  Economies across the globe were brought to their knees due to lockdowns and
social restriction measures to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2, despite
the quick switch to remote working. This downfall may be partially explained by
the "water cooler effect", which holds that higher levels of social interaction
lead to higher productivity due to a boost in people's mood. Somewhat
paradoxically, however, there are reports of increased productivity in the
remote working scenario. Here we address quantitatively this issue using a
variety of experimental findings of social psychology that address the
interplay between mood, social interaction and productivity to set forth an
agent-based model for a workplace composed of extrovert and introvert agent
stereotypes that differ solely on their propensities to initiate a social
interaction. We find that the effects of curtailing social interactions depend
on the proportion of the stereotypes in the working group: while the social
restriction measures always have a negative impact on the productivity of
groups composed predominantly of introverts, they may actually improve the
productivity of groups composed predominantly of extroverts. Our results offer
a proof of concept that the paradox of productivity during quarantine can be
explained by taking into account the distinct effects of the social distancing
measures on extroverts and introverts.
