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Business
商業版塊
Bartleby
巴托比職場專欄
Working hard for the money
努力賺錢
A new study questions the effectiveness of remote working
一項新的研究質疑遠程工作的有效性
The return to the office is well under way, just as summer in the northern hemisphere begins. Pretty soon, people will be able to resume the habit of staring wistfully out of the window, hoping it will still be sunny at the weekend. As many workers embrace a hybrid pattern, perhaps commuting 2-3 days a week, the experiment in full-time home-working is ending. At the same time, assessments of its effectiveness are proliferating.
就在北半球入夏之際，重返辦公室的工作正如火如荼。人們很快就可以恢復往日的習慣，一邊渴望地盯著窗外，一邊盼望著周末還是陽光明媚。許多打工人如今已然接受了混合型工作模式，他們也許每周只通勤2到3天，但全職在家辦公的實驗即將結束。與此同時，越來越多的人開始評估遠程工作的有效性。
Early surveys of employees and employers found that remote work did not reduce productivity. But a new study of more than 10,000 employees at an Asian technology company between April 2019 and August 2020 paints a different picture. The firm uses software installed on employees’ computers that tracked which applications or websites were active, and whether the employee was using the keyboard or a mouse. (Shopping online didn’t count.)
早期對雇員和雇主的調查發現，遠程工作并沒有降低生產率。但一項針對一家亞洲科技公司在2019年4月至2020年8月期間超過1萬名員工的新研究得出了不同的結論。該公司通過員工電腦上的安裝軟件，追蹤調查哪些應用程序或網頁處于活躍狀態，以及員工是否在使用鍵盤或鼠標(不包括網上購物。）
The research certainly concluded that the employees were working hard. Total hours worked were 30% higher than before the pandemic, including an 18% increase in working outside normal hours. But this extra effort did not translate into any rise in output. This may explain the earlier survey evidence; both employers and employees felt they were producing as much as before. But the correct way to measure productivity is output per working hour. With all that extra time on the job, this fell by 20%.
這項研究當然也得出了雇員們工作努力的結論。他們的總工作時間比新冠疫情前增加了30%，其中正常工作時間以外的工作時間增加了18%。但這一額外努力并沒有轉化為產出的任何增長。這可以解釋早期的調查結果；雇主和雇員都覺得他們的生產力和以前一樣多。但衡量生產力的正確方式是計算每工作小時的產出。加上所有的額外工作時間，每工作小時的產出實際下降了20%。
The interesting thing is why this happened. The academics were able to analyse how much time the employees spent in “collaboration hours”, defined as various types of meetings, and how much time they had as “focus hours”, uninterrupted by calls or emails, where they could concentrate on their tasks. Despite working longer hours, the employees had less focus time than before the pandemic. Instead, all their extra time was taken up by meetings. Long-time readers may recall Bartleby’s law: 80% of the time of 80% of the people in meetings is wasted. This study certainly offers evidence for the proposition.
造成這種現象的原因非常有趣。學者們能夠分析員工在“協作時間”（定義為各種類型的會議）上花費了多少時間，以及他們在“專注時間”（員工們不受電話或電子郵件的干擾，可以集中精力完成任務）上花費了多少時間。盡管工作時間更長，但員工們注意力集中的時長比新冠疫情前要少。相反，他們所有的額外時間都被大大小小的會議占用了。長期讀者可能會想起巴托比定律：80%的人在開會上浪費了80%的時間。這項研究無疑為巴托比命題提供了佐證。
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