Garbage In, Garbage Out

Not every job can be done remotely, and perhaps we should also recognize that though employees like it, productivity is not necessarily improved or maintained when workers are full-time remote. What is true “in the office” is likely also true “out of the office:” 80 percent of total worker value is created by 20 percent of the activities at work, and perhaps also by 20 percent of the workers. 

It is too easy to blame insecure bosses for resistance to remote work. Even younger CEOs are expressing concern about the productivity impact of remote work, though some claim there is evidence of enhanced productivity. 

We can say with some certainty that people prefer working remotely. But that is a different issue than whether productivity is better, the same or worse. Employee satisfaction often is higher with remote work, but that also is not the same as asking whether workers are more productive. All we know is that they report being happier. But they also might be distracted. 

Also, we cannot be sure that team productivity is positively or negatively affected, even if we think we have some sense of individual productivity.    

In truth, since knowledge worker productivity is exceedingly hard to measure, all we often have are opinions of workers who claim they are more productive. Some cite email activity or meetings as evidence that productivity has not dropped. Some of us will question whether measuring email volume or number of meetings attended as useful measures of business outcomes, though.

In fact, it might be fair to say we do not really know what has happened to productivity as lots of office workers went remote. Productivity might be higher for some; the same for others and lower for some significant number of people. 

Much will hinge on the type of work done, the personalities of the actual people, the phase in career, and the amount of value random collaboration actually creates. 

 Remote work is not  going to go away, but it might not grow as much as much expect, either. The bigger issue is what we think we are measuring when trying to assess productivity. The adage “garbage in, garbage out” applies.