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Opinion: Working from home is great — except for productivity
Financial Post ^ | 2 July 2021 | Matthew Lombardi

Posted on 07/07/2021 11:29:33 AM PDT by ShadowAce

After 15 months of tumbleweeds blowing through near-abandoned commercial and financial centres, major North American cities are poised for a gradual downtown renaissance. The traffic that once flowed into downtowns by foot, bike, train, tram, and car and then up, up, up into the embrace of commercial office towers like arterial blood to the heart has already started to return.

In parallel, a debate rages about whether white-collar workers, who have proven they can work remotely, ought to return to the office at all. Should companies expect a return to the pre-COVID default of five days per week office “presenteeism”? Will workers even accept such terms? Is there a middle ground between strictly enforced pre-COVID attendance and the cabin fever of being isolated in a bachelor apartment all day long?

Arguments based on dogmatic views about how businesses should be run or hard-to-measure variables such as “Zoom fatigue” leave out one of the most important parts of the debate: productivity. A full year and change into the pandemic we have better data on this key metric that matters equally to employees and management. Productivity is most often measured in terms of output per unit of input. How much are people actually getting done relative to their effort?

A survey last month by Blind, an app that encourages anonymous career-related posts, suggested that 64 per cent of employees at the 45 largest companies in the U.S. would pick permanent work from home over a $30,000 raise. The most cited reason: dislike, not of the office, but of the daily commute.

What have North American office workers liberated from that commute been doing with the hours they’ve saved travelling to and from the office over the past year? Mainly, they have been working longer hours. Since COVID began the average employee newly working from home, not just in Canada but in the U.S. and U.K., is spending more than two additional hours per day logged in at their laptop. But to what effect? Have rededicated commuting hours raised productivity?

A comprehensive new study from three economists associated with the University of Chicago’s Becker-Friedman Institute shows that in spite of spending two hours more per day on the job workers accomplished essentially the same at home as at the office. They did not spend their saved commuting hours on personal care, family time, or exercise; rather, they spent two full additional hours daily on emails and virtual meetings. Worse, they generally had less time in a day for focused work.

A global survey from Microsoft that tracked 30,000 users of its ubiquitous Office 365 software across 30+ countries throughout 2020, comes to similar conclusions: in essence, we have simply replaced old fashioned in-office presenteeism with a digital version, with employees expected to be online more frequently. Microsoft’s data show that remote workers spent a staggering 148 per cent more minutes per week in virtual meetings and sent 42 per cent more instant messages after hours and 200 per cent more on weekends. Jared Spataro, a Microsoft vice-president who commented on the findings, says he has seen this phenomenon on his own team, with employees attending meetings unnecessarily in an attempt to demonstrate engagement.

Working more hours for the same output means both workers and employers are net productivity losers, at least in the short term. For obvious reasons the long-term productivity implications of this new digital presenteeism are not yet known, although late-pandemic studies around increased burnout suggest they may also be unfavourable.

Individual companies and teams will need to decide how to unpack these numbers and evaluate their own potential trade-offs. For example, for single parents is lower productivity more than offset by the flexibility benefits of being able to pick up their kids from school on a schedule a regular commute might preclude? Are some roles more conducive to solo work? Do others require active collaboration more frequently in a day?

In the end, determining what is optimal, when and for whom is best left to society’s myriad micro-actors to figure out for themselves.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: financialpost; matthewlombardi; wboopi; wfh; workfromhome
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To: ShadowAce

Well then......cut down on all the meetings.


41 posted on 07/07/2021 12:35:19 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: All
in spite of spending two hours more per day on the job workers accomplished essentially the same at home as at the office.

Unless you're paying them hourly, what's the issue with that? If you have a happier employee putting out the same work, who isn't personally concerned about the extra hours, what's the problem so long as the work gets done?

