I feel troubled by this. Im still going to output. Trying to be efficient and look down the road to foresee issues/mitigate risk, but ill never be the same rockstar i used to be pouring blood sweat and tears into my work and reaping non of the benefits.
Its really hard to find a company that wont exploit their workers and I’m still looking. The saving grace being my ability to step away and be with my family or a quick doggy break really saves my mental faculties.
I feel like most younger people will perform better than older as they’ve yet to be jaded and exploited/abused nor do they typically (i assume) understand how to set boundaries professionally. Im not a master but im getting better on all my skills as i get older and that may mean i actually output less, depending on the circumstances/severity.
True. But, while I can't access the article, I suspect this might be an "all other things equal" estimate. People are always saying how they used to have so many interruptions in the office, and now they don't. But that's probably taken into account here. So maybe an 8 hour day is 6.5 hours of work in the office, but 4 hours at home.
Even if it's not really 2.5 hours, I think it's inevitable that most people work less if they can get away with it. People who are highly motivated and love their work might not have that problem, but they're the minority especially in big companies.
I think it depends. I tend to work more at home, because I feel some irrational guilt. I will start attending calls I would normally not be attending due to lack of time. I’m destrying my efficiency (also known as “padding”) out of guilt.
Hence “getting away with it” might be more difficult for some…
Microsoft, Google, Apple, Meta have all recalled workers back into the office. Meta even said they thought remote work would be permanent at the start of the pandemic. Zuckerberg changed his mind.
It's quite clear now that big tech have developed some productivity/creativity metrics that shows remote work is worse than office work for profit. Hence, they've all recalled workers back.
Nothing to do with productivity, confuses quality of work with quantity of reported work hours. If results are the same or better who cares how many 'hours' of work are recorded?
>>> If results are the same or better who cares how many 'hours' of work are recorded?
Good question. Who indeed! Doesn't that make you think about the whole situation? If the results are the same or better, why are CEOs complaining?
I think it's clear that we're hearing about this because the results are not the same or better, they're often worse.
I work remotely, and the company is 100% remote. But, we are small (< 150) and only hire very senior people. Everyone knows exactly what they're supposed to be doing and is accountable for their work.
It's just not like that in many organizations. Huge numbers of people really will do as little as they can get away with - and that turns out to be very little when they're unsupervised.
From the places I've worked, CEOs are often the busiest and have the most interruptions. They ought to value remote work more, what with the time they save from not having to commute. Then there's the cost of office space. It takes a lot to turn them against it.
There's a good reason why this backlash is happening.
Definitely doesn’t have anything to do with all the unused commercial real estate.
I guess i cant really know that but might also be worth considering CEOs lie through their teeth and typically dont give a shit about the grunts.
Ive worked for many companies and seen people move into the role and go ‘total corpo’. ..and veteran ceos strip away employee benefits like quietly putting a ceiling of profit sharing while under the guise of ‘we added a base, so youll always get something :)’… this was also during a milestone of reaching 8bn in sales in <2yrs i want to say.
Will never trust the bullshit spewing from a CEOs mouth.
Time in the office is not productivity. I work in the office 8:30am to 5:30pm daily. I often have days where I hit a point where going home, working out, doing a few chores, would all make me much more productive the next day. Instead I'm stuck sitting at desk until 5:30pm while my productivity drops off not just for the day but for the total week..
Usually the more productive my day is, the more ready I am to get out of there around 2:30pm or 3pm.
Work is best accomplished in strong stints with balance towards work & life. It's the difference between burning out in 2-3 years or staying in an org 5+ years.
Another failure thinking Correlation and causation are the same thing.
Money is tighter these days, many employees are working on more projects with less access to resources and many have not had a pay raise in a couple of years, or work in organizations that have been cutting headcount thus diminishing moral.
This is at best a simple data point but ultimately proves nothing.
It was usual for folk to chat between each other on non work issues “at the office”, but apparently that’s irrelevant to this study…
18 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 52.8 ms ] threadWhich is not necessarily productivity, but still quite interesting.
Its really hard to find a company that wont exploit their workers and I’m still looking. The saving grace being my ability to step away and be with my family or a quick doggy break really saves my mental faculties.
I feel like most younger people will perform better than older as they’ve yet to be jaded and exploited/abused nor do they typically (i assume) understand how to set boundaries professionally. Im not a master but im getting better on all my skills as i get older and that may mean i actually output less, depending on the circumstances/severity.
True. But, while I can't access the article, I suspect this might be an "all other things equal" estimate. People are always saying how they used to have so many interruptions in the office, and now they don't. But that's probably taken into account here. So maybe an 8 hour day is 6.5 hours of work in the office, but 4 hours at home.
Even if it's not really 2.5 hours, I think it's inevitable that most people work less if they can get away with it. People who are highly motivated and love their work might not have that problem, but they're the minority especially in big companies.
Hence “getting away with it” might be more difficult for some…
It's quite clear now that big tech have developed some productivity/creativity metrics that shows remote work is worse than office work for profit. Hence, they've all recalled workers back.
Good question. Who indeed! Doesn't that make you think about the whole situation? If the results are the same or better, why are CEOs complaining?
I think it's clear that we're hearing about this because the results are not the same or better, they're often worse.
I work remotely, and the company is 100% remote. But, we are small (< 150) and only hire very senior people. Everyone knows exactly what they're supposed to be doing and is accountable for their work.
It's just not like that in many organizations. Huge numbers of people really will do as little as they can get away with - and that turns out to be very little when they're unsupervised.
From the places I've worked, CEOs are often the busiest and have the most interruptions. They ought to value remote work more, what with the time they save from not having to commute. Then there's the cost of office space. It takes a lot to turn them against it.
There's a good reason why this backlash is happening.
I guess i cant really know that but might also be worth considering CEOs lie through their teeth and typically dont give a shit about the grunts.
Ive worked for many companies and seen people move into the role and go ‘total corpo’. ..and veteran ceos strip away employee benefits like quietly putting a ceiling of profit sharing while under the guise of ‘we added a base, so youll always get something :)’… this was also during a milestone of reaching 8bn in sales in <2yrs i want to say.
Will never trust the bullshit spewing from a CEOs mouth.
Usually the more productive my day is, the more ready I am to get out of there around 2:30pm or 3pm.
Work is best accomplished in strong stints with balance towards work & life. It's the difference between burning out in 2-3 years or staying in an org 5+ years.
Money is tighter these days, many employees are working on more projects with less access to resources and many have not had a pay raise in a couple of years, or work in organizations that have been cutting headcount thus diminishing moral.
This is at best a simple data point but ultimately proves nothing.
It was usual for folk to chat between each other on non work issues “at the office”, but apparently that’s irrelevant to this study…
I suspect that “watching out the window” will be categorised as work when in the office while it won’t when working from home, as an example.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/atus.pdf#page=15