Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment • Hacker News Board

Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment

#11

Post by jwoah12 » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 5:47 PM UTC

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #10

jaggederest wrote: post #4

Earlier 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.

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.

Not saying that I agree or disagree with the hypothesis, but it does assume that all other variables remain the same. By moving to a different area with more stuff to do, you invalidate the experiment. That's akin to saying exercising everyday for an hour did not improve your health because you got hit by a car one day while running.

Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment

#12

Post by tastive » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 5:48 PM UTC

I hope this is followed by similar studies for teleworkers in different professions. This specific study isn't generalize-able; it focuses on teleworkers where work units come directly to workers in short, easily measured spurts (unlike most IT positions, which often involve multi-day tasks).

The next step is to perform the same sort of analysis where workers complete multi-day projects and communicate asynchronously with co-workers (email, issue trackers). Workers that only WFH one or a few days a week (as opposed to all the time or none) are also worth looking at; instinctually, I'd think this group would be the most abusive.

Further, it sounds like the telework involved is relatively pleasant -- CTrip is a travel agency, which I imagine involves happier customer calls than ones to the phone company. The study might not even be representative of all call-answering telework in China, which is a pretty narrow focus.

Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment

#13

Post by aristidb » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 5:48 PM UTC

Gotta applaud this Chinese firm for using scientific experiments rather than gut feeling to decide on important policies.

However, please don't take far-ranging conclusions from this experiment. Call-center work is a fairly specific type of work with extreme values of "noise" and "distraction". For other kinds of work, the results might end up vastly differently.

(Also, the Chrome spelling correction sucks. Just sayin'.)

Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment

#14

Post by neutronicus » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 5:49 PM UTC

the_cat_kittles wrote: post #5

jaggederest wrote: post #4

Earlier 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?

Well, there is this: long commutes are correlated with an increase the likelihood of divorce, especially early in marriage[1].

http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=104021&...

Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment

#15

Post by hnwh » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 5:55 PM UTC

the_cat_kittles wrote: post #3

I 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 had a 3 minute walk to work at my last job.. Even though the walk was great to get out and get sun and fresh air, there's still the downside of having to prepare, and be in the office. I hope never again to have to work in a situation where I don't work from home. Working from home is orders of magnitude better as far as my happiness goes, and I find that I am literally 3x more productive in getting my own work done (as opposed to being in the office and spending 3 hrs on my own work, and 5 hrs on everyone else's problems). I can actually see years being added to my life by working from home. Having to go in the office really turned me into a shadow of a person, and I actually saw myself aging.

Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment

#16

Post by nostromo » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 6:08 PM UTC

Here's the payload for those not wanting to hunt for it in the paper:

"We find a highly significant 12% increase in performance from home-working, of which 8% is from working more minutes of their shift period (fewer breaks and sick-days) and 3% from higher performance per minute. We find no negative spillovers onto workers left in the office. Home workers also reported substantially higher work satisfaction and psychological attitude scores, and their job attrition rates fell by over 50%."

Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment

#17

Post by jontas » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 6:14 PM UTC

gmrple wrote: post #8

the_cat_kittles wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I went through a similar experience, and I eventually discovered that audiobooks made my driving commute almost as enjoyable as the train.

Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment

#18

Post by gwern » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 6:17 PM UTC

the_cat_kittles wrote: post #3

I 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.

Called the 'commuting paradox'; eg. http://ideas.repec.org/p/zur/iewwpx/151.html

Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment

#19

Post by mc32 » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 6:20 PM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #16

Here's the payload for those not wanting to hunt for it in the paper: "We find a highly significant 12% increase in performance from home-working, of which 8% is from working more minutes of their shift period (fewer breaks and sick-days) and 3% from higher performance per minute. We find no negative spillovers onto workers left in the office. Home workers also reported substantially higher work satisfaction and psyc…

Somewhere (can't recall) it was said that those who predominantly worked from home, while effective as a workforce, suffered from lack of visibility and thus tended to not get raises or promotions as much as those who remained in the office (I assume this was normalized for responsibility/position).

Re: Does Working From Home Work? Evidence From a Chinese Experiment

#20

Post by RollAHardSix » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 6:20 PM UTC

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #10

jaggederest wrote: post #4

Earlier 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.

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.

I find that surprising you say that. I also work ~10 minutes from my home and also ~15 from where I practice martial arts and go the gym at. For me, being able to wake, get cleaned-up, dressed and out the door...then leave work go straight to the gym and go home makes a drastic difference in how I feel. Even just 20 minutes saved on each end of the day is an extra half-hour to get home and start getting settled. As they say...different strokes for different folks!