Work from home and productivity: evidence from personnel and analytics data [pdf]
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Re: Work from home and productivity: evidence from personnel and analytics data [pdf]
#2Surprised this post isn’t getting more comments. The result is pretty clear with over 10,000 participants in the study.
>>Total hours worked increased by roughly 30%, including a rise of 18% in working after normal business hours. Average output did not significantly change. Therefore, productivity fell by about 20%. Time spent on coordination activities and meetings increased, but uninterrupted work hours shrank considerably.
Re: Work from home and productivity: evidence from personnel and analytics data [pdf]
#3Whoops, I put this in the second-chance pool but it looks like this already had a discussion. Sorry!
Work from Home and Productivity - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27154368 - May 2021 (131 comments)
Re: Work from home and productivity: evidence from personnel and analytics data [pdf]
#4Surprised this post isn’t getting more comments. The result is pretty clear with over 10,000 participants in the study. >>Total hours worked increased by roughly 30%, including a rise of 18% in working after normal business hours. Average output did not significantly change. Therefore, productivity fell by about 20%. Time spent on coordination activities and meetings increased, but uninterrupted work hours shrank con…
All from the same company though.
Re: Work from home and productivity: evidence from personnel and analytics data [pdf]
#5Surprised this post isn’t getting more comments. The result is pretty clear with over 10,000 participants in the study. >>Total hours worked increased by roughly 30%, including a rise of 18% in working after normal business hours. Average output did not significantly change. Therefore, productivity fell by about 20%. Time spent on coordination activities and meetings increased, but uninterrupted work hours shrank con…
Anecdotally, I've seen this happen on my team, and it is the single biggest factor that makes me somewhat receptive to going back into the office. It's easier to draw a line between work and home that way.
Maybe we should just turn Slack off altogether outside of business hours, and only enable it in emergencies. LOL
Re: Work from home and productivity: evidence from personnel and analytics data [pdf]
#6I have been unfortunate enough to be "diagnosed" with ADHD at a young age. Oh how strange it is that a child can't concentrate with 25 of his peers hopping and chatting around him, let's medicate him as soon as possible! /rant off
Well, a few years ago I rented an office space with a friend of mine, just the two of us in a very spacious (100m2), light and well-ventilated office. We received no phone calls, there were no people walking in, or cats and girlfriends asking for attention. I had less distractions than I had at home, and much less than in a traditional office. And it was a dedicated area for "work". A comfortable desk and chair, two monitors and a fast pc.
All these factors made it so much easier to concentrate and get into the flow... If I had to put a number on it I'd say I would be at least 1.5x more effective working in an area like that compared to a traditional office or at my desk at home.
I will NEVER again say that I am someone who has trouble concentrating, having worked in a place like that.
I wonder if (and how much) the lack of a proper workplace explains the decrease in output when working from home in this study. I can imagine a decrease in productivity if you have to share your home and workplace with other people or even children... But when your children and partner are at work, or if you have a seperate workspace, I wonder how the two compare then.
Re: Work from home and productivity: evidence from personnel and analytics data [pdf]
#7Surprised this post isn’t getting more comments. The result is pretty clear with over 10,000 participants in the study. >>Total hours worked increased by roughly 30%, including a rise of 18% in working after normal business hours. Average output did not significantly change. Therefore, productivity fell by about 20%. Time spent on coordination activities and meetings increased, but uninterrupted work hours shrank con…
Interesting. This contradicts the prevailing HN sentiment that WFH increases productivity because there's less time spent socializing or dealing with distractions.
Re: Work from home and productivity: evidence from personnel and analytics data [pdf]
#8> Employees with children living at home increased hours workedmore than those without children at home, and suffered a bigger decline in productivity than thosewithout children.
This tells you all you need to know about the study. You can't analyse the relative effectiveness of working from home and working in the office when you're conflating "remote work" with "trying to get something done on your laptop on the kitchen table while working from home due to the pandemic, while your two early-primary-school-aged kids, who you are simultaneously trying to home-school due to the pandemic, are running amok in the lounge room."
Re: Work from home and productivity: evidence from personnel and analytics data [pdf]
#9Surprised this post isn’t getting more comments. The result is pretty clear with over 10,000 participants in the study. >>Total hours worked increased by roughly 30%, including a rise of 18% in working after normal business hours. Average output did not significantly change. Therefore, productivity fell by about 20%. Time spent on coordination activities and meetings increased, but uninterrupted work hours shrank con…
Anecdotally, I've seen this happen on my team, and it is the single biggest factor that makes me somewhat receptive to going back into the office. It's easier to draw a line between work and home that way. Maybe we should just turn Slack off altogether outside of business hours, and only enable it in emergencies. LOL
You should turn Slack off outside business hours! And, remove from your phone. If there is a true emergency, this is why people are on call.
This applies equally to whether wfh or in office.
Re: Work from home and productivity: evidence from personnel and analytics data [pdf]
#10I remember reading on a different post (can't find it) that productivity went up sharply at the beginning of the pandemic-induced WFH trend, but then subsided over time. The thinking was that people were on their toes early on for fear of being viewed as a slacker, but then once they adjusted to WFH they relaxed. Maybe someone else saw this study...