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

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

#341

Post by nine_k »

intended wrote: post #185
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 would add one major change that the work from home experiment has achieved - its made the opportunity cost of the work commute clear. This is a time cost paid for by the worker. As you stated, this is variable. If you have a short commute, or you like it, or you get some exercise - office is great. If you hate your commute, if its 3 hours in pollution and traffic - not so much. Earlier the position was that WFH was…

BTW this is where commute by public transport shines. My 30 minutes to the office are my dedicated reading time, an hour a day. If instead I had to drive, that would be lost time, because paying enough attention to the book distracts enough from driving to add unnecessary risk.

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

#342

Post by toomuchtodo »

nine_k wrote: post #341
intended wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would add one major change that the work from home experiment has achieved - its made the opportunity cost of the work commute clear. This is a time cost paid for by the worker. As you stated, this is variable. If you have a short commute, or you like it, or you get some exercise - office is great. If you hate your commute, if its 3 hours in pollution and traffic - not so much. Earlier the position was that WFH was…

BTW this is where commute by public transport shines. My 30 minutes to the office are my dedicated reading time, an hour a day. If instead I had to drive, that would be lost time, because paying enough attention to the book distracts enough from driving to add unnecessary risk.

Shines where it can, doesn't work in most of the US.

Public transit use:

https://vividmaps.com/public-transportation-in-the-united-st...

https://vividmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/public-tran...

Population density:

https://www.axios.com/2023/10/28/americans-moving-map-2022-f...

https://www.axios.com/2023/01/31/cities-pandemic-moving-tren...

https://www.axios.com/2023/09/14/where-america-stands

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

#343

Post by stronglikedan »

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?

I live 10 minutes from my office, and there are much, much fewer distractions there. Anecdotal of course, but it's one way to answer your question.

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

#344

Post by steveBK123 »

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…

Right, I think the important nuance is that "it depends" and therefore, top-down C-level suite dictates on Remote/Hybrid/In-office requirements are generally more punitive than useful.

If your team level management org cannot organically work out the right mix on a team/role basis, then you probably should look at what else they are doing poorly.

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

#345

Post by rebeccaskinner »

meindnoch wrote: post #156
rebeccaskinner wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started managing a team with the “no meetings, let people do good work” philosophy and I can just say that I’m glad I was given the space as a new manager to find my feet, because I didn’t find that it worked well when taken to an extreme. Remote work offers very little structure. As someone who thrives on autonomy and chafes at process this always felt great to me, but a lot of people thrive with a bit of structur…

>5 to 6 hours of standing meetings Jeeeesus... Yeah, I bet your engineers thrive .

They are doing far better now than with fewer meetings, and they’ve consistently agreed that the additional meetings are valuable, so yeah, I think they are.

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

#346

Post by CalRobert »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #315
CalRobert wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I see stories of people who have worked remote at a company for a year or so, and still have yet to see the faces of any of their coworkers. I get that dev work has a disproportionate amount of basement dwellers, but man, that is still so crazy to me.

For what it's worth I can have interesting, fulfilling relationships and friendships with people I only know online, both in and out of a work setting. But it is fun to hang out in person.

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

#348

Post by coldpie »

ProjectArcturis wrote: post #340
coldpie wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My commute is about 40 minutes each way by bus, plus a 5 minute walk on both ends. I love it. I get outdoors for a short walk four times a day, I read books and magazines on the bus, see what's being built or new businesses opening around town, sometimes I get to meet neighbors and other commuters, or help out random strangers with directions or whatever. My commute to work is definitely a benefit to my life.

If you had a remote job, would you take a 40-minute round-trip bus ride twice a day just for the enjoyment of it?

No.

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

#349

Post by rcbdev »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #342
nine_k wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTW this is where commute by public transport shines. My 30 minutes to the office are my dedicated reading time, an hour a day. If instead I had to drive, that would be lost time, because paying enough attention to the book distracts enough from driving to add unnecessary risk.

Shines where it can, doesn't work in most of the US. Public transit use: https://vividmaps.com/public-transportation-in-the-united-st... https://vividmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/public-tran... Population density: https://www.axios.com/2023/10/28/americans-moving-map-2022-f... https://www.axios.com/2023/01/31/cities-pandemic-moving-tren... https://www.axios.com/2023/09/14/where-america-stands

Thankfully the US is a major outlier in this aspect globally.

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

#350

Post by chasd00 »

knallfrosch wrote: post #267
randomdata wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Work avoidance typically stems from fear of failure, not boredom. If workers are screwing around when there is work that needs to be done, that is indicative of an environment that doesn't provide the proper failsafes. That said, a lot of jobs simply don't have a constant stream of work that needs to be done, with the work available being dependent on when the customer chooses to engage. It is likely that for a lot o…

Or it's just boring work. I'm employed as software engineer with no reports as a team of 4 engineers. The project has entered maintenance mode and we just investigate bugs, chase teams we're dependent on, confirm a change works on 4 different versions.. my productivity has tanked. I'd rather write a new feature with clean code and improve the existing code base in the meantime.

boredom is as bad as being swamped. I hate being bored, it's excruciating. At least with deadline pressure there's some adrenaline involved.
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