1000x this.

I don't get how anti-remote persons manage to track office workers' performance.

Either you measure output, or you don't.

There are valid arguments against remote work, usually related to communication, but performance measurement? Nah

It matters if they're getting paid by the hour. I used to work with someone who was good at handwaving away why his work was falling behind, and the management believed him. In reality, he was missing deadlines because he wasn't working a full 40 hour week. He'd record his commute as working hours because "he's an engineer, and thinking about his work is just as important as doing work", so he ended up working ~10 hours less per week than everyone else because he claimed that thinking about work on his commute counted as billable time.

>I used to work with someone who was good at handwaving away why his work was falling behind, and the management believed him.

So you had a management issue rather than a worker issue.

In practice, the only thing that really matters here is the phrase "his work was falling behind". And "he was missing deadlines".

It doesn't matter if a worker is secretly pulling 80 hours or 10 hours a week instead of the 40 (apart from legal/contract issues). If he's doing less than agreed between the parties, that's a problem. If management bought his excuses, then there's a problem with management.

But how would the situation have been different if he'd been underperforming despite working the correct hours? I don't think that would change things, except that it might make it harder to fire him.

>"he's an engineer, and thinking about his work is just as important as doing work"

Not meaning to devalue your comment, but this is such a bs excuse from him. Like, I definitely think about solutions to work-related problems outside of work way more times than just during my commute, and I bet that's the case for a lot of people that do any sort of intellectual work (all kinds of engineers, lawyers, researchers, accountants, etc.).

Rest assured that your lawyer will bill every second he spends even thinking about working on your case.

Engineers are generally salaried for this reason. Although, personally, I very much do count thinking about work problems as work hours no matter what time of the day it happens.

And that's one of the reasons those positions are often salaried.