My better half works from home, she intends that she will never go back to the office full time. For her, the efficiency gains are enormous and the benefits to her wellbeing immeasurable. I am going to attempt to put into words why….
The Sand and Peas theory is a scientific example of what fills a space, density of differing materials. If we think of the working day as a measure of time akin to the space in a bucket, and we think of the work we can get done as small spherical objects that can fit into the bucket, say peas, then the productivity of the day is defined by how many peas can fit in the bucket when it is full of peas. Lets say that the spaces between the peas when the bucket is full represent the things that we cannot get done in the time we are physically in the office. We can assume this as nobody in an office is 100% efficient all the time, and when you are in an office there are many things you cannot do that you could do if you were at home. We are restricted by the limited array of things that the office can provide, and the limited options for our use of that time. An office has a purpose, that is to work on a job.
When we do office work from home we can add value to the same space of time by utilising the environment we are in, and we can represent his using sand. In the science experiment the bucket may be filled with peas, but can accommodate quite a lot sand in the spaces between the peas, the gaps. It can be said that the bucket is no more filled but the concentration of the contents is greater now. So we have a space that is not bigger or fuller (in the sense that we could get no more peas in), but is better filled, if we lose no peas from the space by poring in the sand. Now the reason we fill first with peas, the work, is that it wouldn’t work the other way around, it is important to put the work (the peas) first, the sand is a happy externality.
If you do a nominal amount of work, that is measurable, and we give that a score, lets say 10 units per hour for 8 hours, that’s 80 units. And let us say that this is a score you can achieve at home or in the office. Let’s also say you can put a wash on, do the breakfast dishes, pull the chicken out of the freezer, walk the dog, make lunch, nip to the shop, put something in the slow cooker etc, when you are working from home without losing a single unit of productivity from your score, and you can save travelling time into the bargain, and you can get up later, then what would be the benefit to you of voluntarily opting to return to the place of work you do not need to be at? From the firm’s perspective you will use no resources, no toilet paper, no tea bags, no hot water, and from your perspective you will simply feel that you have better used the day. So we might say that you’d be a lot happier, and what do happy workers do???? They work harder and add more value of course.
I will have to take into account the isolation factor, the lack of social interaction that may come from an office environment. But, we always have the need to collaborate, and remote conferencing tools like zoom can provide that.
We can also point at recent studies into the effects of home working, and say that they have a general measurable trend toward greater job satisfaction and increased retention, as well as even increased productivity and a lower likeliness to be off sick in some cases. Also there is the growing recognition that many people are very unproductive in busy noisy places because they are incapable of blocking out the rubble and focussing on their task. Studies also pointed out that home workers tended to increase in weight, that is a downside I am sure.
I rest my case, WFH is generally a winner, argue with me…
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