would you quit over your employer’s work-from-home policy?

by Alison Green on June 24, 2021

Would you leave your job over its work-from-home policies?

If you’ve been remote, would you consider leaving if your office required you to return?

Or the opposite — if you’ve disliked working from home, would you consider leaving if that became permanent?

There’s a narrative building in the media that we’re in a moment of reckoning and the power balance has shifted toward employees in a way we haven’t seen before, that people are reconsidering what they want from their jobs, and that work-from-home is poised to become a make-or-break issue for people.

Let’s talk about how that’s playing out from you (if at all). Are you reconsidering what you want from a job? Would you quit over the way your employer handles work-from-home? Would you make it a key factor in future job searches?

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  1. Ask a Manager* Post author

    I will probably write about this topic at some point and may quote from the discussion here, so if you don’t want to be quoted (anonymously, as always), please indicate that when you post. Thank you!

  2. Allison*

    I am very tempted. Just interviewed for the job in March and we talked about work life balance and how much I enjoyed working out on my lunch break. Boss said that they had a flexible work schedule and I assumed that meant I could work from home sometimes after lockdown ended. As we have gotten a definite return date now, the message is there is no official work from home policy but they with work with your individual circumstances.

    “Luckily” I can be technically be considered disabled. If I can convince my boss to allow me to work from home 2-3 times a week, I plan on using the ADA rules to try for the same allowance. Hopefully that works because I don’t want to look for a new job.

    1. A tester, not a developer*

      I’m in a very similar position (in Canada). I had ‘accommodations’ to work from home 1 day a week for a while before Covid, and working from home has caused a dramatic improvement to my health. I take a lot of immunosuppressing drugs, so it’s been lovely to not get every bug that goes around an office for a change.

      Right now it sounds like working from home indefinitely won’t be an issue, but if it comes right down to it I’ll have my doctor do up the paperwork. It would be pretty difficult for the company to claim that it puts an undue hardship on them if it’s been working for well over a year.

      1. wittyrepartee*

        Yes, I’m both looking to get ADA accomodations in the short term because my health drastically improved during covid, but I’m also looking into a workplace where flexible schedules or full time remote work are the norm.

    2. Piggly Wiggly*

      I would most likely start my search if they changed their mind on the current 3 days wfh/2 in office plan to start later this fall. I’m lucky enough to be a field that can be 100% remote and is in high demand. The flexibility this new world has offered for personal care, opportunities for my kids (couldn’t make a 5:00 practice with a commute), and occasional “work from anywhere” getaways is not going to be something I just remember fondly. I will actively make it my reality. I also appreciate being able to exist in my bubble—no more finding a dentist that’s close enough for lunch appts, etc. I can keep to my neighborhood, which is comfortable.

    3. I should really pick a name*

      I’m curious why you’d equate flexible work schedule with WFH. To me, flexible work schedule has to do with hours, not location.

      1. kittymommy*

        Same. This doesn’t sound so much like an altering of an agreement as it is a misunderstanding.

      2. lizw*

        I don’t think Piggle Wiggly is referring to a flexible hours schedule, they are referring to the extra time and convenience gained when working from home because there is no time lost to a commute or having to choose medical providers based on their proximity to the workplace (so that a minimum of sick or PTO is used to cover appointments).

          1. SLR*

            So far my employer has been vague about the future of work from home. They told us they are going to start bringing people back into the office this fall. I work in a customer service call center type of role that is perfectly suited to working remotely. We use Microsoft teams and we have weekly meetings and everything is seamless. The management team can monitor all of our stats remotely using typical call Center Software. I’ve made it very clear to my boss that I would like to move to a lower cost of living area. I currently live in Metro Boston Massachusetts and would like to either relocate to New Hampshire or the northern part of Massachusetts where it’s a bit more affordable, quiet and rural. I told them I would have no problem coming into the office once or twice a month for important in-person meetings and trainings, but I would much prefer to work remotely permanently. My quality of life has improved so much! I’m putting Less wear-and-tear & mileage on my vehicle, am spending less on gas every week, I’m actually eating healthier because I’m at home and able to prepare real meals as opposed to eating fast food in the car on the go, my sleep patterns have improved because I’m able to unwind a lot quicker and I just have a better work-life balance overall. I can’t imagine going back to the office 5 days a week. If they told me it was required to work 5 days in the office again, yes, I would absolutely job search which is really sad and disappointing because I actually truly love working for the company that I work for. But I’m a single person living on one income, and I was very open and transparent with my boss that my relocating would purely be out of financial necessity to be in a lower cost of living area. My productivity and metrics are all where they need to be and at my most recent performance review I was told that I’m exceeding expectations. I find myself to be much more productive working alone here in my own private space as opposed to working in an office with all the hustle and bustle and distractions. I am much more productive and I gladly work overtime when they ask me to. I’m working in comfortable tees & camis, sweat pants/leggings and I can go sit in the backyard to take a break, overall my quality of life is just so much better. I really truly hope they let me work from home permanently, I don’t even want a hybrid option. I want to be permanently remote. I think that anyone who is in a role that is truly well-suited to remote work, and as long as they are meeting or exceeding their productivity goals and metrics, they should be given the option to work remotely permanently.

            3. green beans*

              We’re in Boston and having a bit of the opposite problem, where people are not able to afford accommodations that are suitable for work from home (a number of people are working in their bedrooms or tiny living room/kitchens) and really want to return to the office.

            4. iantrovert (they/them)*

              I actually just moved in the other direction–Seacoast to Central MA–because it is a lower cost of living area, believe it or not. The housing costs were just skyrocketing, to the point where a condo with a garage in Dover cost as much as places within 495. Sure, now I pay income tax, but I also get things like consistent plowing and road paving (although I could do without the temporary extra traffic of the rt 2 paving, it beats NH-16 potholes!). Very happy with WFH in my own quiet place here, and now within only an hour’s drive of Boston.

              1. Notyourmom*

                Even more rural in western MA, housing prices are skyrocketing here too from all the Easterners moving here for a better more affordable quality of life. Its very difficult to buy a house right now, they are being sold very quickly and above asking price. Its so crazy! Residents fleeing inside 495 has had quite an impact on the entire region.

