Publications
Publications
- 2021
- HBS Working Paper Series
How Does Working from Home during COVID-19 Affect What Managers Do? Evidence from Time-Use Studies
By: Thomaz Teodorovicz, Raffaella Sadun, Andrew L. Kun and Orit Shaer
Abstract
We assess how the sudden and widespread shift to working from home (WFH) during the pandemic impacted how managers allocate time throughout their working day. We analyze the results from an online time-use survey with data on 1,192 knowledge workers (out of which 973 are managers) in two waves, a pre-pandemic wave collected in August/2019 (615 participants, out of which 506 are managers) and a post-pandemic wave collected in August/2020 (577 participants, out of which 464 are managers). Our findings indicate that the forced transition to WFH created by the COVID pandemic was associated with a drastic reduction in commuting time for managers, but also an increase in time spent in work rather than on personal activities. This included reallocating time gained from commuting into more time spent in meetings, possibly to recoup some of the extemporaneous interactions that typically happen in the office. This change is particularly pronounced for managers employed in larger organizations. We use the results from the time-use studies to discuss implications for the development of new technologies.
Keywords
Time-use; Working-from-home; COVID; COVID-19; Managers; Knowledge Workers; Health Pandemics; Measurement and Metrics; Research and Development
Citation
Teodorovicz, Thomaz, Raffaella Sadun, Andrew L. Kun, and Orit Shaer. "How Does Working from Home during COVID-19 Affect What Managers Do? Evidence from Time-Use Studies." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-020, September 2021.