There’s a $1.4 trillion suck on productivity that has nothing to do with remote work, says a think tank economist

Young Asian woman remote worker wearing glasses touching smartphone screen checking phone while working remotely, push notifications and freelance productivity. Online learning distractions at home (Credit: Dima Berlin—Getty Images)

Ever since the pandemic ushered many American knowledge workers into remote work, bosses have been worried about one key thing—productivity. 

“People were worried about the amount of time people spent at home getting snacks or watching TV,” said Monica Ballesteros, a senior manager of policy and insights at liberal think tank Economist Impact (EI), on a panel at Dropbox’s Work in Progress conference in New York earlier this month. She was joined onstage by Dropbox’s vice president of design, Alastair Simpson, Atlassian’s head of Team Anywhere, Annie Dean, and GitLab’s former head of remote work, Darren Murph.