      3. Clisby*

        I agree. I worked 17-18 years fully remote as a computer programmer before retiring, but even during the almost 9 years I spent in the office I had a flexible work schedule. The official schedule was: Show up between 7 and 9; take anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes lunch; and work a total of 8 hours outside of lunch. So I could work 7-3:30, or 9-6:30, or pretty much anything in between. Once I had been there a couple of years, my manager didn’t really care if I came in at 6 a.m. and left at 2:30 p.m., or came in at 10 and worked until 7 p.m. I could vary this from day to day – I didn’t have to declare a schedule and stick to it. That’s what “flexible work schedule” means to me.

    4. Kristin*

      This is what I did. We’re not back in the office FT for a few weeks yet, but when they started chatter about returning I got all my ducks lined up and submitted an official request for partial wfh (citing, in part, the fact that my office is NOT accessible) under an ADA accommodation (I had to get a doctor’s note and remind them of the ADA’s existence to get them to consider it, but since it’s proven we CAN work from home effectively there wasn’t much they could do to argue with it, though I’m positive they’d not have approved full time WFH so I didn’t even try). When I return I’ll be in office MWF and home T/TH. I’d prefer permanent WFH, or only one day in office, but I’ll take what I can get.

      Also plan on job hunting for WFH jobs after a year or so (just started a new position at my current job).

    5. T2*

      We are going WFH and closing our office permanently. I pointed out to my boss that we have been killing it the past 16 months. Closing the office saves $4000 a month in rent.

    6. Nancy Drew*

      We were all commanded to come back to work by the CEO. Departmental managers have no say and must follow this dictate. I was completely home, then hybrid. I loved hybrid. I plan to retire at the end of the year unless the hybrid model is reinstated, which is supposedly being considered. But we have heard nothing so far. After being asked about retention/recruitment for employees to WFH during a town meeting, our CEO asked, “Do we really want these kinds of employees?” So out of touch….

  3. Ali G*

    Not me, but at my husband’s office: they’ve lost a number of employees over the last year, with the most recent ones being in the younger crowd who want to live elsewhere or have more flexibility.
    Recently a long-time employee left (apparently without anything lined up) gave notice citing she only wanted to work remotely 100%. They had apparently offered about 50% WFH and she didn’t even want to try it out.
    It does seem to be make or break for some. Fortunately, pretty much everyone I know will be on some sort of hybrid model going forward.

    1. Liz*

      I agree. Pre-COVID, my company’s WFH policy was 2 days a week was “allowed” although we had some fully remote employees, not just local, but who lived in another state. Different rules for different people though! Trust me, there’s been a lot of resentment about that over the years!

      But getting back to now; we are set to go back the middle of July, and it was said transition back gradually, and be back to “normal” after Labor Day. But not details, and not really sure what normal actually means! My one boss said he and our director discussed maybe one or two days a week initially but other than that, I have no clue.

      I just heard through the grapevine though that the previous WFH policies will be scrapped, and it will be up to each individual manager and department. I also heard, but don’t know how true this is, since unvaccinated people must wear masks, they will not be allowed to continue to WFH because of that, nor will anyone with a valid medical reason. Which will be interesting when people produce doctor’s notes.

      While i am not a huge fan of WFH, i’m not sure I want to go back 5 daysa week. I’d be happy with a hybrid, and hoping to do 2 days WFH, 3 in the office. I woouldn’t quit my job over it

      1. CouldntPickAUsername*

        I think that’s honestly one of the biggest problems right now is the lack of details. Work places need to be clear on what they are allowing going forward. Just saying ‘we’ll be flexible’ isn’t good enough, in fact it’s probably false in a lot of cases.

        1. A Simple Narwhal*

          This 100%. And flexible can mean so many things to so many people! I may think flexible means I’m wfh a majority of the time but will come in for specific reasons/meetings, they may think flexible means wfh 4 days a week with one-offs allowed as needed. And if we both spend the summer thinking that without further clarification, at least one of us is going to be very unhappy come September.

        2. Lexie*

          When I hear “flexible” I interpret it as the employee needs to be completely flexible in their personal life so as to completely meet the needs of the employer and clients. This is a based on an experience with a former employer that billed the schedule as flexible.

        3. Erin C.*

          Completely! Our company head is committed to a “flexible” schedule and the rest of management has pushed him to put what that means in writing, but has yet to do so. Everyone agrees we’ve been very productive WFH-ing, but a lot of us are also eager to get back to office interactions. My boss has said she’d rather not have our team do “hybrid,” with everyone picking their days to be in the office, but that working from home is always an option when something comes up (whether that’s just the need for quiet writing time or home with a sick kid.

      2. Djuna*

        We’ve been asked (multiple times!) what we want and I said 3 days per week in the office, reducing to 2 in focus weeks (deadline weeks for large projects). Most of my team seems to be on the same page as me, and we have all been really productive from home so my manager doesn’t think there’ll be an issue.
        It does seem to be being decided by manager and department for us too, which could mean some parts of the company have fewer (or no) WFH days whenever we return to the office.
        There’s no must-be-vaccinated rule where I work, but since I’m fully vaccinated now I’m less worried on that front than I would have been a month ago. Of course, emerging variants could make those worries return!

      3. Fae Kamen*

        I know it’s considered a perk, but really shouldn’t the unvaccinated people work from home so they won’t infect anyone at the office?

        1. imaginaryoranges*

          The worry is that if people who aren’t vaxxed get to WFH, it will lead to people not getting vaxxed IN ORDER TO continue working from home. Not all people, obviously, but those who are on the fence about getting vaccinated to begin with? Could be a real problem.

    2. Ali G*

      I’ll also contrast this with my workplace. When you give people the choice, I think they will do what’s best for them to properly do their jobs. In my office, people are already starting to go back in a few days a week. I start on Monday going in on Monday’s and Tuesdays, because those are days I have standing meetings and I think it will be more productive for me to do those meetings in-person with my co-workers. I don’t ever have to go back in if I don’t want (non of us do), but I think we’ve all realized that WFH is great but there are some things just better done in person (you can do them fine at home, but better in person) and we all want to do the best we can in our jobs. It helps this is actually a healthy workplace environment!

