Abstract
Telework is often associated with the perceived increase of productivity and job satisfaction, which until these days was mostly self-reported by teleworkers. In this talk, I will share the findings from monitoring the transitions to Work From Home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic in two large software companies, paying particular attention to productivity in terms of code production. Our analysis of commit data shows that code production before and after the pandemic did not change dramatically. Yet, when zooming into individual data points, we see many changes. The analysis of commit data, calendar invitations and Slack communication, as well as the personal experiences from the interviewees provides insights into factors that helped engineers adjust to the new ways of working and even increased their productivity, factors that hinder engineers and teams when working remotely and the potentially cancelling effects in this equation that result in the lack of visible effect on the higher level.
