
Remote Work Can (and Does) Boost Employee Productivity - rcvictorino
https://slab.com/blog/remote-work-productivity/
======
nyrulez
After having spent plenty of time in multiple environments, any kind of
absolute statements one way or the other are bound to be incorrect. IMO it's
highly person and situation specific. For me the best order of productivity
is:

1\. In office but not surrounded by co-workers i.e. can focus for long hours
without distractions.

2\. At Home and not distracted by family members or other
"temptations/errands" at home.

3\. Office with co-workers

4\. Home with family members/errands to take care of, which there can be
plenty of during these Covid days.

Some people don't like to be alone and for them Option (1) isn't going to
work. They like to be surrounded by other working people to have that sense of
group work which helps power them through. For them Option (3) will clearly be
the best.

Beyond that it also comes down to individual habits. Do you have a system to
work at home? Without that one can be pretty ineffective. What's your
"sustained focus" mechanism or algorithm? It can be a mix of:

\- Micro goals system that works intra-day not just inter-day.

\- Shutting off distractions by keeping the phone in a separate room (if the
job allows, since computer can still relay most of the information)

\- Clever use of headphones with the right kind of music or background noise
that works for you.

\- Some notion and measure of self-accountability.

\- many others

The current environment is a pretty good time (and test) to strengthen any of
the productivity habits. It takes practice but I don't see what the
alternative is.

~~~
robotresearcher
> any kind of absolute statements one way or the other are bound to be
> incorrect.

The article: "Data proves it: Remote work boosts productivity." "This
groundbreaking study, involving 16,000 participants, was conducted by Stanford
professor Nicholas Bloom"

Of course different people work better in different modes. But since there's
no reason to believe that we are uniformly distributed through those modes,
one mode could be net more productive by objective absolute measures even if
lots of people are in a suboptimal mode.

~~~
chadash
> "This groundbreaking study, involving 16,000 participants, was conducted by
> Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom"

I clicked through to the study and it is 16,000 _call center_ employees. This
simply doesn't translate to a lot of other jobs.

If you are a call center employee, you're probably not doing a lot of
collaborative work. Moreover, it's easy to track your time on the phone, so
being at home doesn't necessarily make it easier for you to slack off.

Also, of note, the participants all volunteered for it. It's a strong
assumption to assume that people who want to work from home being more
productive will mean that _everyone_ working from home will improve
productivity.

In short, this article makes a lot of assumptions about how the data would
generalize. A more accurate, but less click-baity title would be "Remote Work
Can (And Does) Boost Employee Productivity For Certain Types of Workers".

~~~
Supermancho
Remote work seems to slow EVERYTHING down every time my teams have been fully
(or near fully) remote. I expect the shortening of the work week to boost
productivity, but I don't see remote work doing the same, at large.

~~~
toomuchtodo
How do you explain successful fully remote orgs such as Gitlab, Hashicorp, and
Zapier (in no particular order, just off the top of my head)?

~~~
joshuamorton
It's possible to succeed while being non optimal.

------
Shivetya
The productivity boost I have seen for teams is the large drop in meetings.
Better yet meetings in many cases end when the content runs out instead of
just dragging on to fill the time slot.

Then top it off with many converting their time normally spent commuting into
extra time working. I see more IM lights green than ever before and for much
longer. There is no longer that need to get out early to beat traffic.

Yet without clear objectives work from home can end up with far less getting
done and there are people who just cannot work unsupervised which is something
that many are loathe to acknowledge. Some of this definitely is insuring you
have your space to work in and your family respects it.

~~~
gregmac
I've found the meetings I do have seem more productive with everyone remote.
In my case, most meeting I attend always have _someone_ remote. This also
isn't entirely new to me, because my team has be unofficially practicing the
"one person remote, everyone remote" rule, but now it's company-wide, and it's
awesome.

First, it puts everyone on a level playing field. Everyone hears the same
thing. If we're using video, everyone is a face in a box, instead of getting
the "fly on the wall" view of a bunch of people in a conference room.

It forces you to talk in a slightly different way to avoid talking over each
other. Once you get a turn to speak, you have to speak more complete thoughts,
and don't put in short pauses between sentences that confuse others making
them think you're done talking.

I'm _way_ more productive using my multi-monitor, full-size mouse and
mechanical keyboard setup than I am on just my laptop. I can take notes
faster, lookup details faster, etc. And not just me -- I've noticed a couple
times where we were able to solve an issue during a meeting because others
were able to lookup detail needed for a decision/action (that we didn't
realize before the call), where often in the past that would have been done
after the meeting and then we'd have yet another follow-up discussion.

