{"id":4967,"date":"2025-05-12T19:48:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T19:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=4967"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:45:10","slug":"dont-assume-you-know-how-people-feel-aboutremote-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/dont-assume-you-know-how-people-feel-aboutremote-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Assume You Know How People Feel about Remote Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Just because you might prefer to work in the office doesn\u2019t mean everyone else does. Many talented, dedicated employees need the flexibility of a remote or hybrid work schedule, or are simply more productive when working from home.<\/p>\r\n

Academy of Management Scholar Abbie Shipp<\/a> of Texas Christian University, who coauthored an Academy of Management Annals article<\/a><\/em> on the \u201csubjective\u201d experience of time, including its impact on work schedules, with Karen Jansen of North Carolina State University, said that she has had conversations with many senior executives about this topic.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThose of us who are more advanced in our careers, we had jobs where you worked at the office five days a week, and so it can be very hard if you\u2019re not as productive at home\u2014it\u2019s hard for you to assume that anybody else is,\u201d Shipp said. \u201cWe tend to project.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cI had this conversation with a person who said, \u2018I just don\u2019t believe people can be productive from home; I know when I\u2019m at home, I\u2019m playing with the dog, or I put in a load of laundry,\u2019 and I said, \u2018That\u2019s really interesting, because I feel like when I work from home, I\u2019m so productive; I get to put in a load of laundry, and that refreshes me, and then I come back and I\u2019m working double time, and I\u2019m not interrupted,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cAnd they said, \u2018Oh, I think interruptions at work are great,\u2019 so we uncovered some of our two different assumptions.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThat person really wanted their office workers to come back Monday through Friday, eight to five\u2014\u2018That’s the way it should be; nobody could be productive from home,\u2019 whereas I\u2019m thinking, \u2018How could you not be productive from home? It’s the perfect environment.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Shipp said she also discussed corporate-level policies that work for both the company and all its employees.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cOne of the things this leader and I talked about was pushing those decisions down to the department level, and then within departments, really coaching leaders on how to communicate with their employees in ways that are open-minded,\u201d Shipp said. \u201cEnabling a leader to customize work schedules while still allowing coordination\u2014that\u2019s not easy.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cBut the first thing you have to do is surface the assumptions, find out what people want and need, and then have the discussion about, \u2018How can we meet your needs as the individual, even when the team needs to coordinate?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A sample of Shipp\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n