WLP322 What's Going On: Shifting our Work Time and Third Places of Work
In this What’s Going On episode, Maya and Pilar discuss recent research into what people do with the time they save not having to commute to work, why people use third spaces of work and other tech updates. Recorded on 22 February 2023.
We start by commenting on the The National Bureau of Economic Research published in January 2023 their research into time savings when working from home. With data from 27 countries, they found that “On average, those who WFH devote 40 percent of their time savings to primary and secondary jobs, 34 percent to leisure, and 11 percent to caregiving activities.”
We’re loving all the research that’s starting to emerge on post-pandemic remote work. We’re beginning to understand What’s Going On…
Maya was listening to the episode from Cal Newport’s Podcast from 20 February, on Hacking Remote Work. , where he mentioned how to get more productive when working remotely and how this can free up time for a side hustle..
And, while we’re talking about playing around with time, a number of companies who were trialling the 4-day week in the UK have decided to continue with it after six months. Some of them have increased their hours on those days when people are working.
21.25mins
We look at some recent research on third places of work, mainly cafés, carried out in Australia by John Hopkins et al. John shared his research on LinkedIn and described four personas that seem to use third places of work - that’s remote workers working somewhere other than the office or the home.
The report also shows that there are perceived mental health benefits to working from these places, like mental benefits: mental reset, social connection, and great coffee!
Although Maya doesn’t use cafés or co-working places, she does use a different type of third place: the airport. (Post recording comment by Pilar: the airport in Valencia now has a space specifically designed for working, which looks more like a co-working place than an airport!)
29.20mins
What’s going on with tech then? Well, for a start Trello has changed the text editor in its cards, much more sophisticated now!
If you are looking for a quick way to compare all the different types of collaboration and online work tools out there, past guest Tammy Bjelland has created a whole site for that. Check out Small Stacks, a “database of tools that solopreneurs, freelancers, and founders use to run their businesses”! Well done, Tammy!
Talking of past guests, Chris Slemp does not lament Yammer becoming Viva Engage. On the contrary, he’s happy to see how the tool has evolved, especially by adding some of the features he’s been longing for for years. You can read Chris’ post on his blog here.(Did you know that Pilar recorded one of her first episodes, number 14, of this podcast in the London Yammer office?)
Finally, a big thanks to Lakshmi Ramaseshan for sharing episode 319 with her network on LinkedIn. You can check out what she enjoyed most here.
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