It doesn't confirm either ways though, not good, not bad.
Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
161–170 of 597 posts
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not? Companies will eventually sort into ones where likeminded people are together. Some will be more friendly to remote than others. If I want to work in person with people, I’ll join a company that agrees. If someone wants to be remote, they might have to join a different company.
Assuming that there are no differences in productivity, working on-site is borderline morally evil. It's unhealthier (loads of sleep deprivation out there), it's bad for the environment and its costs are higher. We can argue all day if the perks of in-person work are worth the cost, but if there aren't any perks besides "I just prefer it that way" I don't think there is even a valid discussion to have. We are talking…
Assuming that there are no differences in productivity, working remotely is borderline morally evil. It's unhealthier (loneliness, lack of work/life separation, physical inactivity), it's bad for the environment (climate control of a 100-people office is less energy intensive than that of 100 individual homes), and its costs are imposed on the worker rather than the business.
To be clear, I don't honestly believe the previous paragraph. I'm just using it to illustrate how one can pull out a "just so" story to argue the exact opposite that you're doing. I believe your argument is flawed in that makes a universal condemnation supported by generalisations based on local specifics.
I work in a company which, for all intents and purposes, allows its employees to be almost fully remote and yet a significant number of us actively choose to come to the office (partly motivated by things like free brunches from office management). The overwhelming majority of workers come to the office on foot, on public transport, by bike, or by electric scooter, and a tiny few come by motorbike. How is that "borderline morally evil"?
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
Assuming that there are no differences in productivity, working on-site is borderline morally evil. It's unhealthier (loads of sleep deprivation out there), it's bad for the environment and its costs are higher. We can argue all day if the perks of in-person work are worth the cost, but if there aren't any perks besides "I just prefer it that way" I don't think there is even a valid discussion to have. We are talking…
I love remote work but I don't know if I'd call it morally evil to have people on site. There's something to be said for being in the same physical space as your peers and the social bonds that form, etc. But the only way I commute now is by train and/or bike, most commutes to some godawful office park hellscape in San Jose are agony.
> There's something to be said for being in the same physical space as your peers and the social bonds that form
indeed it seems that effective remote only work requires a more coherent team or more formalized processes.
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
Assuming that there are no differences in productivity, working on-site is borderline morally evil. It's unhealthier (loads of sleep deprivation out there), it's bad for the environment and its costs are higher. We can argue all day if the perks of in-person work are worth the cost, but if there aren't any perks besides "I just prefer it that way" I don't think there is even a valid discussion to have. We are talking…
I love remote work but I don't know if I'd call it morally evil to have people on site. There's something to be said for being in the same physical space as your peers and the social bonds that form, etc. But the only way I commute now is by train and/or bike, most commutes to some godawful office park hellscape in San Jose are agony.
"Net negative" is a more neutral way to put it. The way it's stated, if there is no productivity benefit and the employee doesn't like going to the office, then it's a loss for the employee and no gain for the employer. Overall a net loss in utility, no weightings needed in that example.
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but then we're discussing remote work as an employee benefit, which is a different discussion driven by a different part of the company etc. Not as a thing which improves the company's bottom line which is where C suite and shareholders spend the vast majority of their attention. If it doesn't improve job productivity then at the level where decisions get made I can think of two really significant points regard…
B... y'all are massively out of touch of how your business actually works and I hope you all pay dearly for that. You will. I promise. Count your days but I know you'll just go somewhere else and ruin it there too. Communication counts for something. You might not know much about that because you see businesses as interchangeable balance sheets rather than a living breathing thing. Your loss. Expect your end. I reall…
Pay people enough so it is worth enough to come on-site. Which is probably double.
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#166> If remote work boosts productivity in a substantial way, then it should improve productivity performance Not necessarily given the methodology. For example, if remote work allows a worker to do their laundry in parallel where they would be otherwise unable to in an office, their productivity has increased, but the gains would not show up in the study. It observes industry productivity, not work productivity.
I'm glad that I'm in an environment that only output is measured. Nobody cares how you get there, what do you daily in the slack hours, etc
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is nominally true but when I was looking for a place to rent I needed to be sure it had a space for remote work, which made it more expensive. I tried working from a desk in a wide part of my hallway or in my room (shared with my spouse) and it really didn't work. If you have young kids a separate room is pretty much a must, and ideally, a separate structure (like a small backyard office).
Yeah, I guess this aspect is underappreciated here on HN: most "hackers" also hack in their spare time, so probably already have a desk (maybe even a separate room) where they have good working conditions at home.
I do this too, but generally after the kids go to bed in which case the couch is fine.
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is just the truth. And the responses I get when pointing this out are either along the lines of “I don’t want to talk to my coworkers ever if I can avoid it” and “technically you can have those same conversations in the slack #random if you wanted.” Working remote has sucked all the personality and humanity from work imo.
> Working remote has sucked all the personality and humanity from work imo. A platoon of conventionally acceptably dressed drones sat at generic desks furiously typing in a nondescript openspace where soundproofing creates cathedral silence causing the slightest noise to be annoying so every single one is glued to their screen with headphones on is what sucked all the personality and humanity from work imo. I find it…
Great response. Also not everyone is working on exciting GPU related projects.
Many are working on enterprise CRUD apps where I'd argue you don't have to come to the office on the off chance that some watercooler chats will bring some innovation.
Have some proper planned 'innovation' workshops either on or offsite or a mix of both.
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#169People are different. For some it really increases productivity and wellbeing. For others the opposite. I'm not surprised it is about the same on average as measured by work output. I've been working 100% remote since 2017 and I'll never willingly change it.
Working remote showed me how much I value direct interaction with people. For me, and I spoke to a lot of people for whom it's the same, the sweet spot is a hybrid model. Three days remote, two days on-site. Sometimes the other way round, depends on the tasks for the week. If I need to do 100% remote, because I may have a light cold and don't want to spread it, I feel miserable after two weeks. That being said, I als…
I'm completely opposite, so much energy wasted dealing with people. Just give me the requirements, only contact me for technical reasons please. I'm not a social animal, I work to collect my salary to pay bills, full stop. Less contacts means better work quality because I'm not wasting my energy somewhere else.
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
I now have more time that I can spend with daughter, so I guess I may improved my parenting skill? IMO it's also totally fine to use that freed up time to just get a break from... anything. No need to be after self-improvement all the time.
That's a right incentive for workers, but what is needed here for workers is an incentive for companies to expand remote work.
Employee retention