Every technology or trend has externalities--unanticipated consequences--and remote work seems no exception. According to a new Gallup poll, remote work also leads to loneliness.
The issue is whether, and to what extent, that translates into lower productivity. It might already be clear remote work contributes to less employee engagement.
In 2023, global employee engagement stagnated and overall employee well being declined, Gallup says in a new report. While both measures are at or near record highs, the lack of improvement is notable, as they follow multiple years of steady gains, the report says.
“The result is that the majority of the world’s employees continue to struggle at work and in life, with direct consequences for organizational productivity,” the Gallup study suggests.
Gallup estimates that low employee engagement costs the global economy US$8.9 trillion, or nine percent of global gross domestic product.
And the problem seems squarely among younger workers.
Some might argue that older workers have higher self-assessed well being than younger workers, but that seems not to be the case. “A decade ago, younger workers had consistently higher life evaluations than older workers; therefore, the difference in perspective is unlikely to be a product only of life stage," the Gallup report says.
And Gallup finds that 70 percent of the variance in team engagement can be attributed to the manager.
And for whatever reason, the “New World” countries (North America and South America) have higher rates of “engaged” workers than the “Old World.”
The point is that if there is a causal relationship between remote work; managerial effectiveness; engagement and productivity, then remote work plausibly has some causal relationship with work productivity and a direct causal relationship with managerial skill.
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