Amid debates over moonlighting and effectiveness of work-from-home model, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has coined a new word called “productivity paranoia”, saying there’s a real disconnect between the management and the employees over productivity.
“Leaders think their employees are not productive, whereas employees think they are being productive and in many cases even feel burnt out,” Nadella said in a Bloomberg TV interview.
A Microsoft survey revealed that over 80 per cent of managers are worried if the employees are productive enough while working from home. While 87 per cent of employees lack context on how and why they’re being tracked, which can undermine trust and lead to “productivity theatre”. Nadella called this feeling of both sides as ‘productivity paranoia’.
The survey took 20,000 thousands employers across the 11 countries. The result of the ‘Work Trend Index Pulse’ hinted at a fundamental disagreement between employers and employees over productivity with reference to hybrid mode.
The survey said that leaders and managers don’t see the conventional visual cues as they can’t ‘see’ who is doing hard work or who is sitting idle. As employees feel the pressure to ‘prove’ they’re working, digital overwhelm is soaring,” the findings showed.
According to the survey report, leaders need to pivot from worrying about whether their people are working enough to helping them focus on the work that’s most important.
Microsoft currently allows its employees to work from home up to 50 per cent of the time. Recently, Indian IT major TCS asked its employees to work at least three days from the office.
