Productivity and Working from Home
When it comes to productivity, morale is an important factor. Most companies focus on improving the office culture to boost morale, and I will admit that I miss the office culture at times. Mostly, I miss the spontaneous lunches, the catering, the trivia, and the company-sponsored events.
However, I don't miss the commute. I don't miss the inability to focus when the office "gets going". I don't miss the background noise while on a call with a client.
Apparently, neither do other workers.
I've noticed that working from home makes me more productive. I just have more time to sit down and get work done. There are no distractions. After everyone started working from in 2020, there has been enough time for people to accumulate statistics on the results. Other people, it seems, agree with my feeling.
From this article, Suprising Working from Home Productivity Statistics (2022):
A study by Standford of 16,000 workers over 9 months found that working from home increase productivity by 13%. This increase in performance was due to more calls per minute attributed to a quieter more convenient working environment and working more minutes per shift because of fewer breaks and sick days.
That article is filled with optimistic takes on working-from-home productivity increases. It's the first article I found, and so there are probably other studies that say the opposite. Anecdotally, however, I can say that working from home is what I do when I need to get something done faster.
As companies are starting to get their employees back into their offices because they feel like their expensive leases are going to waste, they may want to consider the cost of lowering everyone's productivity by a few notches.
Before working from home was common, John Carmack used to show up to work 1 hour later each day until he was only in the office when everyone else was asleep. That might be a more appealing alternative to the chaotic background noise of a busy office environment.
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