------
kd5bjo
I'm not sure if these results will hold in the long term. Richard Hamming
makes the case better than I can:

> I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work
> done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years
> later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on;
> all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in importance. He who works
> with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally
> gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important.

(from
[http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html)
)

------
JackPoach
I think this is a broad generalization. Too broad. It depends on what type of
work you do. It depends on your personality, etc.

I am working from home third week right now, and I dislike it A LOT. I've
worked from home for 6 years in the early 2000s. I love office. I love
socializing. I love walking from one floor to another. I actually like my
morning commute, etc.

~~~
exmadscientist
> I actually like my morning commute

This one has really surprised me! (It probably helps that I have an easy bus
commute.) I actually have been finding that my evening commute is critical to
my mental health -- who'd have guessed _that_ , it's usually the other way
around! It's been the way I detach from work, and separate my "work headspace"
from my "home headspace". Historically I've been really good at leaving work
at work and home at home, and this crisis has been revealing just how big of a
role my commute played in doing that. There are ways you can cope (e.g., end
your workday by going for a walk), but it's taking a lot of experimentation to
find a routine that works well for me.

~~~
romanows
When I was commuting, I had a theory that looking out the bus window or biking
into work was important because it forced me to be aware of the distance and
time separating my home and work. It allowed me to transition between the two,
whereas being deep into a research paper or carpooling with a nicely chatty
coworker did not.

------
whateveracct
Remote work changes the economics of productivity.

In an office, you're there for ~8 hours per day. You might as well produce as
much value for the company as possible since there isn't much else you can do
there.

Remotely, there is reason to think about how much effort you're exerting & if
the resulting productivity is worth it. Do you want to get a promotion? Do you
want to scrape by? Do you want job security? In an office, it's clear which of
these paths to go down. But when you're remote, all of a sudden you are able
to exercise the trade-off between spending time to produce more for your
employer vs using that time for things that benefit you and you only. And it's
very possible to produce well above the bar of employability and have more
free time for friends, family, entrepreneurship, etc than you could get when
you're forced to spend 8 hours on your employer's property.

------
TLightful
I think if the space is relatively well optimised, remote working is
fantastic.

I suspect, because of Covid-19, a lot of people have just been thrown into
remote-working like they've just been thrown into a swimming pool fully
clothed.

Not an ideal first experience, but they'll have time to get used to it.

Can't beat my favourite tunes, control of my time, conversations, no
distractions but for my wife. Socialise when I choose to. Remote working ftw.

~~~
KZeillmann
On my current team, we would all WFH on Thursdays and Fridays as a norm. At
the beginning of the month, we were told that we should WFH indefinitely
because of COVID-19.

I've got a great office setup and am used to working from home, sometimes for
a week or two at a time, depending on circumstances, but WFH during COVID-19
feels like something else entirely.

I don't even have kids to take care of, but some combination of 1) having my
wife home during the day, 2) the feeling of being cooped up (even though I get
outside time walking my dog in my suburban neighborhood), and 3) the
foreboding feeling of existential dread taking a toll on my mental health has
cut my productivity in half.

~~~
TLightful
I hear that and agree. I'm all for remote-working but had to make some
adjustments also in the current situation.

Being able to close the door when you need to focus really, really helps.

A lot like having an office in the old days. Having a defined working space
and being able to shut it off when needed.

------
drchopchop
Perhaps, but the real question is whether the productivity increases of the
younger/single workers will balance out the losses from the ones with
families. I am personally at 50% of my normal capacity (possibly even less)
given that I'm now in a home environment with constant distractions.

Additionally, add the lack of school/childcare, people forced to stay in their
homes (distracting each other even more), financial stresses, and the like,
and it's hard to imagine this is a net productivity gain for society right
now.

------
delfinom
And the rest of us need a lifetime supply of adderall for a single day to
focus at home instead of at a office :(

------
klodolph
> Project management apps like GitHub, Jira, and Trello democratize critical
> knowledge.

This reads like marketing.

The problem with measuring remote work productivity is that you have to pick
some set of metrics. We have _always_ known that knowledge transfer is more
difficult and just happens less with remote workers.

If you have a team of ten experts, each capable of independently focusing and
being productive, you can easily see an uptick in “top-line” productivity
metrics when you send them home and they are not constantly interrupted by
meetings and office chatter.

