The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers

Longqi Yang (), David Holtz, Sonia Jaffe, Siddharth Suri, Shilpi Sinha, Jeffrey Weston, Connor Joyce, Neha Shah, Kevin Sherman, Brent Hecht and Jaime Teevan
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Longqi Yang: Microsoft Corporation
David Holtz: University of California
Siddharth Suri: Microsoft Corporation
Shilpi Sinha: Microsoft Corporation
Jeffrey Weston: Microsoft Corporation
Connor Joyce: Microsoft Corporation
Neha Shah: Microsoft Corporation
Kevin Sherman: Microsoft Corporation
Brent Hecht: Microsoft Corporation
Jaime Teevan: Microsoft Corporation

Nature Human Behaviour, 2022, vol. 6, issue 1, 43-54

Abstract: Abstract The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused a rapid shift to full-time remote work for many information workers. Viewing this shift as a natural experiment in which some workers were already working remotely before the pandemic enables us to separate the effects of firm-wide remote work from other pandemic-related confounding factors. 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. Our results show that firm-wide remote work caused the collaboration network of workers to become more static and siloed, with fewer bridges between disparate parts. Furthermore, there was a decrease in synchronous communication and an increase in asynchronous communication. Together, these effects may make it harder for employees to acquire and share new information across the network.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01196-4

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