Why Remote Work Sucks, According To Science

Planet Money explains. Here is a key paragraph.

"Now, with COVID-19, about a third of the workforce is working remotely, and this transition hasn't been easy. At Planet Money, we're facing issues like how to replicate studio-quality sound at home and how to maintain team comradery through cameras on our computers. We're not alone. According to a recent survey by the Society of Human Resource Management, over 70 percent of employers report struggles with shifting to remote work. Another survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers finds that about half of companies believe they are witnessing a dip in productivity with this shift."

The report also mentions the study that formed the basis for an earlier post, "Does Working from Home Work?"

This opinion discusses ways that employers can protect workers from coronavirus (WSJ, April 2020). The list is long.

Does working from home work

This article illustrates some of the questions that economists ask about working from home (WFH). It reports some answers. It appears in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, one of the most prestigious journals in the field. Here is a summary, courtesy of Marginal Revolution:

A rising share of employees now regularly engage in working from home (WFH), but there are concerns this can lead to ‘‘shirking from home.’’ We report the results of a WFH experiment at Ctrip, a 16,000-employee, NASDAQ-listed Chinese travel agency. Call center employees who volunteered to WFH were randomly assigned either to work from home or in the office for nine months. Home working led to a 13% performance increase, of which 9% was from working more minutes per shift (fewer breaks and sick days) and 4% from more calls per minute (attributed to a quieter and more convenient working environment). Home workers also reported improved work satisfaction, and their attrition rate halved, but their promotion rate conditional on performance fell. Due to the success of the experiment, Ctrip rolled out the option to WFH to the whole firm and allowed the experimental employees to reselect between the home and office. Interestingly, over half of them switched, which led to the gains from WFH almost doubling to 22%. This highlights the benefits of learning and selection effects when adopting modern management practices like WFH.

Big Brother is Watching

Firms are using software to monitor employees as more of them work from home (WSJ, April 2020). The piece reports several advantages and disadvantages. Here is a money quote.

"'We realized we didn’t know what was going on.' he says. 'We were just worried that we were losing productivity.'”

Bad information flows and its consequences

A psychologist
describes why people lie at work and the damage it does (WSJ, April 2020).