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Leslie A. Perlow

Leslie A. Perlow

Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership

Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership

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Leslie A. Perlow is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. She leads the Crafting Your Life Special Project, dedicated to helping individuals make purposeful life choices while gathering insights that will help us all understand how to live more fulfilling lives. As part of this initiative, she developed a second-year MBA elective, Crafting Your Life. The course inspires students to navigate life with greater intentionality, offering practical guidance for managing careers, relationships, and personal growth. Beyond the classroom, she leverages technology to create tools that foster self-discovery and enable learning through the data these tools collect. Her latest tool, the LIFE Matrix, shows users how their 168 weekly hours line up with their core values, and helps them identify the changes that could make the biggest impact.

Professor Perlow has spent her career researching better work, better lives and how the two reinforce each other.  She devoted the first two decades of her career to studying the workplace and experimenting with better ways of working, to enable teams to be more productive and team members to have more time and more predictability over their lives outside of work.  She has more recently turned her attention to also helping people more directly craft better lives – in and out of the work place – to enable them to show up better at work.

Towards this end, Professor Perlow has two current streams of research. Her first focuses on how people can craft their best lives.  She collects and analyzes both quantitative data – from tools such as the LIFE Matrix and the LIFE Simulation – and qualitative data from interviews with individuals as part of a life history project she embarked on five years ago.

Her second stream of research focuses on the micro-dynamics of work and life. She has long studied how individuals act within organizations – what people do all day, how they spend their time, with whom they interact – and the consequences for both organizations and individuals. Recently, she launched several projects to explore hybrid work and how individuals' physical location – relative to co-workers, family, partners, or roommates – affects work productivity and personal well-being. She combines deep inductive qualitative research with data analytics to better understand and empower individuals and teams to improve the way they work and live.

 
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Organizational Behavior
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Leslie A. Perlow
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Organizational Behavior
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(617) 495-6173
Featured Work Publications Research Summary Awards & Honors
Rethinking Flexibility at Work | WorkLife with Adam Grant
Leslie Perlow discusses with Adam Grant how to think about flexibility in this new hybrid world where flexibility more than ever is not just about time but also place of work.
24 Years Ago, a Harvard Researcher Showed How to Increase Productivity at Work by 65 Percent. Why Aren't We All Using Her Method?
In 1999, we already knew the solution to endless productivity-killing interruptions. Why don't more people use it?
Toward a Life Well Lived
An innovative course helps students navigate the road ahead.
Experimenting During the Shift to Virtual Team Work: Learnings from How Teams Adapted Their Activities During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Past research has focused on understanding the characteristics of work that are fully virtual or fully collocated. The present study seeks to expand our understanding of team work by studying knowledge workers' experiences as they were suddenly forced to transition to a fully virtual environment.
Stop the Meeting Madness
How to free up time for meaningful work by Leslie A. Perlow, Constance Noonan Hadley, and Eunice Eun
Manage Your Team's Collective Time
Time management is a group endeavor. Harvard Business School Professor Leslie Perlow shares how the payoff goes far beyond morale and retention.
Sleeping with Your Smartphone
How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change the Way You Work
Does it have to be this way? Can't resist checking your smartphone or mobile device? Sure, all this connectivity keeps you in touch with your team and the office--but at what cost? In "Sleeping with Your Smartphone," Harvard Business School professor Leslie Perlow reveals how you can disconnect and become more productive in the process. In fact, she shows that you can devote more time to your personal life and accomplish more at work.
TED Institute
Leslie Perlow: Thriving in an overconnected world
While email and mobile technology have greatly accelerated the way we do business, Leslie Perlow argues that the always “on” mentality can have a long-term detrimental effect on many organizations. In her sociological experiments at BCG and other organizations, Perlow found that if the team – rather than just individuals - collectively rallies around a goal of personal value, it unleashes a process that creates better work and better lives.
Death by a Thousand Meetings: How to Reduce Video-Call Overload

Years into the pandemic, workers are still suffering from back-to-back video calls. Here’s how to rethink meetings.

The Economist Intelligence Unit report
The Personalization Challenge: Business culture and mobile security
Video Interview: EIU Editor Riva Richmond interviews Harvard Business School Professor Leslie Perlow about the risks to organisations from the undirected, always-connected work enabled by mobile devices.
Switching off an "Always on" Culture
Leslie talks about the pervasive responsiveness trap in the workforce.

“The problem is that now everyone's on all the time and we come to expect that of each other. And then, we email each other late at night and we actually may or may not expect a response, initially.  But the person getting the e-mail, their response is, 'Well, maybe it’s not urgent but I should respond anyway and maybe it’s because I want to prove that had it been the clients, I was on.'"
CBS: Unplugging at Night
CBS Boston segment about Leslie Perlow's work at Boston Consulting Group.