The new member of your team is going to go through hell to ramp up, though.

------
chadash
This article grossly exaggerates the study that it cites. The Stanford study
of 16,000 people showing increased productivity for those WFH studies a unique
population of:

1) Call center workers

2) Who volunteered to work from home

Are you a call center worker who wants to work from home? Great, this study is
pretty good evidence that on average you will be more productive.

Otherwise, take it for what it is. The data here may or may not apply to you,
but it's a big stretch to make the bold general claim that this study proves
that "remote workers are more productive than employees who work in the
office," as this article suggests.

------
ravenstine
The company that I work for(DockYard) is totally distributed and fully remote,
so my productivity stayed about the same since the lockdown in California was
put in place. But a friend of mine who works for a big media company, whose
bosses were pretty hesitant to let their employees work remotely, says that
their superiors have noticed that productivity is actually up and are now very
much open to remote positions now that they've witnessed the benefits. A few
weeks ago, the answer probably would have been that employees could only work
from home a few days out of the week. Now the answer is that employees can be
totally remote. For the average business, that's a pretty big change of tune.

That said, I don't know if remote work necessarily boosts productivity across
the board. Some people prefer to work in an office with other people around,
and they probably work better that way. I do think that remote work can and
does compete with a traditional work environment in terms of productivity.

We need more remote work to be available if we are going to reduce traffic,
pollution, and urban congestion. Remote work allows people more free time
during the day, reduces risk of injury and death, allows people to be better
parents, and means you can live anywhere you want to. I don't ever want to
work a non-remote job ever again if I can avoid it.

------
zhdc1
There are good and bad things about remote work. It's best when you have the
right personality, a distraction free spot at home, and management that
respects personal boundaries.

------
decebalus1
I am not a fan of these broad generalizations. I'm in my 4th week of working
from home and my productivity dropped dramatically. I used to enjoy working
from home, as I was doing it consistently for 1-2 days a week to be able to
run a few errands and save on commute time. I used to be super productive.
Woke up at 5, was online by 6:30 and off by 5 PM, sometimes getting a week's
worth of work done in a single day. True focus. But now, even with great
hygiene (bedroom is for sleep, study is for working, living room is for
TV/Games/exercise) it's too much for me. I need the physical separation
between my home and my work. I feel I need to chew the fat with other folks in
the kitchen, I miss having lunch with my work friends in conference rooms, I
miss being able to help others debug stuff on their computer by moving my
chair. I dread the fact that I'm gonna supposed to be doing that for another
month. I think broadly there should be a balance for this. Some people thrive
when working from home. I don't. I just need a day or two to truly focus but
other than that, even as an introvert, I need office time. And it pains me to
write this, I love my family wholeheartedly but I think there needs to be
healthy amount of away time in order to keep things sane.

------
sixdimensional
Pessimistic interpretation: employees can work harder than ever before, non-
stop. Optimistic interpretation: employees have more freedom to focus.
Realistic interpretation: it works for some employees but not for everyone.

My anecdotal opinion. I personally am working harder than ever.

------
remarkEon
My first two weeks working from home: unbelievably productive. Best two weeks
since I first started in this role.

The last four weeks: terrible. My "home office" used to be my hobby zone, with
all my books and other things I tinker with to "zone out" after work. I hate
coming in here now. I'm always getting pings, late in the evening, as everyone
else is always in front of their screens too. Some of this is the nature of
the work from home situation (during a pandemic) and other things are
disrupted (schools) that wouldn't be in a different mass work from home
scenario.

~~~
wenc
Do you have separate work/home computers/mobile devices?

This for me -- along with dressing in work-attire (even when I'm at home)
during office hours and changing out after hours -- helps me establish a
psychological separation between work/home in the same space. It really works.

I have a KVM setup that switches between my work laptop and my home desktop,
and only 1 computer is on at any given time. (Ideally work computer and home
computer are in separate rooms, but I don't have the luxury of space in a city
apartment)

Work phone doesn't get checked after hours.

~~~
remarkEon
I have a separate work laptop. No separate phone though, but that is a good
idea ... I have an old iPhone I suppose I could wipe and just use that with
work. Apartment is too small to keep things physically separate.

~~~
wenc
I hear you -- I live in a very small place too. 1 desk, 2 monitors, desktop
box (home computer) under desk, and a small side table for the work laptop.
Total footprint = 15 sqft. The HDMI + USB switch (which functions as a KVM) is
what makes it work. I only need one set of keyboard/mice/monitors and can
toggle between work/home.

------
sys_64738
It depends what you're doing. My experience is that it mostly works but is
pretty useless for doing design collaboration where you need a whiteboard, or
brainstorming sessions with more than three people.

