Go Ahead, Tell Your Boss You Are Working From Home | Nicholas Bloom | TEDxStanford

Working from home (or WFH) has an undeservedly bad reputation, says Stanford economist Bloom. Based on research comparing the productivity of those who are “home working on their couches or in their pajamas” with those commuting and sitting in a cubicle 8 hours a day, Bloom says no one should be afraid to tell their boss they are working at home. Here is the evidence you need to convince your supervisor to let you give it a try.

Nicholas (Nick) Bloom is the William Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow of SIEPR, and a Co-Director of the Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on management practices and uncertainty. He previously worked at the UK Treasury and McKinsey & Company. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the recipient of awards including an Alfred Sloan Fellowship, the Bernacer Prize, the European Investment Bank prize, the Frisch Medal, the Kauffman Medal and a National Science Foundation Career Award. He has a BA from Cambridge, an MPhil from Oxford, and a PhD from UCLA.

[IbrahimJimohprofile]

I realise when I work from home I feel more fulfilled and go the extra mile. Focus and concentration also increase and execution and results are faster.


Thanks for this.

[rangermaverick]

I am a software developer and I work from home 1 or 2 days per week. I am lucky enough to work for a company where it doesn't matter how many hours you work or how longer you stay in the office warming your chair. As long as you deliver and you do your tasks, it's good and this is how it should be. Just be responsible for yourself, do your contracted hours and if you finish your work earlier you can always invest the time in practising your skills with online courses/exercises/books.

[Arsenico]

I work from home since year 2001 and it's priceless, I would never exchange it with anything else.

[fafaamedorme]

It's 2020, a year past the emergence of COVID-19. This talk saw the future and is as relevant as it was then. Nice!!!

[MaxousGLOBAL]

Working from home seems funny in the past but it's working well now. Amazing!

[sanjuansteve]

I've always found the best way to convert your boss into letting you work from home is when you have the most important projects, let the boss know you'll work on it over the weekend or at night from home because it's a more efficient work environment for you. Teach your employer that your best work is done from home, then just do it more and more. I've done that with several employers that otherwise had never had a remote working employee. :D

[VanAndCharlie]

i agreed with him 100%. I get more concentration from working at home, less distraction, saving gas, saving traffic for those that can't work from home (delivery man, mail man, etc) and i'm all about saving the pollution and reducing the pollution that was accumulating in the past few decades.

[VickiFletcherPDX]

another huge benefit would be to redistribute wealth in the US. As more people work from home they will move out of cities and into more remote areas and boost the economies where they go

[rei_cirith]

Having the choice makes all the difference. Some days I don't mind work, but the commute is just unbearable, by the time I get in to work I'm hangry and fed up. Instead, I could be at home, eating my breakfast, while checking my e-mail 45 minutes early. Now think about the amount of congestion you could clear up also, and make everyone elses' commute easier.

[richardharkness]

Professor Bloom offers an excellent -and entertaining- explanation backed by some real research as opposed to just opinion. This idea goes back about 50 years. In 1975 I led a NSF funded "technology assessment" at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) which tried to anticipate the future impacts of teleconferencing on business travel and telework on urban transportation, etc. should the needed technology become practical. (This was before the advent of personal computers and inexpensive fiber-optic broadband.) Its great to see these ideas become commonplace, even though its taken almost 50 years.

From personal experience I can't overemphasize the ability to concentrate far better when working at home. In addition I suspect each person wakes up with what might be called a daily "energy budget", which is expended over the day on things like commuting, actual work, and personal care. Clearly the less mental energy spent on commuting the more that's available to do useful work. The benefit in reducing GHG is obvious.

In the SRI study we studied a scenario we called "neighborhood office centers". These shared offices were dispersed throughout metropolitan areas just like elementary schools. The idea was for them to be close enough so people could walk to work. Yet they provided an environment for people to interact socially even if they logged into different company networks to work. They are a compromise form of hybrid work between the extremes of working at home versus everyone commuting to one central corporate office building. We can expect all the different versions of hybrid work to sort out over time with attendant benefits for individuals, employers and the climate.

[jkvelasquez]

I experience a lot less stress working from home...I hated being micro-managed!

[loganthomas]

Commenting in 2022! We’ve come a long way :). I love my WFH job

[RachelNitsche]

I would love to work from home. I am a software developer and have a disability which makes it nearly impossible to work in a normal office environment or to commute very long every day.

[jhanick]

what is the point of inventing all this technology that enables us to be accessible 24/7/365 if we don't use it?

[MsTankieX]

I would love to work from home because I need a sustainable career without worrying about location. My husbands’ job requires us to relocate often.

[sahark]

COVID enters- everyone works from home- enforced change to the workforce. This guy's theory will be the new norm post covid era.

[devqa]

And now the future you predicted of working from home is the reality of lockdown. No longer an option but a necessity. It is amazing how well we have adapted especially with everyone being at home. Another reality scene is the picture of babies all over the computer screen.

[annerottman]

How about research on what clients think of the work at home service. I have had mistakes made on my credit card, life ins. and lawyers office all made from employees admitting they were working from home. How is our private information protected when it's in someone's home?

[shahalnamboorimadathilsidi]

Is there a paper published on this conference or study conducted by the company?

[sumantabose]

What are the different " work from home" genuine opportunity where the candidates doesn't have to make any investment?Second thing is if we can find out some solution it would be beneficial for rural people.People will not have to migrate.