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Remote workers work longer, not more efficiently

economist.com

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Re: Remote workers work longer, not more efficiently

#61

Post by tzs »

bushbaba wrote: post #21
wffurr wrote: post #12

Does the original study attempt to account for the once-a-century pandemic occurring at the same time? Seems like one should be careful drawing conclusions about remote work from the last year's data.

This was probably the best environment for remote work. There was nothing else to do but work and eat for many. As people start going to sports games, vacation, concerts, fairs, dinning, bars, clubs, etc. the number of hours they’ll work will go down.

By that reasoning the productivity of people in prison should be through the roof, at least for those in low security prisons that only hold people who are there for white collar crimes.

Re: Remote workers work longer, not more efficiently

#62

Post by Jeff_Brown »

Hamuko wrote: post #43
baybal2 wrote: post #2

Remote works makes me more lazy. Half of the work is fighting your laziness.

I've noticed that shitty tasks make me procrastinate and interesting tasks make time fly no matter where I am.

+1. Also, the pleasure or pain of a task is not constant over time. Part of efficiency is finding a task appropriate to one's mood, and anticipating how one's mood will change over time.

Influencing one's mood to match the task at hand is of course useful too, if you can figure it out. This is why I often read the git log and my notes before diving into a task -- it reminds me why I care, what fruits are tantalizingly low-hanging, etc.

Re: Remote workers work longer, not more efficiently

#65

Post by analog31 »

wffurr wrote: post #12

Does the original study attempt to account for the once-a-century pandemic occurring at the same time? Seems like one should be careful drawing conclusions about remote work from the last year's data.

Yeah, especially when we don't really know what we're even measuring in the first place. Attempts to measure the output of knowledge workers have always been more art than science, and biased by the viewpoint of whoever's paying for the measurement. Virtually all measurements depend on "all other things being equal." Which they weren't.

Re: Remote workers work longer, not more efficiently

#66

Post by AYBABTME »

bushbaba wrote: post #21
wffurr wrote: post #12

Does the original study attempt to account for the once-a-century pandemic occurring at the same time? Seems like one should be careful drawing conclusions about remote work from the last year's data.

This was probably the best environment for remote work. There was nothing else to do but work and eat for many. As people start going to sports games, vacation, concerts, fairs, dinning, bars, clubs, etc. the number of hours they’ll work will go down.

I've been remote for well before the pandemic and no, it was really not a good environment. It was stressful and the cities were up in arms and the weather was insane and there was no daycare and going to the grocery was stressful and there was no toilet paper and all kind of calamities conspired to prevent me from thinking straight. And when work stopped, there was nowhere to go and no one to hangout with.

Really the worse time to be productive. I was way more productive as a pre-pandemic remote.

Re: Remote workers work longer, not more efficiently

#67

Post by osigurdson »

If companies really believe that they are tracking productivity with automated metric collection, then they should tie compensation directly to the metrics.

If, on the other hand, they believe that the metrics are only reliable when done in a secretive/clandestine manner then they must, by definition, not correlate very well to actual productivity. If this is the case, the "trackers" have some explaining to do in terms of the actual value that they are adding to the organization.

Re: Remote workers work longer, not more efficiently

#68

Post by gns24 »

andrew_ wrote: post #16

Very much YMMV.12 year remote engineer here, and I absolutely work less on the whole, versus my past in-office gigs, due to far more focused and efficient stints of development, etc. Perhaps some folks just aren't the type that should/can work remotely. As all things in life, we're not made from the same mold.

I'm more of an in-office person. The office is definitely more distracting, and I used to like working late occasionally because I had some solid focus time, but to a degree that's still true: whilst other people are online there is necessary interaction to transfer information in both directions.

One potential WFH efficiency loss for me is that due to casual conversations or things I overheard in the office, there were many occasions when I knew that someone had already investigated something or that some issue had come up that explained symptoms I came across, saving unnecessary duplication of effort or implementing something which wasn't quite what was required. You might argue that this level of communication could be achieved remotely, but maybe you'd end up with nearly the same level of distractions.

I will add that my commute was a 15-minute cycle, and my employer provided me with lunch, so probably going to work was actually a net time saving for me (certainly if you consider the commute exercise time), which may explain why I'm less keen on WFH than most.

Re: Remote workers work longer, not more efficiently

#69

Post by Jeff_Brown »

Here are what I'd call the two money quotes:

"Although they saved commuting time, this did not offset the extra hours spent in meetings."

"[T]he research shows that employees were able to achieve as much output with slightly less “focus time” than they had at the office. The real source of inefficiency ... was the time spent in meetings."

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