The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco report said that the US job market saw a considerable rise in remote and hybrid work during the COVID-19 crisis. At its highest point, more than 60 per cent of paid workdays were done from home -- compared with only five per cent before the virus hit.

As of December 2023, about a third of paid workdays are still done from home, and managers are convinced that workers not hearing them giving long lectures about moving cheese, kicking the ball running, or herding paradigms is making them less productive.

The Bank has said that according to its studies, it makes no odds if people are working at home or in the office.

The repo. It said that the move to remote and hybrid work had changed society meaningfully, and these effects are likely to keep changing. For example, with less time on the road, some people have left the cities, and the lines between work and home life have faded.

“Despite these big effects, we find little proof in industry data that the move to remote and hybrid work has made workers much better or worse. Our findings don't rule out possible future changes in productivity growth from more remote work. The economy has changed in many ways during and after the pandemic, which could have hidden the long-term effects of working from home,” the bank said.

 Constantly developing new ideas is the key to keeping productivity growth going. Working from home could help with new ideas by cutting communication costs and getting better workers from different places.

The Bank did say that working away from the office could also hurt new ideas by reducing face-to-face chats that help make and share ideas.

“The future of work is likely to be a mix that balances the good and bad sides of remote work,” the Bank’s report said.