I just got called back in after being remote for about a year. I'm going to miss being able to bop downstairs to my office for a few minutes when and idea hits me in the evening. Also going to miss bouncing ideas off of my fish.
42 posted on 07/07/2021 12:41:50 PM PDT by mmichaels1970
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To: VastRWCon
My alarm is set for 6:56, I get up, walk across the hall to my office room, take a piss, brush my teeth, login by 7:00 AM.

You take a piss and brush your teeth in your office? I do NOT want to be on that Zoom call.

43 posted on 07/07/2021 12:43:27 PM PDT by tnlibertarian
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To: Avalon Memories
I absolutely do not want to work in an office again, but probably have no choice.

Beware of the depression.
44 posted on 07/07/2021 12:45:59 PM PDT by mmichaels1970
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To: Crusher138
“Going to work” helped create a clear divide between working and not working.

Not when it is 10:00 at night and you are still in the office, looking at the leftovers of the takeout food you ate for dinner.

Many modern working environments assume 24/7 availability regardless of whether or not you are working from home or from an office.

45 posted on 07/07/2021 12:47:26 PM PDT by freeandfreezing
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To: ShadowAce

I know several people wfh full time, and every one has increased productivity. Fewer meetings, and less interference from nitwit supervisors, as well as fewer distractions by office busybodies are some of the factors. For serious workers, wfh is a gift. For slackers, maybe more an opportunity to slack. Big surprise.


46 posted on 07/07/2021 12:56:52 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard (resist the narrative. .)
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To: hinckley buzzard

Some people like working from home, some don’t. I personally love it.

I’ve noticed that a lot of the people pushing the “come back to the office” theme are either honchos who don’t feel as important without a building full of underlings to admire them, or people who have an interest in commercial real estate, which seems poised to crash if offices don’t fill back up.


47 posted on 07/07/2021 1:11:20 PM PDT by DarrellZero
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To: DarrellZero
This guy is definitely clamoring for the cubicles to fill up again. He misses everybody!


48 posted on 07/07/2021 1:16:21 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (Give me a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer)
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To: ShadowAce

I know someone who has been WFH at IBM for many years now. He puts in at least 60 minutes, probably more, on the computer than previously.

For myself, I have always worked only 40 hours per week. Part of this is the IT consulting project metrics are usually based on a 40 hour week. When I have been a contractor, I always bill “honest hours”. As much as possible, I try to do the same when working full time. Hasn’t been much of an issue yet.


49 posted on 07/07/2021 1:22:31 PM PDT by Fractal Trader
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To: ShadowAce

I get more work done, in less time, with less frustration working from home.

The five monkeys in middle management can’t stand it though, and are compelling our return to the orifice real soon now.

If they want to pay me for 8 and get 8, rather than paying me for 8 and getting 10, so be it.

But I’m going to keep my door shut when I go back. Want to ask me a question? Hit me up on Teams...


50 posted on 07/07/2021 1:30:15 PM PDT by Augie
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To: ShadowAce

same here. most drivers act as if they want me and fellow motorcyclists dead. Only way to affordably use the ferries
around here to go to the Kitsap side. WFH may have saved my life.


51 posted on 07/07/2021 1:41:20 PM PDT by RitchieAprile (available monkeys looking for the change..)
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To: ShadowAce

I see zero evidence of decreased productivity in the article. Did I miss it?

I do see an increase in Zoom/WebEx time. Well, duh. When you’re not in a conference room and are instead on a WebEx, of course you’ll have more WebEx time. It’s math.

I also see no evidence people actually require more hours to get the same output. Working from home allows me to step away from my desk and take care of some personal tasks when I have breaks. Those won’t show up in any of their totals, but they happen.

As for those people who are trying to simultaneously watch their kids as they “work from home”, that’s not how it should be done. I’ve been out of the office since 2008 and back when my kids were in school they knew that when I had my office door closed, I was at work and they couldn’t just barge in. That’s completely different than someone who’s sitting in their living room with that TV on, and the kids playing.

