Measuring Productivity In The Age Of Smartphones

Do you remember the good old days? Back when it was easy to measure your team’s productivity by the number of cars in the parking lot. If you came in at 7:30 am, and the parking lot was full, things were probably flowing well.

If you left at 5:30 pm, and the parking lot was still full, you could be certain it was a productive day. It made sense at the time; after all, with little to distract you in the office other than getting work done, being in the office was a good proxy for productivity.

Furthermore, with few ways to get real work done when outside the office there really was no excuse to not put in long hours. Those who put in the long hours rose through the ranks and became the leaders of today.

But things changed. In the 90s the old paper inbox gave way to your outlook inbox, and pools of secretaries were replaced by a computer on every desk. In the 2000s laptops became common in and out of the office.

In 2002 the Blackberry became the de rigueur tool of the managerial class, and in 2007, the birth of the iPhone finally allowed the individual contributor full time access to his emails anywhere he went. Eventually VPNs became popular and work-from-home days became the latest corporate perk.