      1. PersephoneUnderground*

        Same goes for my office- it’s being handled very well! They’ve made it clear we’re officially “closed” through December but are allowing limited numbers of people to go in on a voluntary basis (we sign up on a Google spreadsheet), and just relaxed the rules to allow people to not wear masks in the office suite, since they are requiring us to be fully vaccinated to go in (my only worry is the lack of an apparent enforcement mechanism for that, but due to the nature of our work- someone against vaccines or who doesn’t believe in Covid just wouldn’t ever take this job- and what people have mentioned socially, I’m pretty sure all or nearly all of us are vaxxed). This was decided based on a series of staff surveys about what we wanted and our comfort levels throughout the pandemic. What “closed” means is that you will never be asked or expected to go to the office- managers can’t tell their team to all come in for a meeting for instance. We don’t know what official reopening will look like when it happens, but we’re expecting some sort of hybrid. And several people will have to remain 100% remote since they moved away, or were hired during the pandemic and never lived locally to begin with.

      2. PersephoneUnderground*

        And yes, like Ali G’s office people are going in voluntarily when it works for them, mostly to get a quiet place to work if home was never a great setup, or to just get out of the house. Some departments are trying to coordinate potentially coming in on the same days if we plan to anyway so we can collaborate in person, but again managers aren’t allowed to have a hand in that to keep from pressuring anyone to come in.

    3. Josephine Beth NotAmy*

      My son is leaving his job due to this issue, along with many others at his employer. His job is easily done from home, and he was happy to do 2 days a week in the office, but the employer decided that as of August 1, anyone with his job title (and several others) had to be 100% back in the office, no exceptions. Everyone he works with says he’s an exceptional employee, but there’s nothing they can do. He is moving out of the city to find a job in a better cost of living area.

      1. Hei Hei, the Chicken from Moana*

        The “youngs” leaving jobs is so puzzling to me. I am an old at 44 and the idea of walking away from a job without having another lined up terrifies me to my core. Is it b/c I’m Gen X? Or b/c I’m just anxious in general?

        1. Bagpuss*

          I suppose it depends – one advantage of being younger is that you may have fewer major commitments such as mortgage payments, are less likely to have dependents, etc, so may be able to feel more confident about leaving on the basis that you can potentially be more flexible about where you go next, and of course in some cases may have the fall back of being able to move back ‘home’ if they need to.

          And of course if they are good at their jobs and have always been able to find jobs fairly easily they may be more optimistic, whereas anyone whose ever has the experience of job searching in a recession, or in other circumstances where it takes forever to find a new job is likely to be much more aware of the potential risks!

          1. Fran Fine*

            All of this. I’m 34 and I’d never leave a job without another lined up because I graduated into the Great Recession – I distinctly remember what it was like being unemployed while job searching and how horrible it was (I didn’t find a job until almost a year after graduation). My younger brother, on the other hand, has no such qualms because the economy had already rebounded by the time it was time for his post-grad job search and even though he has kids, he’s always had an easy time getting jobs and is convinced he can always find another pretty quickly.

            1. Maeve*

              33 and same, I would never quit a job without one lined up because I assume that would lead to homelessness.

            2. aamezz*

              I’m 35 and hard same. I distinctly remember one time, interviewing in 2008 fresh out of college, a hiring manager told me that i had a great resume for my age and in a normal economy she’d hire me in a heartbeat but that in the current economy she could hire someone with 10 years experience for the same price. She told me it was going to be a tough market college grads and wished me luck.

        2. Jasper*

          At our age we’ve probably built up capital in the form of a higher salary than entry level, and networks. And a spending pattern to match, possibly including mortgages and mouths to feed. When your spending and your income are both basically the same as entry level and you’re free of encumbrance, leaving is easier.

        3. T. J. Juckson*

          I’m an anxiety-riddled Gen Xer– and after getting a PhD have worked in low-paid arts or non-profit jobs my entire life, so my financial resources are limited– and I am ready to quit without anything lined up. I’m fed up. And I’m at the point that I assume the worst-case scenario probably wouldn’t actually be worse than my actual situation. At least it would be different and I tried.

          1. Engiknitter*

            So, I thought that I would be one to quit if I had to come back into the office full time. I’ve been WFH 99% of the time for a year and a half and I love the flexibility etc etc. Well…corporate said a couple weeks ago that everybody had to come back; my manager said we didn’t, kind of. If HR makes a fuss he’ll have to comply or whatever but they’re in a different building so we can kind of fly under the radar.

            All that being said, I’ve been coming into work every day for two weeks now, mostly by choice. I needed to come in and build tools last week, and I’ve been doing a lot of running around coordinating things this week. I could have come in just for the one thing, but it’s been simpler to just be here. I did just get a promotion to a more people-involved position a month ago and it came with an office, so I might very well have felt otherwise if I didn’t have the ability to close a door. But…I’ve enjoyed being back. I get a lot more exercise working in the office, it’s been nice to see people again, and the day goes by faster. I do miss the perks of being at home already, so I think my ideal would be a 2/3 or a 3/2 hybrid. But I’m less averse than I expected. I think people are very adaptable by nature, so employers may end up getting less pushback than the national narrative would suggest.

        4. Bagpuss*

          I should have said, at 47 I’m not one of the youngs anymore either, but I graduated into the bust of a huge boom and bust cycle in my industry so my first experience of looking for a professional job was one where there were literally 100s of applicants for every vacancy – I spent 6 months without work – So I have always been very conscious of how hard it can be (I also had a truly toxic boss very early in my career and with wonderful timing found myself again looking for a job at a time when jobs were very thin on the ground… that was the only time I ever considered leaving a job with nothing to go to, although mercifully in the end I didn’t have to.)

          I suspect that if your early experiences are in a more buoyant job market your attitudes may be a bit different.

        5. The New Wanderer*

          I (GenX) have been laid off twice and didn’t immediately job hunt either time, but I had a financial cushion each time so I didn’t feel a lot of urgency. I also chose a field that doesn’t have a lot of opportunities especially if you’re geographically constrained, so I already knew that new jobs could take a while to find. My GenX husband has quit jobs without lining something up but his field does tend to have more opportunities (though fewer these days at his seniority level).

