When You Start to Miss Tony from Accounting

In the 'Hidden Brain' episode 'When You Start to Miss Tony from Accounting,' host Shankar Vedantam explores the cultural, economic, and psychological impacts of working from home through the experiences of Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom. Bloom, who has been conducting meetings from his spare bedroom amidst the disruptions of family life, embodies the global shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bloom recounts the interruption of a business call by his children's bagpipe practice, humorously highlighting the new challenges of working from home.

Bloom's research on remote work predates the pandemic, including a notable experiment with a Chinese travel agency, Ctrip. The company allowed half its employees to work from home, resulting in a significant increase in productivity and a decrease in quit rates. However, the experiment also revealed that remote workers were promoted at half the rate of their in-office counterparts, suggesting that visibility and presence in the office could influence career advancement. The episode explores the historical context of working from home, noting that it was once the norm before the Industrial Revolution centralized workplaces. Despite technological advancements that have made remote work feasible for years, social norms and stigma have been barriers to its adoption.

The sudden shift to remote work due to the pandemic has forced a reevaluation of these norms. Bloom discusses how companies have reported better-than-expected outcomes with remote work, and employees have invested time and resources into setting up home offices. He predicts a permanent increase in remote work post-pandemic, with many employees desiring a hybrid model that balances office presence with the flexibility of working from home.