The Telecommuting Debate: A Closer Look at Productivity and Efficiency
The debate on the effectiveness of telecommuting has intensified over the past few months. Doubts have been raised about the quality of work delivered by individuals working from home, away from any supervision. You may have even noticed this trend among your acquaintances. Those who work from home have organized their daily routine to spend less time on actual work and more on sports, cultural, and family activities. Returning to the office has become a chore, and many have chosen to switch employers due to the flexibility they offer in terms of on-site presence.
A study by Stanford University has shed light on this issue. The study analyzed data from software developers in 100 of the world's largest technology companies, including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Amazon, SAP, Adobe, and Atlassian. The study found that out of 815,000 engineers responsible for developing applications, 77,473 (or 9.5%) were "ghost engineers" who worked remotely and contributed zero value. The annual cost of this group was estimated to be $11.621 billion.
This finding justifies the recent wave of layoffs in the technology sector and, more alarmingly, opens the door to further workforce reductions in the years to come. The rise of artificial intelligence, which helps to better control but also replace human brains, will come at a high cost to this profession.
