Nadella, whose company has studied how
remote work impacts collaboration in an effort to improve its Teams software,
cited Microsoft research showing that about a third of white-collar workers
have a “third peak” of productivity late in the evening, based on keyboard
activity.
Productivity typically spikes before and
after lunch, but this third peak illustrates how remote work has broken down
already-blurred boundaries between our job and our home lives. Nadella,
speaking Thursday at the Wharton Future of Work Conference, said managers need
to set clear norms and expectations for workers so that they're not pressured
to answer emails late at night.
“We think about productivity through
collaboration and output metrics, but well-being is one of the most important
pieces of productivity,” he said. “We know what stress does to workers. We need
to learn the soft skills, good old-fashioned management practices, so people
have their wellbeing taken care of. I can set that expectation, that our people
can get an email from the CEO on the weekend and not feel that they have to
respond.”
Two out of 3 employees who consider leaving
their job say their employer has not followed through on early pandemic
promises to focus on employee mental health, according to a Harris Poll
commissioned by online therapy provider Talkspace.
In a new study of Microsoft employees,
about 30 percent experienced “peaks” of work in the morning, afternoon, and, to
a lesser extent, at around 10pm.
The average workday has expanded by 46
minutes, or 13 percent, since the pandemic began, Microsoft has found, with
time spent on after-hours work growing even more quickly, at 28 percent. The
data show how workers have increasingly adopted more asynchronous schedules,
which don't always line up with those of their far-flung colleagues or
managers.
Microsoft has brought on board about 50,000
employees during the pandemic, Nadella said. People, particularly in the
technology sector, are increasingly demanding more flexibility in where and
when they work, he said.
An ongoing survey of knowledge workers -
software programmers, data analysts and the like - from Future Forum, a
research consortium backed by Slack , found that more than 3 out of 4 people
want the ability to choose where they work, while 95 percent want to be able to
set their own schedule.
Asked if he refrains from sending emails on
the weekend, Nadella dodged a bit, saying, “I am learning every day.” ©
Bloomberg LP
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