Leslie A. Perlow is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. She leads the Crafting Your Life Special Project, dedicated to helping individuals make purposeful life choices while gathering insights that will help us all understand how to live more fulfilling lives. As part of this initiative, she developed a second-year MBA elective, Crafting Your Life. The course inspires students to navigate life with greater intentionality, offering practical guidance for managing careers, relationships, and personal growth. Beyond the classroom, she leverages technology to create tools that foster self-discovery and enable learning through the data these tools collect. Her latest tool, the LIFE Matrix, shows users how their 168 weekly hours line up with their core values, and helps them identify the changes that could make the biggest impact.

Professor Perlow has spent her career researching better work, better lives and how the two reinforce each other.  She devoted the first two decades of her career to studying the workplace and experimenting with better ways of working, to enable teams to be more productive and team members to have more time and more predictability over their lives outside of work.  She has more recently turned her attention to also helping people more directly craft better lives – in and out of the work place – to enable them to show up better at work.

Towards this end, Professor Perlow has two current streams of research. Her first focuses on how people can craft their best lives.  She collects and analyzes both quantitative data – from tools such as the LIFE Matrix and the LIFE Simulation – and qualitative data from interviews with individuals as part of a life history project she embarked on five years ago.

Her second stream of research focuses on the micro-dynamics of work and life. She has long studied how individuals act within organizations – what people do all day, how they spend their time, with whom they interact – and the consequences for both organizations and individuals. Recently, she launched several projects to explore hybrid work and how individuals' physical location – relative to co-workers, family, partners, or roommates – affects work productivity and personal well-being. She combines deep inductive qualitative research with data analytics to better understand and empower individuals and teams to improve the way they work and live.

 
Featured Work
Rethinking Flexibility at Work | WorkLife with Adam Grant
Leslie Perlow discusses with Adam Grant how to think about flexibility in this new hybrid world where flexibility more than ever is not just about time but also place of work.
24 Years Ago, a Harvard Researcher Showed How to Increase Productivity at Work by 65 Percent. Why Aren't We All Using Her Method?
In 1999, we already knew the solution to endless productivity-killing interruptions. Why don't more people use it?
Toward a Life Well Lived
An innovative course helps students navigate the road ahead.
Experimenting During the Shift to Virtual Team Work: Learnings from How Teams Adapted Their Activities During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Past research has focused on understanding the characteristics of work that are fully virtual or fully collocated. The present study seeks to expand our understanding of team work by studying knowledge workers' experiences as they were suddenly forced to transition to a fully virtual environment.
Stop the Meeting Madness
How to free up time for meaningful work by Leslie A. Perlow, Constance Noonan Hadley, and Eunice Eun
Manage Your Team's Collective Time
Time management is a group endeavor. Harvard Business School Professor Leslie Perlow shares how the payoff goes far beyond morale and retention.
Sleeping with Your Smartphone
How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change the Way You Work
Does it have to be this way? Can't resist checking your smartphone or mobile device? Sure, all this connectivity keeps you in touch with your team and the office--but at what cost? In "Sleeping with Your Smartphone," Harvard Business School professor Leslie Perlow reveals how you can disconnect and become more productive in the process. In fact, she shows that you can devote more time to your personal life and accomplish more at work.
TED Institute
Leslie Perlow: Thriving in an overconnected world
While email and mobile technology have greatly accelerated the way we do business, Leslie Perlow argues that the always “on” mentality can have a long-term detrimental effect on many organizations. In her sociological experiments at BCG and other organizations, Perlow found that if the team – rather than just individuals - collectively rallies around a goal of personal value, it unleashes a process that creates better work and better lives.
Death by a Thousand Meetings: How to Reduce Video-Call Overload

Years into the pandemic, workers are still suffering from back-to-back video calls. Here’s how to rethink meetings.

The Economist Intelligence Unit report
The Personalization Challenge: Business culture and mobile security
Video Interview: EIU Editor Riva Richmond interviews Harvard Business School Professor Leslie Perlow about the risks to organisations from the undirected, always-connected work enabled by mobile devices.
Switching off an "Always on" Culture
Leslie talks about the pervasive responsiveness trap in the workforce.

