The Effects of Remote Work on Collaboration Among Information Workers

Published

A paper published in Nature on Sept 9, 2021 that studies the effects of shifting from office work to remote work at Microsoft.

Read the paper.

  • Firm-Wide Remote Work Caused Microsoft Employees to Spend Less Time With Weak Ties

    A study that analyzed anonymized employee-level (email, calendar, etc.) found that the sudden shift from the office to remote work resulted in a silo’ing effect—employees spent more time with strong ties and less time with weak ties from December 2019 to June 2020.

  • It’s Easier to Make Jokes in Person Than on Zoom

    After meeting in person with my teammates for work, I realized it’s far easier to joke around and riff in person rather than on Zoom. For this group of people, my primary means of communication was Zoom for the past 6 months and the effects were noticeable.