- Millions of people who were able to work from home prefer this new framework for obvious reasons.
- However, telecommuting is likely coming to an end because the data of improved productivity is suspect.
- Investors may want to consider certain stocks that might benefit from workplace normalization.
While the COVID-19 pandemic represented a gut-wrenching impact both socially and financially, it’s also cynically undeniable that millions of Americans privileged enough to command careers in white-collar occupations benefitted handsomely from the global health crisis. Because of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, companies big and small implemented work-from-home initiatives to the unbridled joy of cubicle clock punchers.
The myriad advantages of telecommuting are patently obvious, at least for the telecommuter. For one thing, employees are no longer tethered to one location for eight hours a day (or longer). Without supervisory eyeballs tracking unusual activities, workers can address various needs -- doing the laundry, picking up the kids -- as they arrive.
Socially, employees receive a substantial time benefit. No longer forced to fight traffic to the office and back, they can redirect the time savings to better use. As well, workers don’t have to deal with the stress involved with coerced interactions with difficult colleagues, improving morale and supposedly productivity.
According to data cited by the Chicago Booth Review, 40% of workers “reported they were more productive at home during the pandemic than they had been when in the office.” Only 15%, on the other hand, stated that the opposite was true. Because of the quantifiable results above, researchers conducting the survey argued that work from home is here to stay.
However, the obvious issue with self-reporting surveys of this nature is personal bias. Inherently, workers are incentivized to say that telecommuting is more productive because for the most part, employees collectively want this temporary solution to become permanent.
But outside the paradigm of COVID-19? Workers were much more honest about their productivity trends.
Time for a Real Discussion About Productivity
In April 2019 -- several months before the pandemic became an everyday reality -- the American Management Association (AMA) provided a comprehensive analysis on just how many hours employers lose to workers goofing off on the clock. The results were staggering.
On balance, the average worker admitted to “frittering away 2.09 hours per day, not counting lunch. Over the course of a year (and even after accounting for time employers expect to be wasted), that adds up to $759 billion in salaries for which companies receive no apparent benefit.”
Out of the more than 10,000 employee survey respondents, “Nearly 45% indicated that the number one way they waste time at work is personal Internet use (email, IM, online polls, interactive games, message boards, chat rooms, etc.). Socializing with co-workers was the second most popular form of wasting time at work (23.4% of respondents). Conducting personal business, ‘spacing out,’ running errands and making personal phone calls were other popular workplace time-wasting activities.”
But suddenly, in a timeframe of less than one year, workers who ordinarily found creative ways to slack off in the office are now more productive when no one’s watching them? The suspension of disbelief required to accept this thesis is alarmingly steep.
Further, the AMA survey revealed no industrial culprit in the wasted hours. While sectors that cater to work-from-home initiatives like insurance, research and development and software featured the heaviest concentration of costly procrastination, even hands-on industries like automotive and retail saw similar levels of wasted time.
However, the AMA did point to an unsurprising demographic pattern: younger workers goofed off far more than their older counterparts. In other words, the folks screaming the loudest for telecommuting privileges are the ones most likely to abuse them.
The Stocks That Could Benefit from Normalization
While the AMA survey is also of a self-reporting format, observers should have greater confidence that the accrued information is more honest and reflective of actual work dynamics. Simply, the respondents generated their answers in the pre-pandemic paradigm. Thus, their answers -- whether as individuals or as a collective front -- were not aligned with ulterior motives.
Indeed, you might even argue that some respondents were proud to share how much time they wasted on the clock as a passive-aggressive means to get back “at the man.”
Beyond the above point of speculation, the AMA survey also aligns with prior pre-pandemic surveys on deliberate procrastination. For instance, a 2017 article from the New York Post reported that the average employee could be wasting up to eight hours per week, translating into billions of dollars of payroll that could have been better spent.
As companies wake up to these harsh realities, more of them will likely recall their employees. While many worker bees will undoubtedly put up a fuss, in an economic ecosystem where post-pandemic households are struggling to make car payments, resistance will not last. Understanding this potential, investors may want to consider certain stocks that can receive downwind benefits.
Primarily, employment services firms like Robert Half International (RHI) might gradually move higher as personal savings dwindle and workers -- coming to the recognition that this may no longer be an employee’s job market -- begin rolling up their sleeves against the competition.
Another company to consider is Upwork (UPWK), a platform that connects freelancers with organizations offering short-term contract work. While an increasing number of corporations may be unwilling to have their workforce telecommuting, obviously nothing stops individual professionals from branching out on their own.
Finally, on a related note, investors may want to put H&R Block (HRB) on their radar. Should the adventurous types decide to permanently join the gig economy, they will soon discover that tax implications for independent contractors are much more complex than that of employees. Over time, HRB can profit from professionals making the gig work transition.
Welcome to Life
Although many workers will initially be bitter about returning to the office, they must also realize that hiring companies are under zero obligations to sustain telecommuting measures. The whole point of working from home was to stop the spread of COVID-19. With pandemic fears fading, it’s only fair that employers start receiving the benefits for which they have been paying.
Still, if there’s one bright spot to this development, it’s that investors can potentially profit from it -- similar to how buying oil stocks can help mitigate rising gasoline prices. No, it’s not a perfect solution but it’s better than nothing.