“The problem is that now everyone's on all the time and we come to expect that of each other. And then, we email each other late at night and we actually may or may not expect a response, initially.  But the person getting the e-mail, their response is, 'Well, maybe it’s not urgent but I should respond anyway and maybe it’s because I want to prove that had it been the clients, I was on.'"
CBS: Unplugging at Night
CBS Boston segment about Leslie Perlow's work at Boston Consulting Group.
Books
  • Perlow, Leslie A. Sleeping with Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24-7 Habit and Change the Way you Work. Harvard Business Review Press, 2012. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie. When You Say Yes But Mean No: How Silencing Conflict Wrecks Relationships and Companies. New York: Crown Business, 2003. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie. Finding Time: How Corporations, Individuals, and Families Can Benefit from New Work Practices. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997. View Details
Journal Articles
  • Ma, Wenjie, Leslie A. Perlow, and Eunice Eun. "Backstage Matters: Collective Energy and Information Sharing on Global Teams." Academy of Management Discoveries 10, no. 3 (September 2024): 463–487. View Details
  • Whillans, Ashley V., Leslie Perlow, and Aurora Turek. "Experimenting During the Shift to Virtual Team Work: Learnings from How Teams Adapted Their Activities During the COVID-19 Pandemic." Information and Organization 31, no. 1 (March 2021). View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, Constance Noonan Hadley, and Eunice Eun. "Stop the Meeting Madness: How to Free Up Time for Meaningful Work." Harvard Business Review 95, no. 4 (July–August 2017): 62–69. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie. "Manage Your Team's Collective Time." Harvard Business Review 92, no. 6 (June 2014): 23–25. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Erin L. Kelly. "Toward a Model of Work Redesign for Better Work and Better Life." Work and Occupations 41, no. 1 (February 2014): 111–134. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Jessica L. Porter. "Making Time Off Predictable—and Required." Harvard Business Review 87, no. 10 (October 2009). View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Nelson Repenning. "The Dynamics of Silencing Conflict." Research in Organizational Behavior 29 (2009): 195–223. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, Jody Hoffer Gittell, and Nancy R. Katz. "Contextualizing Patterns of Work Group Interaction: Toward a Nested Theory of Structuration." Organization Science 15, no. 5 (September–October 2004): 520–536. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Stephanie Williams. "Is Silence Killing Your Company?" Harvard Business Review 81, no. 5 (May 2003): 52–58. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, Gerardo Okhuyson, and Nelson Repenning. "The Speed Trap: Exploring the Relationship between Decision Making and the Temporal Context." Academy of Management Journal 45, no. 5 (October 2002): 931–955. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and John Weeks. "Who's Helping Whom: A Comparison of Helping Behavior among American and Indian Software Engineers." Journal of Organizational Behavior 23, no. 4 (June 2002): 345–361. View Details
  • Staudenmayer, Nancy, Marcie Tyre, and Leslie Perlow. "Time to Change: Temporal Shifts As Enablers of Organizational Change." Organization Science 13, no. 5 (September–October 2002). View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie. "Time to Coordinate: Toward an Understanding of Work-Time Standards and Norms in a Multi-Country Study of Software Engineers." Work and Occupations 28, no. 1 (February 2001). View Details
  • Ancona, Deborah, Gerardo Okhuyson, and Leslie Perlow. "Time-out: Taking Time to Integrate Temporal Research." Academy of Management Review 26, no. 4 (October 2001): 512–529. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie. "The Time Famine: Towards a Sociology of Work Time." Administrative Science Quarterly 44, no. 1 (March 1999): 57–81. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie. "Boundary Control: The Social Ordering of Work and Family Time in a High-Tech Corporation." Administrative Science Quarterly 43, no. 2 (June 1998): 328–357. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie. "Putting the Work Back into Work/Family." Group & Organization Management 20, no. 2 (1995): 227–239. View Details
Book Chapters
  • Perlow, Leslie. "Collaborative Implementation: 'What If,' Asked George?" In Research Alive: Exploring Generative Moments in Doing Qualitative Research. Vol. 27, edited by Arne Carlsen and Jane E. Dutton. Advances in Organization Studies. Copenhagen Business School Press, 2011. View Details
  • Trefalt, Spela, and Leslie Perlow. "Learning from Women Who Make It Work: A Call for Dynamic Flexibility." In Qualitative Organizational Research: Best Papers from the Davis Conference on Qualitative Research, edited by K. Elsbach, 227–251. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing (IAP), 2005. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie. "Studying Work Groups in India, China, and Hungary." In Gaining Access: A Practical Guide for Field Researchers, edited by Martha S. Feldman, Jeannine Bell, and Michele Tracy Berger. Altamira Press, 2003. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and L. Bailyn. "The Senseless Submergence of Difference: Engineers, Their Work and Their Careers." In Between Technology and Society: Technical Workers in Modern Workplaces, edited by B. Barley and J. Orr. Ithaca, NY: IRL Press, 1997. View Details
Cases and Teaching Materials
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Carin-Isabel Knoop. "Michael Rose." Harvard Business School Case 425-038, February 2025. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Hannah Weisman. "Amrit Jalan." Harvard Business School Case 425-028, August 2024. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Hannah Weisman. "David Aron." Harvard Business School Case 425-026, August 2024. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Matthew G. Preble. "Annette Rodriguez." Harvard Business School Case 425-008, September 2024. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Hannah Weisman. "Melissa Landry Koller." Harvard Business School Case 425-015, August 2024. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Hannah Weisman. "Gabriela Santana Goldstein." Harvard Business School Case 424-021, December 2023. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Hannah Weisman. "Derek Aguirre." Harvard Business School Case 424-019, September 2023. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Salvatore J. Affinito. "Work Arrangements in the Post-Pandemic World." Harvard Business School Technical Note 424-022, September 2023. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Hannah Weisman. "Two Ways of Pursuing a Calling." Harvard Business School Technical Note 424-023, August 2023. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, Mel Martin, and Hannah Weisman. "Salma Qarnain: Spaceships to Broadway." Harvard Business School Case 424-018, August 2023. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Matthew Preble. "Luke Fuszard." Harvard Business School Case 422-026, October 2021. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Matthew G. Preble. "Dallin and Elizabeth Anderson." Harvard Business School Case 422-025, October 2021. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Matthew Preble. "Gerald Chertavian." Harvard Business School Case 421-030, August 2020. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Matthew Preble. "Sangu Delle." Harvard Business School Case 421-031, August 2020. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Matthew Preble. "Sheena Gupta (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 421-029, August 2020. