Is It Doable To Be A “Productive Stoner”?

The elevated acceptance and use of hashish and the rise in work at home (WFH) because the pandemic have arguably been the 2 greatest societal developments of the 2020s. Based on Forbes analysis, in 2023, 12.7% of employees had been fully distant, whereas 28.2% had a hybrid schedule. Based on the Nationwide Institute of Well being knowledge from 2022, hashish use amongst adults aged 19-30 (44%) and 35-50 (28%) was at an all-time excessive. Although these two developments could appear unrelated on the floor — collectively, they sign that the 2020’s will reshape what the office seems to be like, without end. These two intertwined developments additionally recall to mind one huge query: Within the age of distant work, is it potential to be a productive stoner?

To reply that query requires an understanding of how WFH and hashish use have an effect on productiveness. The reply to that will determine WHO will profit from the office adjustments coming within the 2020s: workers or employers

What It Means To Be “Productive” When You WFH

A latest examine from Stanford’s Institute for Financial Coverage and Analysis took an intensive take a look at productiveness within the age of WFH. 

On the core of the examine is the admission that employers and workers view the idea of “productivity” from completely totally different angles. For managers and employers, productiveness is solely the quantity of labor that an worker completes of their paid time. For workers, productiveness is a measure of the entire time they spend on their jobs. That implies that workers embody the time they spend commuting to work when fascinated about productiveness.

With that out of the way in which, let’s dive into the analysis.

WFH From The Worker Perspective:

For an worker working 8 hours a day who lives half-hour from the workplace, their notion is that their common work day is definitely 9 hours as soon as their commute is factored in.

The standard WFH workers, together with these on a hybrid schedule, skilled a median of 1.05 fewer commuting days per week. This resulted in a discount of about 68 minutes in commute time on common—or 2.8 % of a 40-hour workweek.

Let’s assume this employee is ready to do the identical quantity of work from home as they do within the workplace. Within the worker’s minds, the hours they save in commute time means they’ve extra time to spend on work, accounting for an 11% improve in productiveness.

With that in thoughts, it isn’t stunning that 43% of WFH employees say they’re extra productive whereas solely 14% say they’re much less productive, in response to the Survey of Working Preparations and Attitudes

WFH From The Employer Perspective

Analysis featured in Stanford’s examine analyzed knowledge from a Fortune 500 agency that operated distant and on-site name facilities pre-pandemic. At this agency, previously onsite workers skilled a 4 % dip in productiveness in comparison with their already-remote counterparts. Additional, these new WFH workers had difficulties sustaining the identical name high quality they beforehand had within the workplace.

This knowledge reveals one of many downsides of WFH as newly distant workers battle to adapt to their new setting whereas sustaining their outdated productiveness. These findings are particularly revealing because the dip occurred in a agency that already had WFH requirements and practices in place. This means that corporations pivoting to WFH on the fly could expertise even steeper declines in productiveness — not less than initially. 

So, Who’s Proper?

An enormous a part of this WFH drop in productiveness is attributed to the elevated time spent on coordination and communication. With lengthier conferences, employees lose out on time they might in any other case spend on work. Nevertheless, with the common employee spending an additional 1.5 hours working that in any other case would’ve been a part of their commute — productiveness loss could not really be as vital because it seems. 

The Stanford examine mentioned this in regards to the productiveness query: ”From the employee’s perspective, and from a societal perspective as effectively, the corporate’s shift to distant work had small results on productiveness.”

That mentioned, Stanford’s examine additionally emphasizes the significance of in-person coordination for getting everybody on the identical web page early within the undertaking course of. From there, nevertheless, researchers say that workers can deal with the extra technical facets of a undertaking from dwelling with no loss in productiveness.

So, does distant work scale back productiveness? It relies upon. The true reply is that WFH permits workers to spend extra time really working, however intermittent workplace time should be wanted, particularly at first of tasks.

Hashish and Productiveness: Is It Doable To Be a “Productive Stoner”? 

