Work

Personality traits, remote work and productivity

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The future of teleworking ultimately depends on its impact on workers' productivity and wellbeing, yet the effect of remote working on productivity is not well understood. This paper investigates the link between personality traits and workers' productivity when working from home. We exploit a survey providing measures of the "Big Five" personality traits for more than 1700 recent teleworkers. We document strong links between personality, productivity, and willingness to work from home post-pandemic. Ceteris paribus, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience are positively associated with a higher productivity from home, especially for females. On the other hand, the link between Extraversion and preference for teleworking is negative. These results suggest that a one-size-fits-all policy is unlikely to maximize neither firms' productivity nor workers' satisfaction.

Source: International Labour Review

DOI: 10.16995/ilr.18853

Authors: Nicolas GAVOILLE, Mihails HAZANS

Institutions: Stockholm School of Economics, IZA - Institute of Labor Economics, University of Latvia

Language: English

Topic: Work-Family Balance Challenges

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,090