Does anyone have the link to the study? I'm tired of news articles referencing and summarizing their interpretation of a study, without giving me the option to validate the claims made.
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
#52> 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.
Although it is pretty strong evidence office space is a boondoggle. That’s a lot of pointless overhead costs that hurt the bottom line. I like seeing my peers in person. I like hashing things out in person. Apparently that’s a waste of time and money.
that’s just fine and good for you, but please don’t impose your preferences on the rest of us.
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#53Most employees can screw around websurfing or shopping just as well at work as at home. They mostly do it because they are bored. Give them interesting, meaningful work and they will be productive.
TBF, I think the balance shifts when you're at home.
At the office, websurfing/shopping wold have felt like a complete waste of time, where doing the laundry or cleaning my room is definitely not. Emotionally some of the home chores will feel more meaningful than many bullshit tasks we do.
This was one of the prime reasons I switched job, even as the pay was mostly the same. Doing a job that feels meaningful in itself is I think more precious than ever.
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#54> 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.
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…
Amongst the numerous reasons why (B) may not be preferred is governments in looking at macroeconomics will generally want to disincentivise buying services overseas, something which would reduce domestic GDP and strengthen the economies of other countries instead. Governments have tools such as security regulations, migration policies, taxes which act as those disincentives.
For (B) to become commonplace, a government would be allowing a job function or industry to decline or disappear domestically, as has happened to Western manufacturing. I can't think of many industries and job functions suitable for remote work that a country in 2024 would want to cause the decline of. Western countries in particular have been pushing "critical infrastructure" regulations and supply chain regulations that generally oppose offshoring and domestic decline of a wide range of industries--energy, healthcare, food distribution, etc. For example, a supermarket chain is becoming increasingly restricted from conducting actions such as outsourcing their logistics ICT systems to another country to host and support.
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on your definition of meaningful and interesting. I have no doubt that public school teaching, working in a nursing home, working as a social worker is meaningful, but I wouldn’t find any of those to be interesting.
Working on a startup pursuing your topic / field of interest might do the trick. There are also lots of technical fields that vastly underpay due to the number of people that want to do it (eg. video games industry) and/or the lack of demand or immediate utility (eg. academia and research). There's also art, film, stage, music, and all of the liberal arts. Imagine what you want to do, then find a job that hits close…
Building a startup is full of uninteresting work. Same for games and any other field. Everything has its boring parts.
(Especially building startups. What a slog that is. The fun part is building the product, and that’s a fraction of what you have to do.)
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#56Earlier 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…
In most companies option B has been on the table for a very long time and they most probably partially took it while asking their workers to keep coming to the office up until recently. CS is the running joke, but server management, manual data processing, moderation etc. have been prime candidates for outsourcing for a long time. The reason one's job is/was not outsourced has I think little to do about whether gener…
> In most companies option B has been on the table for a very long time
Mom and Pop may have always been well positioned to fully embrace outsourcing, but they tend to just copy what they see big companies do without any thought. Additionally, where they do put in thought, they tend to lean “shop local” and see offshoring as a threat to their entire business.
As for those big companies, truly embracing option B has been difficult as even the C-level are typically themselves just employees, not the controlling ownership, and thus don't want to see their jobs outsourced any more than anyone else. Once the boots on the ground are offshored, you may as well offshore the management of them too. Thus there is a strong incentive for management to keep up onshore appearances and limit offshoring to small doses.
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on your definition of meaningful and interesting. I have no doubt that public school teaching, working in a nursing home, working as a social worker is meaningful, but I wouldn’t find any of those to be interesting.
Working on a startup pursuing your topic / field of interest might do the trick. There are also lots of technical fields that vastly underpay due to the number of people that want to do it (eg. video games industry) and/or the lack of demand or immediate utility (eg. academia and research). There's also art, film, stage, music, and all of the liberal arts. Imagine what you want to do, then find a job that hits close…
This is a fantastic way to turn something you enjoyed into something you hate.
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Although it is pretty strong evidence office space is a boondoggle. That’s a lot of pointless overhead costs that hurt the bottom line. I like seeing my peers in person. I like hashing things out in person. Apparently that’s a waste of time and money.
that’s just fine and good for you, but please don’t impose your preferences on the rest of us.
[deleted]
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#59It was never about productivity. It was about power and control. And commercial real estate investments.
Re: Remote work doesn't seem to affect productivity, Fed study finds
#60Most employees can screw around websurfing or shopping just as well at work as at home. They mostly do it because they are bored. Give them interesting, meaningful work and they will be productive.
Also, don’t force them to be “at work” for 8 hours just because this worked in a factory.