The Elephant in the Home Office (Or in Denial over a Decline in Productivity)

In “The Twilight Zone” episode “A World of His Own,” a writer can make anything appear simply by describing it into a tape recorder. When the writer’s wife tries to escape the house, he calls forth an angry elephant to block her way — which means it’s one of the very few times that the “elephant in the room” has actually been acknowledged. A recent news article about worker productivity left us wondering whether its author was aware of the pachyderm’s presence or merely determined to ignore it.

Carey Smith | Founding Contrarian

Worker productivity is down dramatically in 2022, and according to an article in The Washington Post, there’s much head-scratching about what has caused the decline. “It is strange,” says one Ivy League prof. “The data is very odd.”

Even economist and former Harvard President Larry Summers can’t explain it, though he does mutter something about “quiet quitting” and positing that employees may have slowed down after applying themselves the proverbial 110% for the past two years.

Various theories have been proposed, the author tells us, from a tight labor market that makes it easier for people to slack off, to the increased use of employee tracking tools that encourage activity but not necessarily productivity.

Of course working from home can’t possibly have anything to do with it, because many more employees worked from home at the height of the pandemic, yet productivity was up.

But remember, back then, working from home was a novelty, and there was a strong incentive to show up (online) early and stay late, to prove your worth. And let’s not forget that with so much of life on lockdown, there was little else to do, other than binge-watch “Tiger King” and season after season of “The Office.” (How poignant is that?)

And if the slowdown in productivity is not linked to working from home, then how do you explain that a similar decline is not being seen in the manufacturing sector, which is humming along nicely? Is it because “knowledge workers” are more prone to occupational angst, and they’re less productive while pondering the hard questions: Why am I here? Why am I doing this? Maybe.

But I’d venture to say that the article’s author is simply refusing to acknowledge the elephant in the home office: That this year’s decline in productivity is a direct result of the fact that working from home simply is not as productive, in the long term, and that the hybrid working conditions that many employees say they favor encourage them to treat the days they work from home more like personal days. And as a result, they get less done.

I don’t understand all the head-scratching, because from where I sit, it seems straightforward. There’s something about working together and going to the office every day. Ask any binge watcher.