In the end, this article has little factual information and is positioned to set the narrative that we should all be back in the office like good little minions. I’m not falling for it. Besides, what could be more green than not burning gas to get to and from the office? And how much easier is it for employers to fill positions when the labor market is the entire country rather than local?

The losers in WFH are controlling managers, auto manufacturers, real estate developers, restaurants, etc, the winners are the workers and the employers (whether they know it or not).


52 posted on 07/07/2021 1:44:20 PM PDT by BlueMondaySkipper (Involuntarily subsidizing the parasite class since 1981)
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To: rellic
If your job is so repetitious that complete independence is do-able, than a guy like me will design system to put you out of work.

What does repetition of task have to do with one's ability to perform without a bean counter hovering over their shoulder?

Absolutely nothing.

hide_a_bolt

53 posted on 07/07/2021 1:45:10 PM PDT by Augie
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To: ShadowAce

I think that most of the pressure will come from outside of the organization. High rise rentals, office equipment and supplies organizations, restaurants, bars, retail operations, etc that pay taxes to the urban governments. There will be some from the weenies in personnel that can’t monitor your desk cleanliness, Jab compliance, charitable donations and from the power tyrants.


54 posted on 07/07/2021 1:46:58 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (Corrupt Slow Joe Biden is the Bolshevik sock puppet.)
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To: ShadowAce

Same. When I first started I was putting in way too many hours. I try to limit it now.


55 posted on 07/07/2021 1:50:30 PM PDT by pas
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To: ShadowAce
My productivity went through the roof. Instead of being forced to deal with the time-wasters in cubicle land, I can support anyone remotely. They can't get to me unless they've started their end of the work. Let's see the file, chart, synopsis. No more swing by my desk and talk it out loud and have me figure out your work for you.

We have off-site staff from several states away who have outstanding skills. We would not have hired them previously because they'll never relocate near enough to commute.

Working remotely forced accountability on others for the first time. They can't hide in a crowd or in meetings. Now they have to deliver what they owe or have nothing to show for it. Processes that previously took weeks now take half a day to a day.

I've found the ones that don't work well remotely are the incompetent ones, both those assigned to tasks and the Dilbertonian pointy-haired bosses.

56 posted on 07/07/2021 2:02:56 PM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: ShadowAce; sphinx
Most workers would forgo $30K extra to avoid sitting in an eight-lane parking lot!


57 posted on 07/07/2021 2:09:00 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Florida: America's new free zone.)
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To: ShadowAce

Someone here once said I was not telling the truth that we are being spied on by Office 365. Just more proof in the article that we are.

FTA: A global survey from Microsoft that tracked 30,000 users of its ubiquitous Office 365 software across 30+ countries throughout 2020, comes to similar conclusions: in essence, we have simply replaced old fashioned in-office presenteeism with a digital version, with employees expected to be online more frequently. Microsoft’s data show that remote workers spent a staggering 148 per cent more minutes per week in virtual meetings and sent 42 per cent more instant messages after hours and 200 per cent more on weekends. Jared Spataro, a Microsoft vice-president who commented on the findings, says he has seen this phenomenon on his own team, with employees attending meetings unnecessarily in an attempt to demonstrate engagement.


58 posted on 07/07/2021 2:11:47 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (I need more money. )
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To: Fishtalk

#29 When women were women.
Mitzi Gaynor kicks it up in the kitchen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWz_JE4Hauo


59 posted on 07/07/2021 2:18:48 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (I need more money. )
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To: ShadowAce

I’m trying to go back to the office because of the lack of boundaries. I like the flexibility but I am working earlier and later. I also have 9 weeks of PTO that I can’t seem to find time to take. We can’t anyone to test anything because they are constantly out of pocket.

I won’t be able to take time off until late August dues to deadlines. I finally told them “If I have a heart attack, you are totally feqed”.

I hate being the oldest rat in the barn


60 posted on 07/07/2021 2:28:55 PM PDT by AppyPappy (How many fingers am I holding up, Winston? )
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