Working from home: Is it really productive or not?  

Microsoft research

Remote work is something that the majority of workers have experienced during the pandemic. But how productive was working from home? A new survey from Microsoft shows that bosses and employees have very different views on the matter. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella felt it was important to answer this question, as work is unlikely to return to the way things worked before the pandemic. The survey included more than 20,000 workers in 11 different countries.

So 87% of employees consider that they work the same or even more efficiently from home, while 80% of managers disagree.

We have to overcome what we call ” productivity paranoia “, because all the data we have shows that over 80% of people feel they are very productive, while their management feels they are not. This means that there is a significant gap in expectations and how they feel. – Satya Nadella

Workers were called upon to deal with the biggest change in labor history. Fully remote jobs have skyrocketed on LinkedIn. Before the pandemic these positions made up only 2% of the platform, while until a few months ago they had reached 20%.

We had 70,000 people who were hired at Microsoft during the pandemic, they only got to know the company through the lens of the pandemic. And now when we think about the new phase, we have to give them extra motivation, help them form social bonds.

Microsoft employees have the right to work from home for 50% of their time. Apple’s call for workers to return to the office for three days a week from September has been met with resistance, while Elon Musk is demanding a 40-hour week at the office for Tesla, sending an email that said ” if you don’t show up we’ll assume you resigned ”.

The pandemic also caused a huge number of workers to change careers. Microsoft called it ” the big change ” and stated that generation Z was twice as likely to change jobs.

At the height of the big change, we saw a 50% year-over-year increase in LinkedIn members who changed jobs. Gen Z was at 90%. By 2030 Gen Z will make up 30% of the total workforce, so managers need to understand them.