For years, the “lazy stoner” stereotype has been used as a strawman to push anti-cannabis agendas. This stereotype was so pervasive that the time period “motivational” was adopted within the analysis discipline to explain torpid hashish customers.

Within the late 90s, the US Division of Well being and Human Companies even put out a guide warning mother and father that youth hashish use may end in an apathetic lifestyle, fatigue, and poor tutorial efficiency.

However, simply how true is that this stereotype? Let’s check out a 2006 survey — revealed within the Nationwide Library of Drugs — that tackled the “lazy stoner” stereotype, and the previous and up to date analysis that helps its findings.

Pre-2000’s Analysis

Previous to unveiling the findings of their 2006 survey, its researchers outlined the pre-2000 “…laboratory performance research, education data, and employment statistics…” they reviewed in preparation. This intensive analysis evaluation discovered little help for the lazy stoner stereotype. Actually, researchers famous a number of research indicating hashish use has no results on wages or job turnover. 

In younger college students, hashish use is linked with decrease grades. Nevertheless, researchers identified that these findings had been confounded by the truth that many college students who use hashish additionally have a tendency to make use of substances like alcohol or different illicit medication.

Although a few of the research cited listed below are over 20 years outdated, it’s unlikely that these research — if performed within the current — would change considerably, not to mention fully flip. Within the time since these research got here out, hashish turned more durable for college students to entry and, in flip, extra accessible and controlled for adults, that means professionals in each trade now use it.

The 2006 Survey

The 2006 survey checked out knowledge from 1300 survey individuals who had been requested about their motivation. Members had been filtered down into two teams: heavy hashish customers (7 days per week), representing 243 individuals, and people who abstained completely (0/days per week), representing 244 individuals.

People had been requested to finish 12 questions from the Apathy Analysis Scale. The method is much like the apathy assessments utilized in earlier research on substance abuse and motivation.

After evaluating the outcomes of the 2 teams, analysis discovered little distinction of their motivation. Even after accounting for outliers in each teams, researchers discovered insignificant variations in motivation between those that didn’t smoke hashish in any respect and frequent customers.

Extra Present Analysis

Analysis performed because the 2006 survey has solely solidified its claims that productive stoners will not be the unicorns society thinks they’re.

A 2016 examine discovered that whereas hashish use could cause non permanent laziness, it on no account results in the “continual amotivational syndrome.“On this examine, individuals had been randomly given both hashish + CBD, simply hashish, or a placebo. The sort of setup ensures that the next knowledge is as correct and variance-free as potential.

A 2019 examine, in the meantime, discovered that mild and common hashish use doesn’t considerably have an effect on motivation. The examine checked out hashish use amongst youngsters, hoping to learn how the plant interacted with the growing mind. Together with dispelling outdated myths about hashish, the examine discovered that teenage alcohol use was extra prone to result in decreases in motivation than hashish.

The one actual query remaining is whether or not adolescent hashish use can considerably have an effect on cognitive improvement. This can be a query the Nationwide Institutes of Well being hopes to handle with the Adolescent Mind Cognitive Growth® Examine (ABCD Examine®), which completed gathering individuals in 2018. The decades-long examine will observe a bunch of 10,000 kids as they develop into maturity. When accomplished, the research’ outcomes may drastically shift the way in which individuals view hashish’ results on the long run labor power. 

Conclusion 

So, is it potential to be a productive stoner within the age of distant work? The reply, for now, appears to be a gentle sure.

Distant work is a contentious matter, and that’s not prone to change. If analysis reveals something, it’s that the majority employers and workers can profit from a hybrid mannequin. That mentioned, corporations providing a fully-remote will certainly have an edge in relation to hiring.

In relation to hashish, the analysis is all too clear. The “lazy stoner” stereotype couldn’t be extra off-base. By excluding hashish customers, corporations are dropping out on useful expertise. If they don’t change their course quickly, native governments could do it for them.

>> Be taught extra about productiveness and hashish use with our information to the very best daytime strains.