However, that gets difficult when your Google Calendar is packed with blue blocks. The foundation of remote work was to give people the freedom and flexibility to operate in a manner that’s most productive for them. While that was (and to an extent still is) the sentiment, it doesn’t have to be. “There is a general sense that we never stop being in front of Zoom or interacting,” says Raffaella Sadun, professor of business administration in the HBS Strategy Unit. An analysis of the emails and meetings of 3.1 million people in 16 global cities established that the average workday went up by 8.2 percent during the pandemic’s early weeks as employees participated in more meetings.
A recent study with more than three million people confirmed a feeling that’s not new: everyone’s swamped and tired.
