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Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds

bloomberg.com

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Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds

#321

Post by Seacant »

coldpie wrote: post #277
jimt1234 wrote: post #97

How could remote work not be more productive? Most of my friends/colleagues get back at least an hour of their lives each day they don't commute, and they all use the "extra" time to do more work. People wanna work. They just don't wanna sit in traffic, walk through parking lots and ride elevators for an hour every day.

> How could remote work not be more productive? When I had to WFH for a year during COVID, my productivity completely plummeted, almost to zero. It was very hard for me to be actually productive for more than 60-120 minutes each day. I could be playing video games or guitar, or watching videos, or petting my cats, or doing dishes, or cooking, or going for a walk. Instead I have to sit at this desk and do work? Ehh...…

This mirrors the issue I had with work from home to a tee. During the pandemic, as soon as it was safe, I went into a ghost town of an office right up until they sold the building and made us all permanently work from home. I was eventually able to find that coffee shops filled a similar function for me, and now spend a majority of my productive workday at one.

(Same disclaimer as parent - everyone works differently)

Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds

#322

Post by ssijak »

brvsft wrote: post #256
bargle0 wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, an hour spent commuting is an hour stolen from one’s children.

I am starting to use coworking spaces now because WFH has something of a toll on my family, primarily because kids are loud, and it can be frustrating to work while your loud kid is screaming in the next room without enough of a sound barrier to prevent you from hearing it. I'm not angry at my child, but sometimes I get upset with my wife for not preventing this, or for telling me it's not that loud when it is imposs…

I've bought 28sqm apartment to be my office, few mins by foot from our apartment when the kid arrived. It is just better to split work hours and family hours better at that point. Better for everybody. If the main apartment/house is big enough I would not have felt the need to do it probably.

I would still not accept working from office jobs though.

Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds

#323

Post by neverrroot »

hospitalJail wrote: post #233
vidarh wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During my last job change I gave concrete numbers to recruiters on what getting me into an office would cost. In the end I ended up working remote, which is what I preferred, which wasn't surprising given how much the commuting time was worth to me.

For me it was: >Company A is 2.5 hours of drive time >Company B is remote Pay is the same. lol I imagine that Company A will find some sucker, but instead of getting A+ workers that can realize company B> company A, they are going to get the leftover workers, their second choice. To be fair, leftover workers seem to stick around at a company for 10-20 years.

Wow, just wow. Calling someone a sucker for taking a job, without considering anything else.

What about the top of the crop who live around the corner and prefer office over WFH for a clear separation between work and personal life?

Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds

#324

Post by paulus_magnus2 »

WFH is an invention equal to washingmachine + dishwasher where 2h each day is not being lost anymore by unproductive activity. With plenty of externalities on top of the lost time.

If (only as a test excercise) for 5 years we mandated the employer to bare the commute cost we would quickly see if RTO / WFH makes more economical sense.

Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds

#325

Post by ssijak »

If working from home for all the jobs that do not require physical presence (building a building on a location for example) was a right by law, I can imagine centralisation in big cities reversing and a lot of interesting smaller communities starting to flourish more. Which in my opinion is a great thing.

Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds

#326

Post by nostrebored »

helboi4 wrote: post #199
lloeki wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Bro what sort of dystopiian offices have you been working in. I've never had that experience. People are always somewhat intersting and like to actually talk. There are some off days but it's never like that. And never ever have I had a colleague spontaneously try to have casual zoom conversation with me while remotely working. I've had people never turn their cameras on. And meanwhile, I'm here, a childless 20-sth,…

They don’t think about what it’s like for young people to onboard.

You don’t know the culture. You don’t know anyone. Your questions are the “useless interruptions” people say they’re happy they get to ignore.

It’s very obvious that this is not a sustainable approach for most companies. Some companies will get remote culture right and get access to a niche of the employee market.

Overall, things will shift back to in person quickly. Look at startups at top VCs.

Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds

#327

Post by codingdave »

rTX5CMRXIfFG wrote: post #319
epolanski wrote: post #173

The fundamental issue I see in this debate is a lack of sensibility and nuance in human nature. The whole matter is debated (understandably in a way) on big numbers and averages. I could write a long post but I'll cut it short to this paragraph stating that humans differ. For some commuting is stressful, the offices are noisy and full of distractions and those individuals may thrive in a remote setup. There's people…

I hope it's OK to dissent here since all the other comments agree with you anyway. Regarding this: > The fundamental issue I see in this debate is a lack of sensibility and nuance in human nature. > The whole matter is debated (understandably in a way) on big numbers and averages. If statistics is invalid, then how do you propose companies decide, based on a reasonable and empirical estimate of reality, on what work…

I am 100% in the remote work camp, but I agree with you. Every company has the right to make the choice that works for them... whether empirically driven or not, it is their prerogative to choose. But they do then need to hire the people for whom that choice works. And as people looking for work, we need to accept that some companies are non-viable for us because of the choices they make.

The friction we're seeing now is that we're still recovering from a pandemic that forced everyone remote whether it works for them or not. So this idea of remote vs. office being a core strategic decision as a company grows is fairly new. We are all still learning how to navigate the options.

Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds

#328

Post by wegfawefgawefg »

jen20 wrote: post #236
mlrtime wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely agree here. For most of my career I was fortunate enough to not have a "real" commute. at most a 20 min walk to the office. The worse commute is when it was raining or snowing. The problem becomes now my home is tied to my work place. If the company moves or I change companies, I have move or stress at a new commute. I did move once during a job change, and it didn't last long. Another compounding issue…

I wouldn’t call 2.5% of the day (including night) nothing. 20 minutes is way past the upper bound of a daily commute I would consider reasonable!

People think youre a pussy thats why you got downvoted. but I agree with your spirit though. We should minimize commute time.

I too prefer a voluntary 20 minute walk over a mandatory one. Then my brain can be aimed at what I value, not work.

Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds

#329

Post by ponector »

realusername wrote: post #188
ponector wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Outsourcing jobs and salaries exploded with COVID. 100k USD annual compensation is insane for many countries. You can get best people overseas for a fraction of US costs, and with no obligation attached to you by labor laws. I'm glad this happens so I can use geographic arbitrage: work for US client but live in nice place in Europe with reasonable costs of living.

I didn't see any change at all personally, I do live in Europe though. The best talents globally are going to be paid at a rough similar level outside of the big tech giants. As we go forward, the monetary gain of outsourcing is trending down, it's already less worth it than 10 years ago. Remote working plays against outsourcing in my opinion, nobody wants to be underpaid, including talents in lower cost of living ar…

Maybe you are living in IT centers like Amsterdam or Berlin, but anywhere in south or east Europe 100k USD annual salary is almost unreachable for local employment.

Best talents are not paid at the similar level globally. Even tech giants like Google have different salary for same levels in different countries inside EU. You can get x2 if you move from Warsaw to Dublin or x3 if you move to Zurich.

Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds

#330

Post by alephxyz »

novok wrote: post #141
aurareturn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Give them interesting, meaningful work and they will be productive. How much meaningful and interesting work do you think exists in this world? Every time this topic gets brought up, someone will say "Just give people interesting work, pay them well, don't micromanage them!" as if these jobs grow on trees. And even if these jobs do exist, they're usually reserved for workers who are extremely motivated and capable -…

There is a lot of boring and low "meaning" work that needs to be done. To give a trite example, washing your dishes and keeping your house clean. Or brushing your teeth and flossing. Or making revenue dashboards tracking income and making sure that data reporting is accurate.

Doing the dishes is boring but it's offset by the satisfaction you feel from having a clean kitchen. Some tasks are both boring and make you feel useless after because all you're left with is a report that will rot in a middle management storage cabinet. I think a few 19th century German philosophers wrote about that extensively :)
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