          I would say it’s more anxiety/comfort level with uncertainty + financial situation than generational.

        6. A Simple Narwhal*

          Just because he is planning to leave his job doesn’t mean he’s already quit/put in notice with nothing lined up. The plan could be in place and he’s told friends/family what he’s going to do without officially quitting yet.

          It also depends on what industry he’s in – it would probably take me a while to find a new job so I’d be hesitant to leave a non-awful job with nothing lined up, but my husband could quit his job today and start a new one on Monday if he wanted.

          Overall I’d be hesitant to make this a youngs vs olds argument, there are so many factors in how people conduct themselves, we also have no idea how old Josephine Beth NotAmy’s son is, he could be the same age as you!

          Fun side note, I was rewatching Friends a few years ago and was horrified when Chandler quit his job with nothing lined up in one of the early episodes, just because it wasn’t his dream job. Ah, the 90s were truly something else.

          1. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

            Fun side note, I was rewatching Friends a few years ago and was horrified when Chandler quit his job with nothing lined up in one of the early episodes, just because it wasn’t his dream job. Ah, the 90s were truly something else.

            That’s also a sitcom; writers have always been able to write things that have never been truly realistic.

            1. A Simple Narwhal*

              Ha I’m aware it’s a sitcom and not 100% realistic, but it can still be reflective of the attitude of the times.

              1. Eliza*

                Chandler also had a rich family to fall back on, which is pretty helpful in that kind of situation even in real life.

        7. Uchitsya*

          I would say this has very little to do with age or temperament and almost everything to do with financial security. People can quit jobs without something else lined up when they have enough money to survive for a chunk of time without a job and enough of a safety net that they don’t feel like disaster is imminent if they run out of savings.

          And some of that comes from working in industries that pay well, but a whole lot of it comes from generational wealth, which is a taboo topic in American society.

        8. J.E.*

          I also wonder this about someone at any age leaving without something lined up. If I did that, with my luck, I’d be out of work for a long time. I am kicking myself, though, that I’m not better with tech and STEM as it seems it’s so much easier to find jobs in those fields.

        9. HarvestKaleSlaw*

          I think it’s less generational and more how much capital you have: social and economic.

          If you have substantial savings, or generational wealth, or comfortable parents from whom you are not estranged – well, that’s a lot different from not knowing where rent would come from the month after next. It is the confidence that you can survive for months and years without income, instead of days or weeks.

          And there is social capital and educational capital – if you have a lot of connections, a name degree, an alumni network, fit in easily with management, have an in-demand skill – that gives you more confidence too that you can get something quickly. If you’re the poster-child for imposter syndrome, you might not feel as sanguine.

        10. Erin C.*

          I (42) left my last job with nothing lined up, and a mortgage to pay. I was miserable. I also knew that worst-case scenario, my parents were willing to be my safety net (in fact, they handed me a check the week I quit and I handed it back, saying I didn’t want their help until I actually needed it.) I spent a few months trying to figure out what my next steps were, and luckily found a job I love, even though I hadn’t expected to stay in the same industry.

        11. Heatwave Vortex*

          It’s a personal and not a generational thing.

          I’m a 52 year old (same age as Molly Ringwald) GenX-er, and I’ve walked away from in the past and not only survived but *thrived*. I have many friends who have done the same.

          None of what the Millennials are doing is new, nor are the arguments about flexible or remote work. It’s just that people are paying attention now.

        12. Dolly*

          I am 48. My husband and I have long planned to move south. Then COVID paused our plans. I worked from home EXCLUSIVELY for over a year with no issues. During this time, we also begin moving forward with our moving plans in earnest. In May I made a formal request to work remotely from my new state, even just for 3 to 6 months, and it was denied. Despite the fact that I am by all accounts an “exceptional” employee. So here I am, we sold our house, have signed a lease for a new place, and I have no job. We have enough savings to get us through until I found a job. I will be fine. But my employer just cut off its nose to spite its face. All they did was cripple an already short staffed regional office further.

    4. CupcakeCounter*

      Yup. Same thing happened at my employer. My boss, who is not her boss, ended up fighting for her and 3 other employees to be permanent full time WFH. His logic was they have been doing it full time for the last 18 months and doing is amazingly well and if we lost them we would be in absolute chaos for a minimum of 6+ months while we backfilled the role and got them training. The GM was still hemming and hawing until 6 more people put in notice (they are hemorrhaging people, myself included) and he gave in simply because he didn’t have a choice.

      1. Lynn Whitehat*

        I’m starting to seriously wonder: what is the sticking point with these mangers? If they don’t dispute it’s going amazingly well, and they don’t dispute they would be hosed if their WFH-desiring employees quit tomorrow… what’s left? Is it just fun to see employees working away at desks? Is it the sunk cost fallacy that they already paid for the space? What?

        1. Autumnheart*

          I’d honestly like to know that, too. Why cannot managers overcome this psychological block? Like, if they like working in an office, and corporate management in general is optimized for people who like being an office, then fine–work in an office all they want. But why do *I* have to work in an office just because that’s what *they* like?

    5. TiffIf*

      At my company, we have lost a few developers who want to be 100% WFH but the VP over their division is set against it. The official model going forward is 3 days in office/2 days WFH per week. I don’t want full time WFH but the 3/2 split is just about perfect for me. Pre-Covid we already had a policy that allowed WFH for one day per week.

      The weird (nonsensical) part is the WFH allowance heavily depends on your division. My department is in a weird situation where we all work on the same product but are under different arms of the organization which means the product manager who regularly works with those same developers who have been denied full time WFH, is full time WFH (she moved to a different state last year) though she does intend to come to the office a few days a month–like a three or four day span in the same week.

      A few years a go I did talk to my grandboss about working remotely if I moved and he said “oh yeah, that’s no problem” but that was at least two re-orgs ago and so while I have the same grandboss, I don’t know if the rules of our division have changed.

      There’s always been flexibility for unusual situations–like my co-worker whose mother had a stroke a few years ago ended up working remotely quite heavily while her mother was recovering/in the hospital/in therapy etc. but it wasn’t considered full WFH.