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Matthew Preble. "Sheena Gupta (A)." Harvard Business School Case 421-028, August 2020. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Matthew Preble. "The Power of Enduring Relationships." Harvard Business School Case 420-070, January 2020. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Matthew Preble. "Thierry Porté." Harvard Business School Case 420-074, November 2019. (Revised October 2020.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Matthew Preble. "Jessica Deckinger (MBA 2008)." Harvard Business School Case 420-069, October 2019. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Matthew Preble. "Grant Freeland." Harvard Business School Case 420-067, October 2019. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Matthew Preble. "Mia Mends." Harvard Business School Case 420-065, October 2019. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., Eunice Eun, and Matthew G. Preble. "Noah Fisher (MBA 2016)." Harvard Business School Case 420-049, September 2019. (Revised January 2020.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., Eunice Eun, and Matthew Preble. "Mary Elizabeth Carter (MBA 2017)." Harvard Business School Case 420-048, September 2019. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, Jeff Steiner, and Matthew Preble. "Gina Wilcox." Harvard Business School Case 420-045, September 2019. (Revised September 2020.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Matthew Preble. "Sonya Brown (MBA 2002)." Harvard Business School Case 420-051, September 2019. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., Eunice Eun, and Matthew G. Preble. "Ming Min Hui (MBA 2015)." Harvard Business School Case 420-050, September 2019. (Revised January 2020.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, Jeff Steiner, and Nathaniel Schwalb. "Joseph Kahn." Harvard Business School Case 420-044, August 2019. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, Jeff Steiner, and Olivia Hull. "Christopher Crosby." Harvard Business School Case 420-043, August 2019. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, and Eunice Eun. "Phuc Huynh and Teach for Vietnam (A)." Harvard Business School Case 419-036, October 2018. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie, Eunice Eun, and Wenjie Ma. "Srivathsan Canchi at eBay Inc." Harvard Business School Case 416-006, September 2015. (Revised August 2016.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Kerry Herman. "George Martin at The Boston Consulting Group (C)." Harvard Business School Supplement 410-118, April 2010. (Revised May 2010.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Kerry Herman. "George Martin at The Boston Consulting Group (A)." Harvard Business School Case 410-112, April 2010. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Kerry Herman. "George Martin at The Boston Consulting Group (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 410-117, April 2010. View Details
  • Snook, Scott A., Leslie A. Perlow, and Brian DeLacey. "Coach K: A Matter of the Heart." Harvard Business School Case 406-044, August 2005. (Revised December 2005.) View Details
  • Snook, Scott A., Leslie A. Perlow, and Brian DeLacey. "Coach Knight: The Will to Win." Harvard Business School Case 406-043, August 2005. (Revised December 2005.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Daisy Wademan. "Pat Anderson." Harvard Business School Case 405-033, September 2004. (Revised October 2004.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and David Ager. "Cat is out of the Bag, The: KANA and the Layoff Gone Awry (A)." Harvard Business School Case 403-117, January 2003. (Revised April 2004.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A. "Time Distribution and Interaction Patterns for PEARL Project Team: Work Patterns at Ditto (D)." Harvard Business School Compilation 404-058, September 2003. (Revised March 2004.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A. "PEARL Project, The: Work Patterns at Ditto (A)." Harvard Business School Compilation 404-055, September 2003. (Revised March 2004.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A. "Laura Barr: Work Patterns at Ditto (B)." Harvard Business School Compilation 404-056, September 2003. (Revised March 2004.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A. "Max Green: Work Patterns at Ditto (C)." Harvard Business School Compilation 404-057, September 2003. (Revised March 2004.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Elizabeth Kind. "New HP, The: The Clean Room and Beyond." Harvard Business School Case 404-064, February 2004. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A. "Work Patterns at Ditto (TN) (A), (B), (C), and (D)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 404-059, September 2003. (Revised October 2003.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A. "Versity.com (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 404-061, September 2003. (Revised October 2003.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Thomas J. DeLong. "Anne F. Baird." Harvard Business School Supplement 403-086, November 2002. (Revised October 2003.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A. "Versity.com." Harvard Business School Case 403-132, February 2003. (Revised October 2003.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A. "Peter Jacobs at Versity.com." Harvard Business School Case 403-133, February 2003. (Revised October 2003.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and David Ager. "Cat is out of the Bag, The: Kana and the Layoff Gone Awry (TN) (A), (B), and (C)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 404-060, September 2003. (Revised October 2003.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and David Ager. "Cat is out of the Bag, The: KANA and the Layoff Gone Awry (B)." Harvard Business School Case 403-118, January 2003. (Revised October 2003.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and David Ager. "Cat is out of the Bag, The: KANA and the Layoff Gone Awry (C)." Harvard Business School Case 403-119, January 2003. (Revised October 2003.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A. "Managing the Competing Goals of Work and Life." Harvard Business School Module Note 404-063, September 2003. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A. "Howie Cohen at Versity.com." Harvard Business School Case 403-134, February 2003. (Revised September 2003.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A. "Profiles of the Class of 1976 (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 404-062, September 2003. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie. "The Danger of Silencing Conflict at Work." Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing Class Lecture, 2003. Electronic. (Faculty Lecture: HBSP Product Number 5615C.) View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Thomas J. DeLong. "Linda Fay Harris." Harvard Business School Supplement 403-081, November 2002. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Thomas J. DeLong. "Samuel Allston." Harvard Business School Supplement 403-082, November 2002. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Thomas J. DeLong. "Patricia Hughes Mason." Harvard Business School Supplement 403-083, November 2002. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Thomas J. DeLong. "Matthew J. Martin." Harvard Business School Supplement 403-084, November 2002. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Thomas J. DeLong. "Richard Oliva." Harvard Business School Supplement 403-085, November 2002. View Details
  • Perlow, Leslie A., and Thomas J. DeLong. "Profiles of the Class of 1976." Harvard Business School Case 403-087, November 2002. View Details
Research Summary
Research Summary

