Is Remote Work Really "As Productive as in the Office?"

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella might be among business leaders who are not so convinced work from home is as productive as in-office work. "Thirty minutes into your first video meeting in the morning, because of the concentration one needs to have in video, you are fatigued."

Granted, knowledge worker or information worker productivity is tough--perhaps nearly impossible-- to measure. But at least some believe mandatory work from home rules have hurt information worker productivity.

Aternity, for example, has aggregated usage details from millions of employee devices from over 500 Global 2000 companies, tracking use of business applications from home. Aternity analysis suggests that the United States has become less productive due to remote work because of the pandemic. 

At the end of March, 77 percent of work had been moved to be performed remotely in North America, the largest amount of any continent. U.S. enterprise worker productivity actually dropped 7.2 percent, Aternity reports, though Canadian productivity increased about 23 percent. 

“Overall productivity (as measured by hours of work computing time) in Europe declined by 8.2 percent,” according to Aternity. 

Those same trends continued through July 2020, Aternity says. “The main takeaway from Aternity’s latest data is that a ‘productivity tax’ is affecting enterprises deploying long-term remote work strategies,” Aternity says. “In countries where the remote work share remains at peak levels, including the United States and parts of Europe, employee productivity continues to fall.”

source: Aternity 

“In comparison, overall productivity is rising in European countries where the share of in-office work is increasing, showing that returns to the office are benefiting companies from an overall productivity standpoint,” Aternity says. 

The early data from the work-from-home change is not encouraging for productivity, say professors  Jonathan Dingel and Brent Neiman of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. They suggest that the tools we have are not so much the problem as human ability to adjust to remote work environments and use the tools fully.

Also, if it is the case that only a third of jobs can be done remotely, forcing everyone to do so will not be universally productive. 

Nadella also notes that fully remote work is harder on new employees, as it is harder to form new work relationships and learn the new company culture when working fully remotely. As others have noted, all the issues about learning from mentors and acquiring new skills is a huge issue as well in a work-from-home environment. 

To be sure, many employees like working from home part of the time, and report that they believe their productivity is higher. Still, significant percentages already report that they believe they are less productive working from home. 

The conventional wisdom is that work patterns will be more flexible after the pandemic. What also seems clear is that the value of being in the office will re-emerge, as it seems clear that mode offers advantages for firms in terms of random and unplanned interactions, new employee onboarding and career development.