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What happens when people work from home
A new survey says people don't always work when they work from home. But people who work from home are actually more productive than the rest of us.
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This final note today. I am so "working from home" tomorrow.
I don't know if you saw this, but Bloomberg Businessweek had an item today. Turns out people who work from home, sometime don't.
A survey by Wakefield Research shows 43 percent of people who work from home watch a TV or movie during traditional office hours -- 24 percent say they have a drink.
But then there's this: another study out of Stanford, which says people who work from home are actually more productive than the rest of us. And isn't that kinda the whole point about working from home anyway, making work fit your life and not the other way around -- so long as the work gets done.
Long ago the concept of salaried work was created to differentiate from hourly work. No matter what your perspective on the reasons why, the concept evolved to mean being paid to perform a certain amount of work or to accomplish an objective, no matter how much time it requires. There grew a balance between the scope of the assignment and the amount people were paid as a salary to perform that work.
The real question is whether an employee still embraces the "paid to do a job" philosophy or not. I think most employers still do. In the case of those who still believe in it, the work does get done, but in the "mobile office format" not always in a 9 to 5 schedule.
There are pro's and con's to "home work" and I believe the best solution is a mix of independent effort combined with some time in an office/communal setting to keep the company's goals and processes in everyone's minds.
It doesn't work for a lot of people, but I think the two studies cited reinforce that it also can be a really good thing.
Nice piece!