There has been tremendous change in the workplace — ubiquitous technology, 24/7 globalization, hyper-efficiency and now significant changes in work location. Professor Perlow’s research explores the implications for the ways we work and live, and what we can do to improve both. Her findings reveal that we have become less efficient, unable to plan or prioritize work; less effective, with speed substituting for strategy and innovation; and more isolated, overwhelmed, and harried as the dividing line between work and home disappears. She further finds that meaningful change is possible – change that leads to better work and better lives.

As an ethnographer, Professor Perlow conducts in-depth studies, often over multiple years. She has focused on firms in high tech, professional services, and pharmaceuticals examining co-located teams, hybrid teams, and global teams. She has lived for months at a time in both China and India to conduct research projects. She also led an ethnographic study that began with the sudden shift to virtual work in March 2020 and continued for 3 years as the organization grappled with how to most effectively implement hybrid work. Since then, she has launched several new projects to gather data on hybrid work and determine which practices make it most effective for individuals and for the teams of which they are a part. She documents individuals’ ways of working, including the use of technology, meetings, virtual interactions, and cross-cultural collaborations with global teams.  With these data, she explores the implications of workplace practices for organization productivity, individuals’ careers, and family lives.

To further her interest in helping individuals craft their best lives, she has started building digital tools to provide users insights about their life choices and tradeoffs.  These tools also enable her to collect rich quantitative data to further enhance our collective understanding. She built the LIFE Simulation after hearing from many people that, if they could live again, they would make different life choices.  The simulation gives participants the chance to “live” their lives in advance, providing a space to make mistakes before they truly count. She has collected data from tens of thousands of people, enabling her to study life choices.  Her latest tool, the LIFE Matrix, empowers individuals to discover if their 168 weekly hours match up with what truly matters to them.  It’s geared to help people assess their current time allocations, align their time with their core values, and take action on meaningful changes. Here too in the process of helping individuals, she is gathering data to discover what choices and tradeoffs lead to the most fulfilling lives, and therefore be better equipped to help individuals live their best lives.

In addition, Professor Perlow embarked on a life history project five years ago.  This project strives to capture MBA graduates experiences, choices, tradeoffs, and reflections, as they live out their lives pos- graduation.  To date, this study has provided key insights about choices around partnership, children, geography and career, as well as the role of luck and serendipity in life.


Awards & Honors
Recipient of the 2012 Work Life Legacy Award from the Families and Work Institute.
Additional Information
  • Working Knowledge Articles
Areas of Interest
  • corporate culture
  • ethnography
  • leading change
  • qualitative research
  • work/family balance
  • Additional Topics
  • conflict
  • conflict management
  • cross-cultural/cross-border
  • entrepreneurship
  • gender
  • group dynamics
  • interactions
  • interactive communication
  • leadership
  • organizational behavior
  • organizational development
  • organizational learning
  • power and influence
  • professional service firms
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18 May 2020
Wall Street Journal
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16 Jan 2019
Harvard Business Review
How to Make Any Business Trip Less Boring

10 Sep 2018
Mint
Get your team to help you to switch off the ‘always on’ culture

12 Mar 2018
CNBC
Billionaire Richard Branson says this is the key to happiness and success

21 Aug 2017
Harvard Business Review
Help Your Team Achieve Work-Life Balance — Even When You Can’t

07 Aug 2017
Sydney Morning Herald
Could this be the real reason your boss emails you outside business hours?

17 Jul 2017
Financial Times
Silence breaks through the noise of success

05 Jul 2017
Harvard Business Review
Stop the Meeting Madness

15 May 2017
Forbes
How Setting Digital Boundaries Can Help Women Succeed

17 Jun 2016
Fast Company
The Secret Economic And Career Benefits Of Taking Vacation

18 Nov 2015
Huffington Post
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20 Aug 2015
Inc.
Why Employees' Long Hours Can Hurt Your Company's Bottom Line

