When does your workday start? Is it the moment you leave your apartment for the subway? When you read your first Slack message while waiting for coffee in your office building lobby? Or is it when you get to your desk, open your laptop, and log into your inbox? If you ask workers, they’re likely to say commuting counts as work. You can imagine what their superiors think.
The commute is just one way bosses and workers often disagree on what counts as a productive workday. The back-and-forth is what has landed most companies in a seemingly endless war with their employees over the return to office. When it comes to remote work (and whether it’s actually as productive as being in the office), the problem actually boils down to fundamental differences in perspective.
