WFH vs Office

[Fulshaw]

Interesting article in the Guardian this morning about the staff of Manchester United being told to come back to the office full-time.

The owner cites another one of his companies where they WFH on a Friday and email traffic fell by 20% on that day.

On the one hand, this seems like a clumsy way to measure productivity. There are lots of other factors surely and you’d have to look at calls, meetings etc. as well, and throughput of work.

On the other, what is explanation is there for the drop in emails other than people putting their feet up?

What do you think?

WFH day is the day you get "big" tasks done that require deep concentration so fewer emails will get sent.

If I have 3 long tasks to do resulting in 3 emails I haven't done less work than a day when I send 20 emails relating to 10 short easy planned tasks and 10 matters arising...

I’m going to make sure I send more emails than usual when I WFH tomorrow just in case this becomes a thing.
I think it’s probably true - speaking personally when I first started WFH it was a real privilege so I’d make sure I was over-productive in case I was challenged. I never have been so I now have to work really hard to avoid the WFH distractions (usually putting washing on). It would feel very monotonous in the office though if I was there all week with just Teams calls so happy with a hybrid model. If I was to be dragged back to the office then I’d want more face to face working, not sitting in Teams meetings all day.

Friday is the most likely day people will be on annual leave so I'm sure that plays a part, even before Covid when we were in the office 5 days a week my place was like a ghost town on a Friday.

Also agree with pp about the type of work done at home, I always leave bigger tasks for when I'm wfh so will naturally send less emails.

Email production falls? That might be because people are actioning the zillions of email sent Mon-Thurs, not because they're slacking.

I don't know who's slacking on Fridays because it's not me us.

I WFH every day..

I try to keep Fridays clear to work on bigger/more complex tasks that need a lot of focus. It's my quiet cracking on day, and I don't do non-urgent emails, non-urgent meetings. It feels good to finish the week making a good chunk of progress. Then I get prepped for the following week, preparing meeting documents and agendas etc. It's my one day without interruptions. I know quite a few people who finish up their week like this.

Also we have a lot of people working compressed hours (so full time) on 4 day weeks or 9 day fortnights and Friday is the most popular non-working day.

On the one hand, this seems like a clumsy way to measure productivity. There are lots of other factors surely and you’d have to look at calls, meetings etc. as well, and throughput of work.

On the other, what is explanation is there for the drop in emails other than people putting their feet up?

Well you'd need to compare against email numbers on a Friday when people are working in the office. I wouldn't be surprised if they still drop, regardless of working location.

Why did they decide to measure productivity by number of emails sent? Do they not have actual output of work? Is it not obvious to managers whether productivity is poor? Surely you know whether employees are doing their work based on the work, not emails sent?

I think Friday has often been a bit of a slack work day. Back in the 90s the bosses at my place lunches every Friday at the pub.

It's also the day that charity events happen at my place, Wear what you want to work, subsidised bacon rolls, that sort of thing.

Even pre COVID, Friday was always the quietest day at my workplace

This seems a really bizarre way of assessing productivity. I try to have a rhythm across the week rather than the same schedule daily so Monday I try to do planning and creative, tues - thurs is meetings, implementation (so more emails), reporting etc, then Friday is mop up and organisation. Some days are email light but actually much more productive and set the tone for the week ahead

I do think there is a difference in perceptions to be honest. I know everyone on MN who WFH insists they are more productive but this view doesn’t seem to be shared by service users, clients and company owners.

Fewer emails means more productivity in my experience. We have no meeting Fridays for this reason, it allows everyone to actually do the work they've been talking about all week.

I work with the Middle East a lot so Friday is my quietest day email wise as they’re off. Mondays in the other hand….

It's a daft way to measure productivity. Most jobs consist of a lot more than sending emails. If I'm sending fewer emails that's usually because I have got my head down getting things done.

so manyy people dont work fridays. regardless of where they work place is - that must have an affect on productivity.

basically, they dont trust you!

I prefer a mix, I like hybrid working but I do agree that work slackens off on a Friday for sure. I'm definitely less productive at home on a Friday than I am if I were in the office, and I know that's true of lots of colleagues but it's sort of just accepted. As a PP said, Friday's in the good old days we used to go to the pub for lunch and then not a lot was achieved after that!

But measuring by emails in nuts. It totally depends what I am working on. If I am organising event there will be a tons of emails but sometimes I am writing all day and there won't be any.

Friday has always been the least productive day of the week though hasn't it? What is the point of sending an email on a Friday afternoon? I work in comms and we just wouldn't.

Quite funny really - I always find the people sending the most emails are the least productive- too busy looking busy

At the end of the day the bosses aren’t happy with the way things are so they are pulling staff back in
C’est la vie
Everyone who works from home seems to think they do a brilliant job,bosses and clients often don’t agree

I go to the office about twice a month, I've been really disciplined though. I have my spare room as my study so I'm not distracted. I work things like gym classes and sessions into my day. So if I have a class at 9.30 I'll start working at 7 30 so I've done almost 2 hours when I go then will have lunch whilst I'm working later. I go to the gym for a workout at lunchtime but if I'm a bit longer than an hour I'll work a bit later.

It's all about compromise. They're getting the same if not more work from me.

I've read a lot of analysis that tends to say WFH is generally 10% less productive but that for many companies this difference is outweighed by the savings made in office space. Seems like everyone is a winner as companies costs go down and also people don't need to work as hard.

I do think email traffic is a very crude measure, there must be better ways to check productivity. I am sometimes tempted to WFH for the odd day to save on travel time but I really struggle to concentrate on my own at home, being at work with other people is far more conducive to getting on with it for me. No one in my workplace WFH on a regular basis so you'd feel left out at home.

For every 5 minutes work I lose by chucking a batch of washing in at home, there's 5 minutes work time gained by not having to listen to Brenda banging on about the latest plotline of EastEnders in the office.

Everyone I know who works part time has Friday off. Maybe there are fewer emails as fewer people are working? On the other hand, I do think that some people slack off when wfh. Not all but some.

I'm on a fully remote contract, and my whole team are in a different time zone, on a different continent. I think these sorts of roles are getting rarer, but companies wouldn't hire for fully remote roles if they didn't make financial sense. My workplace has a globally dispersed workforce and my role has oversight across EMEA region so I can interact with stakeholders in their timezones.

I'm getting bored of these WFH vs hybrid vs office conversations, though. Remote and hybrid working isn't going to go away, there is too much cost savings to be had. And slackers will slack off wherever they're based.