22 Jun 2015
Huffington Post
How To Stop Working All The Time And Get More Done

26 May 2015
HBS Working Knowledge
Corporate Field Researchers Share Tricks of the Trade

08 Apr 2015
Fortune
Why and how managers should help workers set boundaries

27 Feb 2015
Washington Post
How long can you go without your phone? Well, what if it’s for a good cause?

29 Jun 2012
Harvard Business School
New Books from Harvard Business School Faculty

Additional Media Mentions

13 Oct 2014
CNN
Can disappearing desks improve how we work?

30 Sep 2014
Entrepreneur
There Are Always a Million Distractions. Here's How to Silence the Noise and Pay Attention.

14 Jul 2014
Entrepreneur
8 Ways to Break Bad Smartphone Habits

20 May 2014
Harvard Business Review
Manage Your Team’s Collective Time

13 May 2014
US News & World Report
Arianna Huffington's Tips on How to Feel Better and Get More Done

06 Feb 2014
Wall Street Journal
Smartphones Make You Tired and Unproductive, Study Says

10 Jan 2014
TED@BCG San Francisco
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20 Nov 2013
Huffington Post
How Our Team of Always-on Consultants Learned to Unplug

08 Oct 2013
Human Capital Magazine
Break your Smartphone Dependence, it’s Killling You

19 Oct 2013
Daily Beast
Wired Executives Find that Disconnecting Can Help Spur Creativity

26 Sep 2013
Fast Company
Share Your Job, Save Your Sanity

19 Sep 2013
Fast Company
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12 Sep 2013
Economist Intelligence Unit
Mobility and Organizational Culture

27 Aug 2013
Wall Street Journal
CEOs Find Unplugging Can Help With Work

19 Jun 2013
Fast Company
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18 Jun 2013
Fast Company
3 Ways to Really Put the "Vacate" into Vacation

18 Jun 2013
Fast Company
Why You're Sleeping With Your Smartphone

15 Jun 2013
New York Times
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23 May 2013
Huffington Post
5 Things You Should Know About Sleep Health in the Workplace

23 May 2013
Huffington Post
HuffPost Blog: 5 Things You Should Know About Sleep Health in the Workplace

23 May 2013
Wall Street Journal
I’m Out of the Office. No, Really. I Am.

14 May 2013
Cornerstone Blog
Leslie Perlow: How to Have Your Downtime -- Without Missing a Beat

12 Mar 2013
Atlantic
Anthropology Inc.

07 Mar 2013
New York Times
Yes, You Can

06 Mar 2013
Huffington Post
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21 Feb 2013
US News & World Report
Work, Life, and the Attempt to Do it All

