Gallup polling shows a dramatic rise in the share of Americans who prefer to work at home at least part of the time, from 40% in 2019 to a near-unanimous 94% today.
There is an incentive to work harder: Remote workers don’t want to lose the privilege of working at home.
Several studies suggest remote and hybrid employees work slightly longer hours than in-office employees.
One of the most celebrated studies, which tracked more than 60,000 Microsoft employees over the first half of 2020, found that remote work triggered a 10% boost in weekly hours.
Remote employees work more because they commute less and have more free time as a result.
Another landmark study, based on data from 27 countries, found that remote workers saved 72 minutes in daily commuting time. On average, employees spent about half an hour of that extra time engaged in daily work: that´s more than two hours a week!
Not only do remote workers log longer hours, but they also seem to get work done at a faster clip.
A pre-pandemic study of workers in a Chinese travel agency found a 13% boost in performance for remote workers. It found they worked more hours per shift, and each hour was more productive.
