Study Reveals Metaverse is Still Not Suited for Remote Work

Study Reveals Metaverse is Still Not Suited for Remote Work

A study released earlier this month found that working in the metaverse with the tools available today might decrease the productivity of employees and also increase their frustration and anxiety related to remote work. 11% of the participants in the study felt utter discomfort that they could not complete their daily tasks.

Upgrades Needed to Support Remote Work

Companies and individuals are betting hard on the metaverse, an alternate digital world that is likely to have an important role in the future of work, allowing people to complete tasks remotely. However, a recent study conducted by researchers at Coburg University, the University of Cambridge, the University of Primorska, and Microsoft Research, presents a different picture of the issue.

The report, titled "Quantifying the Effects of Working in VR for One Week," compared the performances of 16 different workers developing their tasks in a normal environment and in a common metaverse setup during a 40-hour work week. The results were mostly negative, hinting at the possibility that today’s metaverse could still be too limited to support work-based applications.

According to the study, people reported experiencing negative results from using the metaverse setup, experiencing 42% more frustration, 11% more anxiety, and almost 50% more eye strain when compared to their normal work setup. The subjects also said they felt less productive overall.

Also, 11% of the participants were unable to complete even a day of the work experiments due to several factors, including migraines associated with the VR setup and a lack of comfort when using it.

Remote Work Links

Metaverse tech is currently linked to gaming and entertainment technologies, but one of the important future applications of this industry is believed to be enabling remote work. According to a recent study conducted by Globant, an Argentine software company, 69% of those polled believe that metaverse technology will play an important role in that application.

However, the results of the study show that today’s technology could make that task difficult. But not all is negative: the study also found that participants were able to overcome the limitations of the metaverse tech and the initial discomfort as the study carried on, with the team behind the study calling for more investigation related to the effects of longer-term productive work in VR setups in the future.