The need to pad out your 8 hour day will evaporate. Workers will do what needs to be done rather than wasting their trying to look busy with the rest of the office.
Remote work does not necessarily eliminate the pressure on workers to look busy for 8 hours a day.
Instant-messaging tools often show when you are “active” and when you are “away”. If you are using a company computer without administrator rights, this effectively becomes a check when you are busy (typing on the keyboard, moving the mouse), even in countries where monitoring your employees is in theory illegal. If the circle next to your name is too often yellow when the circles next to your colleagues’ names are green, some manager will notice.
Even if you install a mouse shaker, if the managers have a habit of sending instant messages to employees several times a day and expecting an immediate response, they will notice who replies quickly and who does not.
With long meetings, the company can make sure that employees are actually paying attention by introducing group activities, where the employees are split into groups of five, and they are supposed to brainstorm on given topic and afterwards report their team conclusion.
Yes but there’s generally a long enough buffer before the messenger apps change status.
Working on something personal, reading some blog, general web surfing, etc., I feel, constitute 80% of “alt work” sessions. These scenarios won’t register on instant-messenger as “away”. It is not about going out for a one-hour walk in the middle of the day, without informing anyone. It is these bursts of freedom, and the ability to switch context, unmonitored.
Also, pinging someone for feedback, checking someone’s status or organizing group activities, seems like a less efficient monitoring medium (over constantly being in their range of vision).
The personal activities available during the 8 hours monitored by instant messengers involve mouse and keyboard.
Possible: reading a blog, commenting on a blog, writing a blog, watching YouTube videos, reading a book in PDF, doing an online course that does not require installing anything, etc.
Not possible: taking a nap, exercising, taking a walk, cooking, etc.
The thing I find sad is that all healthy activities seem to be in the latter group. For someone who wants to spend most of the day browsing Reddit and watching cat videos, work from home is a complete blessing. For someone who wants to take care of their health (maybe damaged by years of sedentary work), there are still many advantages (e.g. freedom to choose a chair or standing desk, plus all the useful things in the former group), but the 8-hour block still remains an obstacle to some activities.
Remote work does not necessarily eliminate the pressure on workers to look busy for 8 hours a day.
Instant-messaging tools often show when you are “active” and when you are “away”. If you are using a company computer without administrator rights, this effectively becomes a check when you are busy (typing on the keyboard, moving the mouse), even in countries where monitoring your employees is in theory illegal. If the circle next to your name is too often yellow when the circles next to your colleagues’ names are green, some manager will notice.
Even if you install a mouse shaker, if the managers have a habit of sending instant messages to employees several times a day and expecting an immediate response, they will notice who replies quickly and who does not.
With long meetings, the company can make sure that employees are actually paying attention by introducing group activities, where the employees are split into groups of five, and they are supposed to brainstorm on given topic and afterwards report their team conclusion.
Yes but there’s generally a long enough buffer before the messenger apps change status.
Working on something personal, reading some blog, general web surfing, etc., I feel, constitute 80% of “alt work” sessions. These scenarios won’t register on instant-messenger as “away”. It is not about going out for a one-hour walk in the middle of the day, without informing anyone. It is these bursts of freedom, and the ability to switch context, unmonitored.
Also, pinging someone for feedback, checking someone’s status or organizing group activities, seems like a less efficient monitoring medium (over constantly being in their range of vision).
That’s also what people do at the office.
The personal activities available during the 8 hours monitored by instant messengers involve mouse and keyboard.
Possible: reading a blog, commenting on a blog, writing a blog, watching YouTube videos, reading a book in PDF, doing an online course that does not require installing anything, etc.
Not possible: taking a nap, exercising, taking a walk, cooking, etc.
The thing I find sad is that all healthy activities seem to be in the latter group. For someone who wants to spend most of the day browsing Reddit and watching cat videos, work from home is a complete blessing. For someone who wants to take care of their health (maybe damaged by years of sedentary work), there are still many advantages (e.g. freedom to choose a chair or standing desk, plus all the useful things in the former group), but the 8-hour block still remains an obstacle to some activities.