~~~
exmadscientist
This is huge. As parent points out, there are some tasks that are very, very
hard to do remotely. I'm not aware of anything that's hard to do in an office
per se, but there certainly are a lot of tasks which benefit from
concentration and focus. Those tasks get easier if the remote environment is
calm and the office environment is not.

It seems to me that most software development is primarily the latter sort of
work, which may explain why so many people here advocate remote work. But not
everything is software yet. Just try debugging a circuit board over a video
conference and you'll see what I mean....

------
Frost1x
>Remote workers don’t sleep until noon, __wear pajamas all day __, and slack
off because no one’s watching. Studies suggest the opposite: remote workers
are more productive than employees who work in the office.

Speak for yourself, I do wear my PJs all day, especially now when I know I
won't really be going out anywhere after work except the grocery store. For
some people they need the work costume. For me, I go for maximum comfort and
minimal effort when I can get away with it.

I also work in a fairly intense frequent problem solving environment where I'm
faced with new problems I haven't seen before on a regular basis, similar to
what a lot of creative workers also deal with. When it's at the office and I
have strict timelines, we all run around pretending like we can just turn
on/off the creativity needed for advanced problem solving but for most people
I've spoken to sincerely about it... they're just like me and there's no
on/off switch.

At home I have the flexibility of taking on a problem, hitting a hurdle, then
taking a relaxing break until _aha_ later a Eureka moment hits and a new
strategy emerges. Viola, progress, and my employer wasn't paying for the time
I was relaxing, they just get to pay for more productive times and I enjoy the
less productive times. Banging your head against problems repeatedly may be
required as optics for some management but it just doesn't jive with reality
and is very wasteful, for everyone.

------
legitster
I hate, hate, hate working from home. There are so many distractions, and it
messes with my work/life balance in various pernicious ways. Yes, maybe I a
more productive - but I am distinctly unhappier and often spend more time
working. And our team's quality of work takes a huge hit.

I think the negatives of remote work are way underreported because a) it saves
companies a lot of money and b) journalists and influencers are generally a
self-selecting minority who prefer working alone.

------
uk_programmer
I work from home for about a year. I found it quite hard at first. I think
working part remote is preferrable (under normal situations I appreciate at
the moment it isn't). However this is what I found worked for me:

* Having a routine. Getting up to work, commuting, working, going to gym, eating dinner, relaxing etc. is a routine. I find it gives me some structure to the day. If you are working remote I would encourage you to work out a routine and stick to it.

* You need to have a separate work space and have "working hours". I have a completely separate PC and office setup for work. Once I am out of that office it helps me mentally switch off from work. A friend of mine who runs his own business rents a small office (these can be inexpensive). However I am freelancer / contractor and this can be considered a business expensive.

* Make sure you go out for a break during the day. Make this part of your work routine.

* I typically have to drive about 1hr 30 minutes to the office. So that is typically a commute of 3 hours everyday. Doing this 5 times a week is tiring and adds up to 15 hours each week. That is 2 working days. However I do like the social aspects of an office. So being able to go in maybe 2 days a week, talk through solutions work face to face helps. But obviously not possible at the moment.

------
lostgame
This is not universally true, and, furthermore - there's a serious issue here.

Working from home requires a level of personal discipline that a lot of people
aren't used to. It took me years to be as effective, or more, at working from
home than I am from the office - and that was (almost) always with the option
to also be working from the office.

I'm hoping there are more resources and programs available to those working
from home, especially for the first time, soon.

------
0xff00ffee
Except when it's a pandemic.

I've worked from home for 8 years running a software company, and so do all of
my employees. All of our clients are discovering "work from home" which
basically translates into "free vacation" for them, so we're not getting a lot
of feedback.

This is a particular rare instance, obviously, but I think it is different
than regular work-from-home because there is more existential dread
interferring with productivity. I've given most of my employees time off
because they were taking sick days or personal days to cope with getting food
and dealing with spouses and children at home who aren't used to it. Heck,
even I find myself sort of spinning on news and anxiety and my mind drifting
from work (I've googled more about preppers/prepping than I ever have, and not
just to laugh at them.) And we've talked about this during All-hands staff
meetings, but I don't let on the extent to which it stresses me out
personally. (Yay anonymous accounts!)

