The Case Against Letting Employees Pick WFH Days

13 Sep 2021

---

While some managers may be inclined to let employees choose their own schedule, Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom strongly recommends against this for two very important reasons. 00:00 I used to say, "Let employees pick their WFH days." Not any more. 00:33 The first problem: “Mixed mode” leads to anxiety and exclusion 01:21 Problem two: Disparities create long-term diversity problems 02:35 That leaves us with two options: team-based or centralized choice 02:52 Pros and cons of team-based choice 03:48 Employees must WFH on WFH days to avoid “the great unraveling” 04:09 Yes, my original article on this topic made lots of people upset! 04:50 Let’s do the reverse of “move fast and break things” First is the challenge in managing a hybrid team, which can generate an office in-group and a home out-group. The second concern is the risk to diversity. Current surveys show that younger women with children at home are most likely to want to work from home permanently. Previous research found that WFH employees had a 50% lower rate of promotion after 21 months compared to their office colleagues. The best solution is for managers to decide which days their team should WFH and which days everyone should be in the office. Read more: https://hbr.org/2021/05/dont-let-employees-pick-their-wfh-days Bloom and his research partners spoke to hundreds of managers across different industries, from tiny companies to massive multinationals like Google, Citi, and HSBC. You can see more of their research here: https://wfhresearch.com/ https://nbloom.people.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj4746/f/why_wfh_will_stick_21_april_2021.pdf Follow us: https://hbr.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/harvard-business-review/ https://www.facebook.com/HBR/ https://twitter.com/HarvardBiz https://www.instagram.com/harvard_business_review Sign up for Newsletters: https://hbr.org/email-newsletters #HarvardBusinessReview #WFH #HybridWork

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices