‘Corporations have become very transactional’: researcher explains how to stop the Friday productivity drop
Once an unspoken cultural norm, the “Friday effect” (leaving early on a Friday) is no longer just an office-life cliché – new research has quantified the effect and uncovered a sharp drop in Friday productivity among remote and hybrid workers.
Christos Makridis, associate research professor at Arizona State University, used data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) to track how working patterns have shifted since 2019; his analysis revealed that workers in remote-capable jobs worked 90 minutes less on Fridays in 2024 compared to 2019.
Makridis’ working paper, “Sync or Swim: Day-to-Day Work Scheduling and Coordination in Remote Work,” revealed that the Friday effect is concentrated in high-remotability occupations, compared to jobs requiring on-site presence which saw minimal change.
The Friday effect is also most pronounced among younger workers and those without children, and is most notable in jobs that require high amounts of collaboration – this points to a need for increased attention on when and where employees collaborate most effectively, says Makridis says.
“Where the implications for productivity emerge is when there’s shared expectations that people will be available on Friday, and then in these high-coordination intensive roles,” he says, adding that this means taking a closer look at the requirements of each job as well as individual employee...
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