5 ms·

> RTO and 5 days working weeks seem to be less effective than nomadic/remote work and 4x10 or even 4x8 working weeks It does depend on how you measure it. Give

> RTO and 5 days working weeks seem to be less effective than nomadic/remote work and 4x10 or even 4x8 working weeks It does depend on how you measure it. Given diligent workers you could argue that working from home is better for 'on task' work, than the distractions of the office - however some of those distractions create value for companies that's hard to measure. I've lost count of the number of times I've had the polite - how are you type conversation - via a chance encounter in the office, that has lead to an idea or new connection that moved something forward, ( have you tried X? Have you talked to Y ). These don't happen when you are on task working from home. For companies which are knowledge based - this sort of spontaneous creativity happens more when people are all together and less when people have to intentionally reach out. Companies aren't just the simple sum of the individuals and a lot of the creativity happens off-task.

PaulRobinson 1y ago
If you look at layouts of buildings for organisations lauded for unusually high output - I'm thinking Bell Labs, Xerox, MIT Media Lab, and others - historically there has been mixed mode: the ability to do focus work, and also the ability to step away from focus and bump into people on the way to get a coffee or lunch. Today's working environment is 40+ hours in open plan offices with too few social spaces or meeting rooms for meaningful collaboration, so both focus work and casual collaboration have to be fought for. Regardless, what's interesting to me at least is that even while we can see productivity rose for many decades even as people moved to the 5 day, 8-hour week (which must was counter-intuitive - there was an expectation of a drop in outputs), we're seeing potentially more gains from moving to a 4 day week. RTO - for my type of work, and most work that needs "flow" for 2-3 hours a day, minimum - doesn't work for most people in 2025. Leaders are holding onto it in an irrational way, and that is leading to growing resentment. That, coupled with trying to pay people who have to show up (service workers, gig economy workers), with ever fewer working rights and poorer conditions, means something's going to give at some point. If all the menial work was done by robots, and we were all going to Bell Labs-style environments for 3-4 days a week, I think we'd all prefer that and actually, society might be a lot more productive as a result. But it's never going to happen. Not in our lifetimes, any way.
- DrScientist 1y ago
  Fair points about the modern work environment and the shift to open plan which gives you neither the space for concentrated work that an office does, nor the collaborative space that a company canteen with benches ( not circular tables ) does. However I do consider there is a general element of selfishness/ social atomisation in the reluctance to return to work - both in terms of travel time costs, and focussing on personal tasks aspects ( ie a reluctance to give other people time ). Work and how it's done, is at the heart of society - yet the society aspects are being hollowed out.

PaulRobinson 1y ago

If you look at layouts of buildings for organisations lauded for unusually high output - I'm thinking Bell Labs, Xerox, MIT Media Lab, and others - historically there has been mixed mode: the ability to do focus work, and also the ability to step away from focus and bump into people on the way to get a coffee or lunch. Today's working environment is 40+ hours in open plan offices with too few social spaces or meeting rooms for meaningful collaboration, so both focus work and casual collaboration have to be fought for. Regardless, what's interesting to me at least is that even while we can see productivity rose for many decades even as people moved to the 5 day, 8-hour week (which must was counter-intuitive - there was an expectation of a drop in outputs), we're seeing potentially more gains from moving to a 4 day week. RTO - for my type of work, and most work that needs "flow" for 2-3 hours a day, minimum - doesn't work for most people in 2025. Leaders are holding onto it in an irrational way, and that is leading to growing resentment. That, coupled with trying to pay people who have to show up (service workers, gig economy workers), with ever fewer working rights and poorer conditions, means something's going to give at some point. If all the menial work was done by robots, and we were all going to Bell Labs-style environments for 3-4 days a week, I think we'd all prefer that and actually, society might be a lot more productive as a result. But it's never going to happen. Not in our lifetimes, any way.

DrScientist 1y ago
Fair points about the modern work environment and the shift to open plan which gives you neither the space for concentrated work that an office does, nor the collaborative space that a company canteen with benches ( not circular tables ) does. However I do consider there is a general element of selfishness/ social atomisation in the reluctance to return to work - both in terms of travel time costs, and focussing on personal tasks aspects ( ie a reluctance to give other people time ). Work and how it's done, is at the heart of society - yet the society aspects are being hollowed out.