Weekend Reading from Home

The truth about working from home: It’s less productive than coming to the office. If you really want to add value, that is. So before you close shop and disconnect for the week, read this – from The Economist.

To me, it does not come as a surprise: I am convinced that when you deal with people, nothing will replace direct face-to-face contact. Indeed, using even the best videoconferencing setup, you can easily lose up to 50 percent of information that you would otherwise have obtained had you met your counterpart(s) in person. For some professions and roles, this is critical.

Full disclosure, I have worked in many roles where physical presence is non-negotiable, including being at work for 48 hours in a row or being a few thousand miles away from home for several weeks. Could I do the job from home? Sometimes yes. Would I do it better from home? In most cases – no.

Complaining about “injustice” or “unfairness” that some of your colleagues have the privilege of working from home while you are “encouraged” (for now; may change as of next Monday) by your management to show up, consider being present as part of your job. Don’t take the job if you don’t like the job description, but do not plead with your union activists to help bend the rules.

Not being engaged in what you are doing is not an excuse: Find the job you love – and your doubts will disappear.

(Originally posted on LinkedIn)