Calls to return to office working are coming more frequently, most recently from Sadiq Khan who is concerned about paying for London’s infrastructure and from Donald Trump who said of home workers that ‘most of the time they are not working’.  Is the President correct?  Are home workers less productive than those in the office?  The office presents ample opportunities for collaboration but it can also be a source of distraction.  Home is free from interruptions, but work-life boundaries can become blurred and people can feel isolated from their colleagues.  Research into homeworking productivity has produced mixed results; some say it’s good and some say it’s bad.  Perhaps something else is going on.

Self-determination theory, first posited in 1985, says that autonomy is an important factor in motivation.  When employees have control over their work environment, they can tailor it to their preferences and spend more time being productive rather than dealing with things that are just not quite right.  Some may prefer to start and finish early, while others don’t find the energy to achieve their goals until later in the day.  Some thrive in a neat and tidy environment, while others work best when they can spread their work to suit themselves.

The debate over homeworking versus office-based productivity may have missed the point.  Perhaps productivity is not a function of where you work, but rather about how much control you have over your work environment and schedule. By prioritising autonomy and empowering employees to work in a way that suits their needs, wherever they are, organisations can unlock higher productivity and job satisfaction.