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Does WFH affect workplace relationships?
We really don't know.
- Most of the research on this is cross-sectional and correlational so causal interpretation is extremely limited (Allen et al, 2015)
- On average, telecommuting does not appear to have an effect on workplace relationships between coworkers or between employees and managers. The only exception was that high-intensity telecommuting (more than 2.5 days/wk) slightly weakened coworker relationships (Allen et al, 2015)
- It's also unclear whether it matters if only managers telecommute: some studies show that it lowers the employee experience but others found no effect (Allen et al, 2015).
- It's worth noting that all of this research was done before telecommuting was common, and also before there were robust technologies to bring employees together, so it's unclear how much these results apply to today's workplace.