      1. TiffIf*

        Add:
        The reason I don’t want 100% WFH currently is I have a terrible WFH setup. And housing is increasingly unaffordable (I know this applies just about everywhere, but I could easily afford to live elsewhere even with a downward COL adjustment if I move, the housing prices are just particularly out of whack). If I could find a place where I would have a better WFH setup I totally wouldn’t have a proble with 100% remote (a dedicated office space perhaps? instead of the craft table in my bedroom–small apartments suck for WFH).

        1. Heather*

          I definitely understand this. My fiancé and I have been able to make it work in our apartment pretty well, but it’s not perfect and I can only imagine it’s a downright nightmare for some folks.

          Especially with COVID, plenty of people chose a living space not even considering they would need to WFH at any point, so now they have to scramble to find something to effectively accommodate an unforeseen need.

      2. pbnj*

        Similar at mine, some divisions have more flexibility and there’s variations on what HR is willing to negotiate on for new hires (ex: vacation time). It can be frustrating when the reason they give is “well their boss allows it, but ours doesn’t, so…..”. So arbitrary.

    6. RemotelyCommenting*

      Yeah, this was me. Asked my boss if we would consider full time remote (with maybe coming in for team meetings once a week.) I was told that was “impossible.” Found a full time remote gig at a $5k pay cut and was gone in about a month after that conversation. I am much happier working from home and doubt I will ever return to a full time office job.

  4. StressedButOkay*

    For my current job, I don’t think so. My work was always pretty flexible – we had the option of 1-3 WFH days before the pandemic. So even if we were shifting to go back into the office like we had been pre-COVID, I know we’d still be doing some WFH and while I’d miss it every day, I could stand to go back.

    Will it be a consideration if I start to job hunt? Oh yes. I’d be looking specifically for full or almost full WFH jobs moving forward, which opens the market to me a lot.

    1. Ali G*

      Same. Unless I can just walk across the street or something I don’t foresee me taking a future job that doesn’t include some WFH and flexible schedule (which I also had pre-pandemic).

    2. Liza*

      Same here: I wouldn’t leave my current job over it (because this company earned a lot of loyalty from me by how they handled a health issue I had a while back) but for future positions I’d definitely look for full or almost full WFH positions. I’ve found that I love working from home and I’m much more productive this way!

      A big part of the reason I’m more productive working from home is that people don’t walk up to me with interruptions when I’m trying to focus on a more complex project. These interruptions are all reasonable requests, but when I’m in the office I can’t batch them up to look at after my focus block–instead I get interrupted and lose focus again and again, and it takes a while to get back into focus each time.

    3. Anonym*

      Same. I had 1 day WFH pre-COVID, which was nice but not enough in our high cost of living/long commutes area. We’re going back this fall to 3 in office / 2 from home, which I’d rather reverse. I’m interviewing for an internal role now, and how this will play out in that team is a significant factor for me. For context, I work in a corporate function that can be done from anywhere, but can also benefit from collaboration (think communications, strategy, program development).

      I will never willingly do full time in the office again unless I’m in dire financial straits or the pay/opportunity is unicorn-level absurdly amazing. Even then I’d hesitate. Life is short and unpredictable, and spending 500+ hours a year commuting is a terrible waste of mine. Forcing people fully onsite for jobs that don’t require it by their nature is becoming a really bad look on an employer (rigid, poor culture around employees and work/life balance, weak on real performance metrics… the list of orange to red flags it raises goes on).

      1. AFT*

        I could have written this – down to the 3/2 versus 2/3, and prior experience of 4/1. Things have changed and one size fits all rules of “you must be in the office all the time” are not going to fly any more for computer/desk-based workers.

      2. Gina*

        This. Work doesn’t pay me enough to work close to the office. The notion of my spending 20 hours a week commuting again has made me depressed.

    4. Data Bear*

      Same. My job has always been super-duper flexible with regard to when you’re actually in the office, so somebody saying “butts in seats 9-5 M-F” would be a huge change from the way it was before the pandemic, and I can’t see that happening. (A recent organizational survey indicated that the overwhelming majority would prefer some kind of hybrid setup. The fact that they asked the question and reported the results says to me that it’s very unlikely management will impose a 100% in-person requirement.) But it would definitely be a major consideration if I started looking for a new job elsewhere.

      1. same same*

        Yeah! I’m replying to you Data Bear since I’m in a similar position, just a little further along in the process. My company has been really proactive with communication throughout the pandemic and started running surveys about mid-pandemic to start getting the general feelings from everyone.

        We had many people that very much missed the office, and many others who did not – where they landed is, anyone that wants to be fully remote can be – they can even move wherever they want. (previously WFH was up to individual managers and teams, so there was a lot of disparity there)

        Anyone that wants to come into the office also can do so – at their own discretion, anywhere from everyday or 1 day a week. They’ve also re-organized the new office space for this type of hybrid system, with set areas for specific teams/people always in and hot desks for people that are only in once in awhile. We’re currently in a trial period where a very small group of people (from diverse teams) are trialing being in the office so they can work out any kinks with social distancing and masking.

        (I read this back now and it feels a bit… braggy? I don’t mean it that way, by intent is to hopefully show there are a few companies trying to ensure most people are happy and if successful maybe more will start following – I’m also fairly certain recruiting is using this all heavily to lure others to the company)

    5. Rav*

      This is my rationale at the moment. But there’s an additional wrinkle in the mix: politics.

      I’m a minority (Hispanic) and the January 6 insurrection and the aftermath was an eye opener to me (been following USA politics for 10 years+). Usually moving to the continental USA is a big improvement in labor remuneration, but not if it’s at the risk of my well being.

  5. EE*

    I have been remote since 2019, although I was a special case at my job until Covid. Since I live in a different state I would have to quit if they changed the policy.

    1. Duckles*

      Same situation (current job was always fully remote) but also I don’t think I’d take a job in the future that wasn’t at least 3 days a week, if not fully, remote. QOL is just so much better.

  6. ArtK*

    I’ve been a remote employee for the last 21 years. I live 300+ miles from the nearest corporate facility and travel (pre-COVID) to the office every month or two. I would likely quit if they said that I had to go into the office. That’s especially true if the office was a cube-farm. I’m far too used to working in my little room at home to change now.

