Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment
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Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment
#2I frequently speak with people in my neighborhood about my experience of working from home, and they say: "I don't think I could handle it."
For me, it's just a different type of distraction. When I got bored when working in an office, I would take a break, go get a drink, walk around and see what everybody else was up to, and then go back to work refreshed.
From home, when I get bored, I get up, get a drink of water, play with my kids for a couple of minutes and then go back to work refreshed.
All that being said, I'm not sure this particular study has much to say in the way of helping those of us who do knowledge work from home. Call center work seems like it's different enough that I can see the type of work invalidating the applicability of this particular study to our particular line of work.
Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment
#3I wonder how much improvement in morale can be attributed to not having a commute. I wonder if people who have a short walk to work are even happier than people who work from home, broadly speaking.
Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment
#4I wonder how much improvement in morale can be attributed to not having a commute. I wonder if people who have a short walk to work are even happier than people who work from home, broadly speaking.
I can't find a citation, but I believe that I read that a 20 minute addition to your commute has the same long-term quality of life impact as losing function in a limb.
This is for two reasons: firstly, the long term impact of losing function in a limb is far less than people think, and the long term impact of an increased commute is far more than people think.
Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment
#5I wonder how much improvement in morale can be attributed to not having a commute. I wonder if people who have a short walk to work are even happier than people who work from home, broadly speaking.
I can't find a citation, but I believe that I read that a 20 minute addition to your commute has the same long-term quality of life impact as losing function in a limb. This is for two reasons: firstly, the long term impact of losing function in a limb is far less than people think, and the long term impact of an increased commute is far more than people think.
do you know if commutes are as bad for people when they aren't the ones driving, so they could read for instance?
Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment
#6I frequently speak with people in my neighborhood about my experience of working from home, and they say: "I don't think I could handle it." For me, it's just a different type of distraction. When I got bored when working in an office, I would take a break, go get a drink, walk around and see what everybody else was up to, and then go back to work refreshed. From home, when I get bored, I get up, get a drink of water…
Call centers are a very different type of work than most office work. And different types of call center work have very different implications. The company involved in this study was CTrip – China’s largest travel agency. [I think] Travel agencies are usually speaking with happy customers planning vacations. Tech support, customer service, and telemarketing call center employees would have had a significant reduction in utilization in this study.
Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment
#7The most recent Freakonomics on Marketplace segment focused on this study:
http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/08/23/there%E2%80%99s-cake-...
Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't find a citation, but I believe that I read that a 20 minute addition to your commute has the same long-term quality of life impact as losing function in a limb. This is for two reasons: firstly, the long term impact of losing function in a limb is far less than people think, and the long term impact of an increased commute is far more than people think.
do you know if commutes are as bad for people when they aren't the ones driving, so they could read for instance?
[anecdotal] Last year I would allocate 4 hours a day for commuting to Chicago via train. I now commute 2-4 hours via car to work. I thoroughly enjoyed my commute to Chicago for quite/reading time and predictability. I hate my commute to work now. I will be moving closer soon.
Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment
#9I wonder how much improvement in morale can be attributed to not having a commute. I wonder if people who have a short walk to work are even happier than people who work from home, broadly speaking.
Last time I had two job offers, I chose a nice 12-mile bike commute over telecommuting. About 90% of the time, I'm happy with that decision. (The other 10% of days involve bad weather or rude drivers.)
Of course, if I were telecommuting I could just go take a bike ride at lunchtime on nice days, and not have to deal with darkness or bad weather or packing work clothes or rush hour traffic. Though I worry that I wouldn't.
Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment
#10I wonder how much improvement in morale can be attributed to not having a commute. I wonder if people who have a short walk to work are even happier than people who work from home, broadly speaking.
I can't find a citation, but I believe that I read that a 20 minute addition to your commute has the same long-term quality of life impact as losing function in a limb. This is for two reasons: firstly, the long term impact of losing function in a limb is far less than people think, and the long term impact of an increased commute is far more than people think.
I'm having trouble seeing that. When the company I worked for moved 15 miles closer to home, my commute dropped from about an hour to less than 10 minutes. It had very little impact on my QOL.
Likewise, when I decided to move 20 minutes farther away, my QOL actually improved, since I liked the area I lived in much more and there was more stuff to do after work.