New research finds that fully remote workers are less productive than their in-office counterparts

• A new study looks at the productivity of remote workers versus those in-office.
• It showed that productivity dropped by 18% among a group of workers randomly assigned to WFH.

New research shows that people who work from home could be less efficient than their in-office equivalents.

A study published by the American private nonprofit research organization the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the productivity of workers randomly assigned to work from home was 18% lower than that of those in the office.

The study focused on the productivity of data-entry workers in the south Indian city of Chennai, owing to their ability to carry out the jobs' tasks remotely.

Workers who stayed at home were snapped every 15 minutes by a built-in laptop camera to ensure they weren't outsourcing their jobs.

The study measured the number of correct entries per minute as its primary metric, titled "net speed," finding that those who worked from home had a net speed about 18% lower than their in-office colleagues.

The report said that two-thirds of the drop in productivity was evident from day one, while the remainder was due to office workers learning more quickly than WFH employees over time.

Working from home became the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic, but for many, the habit sustained itself even as restrictions have eased. This is particularly true for high earners, McKinsey reported.

According to data from a survey published by Pew Research in March, 35% of surveyed US employees that can do their jobs remotely are working from home full-time.

But some employers are beginning to fight back against the work-from-home trend.

Earlier this week, Michael Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York City and a cofounder of Bloomberg, said federal employees shouldn't work from home because it negatively impacts customer service.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan kickstarted a trend across Wall Street to instill a back-to-office mandate for its managing directors. Several other companies are requiring at least a hybrid model for their workers.