Home Office work has been challenging, and while some employees like it, others are still adjusting to the changes. In many cases, people tend to work past their office hours, for example answering emails or working on documents in the evening. While this can be voluntary (devoted to flexible time management), it may also indicate that some employees work more at home than they used to in the office. This behaviour relates to the tendency of some companies having changed their processes towards achieving objectives or developing projects in a way so that employees have to manage their time flexibly in order to reach goals.
Not commuting saves time
The most mentioned advantage of the increased use of online meetings is the time saved for commuting to meetings. This includes both short-distance meetings (within the same city) with savings of between one to two hours per meeting in a highly congested city such as Mexico City but also long-distance meetings (to other cities or countries). Here it was mentioned from managers that they can now attend meetings that were previously out of reach both in terms of time and costs, for example a corporate group meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, which is now only a click away.
The saved time also has a draw-back, though. One interviewee mentioned that she now has up to ten meetings a day instead of two or three before - so the day is more packed with appointments, which increases productivity but also stress. In addition, many interviewees mentioned that online meetings tend to be shorter, more to the point and, thus, are more effective than physical meetings before.
What is more, employees also save a lot of time for not having to commute into the office in the morning and back in the evening. These hours saved are usually perceived as increasing the work-life-balance since they can be used for leisure time, sleeping longer or doing housework tasks earlier. One manager also mentioned that he has now more time with his kids, who he had not been able to see all day when he was in the office.
The control factor
We received some evidence that there exists a “fear of non-productive employees” in some supervisors, who may be classified as having a more directive and controlling attitude. The most mentioned evidence for this behaviour was the rule to turn the camera on in video calls (which is also justified by the need to observe emotions). Notwithstanding, as many interviewees assumed, in general there are always some employees who are not very productive, but that also applies to the office environment.
In contrast, when being less controlled by their supervisors, employees tend to (and are forced to) make their own decisions. One interviewee said that the remote work situation leads to effectively asking less questions to supervisors (as to how to do things) and just doing it, which may be called a self-empowerment tendency. Also, one Manager said how this situation helped channel tasks better inside the organization, he feels that while he is losing a grip of control, his perception is that there has been an improvement regarding the accountability of each employee inside the organization (in this case the channel being used is Slack).
Comic Strip: "Working at home"
More or less productive?
In conclusion, the interviewees mentioned that there is a higher “base productivity” (more output from the same or less working hours), while at the same time a “creep fatigue” reduces productivity in the long run, to the degree that one manager interviewed showed concern regarding the wellbeing of his employees, not wanting them to “burnout”. Missing input from meeting people and getting new ideas while the workplace situation at home increasingly gets “boring” is the most relevant factor that reduces productivity. For some, the gains and losses of productivity would outweigh each other, with the biggest benefit being that the time formerly “wasted” for commuting had been won.
One manager interviewed stated that she is not concerned with productivity on an individual basis. Rather, she is indeed aware of the fact that some of her employees are not working as much as before, while others are working more. For her it is more important that her people can cope with the situation and she sees that the business continues. When one of her employees is stressed or occupied, she claims to sense that and is quick to offer help.
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