20 Feb 2013
Washington Post
When maternity leave doesn’t mean ‘out of office’

20 Feb 2013
Fast Company
Slacking At Work Is A Controversial Productivity Tool—So Is There A Better Way?

20 Feb 2013
Fast Company
Slacking At Work Is A Controversial Productivity Tool--So Is There A Better Way?

01 Feb 2013
WNCN
Beating Smartphone Addiction

22 Jan 2013
Entrepreneur
Why Being a Workaholic is Counterproductive

01 Jan 2013
New York Times
Silencing the Smartphone

04 Dec 2012
Bloomberg
Gorman Skips Business, Jain Likes Faulks: Best Books of 2012

10 Oct 2012
Management Tip of the Day: Try Not Responding for a Change

08 Oct 2012
HBR Blogs
Does Success Require Sleeping With Your Smartphone?

01 Oct 2012
China Daily USA
Anchored to mobiles

28 Sep 2012
Should You Handle Work Email on Your Smartphone?

27 Sep 2012
Huffington Post
Breaking the Cycle of Responsiveness at Work

27 Sep 2012
Huffington Post
Breaking the Cycle of Responsiveness at Work

17 Sep 2012
Learning Executives Briefing
Step Away From the Smartphone

30 Aug 2012
Life Inc. on Today
Flexible Work Schedules are Good for Business, Expert Says

21 Aug 2012
CNN
We dare you to take a real vacation

15 Aug 2012
Forbes
What I Learned From Swimming With My SmartPhone

15 Jul 2012
New York Times
The Workplace Benefits of Being Out of Touch

11 Jul 2012
Boston Public Radio
The Smartphone Paradox

11 Jul 2012
Washington Post
Why ‘work-life balance’ doesn’t work

06 Jul 2012
Business Insider
It's Sick How Close We're Getting To A 24/7 Workweek

27 Jun 2012
Wall Street Journal
Real Vacations Are Good for You: Take Them and Turn Off

21 Jun 2012
Fortune
Put the smartphone down: It'll be okay

19 Jun 2012
New York Times
Keeping Social Media in Their Place

19 Jun 2012
CNNMoney
4 cardinal sins of work communication

03 Jun 2012
Business Insider
Harvard B-School Prof: Stop Sleeping With Your Smartphone!

29 May 2012
How to Stop Sleeping With Your Smartphone

22 May 2012
HBR Blogs
Are You Sleeping With Your Smartphone?

21 May 2012
Fast Company
Predictable Time Off: The Team Solution To Overcoming Constant Work Connection

17 May 2012
TIME
How To Stop Sleeping With Your Smartphone

14 May 2012
WBZ-TV Boston
Unplugging At Night May Be A Smarter Way To Work

14 May 2012
HBS Working Knowledge
Breaking the Smartphone Addiction

03 May 2012
When the smartphone's turned off

02 May 2012
HBR Blogs
Overcome Your Work Addiction

18 Apr 2012
Huffington Post
Turning off Your Smartphone: More Stress Or Less?

10 Mar 2012
Economist
Schumpeter: Slaves to the smartphone

Additional Information
Working Knowledge Articles

Areas of Interest

corporate culture
ethnography
leading change
qualitative research
work/family balance
 More

Additional Topics

conflict
conflict management
cross-cultural/cross-border
entrepreneurship
gender
group dynamics
interactions
interactive communication
leadership
organizational behavior
organizational development
organizational learning
power and influence
professional service firms
 Less

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Media Mentions

05 Feb 2025
On the Level
WFH: We’re Having the Wrong Argument

22 Sep 2019
Poets & Quants
The Most Interesting New MBA Courses At B-Schools This Year

01 Mar 2021
Science Direct
Experimenting during the shift to virtual team work: Learnings from how teams adapted their activities during the COVID-19 pandemic

31 May 2022
Adam Grant Thinks Again
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13 Dec 2023
Financial Review
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11 Jan 2024
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06 May 2024
HBS Working Knowledge
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22 Jul 2024
Bloomberg
America's Vacation Culture Is Dying. Here's How to Revive It.

25 Jan 2023
Washington Post
Death by a Thousand Meetings: How to Reduce Video-Call Overload

13 Dec 2023
Inc.
24 Years Ago, a Harvard Researcher Showed How to Increase Productivity at Work 65 Percent. Why Aren't We All Using Her Method?

11 Jan 2023
Fast Company
Tracking Employees Doesn’t Work. Here’s How to Move beyond Productivity Paranoia

25 May 2022
MIT Sloan Management Review
Declare ‘Calendar Bankruptcy’ to Move Beyond Meeting-Driven Culture

19 Apr 2022
WorkLife with Adam Grant
Rethinking Flexibility at Work

07 Apr 2021
HBS Working Knowledge
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17 Mar 2021
TodayOnline.com
Are there enough hours in the day for hybrid work?

