By Nicholas Bloom, Jose Maria Barrero, Steven Davis, Brent Meye , Emil Mihaylov
For Harvard Business Review
Photo: Erstudiostok/Getty Images
Summary: Survey research suggests that managers and employees see remote work very differently. Managers are more likely to say it harms productivity, while employees are more likely to say it helps. The difference may be commuting: Employees consider hours not spent commuting in their productivity calculations, while managers don’t. The answer is clearer communication and policies, and for many companies the best policy will be managed hybrid with two to three mandatory days in office.
Remote work is one of the biggest changes to working since World War II, but it’s being held back by a major disconnect between managers and employees. Case in point is Elon Musk. He decreed in November that employees must come into the office, only to walk it back after it threatened to speed up the pace of resignations. It was a “hardcore” mistake by Musk, but a less dramatic version of the same story is playing out across the economy.
Managers and employees disagree profoundly about key aspects of work-from-home, according to surveys we’ve conducted. For instance, managers believe that work-from-home reduces productivity while employees think it massively increases it.
