Opinion: Working from home is great — except for productivity

Financial Post ^ | 2 July 2021 | Matthew Lombardi

[ShadowAce]

I WFH full time at the moment. I am careful to limit my work hours to scheduled work hours, and I get a lot more done now than when I was in the office.

[al baby]

My wife gets way more done at home

[RedStateRocker]

I don’t even need to finish reading this tripe.

The only people opposed to folks working from home are micromanaging Pointy Haired Bosses who care only about getting their a$$ kissed and know jack-all about actual productivity.

If you push electrons around on a screen, you can do it from anywhere; only a control freak on a power trip who lacks the cognitive capacity to actually run the numbers needs to see ‘their’ people physically.

[BRL]

I love not working from home

[nickcarraway]

Same. Although I’m not always careful to limit my offers. When lockdown first started, I was working all day, because I had nothing else to do.

[The Louiswu]

My wife is FT WFH and has been for several years. She keeps getting raises and promotions so by industry standards I’d say she doing a good job and being productive. I suspect that some folks need closer supervision than others to remain productive and so WFH is definitely not for everyone.

[NobleFree]

“employees attending meetings unnecessarily in an attempt to demonstrate engagement.”

This is the problem: many employees are, formally or de facto, evaluated on BS like “engagement” rather than outcomes - because their managers lack the competence to measure meaningful outcomes.

[VastRWCon]

“Working from home is great — except for productivity”

I am going to have to disagree on that. I have been working from home M-F for over 8 years. Productivity on my part has gone up.

- No more those long unneeded boring meetings where people just love to hear themselves talk.

- No more pop-ins to chit-chat

- No more clock watching.

- No more birthday’s parties to celebrate

And no more commuting...

[NobleFree]

“If you push electrons around on a screen, you can do it from anywhere; only a control freak on a power trip who lacks the cognitive capacity to actually run the numbers needs to see ‘their’ people physically.”

Ditto!

[Dilbert San Diego]

There are pluses and minuses here, as with anything.

It would be nice to avoid having to commute to work in a downtown office. Then again, there are situations where you really need face to face meetings and not zoom meetings to be most productive. And not everyone’s job in an office involves simply doing work on a computer screen exclusively.

[ShadowAce]

only a control freak on a power trip who lacks the cognitive capacity to actually run the numbers needs to see ‘their’ people physically.

or--a manager who lacks the confidence he hired the right people. :)

[BBQToadRibs2]

I’ve worked from home the last 14 years. You must establish and keep a routine and your performance and productivity are not an issue.

[CivilWarBrewing]

I think women are more productive working from home than at their workplace.. They don’t have to worry about makeup, matching clothes, etc., and they’re not being sexually harassed or stalked by the creep in cubicle B.

[PROCON]

[Tell It Right]

Anybody who thinks working from home isn't as productive or more than working in the office obviously doesn't know programmer types. Maybe it's because we're used to being introverts even at home. LOL

Or maybe it's because many of us got into programming as a hobby in our teens, learning how to code at home reading books and magazines (at my age it was before the internet). Plus, in our careers there were often times stuff had to be fixed on weekends or at late nights and such when we were away from the office. So working from home has been normal since before we were old enough to drive.

[Reily]

Exactly !

[Dutch Boy]

I am the same. All work, no distractions, no idle chitchat.

[dblshot]

My daughter’s entire accounting team voted to stay working at home. In fact the company, a major distributer to the food and entertainment industry has closed a large office complex. My other daughter in HR also works from home, she has domestic and european HR responsibilities.

[JCL3]

Productivity on my part has gone up.
- No more those long unneeded boring meetings where people just love to hear themselves talk.
- No more pop-ins to chit-chat
- No more clock watching.
- No more birthday’s parties to celebrate
And no more commuting...
_____________________________________________________________

Agree 100%.
Been WFH every other week since March 2020. Saves me 210 miles per week and about 6 hours per week. With new “transitory inflation”, WFH also saves me about $50.40 on the weeks at home....more than $100/month in fuel cost.