    1. Serin*

      My situation is similar: if we were ordered to come off of remote, I would probably have to move to another town, which I would definitely not be willing to do.

      If there were a facility in town, an order to go work there wouldn’t be enough to make me quit all by itself, but it would definitely reduce my job satisfaction. I’d probably slide along the looking-for-work continuum from “satisfied but open to possibilities” to “passive job search.”

      Another way this experience has changed me: I’m going to be much quicker to take a remote day for my own convenience. If the weather looks at all iffy for driving, if I woke up with a sore throat, if someone schedules me for a meeting right at 8 a.m. and I’d rather be prepping than commuting, if I just don’t feel like scraping the windshield, if I had a bad night’s sleep and would like to be able to nap at lunchtime — I’m not going to hesitate to take a work-from-home day, and I’ll expect to be accommodated.

    2. Smitten By Juneau*

      I am about to start year 15 of being fully remote, 3,000 miles from “the office”, so going back isn’t an option for me. Fortunately we’ve begun announcing our post-COVID plans, which reflect the fact that the vast majority of my colleagues want to continue being remote, and have jobs that have been effectively handled remotely for 15 months now. So my in-town colleagues are being asked to schedule 2-hour windows in which they will return to their office and remove all their belongings. This will allow our facilities team to deep-clean, repair and reconstruct our office spaces. We don’t have the final details yet (and I doubt that they even exist) but leadership has indicated their intent to provide significantly more ‘guest’ space for staff that need to come into the office occasionally.

      We do have staff that are still on-premise, but even they have altered their roles. Computer operators now only staff one person onsite per shift, with the rest being remote. (Someone still needs to physically change out tapes for the backup library robot, for example, and let in service techs when maintenance is necessary.) And of course our network installers and repair techs have to work on-prem.

    3. RowanUK*

      Yes, I’m the same way. I’ve been fully remote for 13 years and I have a great set-up for me (a dedicated room and I live alone). My company used to share a hub office, but we’ve ditched it now and everyone’s fully remote.

      If I ever looked for a new job now, it would have to be 100% remote.

    4. Hats Are Great*

      I’ve been fully remote for 6 years and am starting to look around. I wouldn’t mind going to an office sometimes, but the ability to work from home AND to have flexibility in work times is really important to me. My work is a mix of tasks with timelines (but can be accomplished whenever as long as they’re done by the due date) and on-call hours. I never miss an on-call hour or a team meeting. But the flexibility to do my not-on-call work on my own schedule is HUGE. I have three kids, one of whom has a significant disability. On a typical workday, I work four hours during the normal workday when they’re at school on non-call tasks, when I take meetings and make calls. And then I work my four on-call hours 8 to midnight, when they’re in bed. This lets me take my kid to routine therapy and medical appointments, supervise homework, have dinner as a family, volunteer at my other kids’ schools, etc. (And my coworkers love that I voluntarily take the hated 8-to-midnight hours.)

      I wouldn’t need exactly that arrangement, obviously, but being able to work my day around my disabled kid is essential. And being able to split my work into two chunks is really a great model for me — one chunk during the day when other people are at work, the other chunk late at night when I’m by far my most productive. (Before I had kids, I worked second shift jobs by choice, those are just my best brain hours.)

      But basically I could not afford the specialized care my kid needs if I had to hire it done unless I were earning $250k/year, so it’s a weird schedule + partial remote or … starve, I guess.

  7. Sidney Bailey*

    Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long. Years ago I worked for a large Oil & Gas company and they went to a model that had a large number of employees as remote or hybrid, and I remember at the time thinking remote work had to be the future, if this “old school” company was moving toward it.

    I think for a lot of us it’s been difficult working from home for a variety of reasons with the pandemic, but in a “normal” environment it offered me a much better work life balance and the ability to spend time with my small child, along with less time commuting, less money spent on work clothes, etc etc.

    1. elle*

      My mom had an all-remote job starting in like 1992, before she even had a computer in her home. It was mail and eventually fax-based. It was for a nonprofit working in communication. I can’t believe the working world has been so slow to catch on.

    2. Thursdaysgeek*

      I currently work for a large utility, and they have not been “old school” about this at all. When Covid started, they sent everyone home, told them to take whatever equipment was needed to keep working. While we were out, they worked out a telecommuting procedure. They are now transitioning people back to the office – those who aren’t planning on working remotely. Some will be fully remote, some hybrid, and some fully in the office, and all of it is ok.

      Now that we are moving to a non-emergency work from home phase, there are requirements for working from home, if we want to stay there. I can’t get fast enough internet where I live, so I’m back in the office. It’s lonely here.

    4. ophelia*

      Yes, agreed. I have worked from home since 2010 (!), but I was one of a few off-site employees. Now, my company is transitioning to almost complete WFH, and converting our office space into meeting rooms and hot desks for people who have a reason to come in. I *will* say that I am very much looking forward to my husband going back to the office (his firm is moving to more of a hybrid model), as we’ve been working side by side in a small “office” in our apartment for a year, and it’s been challenging to navigate when we both have phone calls, etc.

  8. Becca CM*

    My mental health and attitude have improved a ton from being able to work from home and manage my time without constant observation. I started a new job during the pandemic and have gotten great feedback from my bosses. If they tried to bring me back into the office 40 hours a week, I would push back strongly and begin to explore other job options. I’m happy to go into the office some, but I know now all that I’d miss out on if I spent 40 hours a week in a cubicle.

    1. Girasol*

      This is an important point. Remote work has forced managers to learn to communicate better and manage on results instead of observing whether employees are butt-in-seat and looking busy. I can imagine a lot of managers reverting to old bad habits where a return to the office is made mandatory.

      1. English, not American*

        The other side of that coin is that I’m back to operating as I did for the six months that I didn’t have a manager because I hear from him so infrequently.

        We had a significant system change a few months back that directly impacted how all my reporting works. We knew about it years in advance (contract end date). I didn’t find out until a couple of weeks before that there was no workaround or contingency for one of the main reporting methods used across the organisation, because it just didn’t occur to my boss or the IT lead (who also reports to my boss). Yeah it was an outdated method that needed to change, but I could have handled it if I’d been told about it, instead of just letting it all break while my boss hastily hacked together an alternative for the people who complained.

