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I'm curious, do you have any data on that? Or is this just your gut feeling? My experience goes mostly the other way, that remote workers are more efficient,

I'm curious, do you have any data on that? Or is this just your gut feeling? My experience goes mostly the other way, that remote workers are more efficient, but of course, two sets of experiences doesn't make a large data set.

jstx1 5y ago
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01196-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01196-4 > Our results show that firm-wide remote work caused the collaboration network of workers to become more static and siloed, with fewer bridges between disparate parts. Furthermore, there was a decrease in synchronous communication and an increase in asynchronous communication. Together, these effects may make it harder for employees to acquire and share new information across the network. Discussed on HN - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28494920 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28494920 It's not a perfect study but we don't really have that much actual research and evidence either way.
- CubsFan1060 5y ago
  Interesting. That's a good start. It's interesting how it focuses on communication. I'd suggest that the gold standard is "business value", though I don't know how you'd measure it. My casual experience matches what this study says. But the flip side is that most people I know work a few more hours a week (replacing commuting time with work), and have replaced meetings and casual chatter with writing code. I also wonder how we will quantify "remote work" between different disciplines. HR vs Sales vs Engineering vs creative work, etc.. I'd guess the effects are different on different disciplines.
- jacknews 5y ago
  "a decrease in synchronous communication and an increase in asynchronous communication." Lol, aka less meetings/broadcast missives, and more actual conversations? There are so many factors and variables at play that I'm not sure there will be a definitive "answer" whether remote is better or worse. I think it strongly depends on the team, the company the industry, etc. My experience is that remote done well, where everyone is enthusiastic, etc, is even better than in-office. But for some jobs/companies it seems the in-office bullying is an important part of "motivation".
  - SpicyLemonZest 5y ago
    No, that’s not a fair AKA at all. I’ve seen multiple million dollar projects get built from the ground up, and they all required large amounts of synchronous communication to get started that wouldn’t have been feasible in an all-remote world. I want to emphasize that I’m not saying this out of any personal attachment - I absolutely prefer to work remotely and I hope that going into the office 5 days every week stays obsolete. But companies (and employees) that go all-remote are going to face a real price in innovativeness for doing so.

jstx1 5y ago

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01196-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01196-4 > Our results show that firm-wide remote work caused the collaboration network of workers to become more static and siloed, with fewer bridges between disparate parts. Furthermore, there was a decrease in synchronous communication and an increase in asynchronous communication. Together, these effects may make it harder for employees to acquire and share new information across the network. Discussed on HN - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28494920 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28494920 It's not a perfect study but we don't really have that much actual research and evidence either way.

CubsFan1060 5y ago
Interesting. That's a good start. It's interesting how it focuses on communication. I'd suggest that the gold standard is "business value", though I don't know how you'd measure it. My casual experience matches what this study says. But the flip side is that most people I know work a few more hours a week (replacing commuting time with work), and have replaced meetings and casual chatter with writing code. I also wonder how we will quantify "remote work" between different disciplines. HR vs Sales vs Engineering vs creative work, etc.. I'd guess the effects are different on different disciplines.
jacknews 5y ago
"a decrease in synchronous communication and an increase in asynchronous communication." Lol, aka less meetings/broadcast missives, and more actual conversations? There are so many factors and variables at play that I'm not sure there will be a definitive "answer" whether remote is better or worse. I think it strongly depends on the team, the company the industry, etc. My experience is that remote done well, where everyone is enthusiastic, etc, is even better than in-office. But for some jobs/companies it seems the in-office bullying is an important part of "motivation".
- SpicyLemonZest 5y ago
  No, that’s not a fair AKA at all. I’ve seen multiple million dollar projects get built from the ground up, and they all required large amounts of synchronous communication to get started that wouldn’t have been feasible in an all-remote world. I want to emphasize that I’m not saying this out of any personal attachment - I absolutely prefer to work remotely and I hope that going into the office 5 days every week stays obsolete. But companies (and employees) that go all-remote are going to face a real price in innovativeness for doing so.