The Truth About Better Decision-Making (Collection), 2/e

Truth 63. Absence makes the employee happier

It was never funny, even when it was new. But somehow this joke experiences a magical rebirth with every new generation of managers who think they’re amusing: The manager walks by an employee deeply concentrating on work and says, “You working hard? Or hardly working?”

But what if the employees are hardly ever there? What’s a manager to do then? Whatever you do, don’t bug them via Instant Message. According to the study “Why Teleworkers Are More Satisfied with Their Jobs Than Are Office-Based Workers: When Less Content is Beneficial,” the authors discovered that the ability to work in peace outweighs any advantages that onsite employees might enjoy, such as picking up the whisper of a career-boosting ...