TL; DR: Normally I think WFH leads to better results for companies like mine,
but under the current circumstances this isn't the case.

------
devmunchies
I've been at a remote company for about 20 months now and am wanting to get
back to a non-remote company. It was nice at first and my productivity WAS
higher, but now I feel like a code monkey and don't have much connection with
decision makers and don't feel as "plugged-in" to the company/team pulse.

My preference would be 60-80% remote.

~~~
chad_strategic
Although, I really enjoy remote work. I agree that it's health to have in-
office / in-person interactions. Maybe one day a week.

(Maybe just not right now due to the virus)

------
sna1l
Keep in mind that this company, Slab, has the tagline of: "A knowledge hub for
the remote workplace."

Probably some bias here :)

------
duxup
I worry about working from home becoming a sort of class divide / opportunity
thing. The COVID situation sort of made me think about this more.

I have a sizable house and space to work from home. I already have a nice desk
and it is well equipped with monitors and etc.

For me being at home is not terrible.

For someone with a one bedroom apartment, the experience is probabbly
dramatically different.

I met someone recently and despite working for years at a place where she was
able to work from home. She didn't. She had a 1 bedroom apartment with her
boyfriend and working on the little kitchen table was really not fun / hard.

She was really excited to work from home for the first time since they had
bought a new house.

I wonder if those differences might play out as far as opportunity for people
who don't have good resources at home.

~~~
wenc
It really depends on the space and how creatively you use it. I live in a
relatively small 1-br and have no trouble. (I have a single desk with 2
monitors, and a HDMI + USB switch to toggle between home/work computers --
total footprint? 15 sqft. And it's comfortable).

The fact that your friend had a kitchen table makes me think her layout is
optimized for other purposes. For 2 people, a small Parisien cafe table or a
nook table are stylish, minimalist alternatives that would open up the space
for a desk.

When I was a poor grad student years ago, I lived in apartments as small as
400 sqft (total) and never had any issues with my home computer setup. It does
take having minimalist (but often inexpensive) furniture and having the
spatial sense to use space efficiently though. Not sure I would extrapolate it
to a class issue. Maybe an urban/suburban/rural divide? I have friends with
rural/suburban upbringings who feel claustrophobic in these settings, but I
grew up in a hyperurban environment where small spaces were the norm.

------
alphanumeric0
I've worked remotely for several years, and more recently in an office and my
gut feeling is that people tend to use presentee-ism as a proxy for deciding
whether someone is producing work.

As for most things, it's highly contextual whether or not remote work is more
productive. It mainly depends on the organization you work for. If the work is
physical, then working remotely is obviously an impediment. If your
organization is focused on creating non-physical things without much need for
physical proximity to other coworkers, then remote work is ideal.

There are just as many distractions involved with a physical work place, if
not more (excluding things like watching your kids) than there are at home.
Myself, personally, a large part of my day in the office involves walking to
the restroom, waiting for the elevator, walking to meeting rooms (up to 4-5
different spaces, some on different floors), walking to the break room (lunch,
coffee, etc), being polite and diplomatic by engaging in very casual office
conversations whenever one starts, handling very low priority interruptions by
coworkers, and not the least of which is preparing for, and performing a
commute, of which I am not paid for. Pile on a few unnecessary meetings that
could easily be e-mails and you've just lowered my productivity considerably.

So in my experience, the effort involved with physical presence around others
is real and takes up a considerable amount of time. I'm not saying these
activities are useless, face time is important, and it's great to be social
with your coworkers, and is invaluable for improving your team skills, but am
I working on a deliverable during these activities?

At home, I can use the restroom, prepare lunch while watching a long-running
program run on my laptop, read and send an e-mail, all in the space of 10 or
15 minutes. Consider doing the same tasks at your office. Would they take more
or less time than at home?

Also noteworthy is the idea that remote work forces a person to collaborate
through written word, which is not always necessary when you're physically
present. Writing down your ideas has the side effect of compacting your ideas
into their essential components. This turns out to be a nice way to work if
you're a knowledge worker.

------
treyfitty
I think what I realized from this mass WFH situation is that it doesn’t work.
It’s inefficient, burdensome, and contains too much friction. I thought mass
WFH will be a sign of progress, but I personally hate it.

~~~
geddy
Care to elaborate what's inefficient in your current situation? Ex. what your
setup is at home, whether you have 12 kids all screaming 24/7 (hah), what
situation is causing you ire?

