Early in 2020, workers around the world were plunged into a new reality of remote working. In doing so, they also participated in a series of unexpected global experiments. Some of the findings might seem predictable: for example, that in-person interactions are better for brainstorming and for building relationships than is remote working. Last year, Nature Human Behaviour reported the results of a study involving some 60,000 staff members at tech giant Microsoft who had moved to remote working in 2020. The study found that collaboration had slowed with the change, and that there were fewer opportunities for groups of colleagues to work together or share information. Conversely, cutting out long commutes saves time; and, in some jobs, as a study of employees in China found, staff are more productive and benefit from greater autonomy when working remotely. Moreover, universities report that courses offering ‘blended’ learning (both in-person and virtual or recorded classes) are popular with students unable to commute to, or live near, their universities.
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