Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

531–540 of 597 posts

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

#531

Post by flanked-evergl »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #425
flanked-evergl wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would this involve? And can't they buy equity with their salaries if they wanted to?

Usually my employers haven’t let me buy as much equity as I’ve wanted to, they severely constrain the employee equity pool allocation and dole it out as occasional rewards and reserve most for non-worker investors and owners or executive roles. For how it could work you can look at worker-owned cooperative structures, sociocracy, etc

Maybe you should consider working for publicly listed companies then, there is no mechanism where they can limit how much equity you own.

The one customer owned cooperative I have worked for did limit equity to one share per shareholder, in addition to being the most pathologically corporate and political company I have ever worked for or known off. Maybe worker owned cooperatives work better.

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

#532

Post by rldjbpin »

having worked in two countries and several companies in my relatively short career, i personally find that fully remote work has a lot of limitations.

even when hybrid work is implemented, you require a strong communication culture. this is not a given for all companies, however. when you sit with your team across the desk, simple things like asking about a small detail takes orders of magnitude less time and effort than the digital alternative.

regardless of your opinions on taking breaks with your colleagues, i found off-work conversations happen much less often when everyone is doing remote. i am not arguing that everyone hates their coworkers (or maybe mine hated me and only stood to talk to me when in person), but despite post-pandemic era, this pattern still seems to hold up.

i would love to hear how others have done things differently in this context. the point remains that there are some things that need to be in place before you could fully make the most of remote-only teams.

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

#533

Post by jvmboi »

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #408
jvmboi wrote: post #151

I am fully remote and have been for a long time but I don't trust productivity studies, especially if they just find what everyone wants to hear anyway. If the market can do anything then it that has to be optimizing productivity. Every single company has a weighty incentive to work out what works best and so I fully expect that after a bit of churn the optimal remote/on-premise balance will be found on a job-by-job…

> If the market can do anything then it that has to be optimizing productivity. Except if margins from the company's commercial real estate holdings are higher than the gains of remote productivity.

Real estate is alluded to throughout this thread. I don't really get it. Is the theory that companies do RTO so they can rent out real estate to themselves via a holding? Just looking at profits I don't understand how that would be beneficial. Every dollar that the holding gains comes out of the coffers of the parent company.

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

#534

Post by jvmboi »

knallfrosch wrote: post #273
jvmboi wrote: post #151

I am fully remote and have been for a long time but I don't trust productivity studies, especially if they just find what everyone wants to hear anyway. If the market can do anything then it that has to be optimizing productivity. Every single company has a weighty incentive to work out what works best and so I fully expect that after a bit of churn the optimal remote/on-premise balance will be found on a job-by-job…

Yeah, measuring productivity is a complex topic. You probably don't even know the productivity yourself, or by story points or whatever. But saying "the market will fix it" doesn't really help you when you're a business owner. You're telling him to just go with any approach, and if his company tanks, the market is working as intended. Not that much guidance. I understand that employees don't have to care, they can sw…

That's a good point. For a business owner that has to decide right now, it's little comfort to know that the market will sort it out. I'd guess that big corps are most affected here. SMB owners probably know exactly what they need.

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

#535

Post by helboi4 »

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #471
chatmasta wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It shines when comparing to commute by private transport, but not so much when comparing it to no commute at all. If you didn't have a commute to the office, you would still have an hour to do your reading, but you could do it in bed, or in a coffee shop, or in your kitchen, or on a walk...

I find that a reason to leave the house and be a part of the hustle and bustle is fundamentally good for my energy and mental health. I bet I wouldn't read in the morning as much if I didn't have that commute. This is very subjective, as well as personal and irrational, but I find it to be true. I benefit from having a reason to go out into the world in the morning. WFH and the freedom to go to the coffeeshop or take…

I agree. I lose energy levels and general lust for life when I don't have a strong reason to leave the house.

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

#536

Post by lwhi »

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 agree.

Taking an average view isn't useful at all, apart from maybe insinuating more people carry out jobs that are suitable for remote working.

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

#537

Post by helboi4 »

vidarh wrote: post #529
coldpie wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This nearby comment does a good job explaining why that doesn't really work out for me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39042945

I can't help but feel that is a rationalisation.

No. theres a reason why humans have always had routines that are agreed upon by society. We are social creatures. We are not made to be individualistic islands with all the responsibility to perfectly dial in our mental health ourselves.

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

#538

Post by helboi4 »

coldpie wrote: post #463
hospitalJail wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The human brain is incredible at rationalization.

In this thread, hospitalJail discovers that some people enjoy leaving their basement :)

Yeah I hate how the wierd basement dwellers are telling us how to handle our mental health. 99% of humans are not basement dwellers who don't like seeing people. People are becoming more socially awkward because our society is forgetting the fundamental social nature of human beings. So maybe some people think they like it. But the statistics don't lie - mental health is going off a fucking cliff. We're not meant to live like this. There are a few basement dwellers who are really that introverted, and there are some people who just have commutes that are THAT BAD (and that's bad town planning), but most people benefit from being outside our house for large portions of the week and having most of our communication being face to face. And that's just a fact.

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

#539

Post by helboi4 »

dgfitz wrote: post #430
pc86 wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 1.4% of the year (assuming that 130 hours a year is correct I didn't check it). That's less than two ounces out of a gallon of liquid or less than half a centimeter out of a foot. In what other things is 1.4% considered "significant?"

Taxes jump to mind. COL adjustments vs inflation for the past few years also comes to mind. Beating some measurable world record by 1.4% is probably a big deal. I'm sure there are more examples if you look for them.

Bro nobody is spending 100% of their time being productive. we have to have transitional time. time going from one place to another is a net benefit because living in one box is anti-human. for me the cost of the time is so so worth it because i feel so much better seeing my colleagues in person. i become a shell of myself if i don't leave the house so losing the time is something i'm very okay with. its such a small amount of time to make my life 200x better.

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

#540

Post by helboi4 »

bargle0 wrote: post #251
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…

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

What about all of us that don't have children. who need social interaction outside the house to be sane? who have just started our careers and need friendly colleagues around us who will support us? who have been cast out of adolescence into a world where everyone tells us to stay in our room alone and maybe download an app if you don't want to be suicidal. not everyone is a middle aged parent my guy
Post reply on HN