USA Today Journalist Jessica Guynn has been criticized in the media after her opinion and research on the productivity and efficiency of Remote workers.
Jessica Guynn published an article titled “Are remote workers really working all day? Here’s what they’re doing instead” on Wednesday, September 18, on USA Today.
In the following articles, Jessica Guynn confirmed that remote workers take advantage of being far from the watchful gaze of bosses and make time for their personal lives, doing laundry, working in the kitchen, and taking naps.
However, she was neutral as she neither supported WFH nor the Office and only provided survey reports rather than her opinion.
According to her reports, 17% of remote workers watch T.V. or play video games, 14% go on online shopping sprees, 12% do laundry, and 9% clean the kitchen.
Although Jessica Guynn wrote the reports taken from a SurveyMonkey poll of 3,117 full-time workers in the U.S. than her own opinion, many people seem not to like it as they have taken the articles on social media and are throwing hate comments on Jessica Guynn.
A journalist, Steven Monacelli, criticizes Jessica Guynn’s articles, asking if they made her write under pressure!
After reading her articles, many people, including Remote workers and office workers, started making hateful comments because they seemed to disagree with her opinions.
One Twitter user, Steven Monacelli, who had identified himself as a journalist, took a screenshot of the title of her articles and posted it on Twitter while writing, “Hey shut the f*ck up.”
Hey shut the fuck up pic.twitter.com/KWmUhsr3fO
— steven monacelli (@stevanzetti) September 18, 2024
Further, while disagreeing with the article’s research, Monacelli says to Jessica, “You can tell us if they made you write this under duress.“
He also provided his investigation reports article, which he wrote while working from home, to prove remote workers do their jobs efficiently.
The following post by journalist Steven Monacelli reached over 5.8 million views in just two days, starting a huge debate about whether remote workers work more efficiently than on-site workers.
People argue remote workers are more productive than on-site workers who waste time watching the share market, & scrolling TikTok!
During some discussions, many people said remote workers do better work than office workers, while others argued with their statements.
While attacking office workers, one user wrote, “They’re just trying to protect their commercial real estate property investments.“
Similarly, while supporting remote workers, one businessman wrote, “I work from home. I support all remote workers. If the job is done and the clients are satisfied, then who gives a damn if they’re having some downtime.“
In people’s opinion, work should matter more than how much time they spend on it. Whether a person completes a work in one hour or ten minutes should not matter if the work is good.
Jessica Guynn to remote workers https://t.co/H5RPSlu9nQ pic.twitter.com/vFre2199BY
— Sourdeath Sam (@SourdeathSam) September 18, 2024
Further, some also said that people waste valuable time and energy going to the office by driving more than 1 hour every single day to stare at a screen for 8 hours, much of which is spent on side talks and discussions, scrolling through social media, watching the share market, doing politics, and attending unnecessary meetings every day.
When they run out of time, they start working just to complete the task on time, which ends up getting worse as the quality drops.
On the other hand, remote workers are more likely to complete their tasks efficiently and with quality, even though they do other house chores.
Many remote workers have confirmed working 3* or 4* more and faster than office workers.
However, despite the debates, it also depends on the person’s loyalty, whether they are remote workers or office workers.
Some remote workers might also try to complete the task soon without caring about the quality just to attend friends’ birthdays or to go to new places.
Additional Information
- Jessica Guynn has been working as a senior reporter at USA Today, specializing in journalism, storytelling, and investigations.
- Research by Jessica Guynn on remote workers also showed that 18% of GenZ have worked another job compared with 2% of GenX and 1% of boomers.
- Further, while working from home, 26% of millennials admit to napping during the workday.
