{"id":584096,"date":"2023-07-24T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/remote-employees-work-longer-and-harder-studies-show\/"},"modified":"2023-07-24T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T09:30:00","slug":"remote-employees-work-longer-and-harder-studies-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/remote-employees-work-longer-and-harder-studies-show\/","title":{"rendered":"#Remote employees work longer and harder, studies show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/07\/workfromhome_072123_adobestock_remote.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Remote work became possible long before the pandemic. Many employers resisted it on a hunch that employees working from home might spend too much of their workday watching Oprah and shopping on eBay.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Then came COVID-19, which launched a vast, forced experiment in telework. The results are in: As it turns out, most remote workers are not incurable slackers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Several studies suggest remote and hybrid employees actually work slightly longer hours than their office-bound colleagues, findings echoed by an avalanche of anecdotal evidence gathered from millions of teleworkers in the past three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One of the most celebrated studies, which tracked more than 60,000 Microsoft employees over the first half of 2020, found that remote work triggered a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.geekwire.com\/2021\/microsoft-remote-work-study-average-length-workweek-increased-10-pandemic\/\">10 percent boost<\/a> in weekly hours.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Remote employees are working more, in part, because they are commuting less. Another landmark study, based on data from 27 countries, found that remote workers saved 72 minutes in daily commuting time. On average, employees <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bfi.uchicago.edu\/insight\/research-summary\/time-savings-when-working-from-home\/#:~:text=The%20average%20daily%20savings%20in,week%20per%20worker%20post%20pandemic.\">spent about half an hour<\/a> of that extra time engaged in daily work: more than two hours a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Not only do remote workers log longer hours, but they also seem to get work done at a faster clip. An oft-cited, pre-pandemic study of workers in a Chinese <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">travel<\/a> agency found a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/qje\/article-abstract\/130\/1\/165\/2337855?redirectedFrom=fulltext&amp;login=false\">13 percent boost<\/a> in performance for home workers. They worked more hours per shift, and each hour was a bit more productive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The success of America\u2019s remote work experiment may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the early pandemic months, some remote workers felt imprisoned in their homes. In hindsight, however, that ennui was probably more about the pandemic itself than remote work, which has proven wildly popular.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Gallup polling shows a dramatic rise in the share of Americans who prefer to work at home at least part of the time, from 40 percent in 2019 <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gallup.com\/workplace\/397751\/returning-office-current-preferred-future-state-remote-work.aspx\">to a near-unanimous 94 percent<\/a> in 2022.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Some workplace experts theorize remote workers have an incentive to work harder: They don\u2019t want to lose the privilege of working at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s because people are motivated to keep the arrangement, and so that motivation drives the productivity. They want it to work,\u201d said Tammy Allen, a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of South Florida who studies work and family.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Whatever their motivation, remote workers have proven America\u2019s employees are capable of working from home without succumbing to the temptations of channel-surfing and shopping.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Most of them, anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think 80 [percent], 90 percent of employees are very responsible and work well whether they\u2019re at the home or the office,\u201d said Matthew Bidwell, an associate professor of management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>And the other 10 percent to 20 percent? Some of them will do too little work if allowed to work from home. Some will do too much.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bidwell speaks regularly to groups of executives, and he has heard scattered reports of a new phenomenon: remote work moonlighting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are these employees who have two or three full-time jobs,\u201d he said. Because they work remotely, some moonlighters are able to trick two (or even three) employers into thinking they are giving each job their full attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIt is a concern,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t believe many people are doing it. I think the experience has been widespread enough that companies are really worried about it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Other remote workers hold only one job but don\u2019t put in much effort. They manifest the fears that hindered the remote-work revolution in the years before the pandemic set it off.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is the number one thing, pre-COVID, that managers would always bring up,\u201d said Barbara Larson, executive professor of management at Northeastern University\u2019s D\u2019Amore-McKim School of Business. \u201c\u2019If I let people work from home, they\u2019re just going to be shopping on eBay all day.\u2019 And my answer to that is, \u2018Guess what? Those employees were already shopping on eBay all day. They were just able to hide it.