Thread by @jpetazzo

I'd like to share a great resource about #RemoteWork and #WorkFromHome.

Let's start with a little contextual anecdote …

A couple of months ago, when I was in the Bay Area, I happened to be sitting in a bus going from Palo Alto to Fremont.

Our route crossed a few highways. The highways were completely saturated in one direction, almost empty in the other.

It reminded me how silly it was to "go to the office."

Employees who work in an office are less productive, cost more money, and quit faster.

Nicholas Bloom is an economist at Stanford, and he got the opportunity to conduct an evidence-based study on 500 workers doing the same job. Half of them (selected randomly) stayed in the office, the other half worked from home. For nine months.

The results?

- 13% productivity increase
- 22% productivity increase if you let people elect to work from home
- 50% less attrition
- $2000 in savings for the company per employee per year

#WorkFromHome #RemoteWork

22% productivity increase means one extra day of work per week.

It's like getting your employees to work for free every Sunday, except they still get to enjoy their week-ends.

The paper → people.stanford.edu/nbloom/sites/d…

The associated TEDx talk →

An easy to read article (if you prefer that) → inc.com/scott-mautz/a-…

Of course, some jobs can't be done from home. If you are interacting with people (serving customers, teaching…), or if you need access to special equipment — you can't do that from home. Obviously.

But everybody else should be given the opportunity to work from home.

(And the Bay Area should also get a decent public transit system, but one doesn't preclude the other, right 😅)