However, Microsoft says despite increasingly powerful collaboration software, remote work negatively impacts how people collaborate across an organization. A study from Microsoft Research titled “The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers” shows there are problems with remote work. We have heard a lot about how remote work is the future and it has been used hand-in-hand with one of industries buzzwords… collaboration. However, the reality seems to be different from the perception. It is easy to assume remote work promotes more communication across teams because the only point of contact is digital. However, Microsoft’s study shows a decrease in cross-group collaboration of around 25% compared to on-premises. In other words, teams are becoming more locked in when working remotely and are more likely to only have contact with other members of the team.
Details
To reach its conclusions, Microsoft conducted a widespread study looking at several points of data: “Here, we use rich data on the emails, calendars, instant messages, video/audio calls and workweek hours of 61,182 US Microsoft employees over the first six months of 2020 to estimate the causal effects of firm-wide remote work on collaboration and communication,” the abstract says. While remote work is disconnecting cross-group connections, it seems to enhance communication and collaboration within a team. This has some positives, but Microsoft says it also holds back innovation and harms productivity. Microsoft’s study is interesting and detailed, but the company says conclusions on the impact of remote work will take years and wider data samples. Tip of the day: Hard drives are getting faster and more affordable every day, but unfortunately, their moving parts will always make them loud and mean their power draw isn’t insignificant. This can be a particular issue for those with laptops, leading many to wonder how to turn off a hard disk after it reaches an idle state. In our tutorial we are showing you Windows 10: How to Turn off Hard Disk after Idle to Save Power.