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Remote work has reshaped the American workplace. Nearly 30 percent of all work <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/wfhresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/WFHResearch_updates_July2023.pdf\">happened at home<\/a> in the first half of this year, compared to 5 percent before the pandemic, according to WFH Research, a data-collection project.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In New York, Chicago and other large urban centers, the share of remote work is <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kastle.com\/safety-wellness\/getting-america-back-to-work\/\">closer to half<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Although workplaces have shifted, broader data on the American workforce suggest that most of us are working about the same hours now as before the remote work wave. \u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr7_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Full-time workers logged <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/cps\/cpsaat19.htm\">42 hours a week<\/a> in 2022, compared to <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/cps\/aa2019\/cpsaat19.pdf\">42.5 hours<\/a> in pre-pandemic 2019, according to Census data gathered from American households.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Another data set, collected from employers, shows the average workweek is <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/fred.stlouisfed.org\/series\/AWHAETP\">about the same<\/a> now as before the pandemic, about 34.5 hours. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Productivity, a measure of goods and services produced per hour of work, is <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/charts\/productivity-and-costs\/nonfarm-business-sector-indexes.htm\">higher now<\/a> than before the pandemic. Productivity declined from 2022 to 2023, setting off <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shrm.org\/hr-today\/news\/hr-news\/pages\/worker-productivity-is-down-is-remote-work-to-blame.aspx\">a few alarm bells<\/a>, but remote work seems to be only one of several factors.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Just as some remote workers adapt better than others, some types of work seem better suited to telework.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIndividual work, in <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>, is a whole lot easier when we work remotely, as compared to teamwork and collaborative work,\u201d said Anat Lechner, a clinical associate professor of management and organizations at New York University\u2019s Stern School of Business. \u201cIf we have to work together, that\u2019s a mess. That\u2019s complicated.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Microsoft study found collaborative work became \u201cmore static and siloed\u201d with remote work. Remote workers collaborated less. Real-time communication dropped, while \u201casynchronous\u201d talk via email and instant messaging rose apace.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Remote work recast the working day. Microsoft research spawned talk of the \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/worklab\/triple-peak-day\">triple-peak<\/a>\u201d workday replacing the old 9-to-5 routine. Work peaks in the morning, tapers off at lunchtime, peaks again in the afternoon and declines steadily into the evening, only to peak again at night.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou may have folks who are tending to family issues on weekday afternoons,\u201d Allen said. \u201cBut then, after they put the kids to bed, they can return to work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Answering emails at 10 p.m. may not sound ideal. Just as remote work blurs the old work-home divide, it may throw an employee\u2019s work-life balance out of whack.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yet, most remote workers seem to have no problem finding balance. Since 2020, remote work has emerged as arguably the ultimate employment perk. In the aforementioned Gallup poll, only 6 percent of workers said they would prefer to work on-site every day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re always going to have that 5 percent that crave <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a> interaction and really want to be in the office full time,\u201d Allen said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Researchers may never really know whether employees log more or fewer hours at home, for the simple reason that work is hard to measure.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When an office worker chats with colleagues, drinks coffee, checks email and toggles among two dozen websites in an hour, does all of that count as work? Some employees chalk up the commute as work time, even if their employers do not.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow do I measure the hours that I work?\u201d Bidwell said. \u201cI could come up with some really large numbers or some really small numbers, depending on how stringent I\u2019m being.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/business\/4110598-remote-employees-work-longer-and-harder-studies-show\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Remote work became possible long before the pandemic. Many employers resisted it on a hunch that employees working from home might spend too much of their workday watching Oprah and shopping on eBay.\u00a0 Then came COVID-19, which launched a vast, forced experiment in telework. The results are in: As it turns out, most remote workers&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":584097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/07\/workfromhome_072123_adobestock_remote.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[134344,136488,117,134343,90482,133498,115,70289],"class_list":["post-584096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-administration","tag-appropriations","tag-business","tag-campaign","tag-house","tag-in-the-know","tag-news","tag-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}