'Productivity paranoia': 10 states where employers don't trust remote workers

Research has repeatedly proven that where an employee works from — be it the office or from home — has no significant impact on whether they're productive. But despite the facts, employers still question their ability to produce work in a remote setting. 

According to a recent Microsoft report, 85% of employers aren't confident that workers are being as productive outside of the office, which has led to an increase in "productivity paranoia." Workplace insights website The Digital Project Manager explored data to figure out where employers were struggling the most. 

"With millions tackling a return to office life, it can be an extremely unsettling time for employers and their employees," Galen Low, The Digital Project Manager's general manager, said in a release. "However, managers should focus on making the transition as easy as possible and motivate their teams, rather than apply extra pressure.

Read more: 25% of workers don't trust their employers

The Digital Project Manager analyzed state laws (or the lack of) around employee monitoring, the number of job postings promoting remote work, and considered those factors in relationship to the volume of relevant local Google searches — like "monitor webcam" and "monitor employee software" — to create an overall paranoia score ranked out of 10. The score effectively provides a measure of distrust between employers and employees. Atlanta came in first place, with the most interest in keeping tabs on workers.

Kansas City, Missouri, and Indianapolis, Indiana, both made the top five — only three percent of LinkedIn advertisements promote remote work, and the states' respective laws fail to restrict email, call or location monitoring.

"An invasive approach is likely to result in an unhappy workforce," Low said. "After several years of working from home or hybrid-working, you need to establish trust by listening to employees and encouraging feedback to see how they are finding the transition. A happy workforce is likely to be more productive than an unhappy one."

See which cities and states made The Digital Project Manager's of paranoid places: