The boss was right: Working from home full time really is bad for business

financialpost.com:

Bosses pushing employees back to the office this September suddenly have a lot more ammunition in enforcing their mandates because new research shows working from home really does hurt productivity, despite what workers might say.

Full-time work from home lowers productivity by around 10 per cent, according to researchers at Stanford University. In some cases, the impact could result in a hit as high as 20 per cent.

There’s more research where that came from. A separate study of remote call-centre workers in India, conducted by the non-profit National Bureau of Economic Research, found that fully working from home dented productivity by about 18 per cent.

A lack of in-office collaboration may be partly to blame for the productivity losses, according to Stanford’s researchers. Communication is harder in a remote-work environment, and Slack messages and Teams meetings don’t appear to be good enough to bridge the gap. Weaker connections ensue, which can quickly turn into a productivity problem.

In contrast, working in an office may result in spontaneous conversations among colleagues, creating and boosting connections that might ultimately spark creativity and innovation, researchers said. There’s also evidence in-person support and feedback help people work better and faster, especially in stressful situations. As an example, the researchers cite police dispatchers in the United Kingdom who turned out to be much more efficient when working together in the same room as opposed to separately. The takeaway: “In-person working may thus allow for richer and faster communication,” the Stanford paper said.

Being at the office also appears to be good for those just starting their careers. Studies show that junior employees get