🥱 Wait, who is being lazy? | Ep10 OoO

🥳 LinkedIn: OoO celebrates reaching 1 million 

🤵 Andrew Allen: Why I created Out of Office

📝 Market Watch: Fed study says remote workers are lazy

Hey! Welcome Back -

It’s episode 10 of Out of Office and we’re celebrating over a million views!

First off, a big thank you to everyone who has been watching.

So this week we’re going to do a bit of a recap on my favorite stories so far, and I’m going to share why I created Out of Office in the first place.

Then to top it off, I have some interesting stats that claim remote workers are getting lazier. (Hint: It’s bs)

Hold onto your party hats -

Reaching 1 Million: The Stories That Blew My Mind

It’s been awesome to see how well this series has been received on LinkedIn. 

We recently reached our millionth person - wow!

Over the last 10 episodes we’ve unearthed some mind-blowing stories making headlines and shaping narratives. 

🙌 Here are some of my favorites:

• Nigeria rises due to remote

Remember the Nigeria story? The entire country has a new economic outlook thanks to remote work. It’s set to inject 50 billion into the economy over the next 10 years.

• Beka Anardi’s life changes forever

In episode 8 we told you the story of Beka Anardi, a woman with a physical disability who has returned to work, and is thriving thanks to the WFH model. 

• Amazon CEO embraces remote work

In episode 6 we reported on the 180 that Andy Jassy, (Amazon’s CEO) has done on remote working. Proof that even big time CEO’s can see the writing on the wall.

Still nothing compares to the discussions we’ve been having.

These productive conversations have been fantastic - thank you! 

Share this week’s episode with a friend

Out of Office: The Untold Story

There are literally millions of remote workers in the world right now.

Before OoO, there was no news source that informed people what was happening on the many frontiers of the WFH revolution 🖖.

When you work remotely, you have to keep up-to-date on the rapidly changing rules that will impact your future. Every news story is a piece of the puzzle, slowly forming what we will come to know as the next step in workplace culture. 

OoO gives you the scoop in real time so that you can connect the dots and eventually - see the big picture. 

The picture that impacts your future. It’s for you.

FRBNY: Remote Workers are LAZY(?)

I’ve found that most stories on remote work are naturally positive. I’d be lying if I said they were always that way. There’s a negative side too.

And I’m not afraid to tackle the big questions here and go saber to saber with the dark side of the workforce. 

🖤 Real Talk: The Dark Side of Remote

In this week’s story, we zoom in on some dire data coming out of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Take a look -

🤔 Doesn’t look great. 

At first glance, it seems like remote workers are working less and spending more time doing other things. 

Chris Matthews writes -

“...a new analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that workers in the U.S. are taking advantage of a widespread shift toward remote work to spend more time sleeping and engaging in leisure activities.”

The data is saying that people who WFH are lazy.

That’s some serious shade.

What happened to the data that said people are more productive when they WFH? 

This kind of narrative reinforces what blinkered CEO’s want to believe right now -that people who aren’t in the office, aren't working.

That’s just not true.

These CEOs have denied that productivity increases, saying that any gains were once-off anomalies because of the pandemic. 

Sure we all rallied together to get stuff done back then, but it’s been a minute. 

In 20 years when the world is run by Gen Z, boundaries will keep being pushed. 

That’s normal, but we haven’t collectively agreed on the rules - yet.

What is Lazy and What is Normal?

Everyone has different opinions about what is and isn’t acceptable on the clock. 

• Is it okay to supervise kids?
• Take a personal phone call?
• Clean your house?
• Start dinner?

What is and isn’t okay comes down to the individual. There will always be a dip after something new settles. No-one knows what will happen to remote productivity if we leave workers to their own devices. 

I’m a rational optimist. 

I’m going to work hard whether I’m checked or not, and you’re probably the same.

But not everyone is like that.

That’s the problem no-one has figured out how to solve. 

• Some companies let employees do whatever they want
• Some (like the one I work for) monitors data inputs and gets flack for it

I respect both perspectives. 

When the dust settles we’ll see what comes out on top.

• Companies may use remote policy to lure talent away from competitors
• Countries may introduce laws that change the rules for everyone

This period of change, this conversation, is ongoing. 

Our Promise

Here at OoO, we promise to update you on the latest changes - whenever new information hits the wires. 

And don’t dwell on the idea that remote workers are lazy.

That graph has been misinterpreted. 

It conveniently leaves out the massive window of time workers spend commuting. 

The study doesn’t measure total productivity - it measures what people do with the time that they’ve saved from their commute. 

This ‘dead time’ was never used for work.

All the study shows is that remote workers are staying productive while they work. And that they’ve reclaimed five or so hours of dead time that they can now use as they please.

And who wouldn’t spend it on friends, family and hobbies?

They can take that lazy shade and shove it where the sun don’t shine. 

What do you think, are remote workers lazy?

That’s all for today - and remember the future of work is Out of Office. 

Andrew

This Week’s Shareable

• A Fed study claims remote employees are working less, sleeping and playing more… that they’re lazy! But the data conveniently leaves out the dead time reclaimed by the employees. More on Out of Office this week.