    2. Ozzie*

      The improvement to mental health and attitude is not talked about enough. I start my work in an automatically better mood simply because I didn’t have to stand on crowded trains for 2 hours before showing up to being lambasted by questions before I even sit down at my desk. Managers really need to consider this.

      1. TechWorker*

        Like everything this will vary between people though, it’s not like wfh is better for 100% of peoples mental health.

        1. Ozzie*

          Absolutely! And how it is a detriment to those it has been a detriment to should also be talked about. It just seems like employee well-being – both sides of the coin – isn’t part of the conversation in many cases, when it absolutely should be. (This will of course vary person to person, but I would guess that there will be certain trends within companies or across industries generally)

          1. PersephoneUnderground*

            Yes, it has to be the center of the conversation. Not to mention, as we can see from this whole discussion, employee well-being translates directly to retention and productivity.

      2. Hats Are Great*

        Yeah I wouldn’t mind going into an office regularly, but it sure as hell would have to be within 30 minutes of my house. I can’t see voluntarily engaging in a 60+ minute commute ever again. The salary would have to be a pretty huge bump, and there’d better be transit benefits on top of that!

    3. username-needed*

      I completely agree with you, Becca CM. My work quality, as well as my mental and physical health, have both improved dramatically during WFH, as well as my overall quality of life. The lack of long commute, loud and distracting open office, toxic management and over-observation have all certainly played a vital role.

      1. Heatwave Vortex*

        Same! Improved mental and physical health and also more agency over the conditions of my work. I have the ability to take my dog for a walk in the afternoon and flex my schedule a bit.

        I got terrible migraines when I was in open office environments. I HATED open office: flickering flourescent lights, loud coworkers or smelly gross food, weird interpersonal territorial stuff about even putting things in your own space. The open office environments felt like some kind of nightmare novel by Albert Camus which I have no intention of ever returning to.

        I would quit my job if they suddenly said I could no longer work remotely (I am GenX).

  9. Jean*

    My dept just went back to the office full time a few weeks ago after wfh for 14 months – I wouldn’t quit my current job over that alone. Wfh has many advantages, but I also like being back in the office. My commute isn’t terrible, so that’s not a huge factor for me.

    That said – going forward, if I were to start actively looking for a new job, remote work policies will weigh extremely heavily in my decision making. Now that I know I can handle full time remote work, and have good strategies in my repertoire, and am more familiar with how those types of policies reflect on a company’s overall culture, it’s going to be way more important to me for any future opportunities. And yes, I would favor part/full remote positions over in-office, all other things being equal.

    1. HS Teacher*

      The commute makes all the difference. When I lived outside of a large city and had a long commute, I’d be miserable at work from the drive in and miserable at home from the drive back. Now my commute is about 10 minutes, and working on site bothers me much less.

      That being said, there are a lot of jobs that really SHOULD be remote or at least have that option. When I worked in finance, I had to dress up for customers I rarely saw in person to sit in an office full of annoying people who would rather stand around talking about their lives than accomplish anything. When I did get to work from home (rare back then), I’d accomplish so much more without the constant interruptions and useless meetings. So if I were still doing office work, I’d only accept a remote position.

  10. Elenia*

    If work from home is permanent –
    and they give us nothing, like they have been, no laptop, no phone, not even an acknowledgement that we are taking the company’s burden onto us –
    I will look for another job. How hard is it to budget and find some laptops or get them donated. I deeply resent having to use my own stuff.

    1. Lurker*

      Do you work for a non-profit? Your company should provide the equipment that you need to do your job properly – you are right it is really crappy of them to put this burden on you!

      1. rachel in nyc*

        I have a friend who works for a major city agency- they were provided with nothing.

        I work for a non-profit university, who always provided us with laptops, in case we needed to WFH. After this year, it was decided that everyone in our department would have laptops as our primary workstations- whether you liked it or not. (We don’t have to take them to the office as long as our office desktops work.)

        Eliminate people handling WFH on 10 yr old laptops.

    2. RandomLawyer*

      This sums up part of my problem with the current set up. It was all ad hoc (understandably given the circumstances when WFH was first implemented) and in the 15 months since my employer has done nothing to make WFH easier or to help me shoulder the burden of doing their work from my living room.

    3. Magenta Sky*

      Strictly speaking, a lot of electronics, *especially* laptops, are pretty hard to get right now, and prices have skyrocketed. (Doesn’t change that they should have provided such from the beginning, before the bottlenecks, but trying to do so now is not quick, cheap or simple.)

      1. Thursdaysgeek*

        My company had people take their desktops home. And monitors, power supplies, whatever was necessary. It wasn’t ideal, but they couldn’t come up with laptops – not that fast, not that many.

        The co-workers who are going to a hybrid schedule – part at the office, part at home – they will need to buy the 2nd set of equipment if they don’t want to haul it back and forth.

        1. Nope, not today*

          My office had some laptops so if you didnt have a computer at home (or used a Mac, etc) you could get one. But they said take any other hardware we need – I still have a keyboard and mouse to return to my office, and I have two monitors from the office that also need to go back (I’ve bought myself a nice new keyboard and mouse since, for home, but have been putting off buying new monitors)

        2. PersephoneUnderground*

          Yeah, I’m surprised *most* companies didn’t just send everyone home with their whole setup, since they obviously weren’t going to need it in the office… Even if they expected it to be temporary, once it was clear it wasn’t, people could easily come in one at a time to get their computers.

      2. CouldntPickAUsername*

        yeah, I work at an office supply store in Canada throughout the pandemic. Laptop stock seems to have largely recovered but printers man, printers are nowhere near available as much as they were before. People just couldn’t grasp the concept that the days of me having 5 different models all at 50 bucks with tons of stock are gone. It’s now you’re lucky to get anything less than 200 dollars.

      3. Cthulhu's Librarian*

        This is so true. I had to place a small order of laptops a couple of months ago, and the sales rep called me up a week or two after the delivery, sounding like he was on the verge of tears. He said he was calling because he just so happy to know that one of his clients’ orders had gotten fulfilled.

        Things are really rough with regards to getting laptops right now.