~~~
treyfitty
2 kids, but I’m not even including that. Teleconference where multiple people
jump over each other, web connectivity issues in an apartment, having people
explain things to me on anything besides a piece of paper, the intangibility
of reviewing things as a team, missing the pleasure of someone popping by my
desk to just chat and see someone’s face.

------
mansoor_
Some finding WfH as a developer:

\- It requires more effort to communicate with colleagues which made my
queries more concise (less time wasted in pointless discussions).

\- The effect of walking/cycling/driving to my office prepares me for the
working day, there is no substitute for this when working from home.

\- Not having any colleagues around felt freeing and I spent more time
exploring avenues I would not have done otherwise.

\- Not being in the office, I had little other social interactions during the
day.

(edits for formatting and grammar)

------
axegon_
This kind of depends: if you live alone or you have the ability to isolate
yourself from everyone else you live with, be it flatmate, partner, family,
etc., then yes. In that respect I am absolutely loving it and I find a lot
more motivation to work(contrary to what I imagined).

HOWEVER, If you have to work with 2 4 year olds running around all day long(or
someone who requires attention in any way), I'd argue things change
drastically.

------
stuaxo
WFH has usually been great for me...

However, this time everyone is at home including a toddler, so productivity is
definitely impacted, luckily many are in the same situation.

------
brailsafe
I thought this switch to 100% remote work would be fine, but it turns out to
be very difficult to manage with _nothing_ else to do. Having ADHD and not
being able to get exercise to only make development 80% of my day rather than
_the most exciting thing I can expect to do_ really fucks with my head. I end
up just bugging my partner and not focussing, which may lead to me losing my
current job.

------
oDot
The hardest part is communicating async. I've worked remotely for a while
(even wrote a book[0]) and interestingly, the hard part is not to _initiate_
async conversations, but to _decline_ synced conversations. Gotta get better
at saying no.

[0]
[https://www.emergencyremote.com/EmergencyRemote.pdf](https://www.emergencyremote.com/EmergencyRemote.pdf)

------
Havoc
Sorta. If you think back to maker schedule and manager schedule - this seems
to have opposite effects on me.

I'm getting more stuff done personally, but my ability to manage a team is
suffering a fair bit.

Also noticing that the subordinate's disposition matters greatly. If they're
not self-starters (to borrow a cliched phrase) then you're in for a bad time
managing them. Drip feeding people remotely is just painful

------
Spooky23
If you have good process in place, developers and operations people benefit in
many ways.

In my personal experience, it's a mixed bag. Ad hoc events outside of normal
process are more difficult. Building a new process is harder as the tools
aren't as good as in-person. The bigger the team or more teams the higher the
friction.

That said, the tools we have today are exponentially better than they were 20
years ago.

------
jchw
I think one huge problem is work-life balance and having proper leisure.
Remote work on some days has been massively productive. Lately, though? Not so
much...

It also goes without saying that it depends on how good your remote setup is.
I have a fairly nice setup for docking, with dual monitors and a
keyboard/mouse. Software also matters, which in some circumstances can be
tricky.

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ravedave5
I know a guy who owns an entirely remote work company. He definitely pointed
out that personality is key. One of the things they do is ask if people have
good friends networks outside of work. They found people who didn't have the
ability to have a social life without work did not do well or last long.

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mister_hn
But you know what kills remote work productivity? Continuously being called
and invited to pointless meetings all the day.

Stop doing meetings and just write down email. Asynchronous communication
boosts the productivity even more

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gz5
there is no one size fits all in my experience (1). some people work better
remotely. some people can't work well remotely.

individuals are of course the most important variable, but please don't
overlook that culture and tools can make a huge difference (either way).

(1) WFH for most of past 15 years in range of roles including small remote-
only startup founder; mid-size remote-first founder/ceo; exec in large remote-
last multi-national.

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MomchilIvanovK
No doubt about it.

When you are alone at home, self-isolated, without any co-workers around you
to take your focus away, your productivity will skyrocket.

~~~
saagarjha
What if you have a family to take your focus away?

~~~
tfandango
I find it's a mixed bag and more challenging now when everyone else is home
too. Some people are more productive at home and can set bounds between work
and home stuff. Other people just can't do it very well. The good news is it's
pretty obvious who is who.

