Eric Schmidt admits remote work has productivity benefits, but he still wants staff in the office

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has admitted that working from home (WFH) allowances can have a positive impact on productivity, though he still wants staff coming into the office from a personal standpoint.

Speaking on The Diary of a CEO podcast, Schmidt said that while he believes in the benefits of in-office work, data indicates that productivity is slightly higher when you allow WFH provisions.

“The data indicates that productivity is actually slightly higher in work when you allow work from home,” Schmidt told podcast host, Steven Bartlett.

“You and I really want that company of people sitting around the table and so forth, but the evidence does not support our view,” he added.

When pushed on the accuracy of this claim, Schmidt explained that the majority of companies are adopting hybrid work policies and that the evidence is there to support it.

“I'll tell you that, at least for the industries that have studied, there's evidence that allowing that flexibility [to] work from home increases productivity - I don't happen to like it, but I want to acknowledge the science is there,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt’s own view is that workers should be in an office, partly for their own benefit. He explained that when he was in his 20s as a young executive, he lacked a lot of knowledge that he learned by being present.

“I learned by hanging out at the water cooler, going to meetings, hanging out, being in the hallway. Had I been at home, I wouldn't have any of that knowledge, which ultimately was central to my subsequent promotions,” Schmidt said.

“If you're in your 20s, you want to be in an office because that's how you're going to get promoted,” he added. This aligns with those who want WFH, Schmidt said, for whom the reasoning is often to do with commutes or families.

Schmidt's experiences as a young up-and-coming tech industry worker align closely with recent research into Gen Z employees and their own views on in-office attendance.

A recent study found that younger workers are eager to get back into the office more frequently to capitalize on potential mentoring opportunities, with many believing remote work is actively impacting their career growth.

Schmidt’s big backtrack 

Schmidt delivered a very different viewpoint here to what he has expressed in previous public events. Earlier this year, the veteran exec fired shots at his previous employer over its WFH policies.

He claimed Google had lost ground in the AI race owing to lax remote working policies in a talk at Stanford University, saying the firm had prioritized work-life balance over winning.

"I'm sorry to be so blunt, but the fact of the matter is, if you all leave the university and go found a company, you're not going to let people work from home and only come in one day a week if you want to compete against the other startups,” he said.

The video of the talk has since been removed and Schmidt went on to apologize after his comments sparked significant backlash from a range of industry stakeholders.

At the time, one expert told ITPro that productivity is dependent on a wide variety of reasons and is not the sole factor in productivity.