There have been studies showing both dramatic increases and decreases in productivity after companies shifted to WFH throughout the pandemic. A common problem with these studies is that the pandemic itself is a confounding factor that affected employee morale and productivity very differently in companies with different management styles, yet this confounding factor is not acknowledged.
It is not impossible that, all other things unchanged, WFH would have a negative impact on productivity. That is because for WFH to work, many other things need to change. To illustrate this with a stupidly simple example — if you ask your employees to work from home but don't give them access to company resources from home, the productivity is going to tank. This extends to a hundred other things that need to be adjusted for WFH. You must necessarily manage the company in a way that supports WFH to empower WFH employees to succeed. But plenty of studies show that tremendous increases in productivity are possible, they have been de-facto achieved in companies that managed WFH right.
hindsightbias|2 years ago
Well, not.
clnq|2 years ago
It is not impossible that, all other things unchanged, WFH would have a negative impact on productivity. That is because for WFH to work, many other things need to change. To illustrate this with a stupidly simple example — if you ask your employees to work from home but don't give them access to company resources from home, the productivity is going to tank. This extends to a hundred other things that need to be adjusted for WFH. You must necessarily manage the company in a way that supports WFH to empower WFH employees to succeed. But plenty of studies show that tremendous increases in productivity are possible, they have been de-facto achieved in companies that managed WFH right.