Remote Workers Like It, C Suite Tends to Have Doubts

The general end of remote work at Twitter will be controversial in some quarters, for reasons related to differences of role between the C suite generally and employees generally. By now, mostly everyone who is an “employee” knows why they prefer remote work. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many workers can get “their work” done in far less time than seemingly was required in the past, allowing them more free time for “non-work” activities.

As welcome as “work-life balance” is for employees, C suite executives instinctively question the productivity implications. Leaving aside “control freak bosses who do not trust their employees,” there still is a growing body of evidence suggesting that, in fact, happier at-home workers are not “more productive.” They are just happier. 

Though is is counterintuitive, “happy workers” are not always “more productive.” Unhappy workers can be more productive; happy workers can be less productive or both can be equally productive. The nature of the work often dictates outcomes, not perceived happiness. 

Looking only at engineering output, for example, some studies suggest remote workers are less productive than similar workers “in the office.” 

“A study conducted in 2012 shows those office workers who were assigned boring tasks performed better and faster in the regular office setting. Home-life distractions are more likely to prevent productive work when you don’t enjoy the work,” notes Apollo Technical. 

On the other hand, the same study also found the reverse. More-creative work often were completed faster than “in the office.” 

But what many workers do with the extra time is the issue. Some will argue that if workers complete the minimum-required quantitative outputs, there is no harm. The same amount of work gets done and employees can simply use the extra time as they choose. 

But the same “group norms” hold for remote workers as for workers “in the office.” In other words (those of you who have worked union jobs know this well), there are disincentives for workers to outperform others, as it “makes the others look bad” and also tends to raise output expectations for the entire class of workers.

In other words, expected output levels will rise generally if enough workers in the class start producing at higher levels. That sort of behavior will be peer group discouraged. That will happen in both in office and remote settings. 

Another more recent study states that the more hours an individual works from home, the less productive they become, for the perhaps-obvious reasons that there are more distractions at home: pets, children, housework, household chores and entertainment options.

“Those who worked full time (eight  hours per day) at home are 70 percent less productive than those who don’t work from home,” says Apollo Technical. 

Leaving aside other issues, including the ability to structure self-supervised work effort, productivity, in principle, for some jobs, could be higher when knowledge work that can be conducted individually is performed. 

As a long-timer journalist, analyst and researcher who has worked remotely for 30 years, monitoring work is unnecessary when output can be quantified: so many stories per day, week or month; a major report delivered in three months’ time; a white paper produced by deadline. 

But not all jobs can be evaluated purely quantitatively. How does one measure the “quality” of computer instructions; a painting; a report; a story? But those intangibles exist no matter where the output is produced. 

Since it is nearly impossible--if not completely impossible--to measure knowledge worker and office worker productivity, much of what we think we know consists of opinion. So we really cannot say whether remote work “always” leads to higher productivity. It might just as often lead to lower productivity or equivalent output. 

What we might observe anecdotally is that lots of remote workers like remote work because it leads to “more free time.” They can use that free time to do other things than work. Whether employers have a “right” to expect more is a matter of debate. 

But it already seems clear enough that C-level executives question the productivity impact of widespread remote work. I suspect we would not be having discussions about quiet quitting, and much anecdotal evidence that remote workers get their work done faster, but then use their free time for non-work pursuits, if this were not the case.