Ask HN: Productivity losses – a condemnation of 'work from home'? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Productivity losses – a condemnation of 'work from home'?

8 pointsJoeAltmaier3 comments

With 2021 the worst year for worker productivity, it has to be asked: is this largely because work-from-home isn't working out?

We can find lots of excuses (resignations; worker malaise; economic decline) but isn't most of that laid right back at the door of work-from-home?

When just a few are involved it may be viable. But I'm beginning to think, it will never fly to have almost everybody staying home. Something critical about the work environment gets broken, when nobody is minding the shop.

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Pandemic work from home is not regular work from home.

If you’re doing it as a choice, you need space and a regular home office. Not everyone can do that right now. Sometimes you need to move house to make it happen.

Also, not everyone wants to work from home. I do for the majority of the time. I’ve see. A pretty equal split between never office, a bit of both and never home.

For those not in their ideal environment there will be a productivity impact. The pandemic is an additional handicap.

We’ve proven we can function without a building, so coming out of the pandemic is realising what type of office meets the people in your company need.

Loss of productivity isn't due to WFH though.

It's a combination of factors, including the mental and physical strain of living through a pandemic. This includes many people being ill, managing long Covid, losing friends and family, struggling through home schooling, missing sports and activities, and in some cases having your support network suddenly taken away (such as addiction groups or parenting support groups).

It is an oversimplification to lay this at the door of WFH, which has been hugely successful for many industries, including technology.

Not having the resources and support to WFH successfully is another case though...

You should reach out to those who are conducting measurements, see what the tools and systems are saying. Bring that into the topic. Otherwise we really have no reason not to perceive subjective straw men here left and right, with the "largely" and "most" wording not exactly backed by pie charts...

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