Roger’s $0.02 - Work From Home is Over (Patreon)

One of the more popular work theories formulated at the end of the pandemic lockdowns was the belief that the office was obsolete. With the internet, many jobs could be done just as easily from home. Yet a few high-profile CEOs are questioning that belief. Companies are increasingly prodding their workers back into office even if it's just a few days a week. Why the 180-degree turn from just a year ago when remote work was the future of the white-collar workspace?

During the pandemic, many countries around the world imposed restrictions on the movement of people. The name of the game for governments was limiting human interaction that could spread the then little-understood epidemiology of COVID-19. One big place for the potential spread was the office. Employers pivoted towards having their employees work remotely. The side benefits for employees were lower spending and a bump in free time they had in the day. The time that would have been otherwise consumed by getting to and from work, and less money spent on things like lunch, subway fare, tolls, gasoline, and child care. Much was made of the fact a working study initially showed that working from home seemed to provide a boost in productivity. However, a revised version of the paper using more detailed information now shows the opposite. That worker productivity was lowered by 4% compared with in-office workers. Other studies have also shown correlative data suggesting that work-from-home decreases worker productivity. A working paper from Stanford Institute for Economic Policy and Research calculated that fully remote work delivered a 10% to 20% drop in productivity compared to a worker who’s in the office full-time.

So what are the reasons? Broadly many of the studies highlight two areas. Lack of motivation and communication. Without having workers in the office the ability to build a functional group culture with managerial supervision, mentoring, training, and communication suffer. Interestingly Fortune cites an Indian study where an India-based tech firm was able to keep the same level of productivity with its workers. The catch was that the workers, although at home, worked longer hours than they had been doing in the office.

But it’s not all negative. Most of the research has reinforced existing views that the hybrid work approach is the best model. Where people are in the office for part of the week and working from home the rest of the week. My personal experience with this was at my previous job at Revision3 where sales staff spent 40% to 60% of their time out of the office talking to potential clients and supporting relationships with existing clients. Furthermore, researchers from WFH Research saw companies offering remote work will continue to expand.

While data on work-from-home reveals a significant loss in productivity, I wonder if this has something to do with traditional office jobs trying to re-jigger their workflow for work-at-home situations. I’m curious to know if the same results would hold true for employees for a company whose workers have always worked remotely. Would having them come into an office setting noticeably improve the productivity of those people? The 20th-century model of white-collar work is changing. People and companies see a future where people don't mindless trudge into the office every weekday. But research has also show that keeping workers at home limits their productivity. In the end it seems that the more flexible hybrid work model is what the future holds. That and you'll need to come back into office even if it's just for a few days.