The Debate: Is working from home making us less productive?

"Working from home has its place, but for most roles it has made teams less productive, not more. Business success is rarely about isolated individual output; it is about energy, alignment, speed of decision-making, and shared momentum. When people are physically together, ideas move faster, problems are solved earlier, and accountability is visible. Remote working fragments that dynamic. Communication suffers first. Messages become transactional rather than human. Nuance is lost, misunderstandings increase, and conversations that would take two minutes in person become endless email chains"

"Teamwork also weakens. High performing teams rely on trust built through everyday interaction such as informal conversations, quick check-ins and the ability to read body language. These are difficult to replicate through a video screen. As a result, collaboration becomes more structured and less creative. Perhaps most concerning is the loss of knowledge transfer. Junior team members learn by observation and proximity. They absorb judgement, culture and experience by being around senior colleagues. Remote environments limit these learning moments, creating capability gaps over time."

Remote working often reduces team productivity by fragmenting energy, alignment, speed of decision-making, and shared momentum. Physical proximity accelerates idea flow, early problem solving, and visible accountability. Communication becomes more transactional and nuanced signals are lost, which increases misunderstandings and slows execution. Teamwork and creativity suffer because trust-building informal interactions and body-language cues are harder to replicate on video. Junior staff face reduced knowledge transfer, observation, and proximity learning, creating capability gaps. Occasional work-from-home days can suit focused administrative tasks, but frequent home-based schedules erode rhythm, cohesion, and long-term performance. Working from home can also reduce office distractions and enable focused individual work for some people.

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