I guess this is a modern day debate it’s still going to take us quite some time to agree on, but I guess we can no longer just ignore the concept of “working from home.” Especially our industry is very well suited for it in my opinion, as the classical counter-argument of “you’re never really off” isn’t really solved by working from an office anyway. Furthermore, I find that I get into the “flow” much more easily when I have no one around me to disturb me and I am therefore much more productive in either a solo office or working from home, than I am in one of those ever so modern “open office” setups.

Unsurprisingly, I’m not the only person to feel a significant increase in productivity from being undisturbed. A study published earlier this year conducted within a 13,000 employee NASDAQ listed Chinese company reveals that even in a traditional company, the expected benefits from letting people work from home come at almost none of the hypothetical cost:

We find a 12% increase in performance from home-working, of which 8.5% is from working more minutes of per shift (fewer breaks and sick-days) and 3.5% from higher performance per minute (quieter working environment). We find no negative spillovers onto workers left in the office. Home workers also reported substantially higher work satisfaction and psychological attitude scores, and their job attrition rates fell by 50%.

Not surprisingly, I have lately taken quite an interest in the concept of “the asynchronous work place,” and I think that study gives a good hint that we don’t need to be a special breed of “startup people” for this to not only function within but also benefit a company.