Remote workers are extremely busy, but tell that to their managers, many of whom are paranoid their employees are spending too much time goofing off on the clock.
This is according to a
Researchers found that 87% of employees report being productive at work, an assertion that Microsoft says is backed up by user data. It noted that the number of meetings per week on Teams has increased 153% since the start of the pandemic, while overlapping meetings increased by 46% compared to last year. The number of meeting invites has dramatically increased over the past two years, with a rising number of declines and tentative RSVPs (84% and 216%, respectively) despite actual acceptance rates growing only 3%.
One might question how people get their work done when they're in so many meetings. The answer, according to the survey, is that many people get work done during them — 42% said they multitask during meetings by actively sending emails; Microsoft noted that this doesn't include practices like reading emails, working on non-meeting files, or web activity.
Despite the data, managers are more skeptical that people are getting more work done than before. The survey found that 85% of leaders say that the shift to hybrid work has made it challenging to have confidence that employees are being productive. This is likely because they are missing the old visual cues on what it meant to be productive, since they can't see people just walking around. It noted that, compared to in-person managers, hybrid managers struggle more to trust their employees are doing their best work (49% versus 36%) and have less visibility into the work they do (54% versus 38%). Only 12% of leaders say they have full confidence their remote and hybrid employees are productive.
This has led to pressure on the part of employees to prove they're working, which the report warned could devolve into making the appearance of productivity more important than actually being productive, which was dubbed "productivity theater," contributing to employee burnout. The poll found that 48% of employees and 53% of managers already say that they're burned out at work. The report said this demonstrates that productivity paranoia, ultimately, is not sustainable and urged managers to shift their focus from quantity of work to quality.
"Productivity paranoia risks making hybrid work unsustainable. Leaders need to pivot from worrying about whether their people are working enough to helping them focus on the work that's most important," said the report.
