I don't, I get a lot more done at home! But everyone's different and the nature of people's jobs are different. The article does get more balanced when you get past the headline actually! There's plenty of evidence about the productivity levels of working from home being high, but that can also be an issue with people maybe doing too much intensive work and not taking enough breaks. Lots of views on this.

In reply to Johanna:

Agreed - it depends what is meant by 'getting things done'! A large part of my job involves actually spending time with our teams, and talking to people, either in person or over the phone. That's how I pick up on possible team conflict, or problems (and successes!) that I might not otherwise hear about.

So I sometimes have to remind myself that I have had a productive day, when I feel like all I've done all day is chat... Equally, working at home is much more conducive to catching up on admin. A healthy working combination is a bit of both, for me personally.

As with everything, context is key.

I'm really productive working from home - as long as my family aren't there. In the holidays or during lockdowns, it's not the best place for me to work at all. I remember a budgeting meeting in lockdown #1 I took sat on the stairs, because every room in the house had someone studying/working or was a wifi deadspot. I did NOT feel the consummate professional.

So most of the time, I come to work. I work in a school so during lockdowns I've been able to come in to supervise the keyworker children, and have been in contact with only a handful of people - and that works for me. Some of our teachers have similarly come in to teach virtual lessons here when that's been permitted, because they are in a shared house full of other adults trying to work. Others are happy and productive in their home office, and much prefer it.

There's no one solution, and we shouldn't be trying to create one by measuring a theoretical productivity level as if everyone is the same. Adapting and understanding individual circumstances (where the job is one that allows any degree of home working, which is far from a given) has got to be the better solution.

Nina

For me, it's a balance. if I'm admin heavy, then I'm far better at home as I am able to concentrate with no interruptions, however I miss out on picking things of relevance up and useful conversations of different areas across the business by not being in the office. Context is key and there isn't a one size fits all. Ideally, businesses would allow employees to choose their own working patterns depending on work load and what works best for them.

In reply to Nina Waters:

I completely agree with the Nina. I am very wary of sweeping generalisations. There are many reasons for working in a location with colleagues physically - it might even include - we have a lot of money tied up in a lease and equipment so we cant leave it idle and it is really context specific, needs, role based and business need.

I've had a fully equiped home office for the 15 years I've run my business and it's very different being told to work from home - when lots of other folks might be there too - to making an active choice because I can, the work requires it, it suits me, the client, the work and delivers the goods.

Then there's productivity levels and measuring those....also another big discussion with nuances too. This is a discussion that will run and run.

The evidence is pretty clear that working from home - in general - makes people more productive.

The challenge, now, for business leaders whose role is to maximize productivity (like HR staff) is breaking through the perception gap. This is because many people perceive productivity in the wrong way. For example, when people ask themselves "am I being productive?" they tend to imagine themselves in whatever situation they most associate with productivity. For knowledge workers, this is invariably sitting at a desk, typing. For production workers, it is standing in whatever environment they work in, doing their production role. To take an example I'm working with a lot, right now, for healthcare workers, they see themselves as productive when they are engaged with patients.

However, the reason that WFH tends to generate more productivity amongst knowledge workers is because, without the burden of expectations, we tend to work differently - more intensively, in shorter bursts, with longer breaks, or putting more time into a task that particularly engages us rather than being forced into one that doesn't by supervisor expectations.

When someone says "I'm more productive in the office", what they generally mean is either "I feel that my effort is noticed and appreciated more when I'm seen to be making it" or "I don't have a home space that is conducive to productivity".

Both of these issues can be solved in one of two ways: the obvious way is to let the person work in the office; but this has the immediate downside of losing the productivity boost that comes from working at home. The more challenging way is to support the person to make sure that their work is still recognized and valued even when they aren't present and that they have the resources needed to have a productive space at home.

And whilst there's a lot of talk about how these benefits works exclusively for knowledge workers whose roles can easily be performed remotely, there are also opportunities here for production workers.

Production work can be diversified, giving production workers more opportunities to take on work that can be done from home, and/or employers can recognize that time spent away from the production line - whether at home or in dedicated break spaces - can make production time substantially more efficient. To go back to my nursing example, a nurse who's at the end of four days of 12-hour night shifts is going to be markedly less efficient in their role than one who's working a less taxing schedule with time out for study and reflection.

In reply to Maya:

Fully agree with that comment Maya! I go into the office and spend most of my day moving from talking to one person to another. I leave feeling like I've done no work at all, even though I technically have - it's just work that isn't necessarily measurable in that I can tick it off a to do list or see an outcome. I do still feel that I am more productive at home though as I can work with minimal distractions (with the exception of the 5 month old labrador puppy who has recently taken a liking to the underneath of my chair!), I can silence my phone when I don't want to be disturbed and I can crack on with things at a pace that works for me. Its very easy to forget though that the "chats" we have each day are still productive.