Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast · Larry Tribble, Ph.D.

WFH: Don't Fall For The Hidden Challenge - DBR 081

May 23, 2025·49 min·3 clips

Gallup’s data shows remote workers are more engaged but less well-being, breaking the usual link.

1. Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast examines the work-from-home challenge Larry Tribble calls a “hidden challenge.” 2. Larry Tribble, PhD, hosts the show, presents the argument, and says his coaching and Attention Compass tools focus on task and attention management. 3. The episode asks whether remote work is “not all upside” and whether Gallup’s work-from-home data shows a problem with thriving. 4. Tribble says Gallup is the research organization behind the engagement data, and he trusts it because it gathers “lots of data” on workplace topics. 5. He defines engagement as being generally positive about work, understanding purpose, and giving “good effort” without coercion. 6. He defines well-being as being generally content, happy, and “thriving,” then links that to work because work takes so much time. 7. Tribble says the expected pattern is simple: if engagement falls, well-being should usually fall too. 8. He says Gallup’s current report breaks that correlation for remote-only workers, where engagement is up but well-being is down. 9. Tribble says work-from-home workers should be supported by autonomy, motivation, and better productivity practices, not less thriving. 10. He recalls early COVID work-from-home conditions, including people working from beds, laptops on nightstands, and children on their knees. 11. He says the work-from-home debate has been going on for decades, first for salespeople and later for programmers with home connectivity. 12. He describes COVID as the moment corporate leadership had “no choice” but to send people home with laptops and connectivity. 13. Tribble says managers often assume work-from-home employees will “slack off and be unproductive,” even though he also thinks many people can be productive remotely. 14. He argues that remote work is often linked to knowledge work, so the productivity question matters most for people doing knowledge work. 15. He says autonomy can improve motivation, which can support engagement and productivity, but remote work also reduces direct oversight. 16. He argues that isolation and out-of-sight management can lower accountability, which is why the well-being side may be dropping. 17. Tribble says the core issue is self-management, and he connects that to the rise of coaching, life coaching, and hiring coaches for accountability. 18. He says the show aims to help listeners improve both engagement and well-being, rather than getting better at work at the cost of more stress. 19. People who work remotely, manage knowledge work, or coach others will get the most value from this episode. 20. People wanting a quick pro-remote or anti-remote take may skip it.

As heard by us

A clear look at how work from home can help and still leave attention and motivation under strain.

The episode treats work from home as more than a convenience and asks a harder question: what gets in the way of thriving when the office is gone? It stays close to attention, engagement, isolation, motivation, and the management habits that shape how remote work gets judged.

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Why you'd press play

You want the hidden challenge of work from home, not the usual perk talk.

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