15 ms·
It seems many commenters here have not bothered to click the link and read the paper, or even the abstract. NO ONE is claiming or predicting that everyone or e
by cs702 6y ago
It seems many commenters here have not bothered to click the link and read the paper, or even the abstract.
NO ONE is claiming or predicting that everyone or even a majority of people will work from home.
The authors, from three different universities, surveyed 15,000 Americans and documented a permanent shift towards more remote work going forward, going from 5% of work days used for remote work pre-pandemic to 25% of work days used for remote work post-pandemic.
If you think for even a moment how much solo work must be done by individuals at most companies (think: one-on-one sales calls, proposal writing, spreadsheet modeling, coding, design work, writing employee reviews, updating accounting/ERP data, etc.), the authors' findings make complete sense.
Here's the abstract:
> We survey 15,000 Americans over several waves to investigate whether, how, and why
working from home will stick after COVID-19. The pandemic drove a mass social experiment in
which half of all paid hours were provided from home between May and October 2020. Our survey
evidence says that about 25 percent of all full work days will be supplied from home after the
pandemic ends, compared with just 5 percent before. We provide evidence on five mechanisms
behind this persistent shift to working from home: diminished stigma, better-than-expected
experiences working from home, investments in physical and human capital enabling working
from home, reluctance to return to pre-pandemic activities, and innovation supporting working
from home. We also examine some implications of a persistent shift in working arrangements:
First, high-income workers, especially, will enjoy the perks of working from home. Second, we
forecast that the post-pandemic shift to working from home will lower worker spending in major
city centers by 5 to 10 percent. Third, many workers report being more productive at home than
on business premises, so post-pandemic work from home plans offer the potential to raise
productivity as much as 2.4 percent.