Comment by Terr_ | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Terr_ | Hacker News Reader

Aside: I sometimes see stuff like "employees are 10% less productive from home." [0]

However that's somewhat misleading, the "productivity" does NOT mean physics-style efficiency of human effort to create value and fight entropy... No, it's based on what employers had to spend. So slaves that only produce a quarter as much per day are technically "more productive."

This matters because employers that require unnecessary time/fuel for commutes typically don't pay for it. Out of tradition and negotiating-power, those costs are usually shoved off onto employees and are not being tracked.

If commuting to the office was compensated, the "productivity" differences with work-from-home would be dramatically flipped.

[0] Example: https://fortune.com/2023/07/06/remote-workers-less-productiv...

Basing the decision on a 10% productivity change is insulting when you consider that the average commute is 11.5% of an 8 hour work day (2019 numbers, [1]).

[1] https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/one-way-...

Sure, but this is 10% that they have to pay for. They could not care less about what it costs when it’s your time

Yeah, the end result of this logic is a 10% pay cut for WFH.

If employers were in fact willing to swing major policy and spending decisions based on +/- 10% knowledge worker efficiency, offices would look very different.

I bet I would be 10% faster if I skipped all the nonsense meetings and standups.

But it's net output that matters, not individual. If your 10% loss is a 2% gain on 10 ppl then it's a win.

I can promise you the standups are not a 2% gain for 10 other people, most participants are losing efficiency compared to making async announcements of their work in a shared text communication space.

They'd be empty.

God I hate Thursdays at the office, too many meetings, day broken in a bajillion pieces, and I can't get anything done.

Honestly, even if that were true, the amount they save on office expenses, middle managers, and churn outweighs a measly 10%.

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