Artwork by Jason Custer and Alexis Copeland
Now at a year and counting, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a transformative force in the lives of people around the world. Almost overnight, a significant portion of the global workforce was forced to transition to working exclusively from their homes. Although a seemingly simple concept, “working from home” looks dramatically different across the wide range of customers Microsoft serves today.
Research teams across Microsoft have conducted studies to better understand how those changes impacted our customers, ranging from consumers, to students and teachers, to Information Workers (IWs). This global effort now belongs to a larger body of research, known as the Future of Remote Work initiative, which includes over 100+ studies from across Microsoft that are now informing product design in a variety of ways.
To better understand how the nature of work is changing because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the XC Planning and Research team conducted an international multi-phased study with IWs who were working remotely, some for the very first time.
What have we learned about how people navigated the transition working from the office to home?
The two key factors that deeply impacted IWs ability to feel productive while working from home were related to the size of their living space (i.e. do they live in a house or apartment, 2000 square feet or 500 square feet) and the social make up of their living situation (i.e. do they live alone, with kids, with other adult family members, with roommates, etc.). Within this matrix of WFH scenarios is a wide range of pros and cons, and although people who lived in larger homes with more space to separate their work and home activities seemed to have the easiest time adjusting to remote work overall, all participants in this study reported challenges with their new working arrangement.
Overall, IWs with dedicated rooms to act as their office had an easier time managing at-home distractions. Those living in smaller spaces who couldn’t build meaningful separation between their living space and their workspace reported higher levels of burnout and difficulties “turning off” at the end of the day.
People who lived alone experienced less at home interruptions and distractions, however they also reported higher levels of loneliness and feelings of isolation, which was ultimately detrimental to their overall well-being. IWs who lived with others felt a stronger sense of connection to others and less loneliness, but often found their daily productivity hinged on the needs of those with whom they were living. For example, parents struggled to find focused time for work when their children need help with online learning.
What are IWs using to get things done while working remotely?
Not surprisingly, our research indicates that the top device used by remote IWs is their laptop, followed by their smartphones. When asked what productivity application they couldn’t live without while working remotely, nearly all choose one of their communication tools like chat and email applications.
The most missed elements from the workplace were ergonomic desks and chairs. When IWs could purchase additional tools for their home setup, those items were always at the top of the list. When IWs couldn’t purchase what they needed to build a home workspace, many got creative and used items they already owned like card tables as makeshift desks, stacks of books as laptop stands; or they used their phones or tablets as a “second monitor”.
How are they working together?
At first, some people felt less distracted because they no longer had in-person office distractions (i.e. people swinging by to chat or ask questions, interrupting the flow of their work). However, over time, most found the number of their digital communications increased dramatically creating a new type of daily distraction. Relying solely on digital communication tools was often described as being overwhelming, time consuming and less organic than in-person interactions in the office.
The majority of IWs in this study reported depending on video/voice calls most often to do their collaborative work. This reliance on synchronous collaboration was problematic for people with less stable internet connections or who were sharing their bandwidth with others at home while working. Many shared stories about how they dropped from meetings, resulting in missing critical information or losing time.
People also reported that activities that typically occurred with people congregating together in a conference room like ‘brainstorming’ or ‘generating new ideas together’ as the most challenging while working remotely, explaining that the kinetic and chaotic energy of collaborative creativity is just too difficult to generate in the remote context.
These barriers to communication also meant fewer opportunities to connect with colleagues informally, and contributed to feelings of disconnection. People were surprised by how isolated they felt, how much they struggled to stay motivated without the physical presence of others, and how much they missed socializing and connecting with their colleagues.
Our research has uncovered some of the ways work has changed. We anticipate that it will continue to evolve as we collectively reimagine how we do our jobs and evaluate how technology can help address that change.
Author’s note: Special thanks to Therese Kennelly Okraku, Shelly Marston, Jamie Miller, Megan Brown, and Ken Mead for their partnership on this study. Your intellectual fire-power has been awesome, your generosity and grit have been extraordinary, and I’m grateful I worked with you all!
What do you think? Do these findings resonate with your experience? If you study information workers, does this reflect what you are hearing from them? Tweet us your thoughts @MicrosoftRI or follow us on Facebook and join the conversation.
Meghan Stockdale is an experienced qualitative researcher with a special focus on product development, system strategy, and innovation. When presented and framed properly, Meghan finds data has the power to come alive. She is committed to creating a positive impact on the people who use the products she helps design. As a researcher and product strategist studying how people work, her goal is to help cross-functional teams put the customer at the center of our discussions, our strategies, and our decisions. She truly believes you can solve anything with a bit of grit and creativity.