Where Did the Commute Time Go?

 

The work-from-home system implemented due to the epidemic has led to total elimination of commute time. How have the employees reallocated this time? When and how long do people work? and what type of activities do they engage in?

Those without managing responsibilities used the extra time to do personal work whereas managers spent it in working longer hours and more meetings. Managers worked longer than their normal working hours and the extra time freed due to working from home. 

This suggests a significant change in work, especially managers and its impact should be understood properly to manage the post-epidemic work setup.

A survey conducted indicated the following significant changes.

• An overall reduction of 1 hour on an average commute time which was largely used in personal activities.
• Increasing daily working spans but no increase in time spent working. 
• Difference between employee and managers schedules
• Managers spent more time doing work-related activities.
• They spent more time on interactive activities.
• They spend more time reading and answering emails.
• They were less likely to indulge in work-related lunch.

The bigger the organisation, the more the coordination required to manage teams. 

Impact on employees

The employees were not affected so much by the changes in their work routines. The employees benefit more with the work from home setup, as it gives them more time with the family, removes the stress of commuting, gives them more time to give attention to their health and wellbeing. 

It may be too early to predict if this will persist post-epidemic, there are indications that some of them will and many would prefer working from home. 

Organisations must understand how the WFH affects the quality, type of interactions across the employees. A top-down approach in managing the WFH employees would only lead to overloading the employees who have barely got used to WFH and virtual meetings.

Instead of focusing on volume, companies should focus on quality. Technology can facilitate this. 

Shared tools like chats, whiteboards, simulations would help in improving the quality of interaction among team members across various locations. Technology can help team members to cope with interruptions resiliently. Companies can also look at AI technologies which can provide additional support. It can also help managers improve their productivity by handling coordination tasks like scheduling meetings, sharing access to information. 

Finally, companies will need to actively help employees maintain a healthy separation between their work and personal lives. The commuting time served as a separator between work and personal lives and this needs to be recreated now that WFH has become an accepted reality. 

Where Did the Commute Time Go?

by Andrew Kun, Raffaella Sadun, Orit Shaer, and Thomaz Teodorovicz

HBR 2020/12