
When does your working day start? Is it the moment you leave your apartment and go to the subway? That first Slack message you read while waiting for coffee in the lobby of your office building? Or when you walk to your desk, open your laptop and log into your inbox? If you ask workers, they might say commuting counts as work. You can imagine what their superiors thought.
Commuting is just one way bosses and employees often disagree on what counts as a productive work day. This back-and-forth has left most companies locked in a seemingly endless war with employees over returning to the office. When it comes to remote working (and whether it’s really as productive as being in the office), the question really comes down to a fundamental difference in perspective.
That’s according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) work documents From economists José María Barreiro, Nicholas Bloom, and Steven J. Davis. It identifies two major disconnects between managers and workers that hinder returning to work. First: Workers believe that eliminating commutes directly improves productivity because it saves more time. Second: Employees don’t grasp the management challenges of leading a team of remote employees.
The real dilemma is that both sides make valid points. By definition, commuting is time spent not working, although many workers who stay home end up spending the extra time at work. Even the staunchest pro-flexibility experts acknowledge that in-person work is critical for early-career workers, leaving middle managers in the unenviable position of carrying out orders from their superiors in the office and mitigating Entrants’ concerns. This mismatch in understanding of what matters most (and what really impacts productivity) explains why we’re still playing tug-of-war after all this time.
commuting problem
Barrero, an assistant professor of finance and one of the researchers at Mexico’s Institute of Autonomous Technology (ITAM) Business School, said taking commuting time into account is a “big problem” when assessing the effectiveness of remote work. wealth. Of those who told Barreiro they were more productive working from home, nearly all (86%) said the time saved by not commuting was a major benefit and one of their favorite parts about working from home.
“Suppose someone works eight paid hours a day, lives thirty minutes from the office, and gets the same amount of work done whether they work at home or in the office,” the authors wrote in the working paper. “While commuting, The total time devoted to work per day is 9 hours, compared to 8 hours per day when working from home. Therefore, the employee (correctly) believes that he or she completes the same amount of work in 11% less time while working from home, which is a significant increase Increased productivity!”
This gives employees more time to engage in other activities, whether that’s leisure or childcare. While they don’t always spend this time at work, many people do end up spending this time getting more work done. This may be more efficient than employers think.
In this regard, Barreiro, Bloom and Davis cite Their work-from-home research The data found that nearly half (43%) of employees working remotely said they were more productive working from home; only 14% said they were less productive. (The remaining 43% said their situation was similar in both places.)
However, WFH Research also found that fully remote work can reduce productivity by 10% to 20% compared to fully face-to-face work.Barreiro explains the difference to us wealth July: “In many of the studies we cite, as well as some of our own survey evidence, workers generally get more done when they telecommute because it saves time on daily commutes and other office distractions. This allows them to work remotely Seems more efficient on a ‘daily’ basis, even if that means they are actually less efficient on an ‘hourly’ basis.”
The persistent differences of opinion have persisted for quite some time.Back in January, research came from Harvard Business Review Research has found that employees tend to factor commute time into their evaluations. When commute time is eliminated, they see it as an increase in productivity. Employers will naturally think this is not a good deal for their money.
The maze of hybrid work turns managers into “shock absorbers”
While workers may be quick to say their bosses expect them to keep tabs on them in the office (and who can blame them, given all the productivity paranoia going on?), the situation is a little more nuanced than that. What employees think is more efficient for them is not always more efficient for managers. This can cause employees to “turn a blind eye” to managers’ plight, the working paper found.
C-suite executives are particularly concerned about how remote workers will impact company culture, the researchers wrote. That said, they worry it will reduce opportunities for training and upskilling environmental workers, which will have a domino effect on productivity across the company. Researchers found that it caused a 10 to 20 percent drop in productivity.
Barreiro previously said it’s “much harder to supervise, train, coach and build company culture” with fully remote employees than with employees who come in a few times a week. wealth. He said remote communication challenges and lack of motivation are major issues preventing fully remote workers from being productive. There is also growing evidence that remote working is good for building relationships with colleagues, but may limit their earning potential and opportunities for younger workers to develop their talents.
It’s not easy being the boss, especially when workplace norms continue to evolve rapidly and one has to both enforce and acquiesce. two-thirds of leaders Say they now have more responsibilities than before the pandemic, and their burnout rates are through the roof.
As OC Tanner Institute Vice President Gary Beckstrand writes wealthMid-level managers have become the company’s “priceless shock absorbers.” They are less likely to feel appreciated than employees above or below them, and they are more likely to say they have had more difficulty coaching employees and communicating effectively since 2020. Unfortunately, one of the main solutions to this problem is more in-person collaboration, Backstrand wrote. “When managers feel connected to their teams, organizational culture is 18 times more likely to thrive.”
But Barreiro says bosses underestimate how compliant employees can be when it comes to in-person work. Employees, especially younger ones, are well aware of the benefits of in-person gatherings. “In fact, the percentage of people who want to work completely remotely is Older workers have the highest, and it increases with age,” he said. “I think managers and the public may be a little too cynical about how employees view face-to-face work. Many employees seem to have adapted to the pros and cons of remote interaction.”
Fortunately, the solution isn’t as annoying as it seems. As experts have maintained for years, a flexible hybrid schedule is almost always the way to go.
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