03 Mar 2021
Bloomberg
Sick Days Don’t Look So Good Now That You Can Work From Home

20 Aug 2020
New York Times
How to Make Work Better

20 Aug 2020
New York Times
The Office Will Never Be the Same

02 Aug 2020
Wall Street Journal
Remote Work Is Here to Stay. Bosses Better Adjust.

31 Jul 2020
New York Times
Remote Work Isn’t Working? Maybe Your Company Is Doing It Wrong

18 May 2020
Wall Street Journal
Why It Is OK to Miss the Office and Your Old Work Self

18 May 2020
Wall Street Journal
It’s OK to Miss the Office During the Coronavirus Lockdown

16 Jan 2019
Harvard Business Review
How to Make Any Business Trip Less Boring

10 Sep 2018
Mint
Get your team to help you to switch off the ‘always on’ culture

12 Mar 2018
CNBC
Billionaire Richard Branson says this is the key to happiness and success

21 Aug 2017
Harvard Business Review
Help Your Team Achieve Work-Life Balance — Even When You Can’t

07 Aug 2017
Sydney Morning Herald
Could this be the real reason your boss emails you outside business hours?

17 Jul 2017
Financial Times
Silence breaks through the noise of success

05 Jul 2017
Harvard Business Review
Stop the Meeting Madness

15 May 2017
Forbes
How Setting Digital Boundaries Can Help Women Succeed

17 Jun 2016
Fast Company
The Secret Economic And Career Benefits Of Taking Vacation

18 Nov 2015
Huffington Post
Seven Books for Working Relationships

20 Aug 2015
Inc.
Why Employees' Long Hours Can Hurt Your Company's Bottom Line

22 Jun 2015
Huffington Post
How To Stop Working All The Time And Get More Done

26 May 2015
HBS Working Knowledge
Corporate Field Researchers Share Tricks of the Trade

08 Apr 2015
Fortune
Why and how managers should help workers set boundaries

27 Feb 2015
Washington Post
How long can you go without your phone? Well, what if it’s for a good cause?

29 Jun 2012
Harvard Business School
New Books from Harvard Business School Faculty

Additional Media Mentions

13 Oct 2014
CNN
Can disappearing desks improve how we work?

30 Sep 2014
Entrepreneur
There Are Always a Million Distractions. Here's How to Silence the Noise and Pay Attention.

14 Jul 2014
Entrepreneur
8 Ways to Break Bad Smartphone Habits

20 May 2014
Harvard Business Review
Manage Your Team’s Collective Time

13 May 2014
US News & World Report
Arianna Huffington's Tips on How to Feel Better and Get More Done

06 Feb 2014
Wall Street Journal
Smartphones Make You Tired and Unproductive, Study Says

10 Jan 2014
TED@BCG San Francisco
Thriving in an overconnected world

20 Nov 2013
Huffington Post
How Our Team of Always-on Consultants Learned to Unplug

08 Oct 2013
Human Capital Magazine
Break your Smartphone Dependence, it’s Killling You

19 Oct 2013
Daily Beast
Wired Executives Find that Disconnecting Can Help Spur Creativity

26 Sep 2013
Fast Company
Share Your Job, Save Your Sanity

19 Sep 2013
Fast Company
When Does Efficiency Become Stupid?

12 Sep 2013
Economist Intelligence Unit
Mobility and Organizational Culture

27 Aug 2013
Wall Street Journal
CEOs Find Unplugging Can Help With Work

19 Jun 2013
Fast Company
Why You're Sleeping With Your Smartphone

18 Jun 2013
Fast Company
3 Ways to Really Put the "Vacate" into Vacation

18 Jun 2013
Fast Company
Why You're Sleeping With Your Smartphone

15 Jun 2013
New York Times
Messages Galore, But No Time To Think

23 May 2013
Huffington Post
5 Things You Should Know About Sleep Health in the Workplace

23 May 2013
Huffington Post
HuffPost Blog: 5 Things You Should Know About Sleep Health in the Workplace

23 May 2013
Wall Street Journal
I’m Out of the Office. No, Really. I Am.

14 May 2013
Cornerstone Blog
Leslie Perlow: How to Have Your Downtime -- Without Missing a Beat

12 Mar 2013
Atlantic
Anthropology Inc.

07 Mar 2013
New York Times
Yes, You Can

06 Mar 2013
Huffington Post
Why working in the office is bad for you

21 Feb 2013
US News & World Report
Work, Life, and the Attempt to Do it All

20 Feb 2013
Washington Post
When maternity leave doesn’t mean ‘out of office’

20 Feb 2013
Fast Company
Slacking At Work Is A Controversial Productivity Tool—So Is There A Better Way?

20 Feb 2013
Fast Company
Slacking At Work Is A Controversial Productivity Tool--So Is There A Better Way?

01 Feb 2013
WNCN
Beating Smartphone Addiction

22 Jan 2013
Entrepreneur
Why Being a Workaholic is Counterproductive

01 Jan 2013
New York Times
Silencing the Smartphone

04 Dec 2012
Bloomberg
Gorman Skips Business, Jain Likes Faulks: Best Books of 2012

10 Oct 2012
Management Tip of the Day: Try Not Responding for a Change

08 Oct 2012
HBR Blogs
Does Success Require Sleeping With Your Smartphone?

01 Oct 2012
China Daily USA
Anchored to mobiles

28 Sep 2012
Should You Handle Work Email on Your Smartphone?

27 Sep 2012
Huffington Post
Breaking the Cycle of Responsiveness at Work

27 Sep 2012
Huffington Post
Breaking the Cycle of Responsiveness at Work

17 Sep 2012
Learning Executives Briefing
Step Away From the Smartphone

30 Aug 2012
Life Inc. on Today
Flexible Work Schedules are Good for Business, Expert Says

21 Aug 2012
CNN
We dare you to take a real vacation

15 Aug 2012
Forbes
What I Learned From Swimming With My SmartPhone

15 Jul 2012
New York Times
The Workplace Benefits of Being Out of Touch

11 Jul 2012
Boston Public Radio
The Smartphone Paradox

11 Jul 2012
Washington Post
Why ‘work-life balance’ doesn’t work

06 Jul 2012
Business Insider
It's Sick How Close We're Getting To A 24/7 Workweek

27 Jun 2012
Wall Street Journal
Real Vacations Are Good for You: Take Them and Turn Off

21 Jun 2012
Fortune
Put the smartphone down: It'll be okay

19 Jun 2012
New York Times
Keeping Social Media in Their Place

19 Jun 2012
CNNMoney
4 cardinal sins of work communication

03 Jun 2012
Business Insider
Harvard B-School Prof: Stop Sleeping With Your Smartphone!

29 May 2012
How to Stop Sleeping With Your Smartphone

22 May 2012
HBR Blogs
Are You Sleeping With Your Smartphone?

21 May 2012
Fast Company
Predictable Time Off: The Team Solution To Overcoming Constant Work Connection

17 May 2012
TIME
How To Stop Sleeping With Your Smartphone

14 May 2012
WBZ-TV Boston
Unplugging At Night May Be A Smarter Way To Work

14 May 2012
HBS Working Knowledge
Breaking the Smartphone Addiction

03 May 2012
When the smartphone's turned off

02 May 2012
HBR Blogs
Overcome Your Work Addiction

18 Apr 2012
Huffington Post
Turning off Your Smartphone: More Stress Or Less?

10 Mar 2012
Economist
Schumpeter: Slaves to the smartphone

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