Section
Work
Remote work, monitoring, productivity, automation and finding a job.
Work is the one area of this site with a decent supply of randomised evidence, and it points in different directions depending on the task. The same research group found a 13% gain in a call centre and no performance difference at all under hybrid working. Reported here with the spread intact, along with the measurement problems that make individual productivity so hard to pin down. For a practical commercial comparison with this kind of workplace measurement, see this page.
Randomised evidence exists in this section, and it points in different directions by task.
| Article | Findings | Strong / mixed / weak |
|---|---|---|
| Work that never switches off The expectation of being reachable has measured effects on health; the laws written to stop it have no measured effects at all. |
6 | |
| Automation, AI and jobs The most-quoted automation statistic measures occupational susceptibility rather than job losses, and the two best studies of AI's labour-market effect point opposite ways. |
6 | |
| Looking for work online The most repeated statistics about online job hunting have no primary source, while the ones that do exist measure discrimination and referral value rather than software. |
5 | |
| Productivity and why it is hard to measure The best experiments on AI and productivity disagree about the sign, and the aggregate statistics cannot see the effect at all. |
6 | |
| Remote and hybrid work The randomised evidence on home working points in three directions at once, and the headline share of remote workers depends on which survey is cited. |
6 | |
| Technology at work and what it measures The measured effects of workplace technology are bimodal and setting-dependent, and almost every circulating statistic about tool use comes from vendor telemetry. |
6 |
Work that never switches off
Burnout has no diagnostic threshold, prevalence estimates for doctors run from 0% to 80.5%, and no right-to-disconnect law has been shown to change anything.
6 sourced findings · 1310 words · updated 2026-08-09
Automation, AI and jobs
The famous 47% of jobs at risk was never a forecast, and a task-level redo gives 9%. On AI and employment today, the best studies disagree.
6 sourced findings · 1307 words · updated 2026-08-09
Looking for work online
The claim that 75% of CVs are rejected by bots has no primary study behind it. Here is what is actually measured about online applications and screening.
5 sourced findings · 1320 words · updated 2026-08-09
Productivity and why it is hard to measure
Generative AI sped up some measured tasks sharply and made experienced developers 19% slower in another trial. The sign depends on the work.
6 sourced findings · 1300 words · updated 2026-08-09
Remote and hybrid work
Three randomised trials of home working found a 13% gain, no effect and an 18% loss. The spread is the result, and the famous 13% is a call-centre number.
6 sourced findings · 1307 words · updated 2026-08-09
Technology at work and what it measures
Workplace monitoring raises output where the task is the output and cuts it where discretion matters. Collaboration tools measure inputs, not results.
6 sourced findings · 1286 words · updated 2026-08-09