        1. Fran Fine*

          Sure are – it took my company months to replace my relatively new laptop that suddenly decided to have its battery die on me.

      4. Speaks to Dragonflies*

        On a side note, alot of things are on backorder. We are due for a new work truck, but because there is (according to our fleet manager) an 18 month backlog just for a cab and chassis, they had to put a $5000 transmission in our truck worth $7500.

    4. Trivia Newton-John*

      I work at a law firm and we are also using our own laptops/phones and any other equipment we need, we buy ourselves and it is not reimbursed. I get it.

      1. RandomLawyer*

        And it’s not just about the cost associated with using my own electronics and internet connection (not cheap thanks to monopolies in NY) and the fact that every plaintiff’s lawyer now has my home phone number (UGH!!!!!) but its lack of support work in the home office to make the things I need available at home.

        1. NY LAWYER*

          I’m wondering now if I work with you. I think half the NY Bar has my cell phone number now. We’re not getting any support to WFH which was fine at first but after all this time its no longer an emergency and more of shifting of costs onto us.

      2. Cj*

        I would be thrilled to be able to use my own laptop instead of the company provided one. It is sooooo much better. Security issues prevent this, though.

      3. Fran Fine*

        If they’re going to make you guys work from home and use your own equipment, the least they could do is let you all expense the costs.

    5. StressedButOkay*

      If your work is using Microsoft Teams, push hard to get them to switch business calls to be routed through Teams. We did that the moment we went to remote due to COVID so we didn’t have to use our personal cell phones and it was a life saver. Clients having my personal number was a nightmare and the fact I couldn’t screen out spam prior was driving me nuts as I had to pick up.

      1. Brett*

        Routing business calls through Teams is $$$$. It’s not an affordable cost for most businesses unless their call volume is pretty small.

        1. Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain*

          That’s really a cost of doing business though. They either need to pay the cost of Teams, or pay for a separate mobile line for each employee who is expected to answer the phone, even internal calls.

          1. RussianInTexas*

            I created a new Google Voice number for myself to have a separate work number, once I started WFH.

            1. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

              I pitched that idea unsuccessfully in lieu of being assigned the Voice Over Internet Protocols phone that’s on my desk. Other coworkers can’t get the VOIP phone to work, so they do use their cellular lines (and even have their personal cell number in their work email signature, so it’s not like it’s on the down low). I just chalked it up to different standards for different employees… but a GV number for work would be nice indeed.

          2. Brett*

            It’s not the cost of Teams. It is the add-on cost for routing business calls through Teams. That add-on is extremely expensive, over $900/employee/year plus additional charges for the lines and call volume, as compared to the $150/employee/year for premium Teams without that feature. You have to purchase it for all employees too, not just individual seats based on role.

            1. StressedButOkay*

              We use Teams Business Voice which costs, for my size organization, about $20 a month per employee. I’m sure there was a set up fee but, as a nonprofit, we wouldn’t have switched if it was going to cost $900 per employee. I’m not sure if there are different models/pricing, etc., but that’s what I’m basing this on.

              1. Brett*

                Yeah, that plan is only available if you have less than 300 employees, and it has some fairly low caps built into it that start racking up costs if you exceed them. If you are over 300 employees or need higher caps, then you have to upgrade your enterprise plan to one that starts at over $70/employee/month.

        2. Gail*

          My very large company just switched all our calls to go through teams. They tell us they are savings many 100k per month by getting rid of phone lines.

    6. Smithy*

      On the issue of work environment – this past year has made me incredibly aware and more demanding on the materials needed for work to be comfortable. As someone who does a lot of “sit at computer” work, having the ergonomic chair, keyboard, monitors at X height have all become features I care about. And far more deeply as many of those items I had to purchase myself.

      What I’ve learned about myself is I really like having a dedicated work station. If it were a job where they wanted WFH 2-3 days a week, I would have a lot more questions about what my work station in the office would look like. Regular hot desking where I’d typing on a laptop while sitting at a random desk/table/high top table/couch sounds horrific, and if nothing else – I know a lot more types of questions around workspaces I’d definitely be asking now.

      A workplace providing more overall compensation for phone/internet/WFH expenses would be great – but at this time the idea of WFH 2-3 days a week actually sounds the worst. And because of that, it does create a preference to closer to full time remote or full time in the office, which inevitably narrows the scope based on how far I’d be willing to commute.

      1. Hybrid before*

        I have been wfh for 5 years and was hybrid for 5 before that. When hybrid we used docking stations for laptops. So I had a full monitor/keyboard/mouse setup on my desk in the office and at home in my office. So all I do is plug the laptop into it and I have a workstation both places.

      2. netlawyer*

        This is my challenge as well. I brought my IT equipment home at the beginning of the pandemic and ended up buying myself a second monitor. I have an office, but the couple of times I’ve gone in, I’m stuck pecking on my laptop – and longing for my home setup. I’m still wfh (have been in twice now for specific meetings) but I’d need to request additional equipment for the office and I’m afraid they’d just tell me to bring everything back in so I haven’t done that yet.

        Also, I changed jobs in November 2019 and one of the big benefits was going from a 45 minute commute to 20 minutes. Well, as a result of the pandemic, my employer consolidated a lot of office space and move a lot of employees to hoteling – but the new location is over an hour each way from my house even with reduced traffic. So I’m in this situation where I’ve been wfh almost the whole time I’ve worked there, my commute has tripled, my boss made sure our team has dedicated offices (which suggests to me that he’s going to want us on-site eventually) and I don’t want to raise the issue because I don’t know if I want the answer. So I’m just waiting to see what they do. (Our CEO has been clear tho that “business as usual” is over and managers need to look at the work that needs to be done – my boss has been good so far but he’s old school and often points out that he was in every day during the entire pandemic while we were all at home. So a mixed message there.)

    7. The Rural Juror*

      The only time I have ever used my personal laptop for work was when I wanted to use my Photoshop software for something. It’s not ok to ask employees to use their own equipment for a plethora of reasons. ESPECIALLY if were being asked to store files with anyone’s personal information on your personal computer (such as the plaintiffs you mention). NOT OKAY.

      Good luck finding another job!

    8. