add to the culture of the company. If your culture is already remote, or shifting towards it, then it's a non issue. > - To take part in ad hoc training opportunities, either to teach someone who needs help…

> Again, the point is passing along information, whether it's done in person or online makes little difference. But it makes a huge difference for some people like me. Information passed verbally just doesn't stick for me. For some reason it's not properly recorded in my memory and if you ask me about if half an hour later I would have forgotten 80% of what I was told. Now give it to me in writing, and I'd probably r…

Is your point that you're less likely to get information in written form when working remotely?

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#253

Post by heurist »

gowld wrote: post #78
heurist wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No commute, homemade lunch, more family time...?

Modern employers provide better lunch. Family time isn't necessarily quality time.

I disagree with your first assertion :) And I have a long daily commute which takes a lot of time and energy that would otherwise be available for my family. I'd argue that the little interactions throughout a workday at home are more valuable than few or no interactions from the office - quality time or not.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#254

Post by Aaargh20318 »

ryanmonroe wrote: post #252
Aaargh20318 wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Again, the point is passing along information, whether it's done in person or online makes little difference. But it makes a huge difference for some people like me. Information passed verbally just doesn't stick for me. For some reason it's not properly recorded in my memory and if you ask me about if half an hour later I would have forgotten 80% of what I was told. Now give it to me in writing, and I'd probably r…

Is your point that you're less likely to get information in written form when working remotely?

No, the point is that what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for someone else.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#255

Post by otakucode »

throwawaymath wrote: post #163
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 seems like a great microcosm of remote work discussions on Hacker News. You didn't dismiss remote working in a thread about it, but you tried (maybe imperfectly) to suggest times when it would be a good idea to not work remotely. It is not being received well! In response most commenters are criticizing your point by focusing on whether or not it is technically possible to achieve any of those things whi…

The difference is that one side is trying to justify the traditional designed-for-repetitive-manufacturing-work office setup, while the other is trying to justify remote work. One side is content to point out that there are limitations to remote work while almost totally ignoring the limitations to office work, while the other does the inverse.

Both scenarios have advantages, and both scenarios have disadvantages. Whether you are willing to accept certain disadvantages or whether you actually value certain advantages brings in many personal values. Some people are exceptionally invested in office work because they rely upon their gregarious nature to navigate the working world. Some are exceptionally invested in remote work because they are introverted and constantly overruled by more aggressive colleagues (to the detriment of the business, not just themselves).

As many do not understand why offices are constructed the way they are, why companies are centralized entities, why authority is set up as a hierarchy, etc, its difficult to have a competent conversation about the whole thing. It's a big topic. And it's never as simple as 'this thing just saves us money with no drawbacks' or 'this thing just has drawbacks with no material benefit'. Such discussions need to be extensive, nuanced, and detached.

We really are in a position, however, where the differences in productivity and cost are so stark that in order to justify operating expensive centralized offices, they have to show either that it is Impossible to solve problems technologically with remote work, or that there are benefits to the centralization that are extremely valuable. Being able to keep employees, mentioned in the original comment, is an interesting choice. Since the 1980s, employee total dispensability has been top priority in management culture. Moving toward valuing employees and trying to keep them would be a monumental shift in corporate behavior and change all kinds of things all on its own. It might be advisable, though. As I see it, companies started abandoning everything they offered to workers in the 1980s.... right around the time computers came around and started making it practical for workers to leave and compete against the companies while undercutting them hugely just through not having an office to pay for.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#256

Post by devy »

throwawaymath wrote: post #163
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 seems like a great microcosm of remote work discussions on Hacker News. You didn't dismiss remote working in a thread about it, but you tried (maybe imperfectly) to suggest times when it would be a good idea to not work remotely. It is not being received well! In response most commenters are criticizing your point by focusing on whether or not it is technically possible to achieve any of those things whi…

> I can pick up groceries on a Monday when no one is at the store!

Definitely helps the traffic jam issues on megacities!

Also the flexibility to run errands to post office, banks, schedule service repairs etc. is just so tremendous.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#257

Post by OpenDrapery »

lev99 wrote: post #251
OpenDrapery wrote: post #179

As usual, the workers and managers are playing different games. As a developer, it's easy to assume that productivity is the game. Form a strong team and add business value through execution, right? Wrong. Management is playing a game of consistency and control. Blanket policies are the name of the game. I don't care if you are 100x more productive at home. I can't have all these other losers asking me why they aren'…

Wow. This really highlights the differences between a small company and a large company. I have a hard time justifying keeping B- employees on my team, I couldn't imagine calling people under me in the org chart "losers" without having an active plan to remove them.

Yeah, it's fairly gross. Insurance and banking are chock full of corporate cockroaches. They can hide for years without adding any real value. But boy, do they want their fair treatment.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#258

Post by madrox »

This is a study of a large travel agency, not creative/knowledge workers. This would explain why the study's results don't map to my experiences.

If you're doing creative work or work that requires frequent communication with peers, you need an environment that encourages diversity and collaboration. Working from home is not collaborative.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#259

Post by Clubber »

gtycomb wrote: post #208
wolco wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I tend to strongly agree. Online meetings for me are direct, initmate and focussed. If we are not prepared yet, we call it off in a minute or two and go do our homework before we decide to meet next time. Productivity, progress made, places where help and collaboriative work is needed, etc are keenly understood in a team.

You can also mute the guy who constantly wrecks meetings by being long winded and off topic. :)

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#260

Post by cultofmetatron »

throwawaymath wrote: post #163
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 seems like a great microcosm of remote work discussions on Hacker News. You didn't dismiss remote working in a thread about it, but you tried (maybe imperfectly) to suggest times when it would be a good idea to not work remotely. It is not being received well! In response most commenters are criticizing your point by focusing on whether or not it is technically possible to achieve any of those things whi…

I have to disagree, companies need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the future. I for one don't even bother looking at job offers from recruiters unless they offer remote. (and I've turned down 30-40k pay increases because of it) why? because I love that I can go swim in a tropical reef this weekend. I can go hop around where my heart takes me and our that creative energy into producing better work during the week. That's not something you'll ever get with vacation days where you plan months ahead at the "permission" of your manager. Everyone should have the option to live like this and if we all refuse via collective bargaining, the big companies will find a way to make it work or die.
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