Prospect Magazine:
The tube strike's biggest benefit: working from home
5 August 2015
A society where more workers got to use the duvet office would be a happier, more productive one
In 2014, Stanford University academics compared the performance of remote employees to those in the office at Ctrip, China's largest travel company. The study found that, contrary to the assumption that remote workers might slack off, they are in fact 13 per cent more productive than their desk-bound colleagues. Most of this improvement came from an increase in the amount of time spent working, with the employees in the experiment taking fewer breaks and less time off for sickness. Such findings have been supported in the UK. An LSE study found that employees who are able to work from home are more productive ''because they are less distracted, grateful for the flexibility and the time they save on commuting is ploughed back into work.''
This article was published online by Prospect Magazine on August 5, 2015
Link to article here
Related publications
'Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment', Nicholas Bloom, James Liang, John Roberts and Zhichun Jenny Ying, Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No.1194, March 2013
Does working from home work? Evidence from a Chinese experiment, Nicholas Bloom, James Liang, John Roberts and Zhichun Jenny Ying, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(1), February 2015
Related Links
Nick Bloom webpage
Productivity and Innovation Programme webpage