“Distance hinders communication”: with teleworking, employees are productive but exposed to new risks

One, two, three, or even every day of the week. While less than 10% of French workers previously worked from home, a quarter of French workers have now taken to teleworking. Gone are the commutes and the hubbub of open-plan offices. Gone, too, are the conversations at the coffee machine or the ideas born in a corner of a desk. Since the health crisis, the rise of this practice, which has shaken up the usual pattern of in-person work, has brought its share of questions. What are the effects of teleworking on business productivity? What are the risks for employees?

In an attempt to answer these questions, academic and business circles quickly seized upon this new topic of study. As early as September 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world hard, the Global Forum on Productivity (GFP), an OECD body created to promote policies that boost productivity,…