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What I'd like to know is how they collected that data from 3.1M people. > To study this question, we acquired de-identified, aggregated meta-data from an infor

What I'd like to know is how they collected that data from 3.1M people. > To study this question, we acquired de-identified, aggregated meta-data from an information technology services provider that licenses digital communications solutions to organizations around the world. I'm guessing Slack, Teams or some other company provided them with this data. If they have access to this data, then what kind of data do employers have access to? > Using the span of time defined by the first and last email sent or meeting attended in a 24-hour period, we also find the average workday span increased by +48.5 minutes So that's how they define a workday. When you're in an office, you have lunch with colleagues and there might be pressure to end it quickly, especially if your boss is joining. At home, you can easily take a few more minutes, which might actually be the 8% increase they are seeing here. To add to this, just because the workday seems longer, it doesn't mean that the entire time was spent working. It's possible to take more breaks when you need it.

jfk13 6y ago
> Using the span of time defined by the first and last email sent or meeting attended in a 24-hour period What a worthless definition. I often start my day with hours of development or debugging work that doesn't involve sending any emails or attending any meetings, so that would be completely missed. I can't be the only such person, surely. On the other hand, timezone issues mean that I sometimes have late-night meetings, so I'd look really dedicated on those days. Of course, that'd miss the fact that I took time out to go shopping, make dinner, do some gardening, watch a movie, or whatever... all that now counts as part of my "work day" because of a late-night meeting. Seems like they've come up with something essentially meaningless here. This "workday span" is (a) wildly inaccurate for anyone whose role is more than sending emails and sitting in meetings, and (b) totally ignores the fact that many people when working from home have huge flexibility to take breaks when it suits them. Ah well... I suppose a publication "dedicated to the design and management of workplaces" has to try and justify its existence somehow.

jfk13 6y ago

> Using the span of time defined by the first and last email sent or meeting attended in a 24-hour period What a worthless definition. I often start my day with hours of development or debugging work that doesn't involve sending any emails or attending any meetings, so that would be completely missed. I can't be the only such person, surely. On the other hand, timezone issues mean that I sometimes have late-night meetings, so I'd look really dedicated on those days. Of course, that'd miss the fact that I took time out to go shopping, make dinner, do some gardening, watch a movie, or whatever... all that now counts as part of my "work day" because of a late-night meeting. Seems like they've come up with something essentially meaningless here. This "workday span" is (a) wildly inaccurate for anyone whose role is more than sending emails and sitting in meetings, and (b) totally ignores the fact that many people when working from home have huge flexibility to take breaks when it suits them. Ah well... I suppose a publication "dedicated to the design and management of workplaces" has to try and justify its existence somehow.