In Person

The science of making the most of in-person work - whether it's one day a week or five. The data instead of the drama For the first time in history, millions of workers can do their jobs from anywhere - and the result is the most contentious workplace debate in generations. The loudest voices in the return-to-office debate come from the extremes. Now In Person offers the post-pandemic data that demonstrates why hybrid working is here to stay, and how to make it work for everyone. Harvard-trained economists Natalia Emanuel and Emma Harrington are leading researchers on remote and in-person work. They've spent years tracking millions of work hours across industries, analyzing Fortune 500 companies, startups, tech companies, and call centres. Their findings? Remote work is good for crossing tasks off a to-do list, but it erodes the quality of our work, stifles creativity, and has negative effects on mental health. When we're together, our brain-to-brain synchrony increases 10x, accelerating creativity, mentorship, and innovation. That's why Pixar animators, Nobel Prize winners, and Silicon Valley founders have come up with their best ideas face-to-face with one another. Working side-by-side can be a powerful force to supercharge company performance. But many office policies miss this mark, focusing on employee attendance, instead of colleague alignment. Emanuel and Harrington offer solutions on how to craft the right policy. Backed with the latest research on the science of work, In Person offers tactical steps to make the most of in-office time, covering: - How to calculate the right number of on-site days for your specific organization- The playbook for preserving employee flexibility without losing the power of being together- Why some RTO mandates fail spectacularly-and how to succeed After years of confusion, animosity, and conflicting mandates, In Person finally delivers the answers in a clear, evidence-based roadmap for making smarter decisions with your most valuable resource: your people.

Emma Harrington and Natalia Emanuel received their PhDs in economics at Harvard, and both completed postdocs at Princeton. Natalia is a research economist at the NY Federal Reserve Bank, and Emma a professor of economics at the University of Virginia. Their work has been published in top journals including Science, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and American Economic Journals. Their research has been featured in the BBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Atlantic's Good On Paper podcast, and NPR's PlanetMoney, among others.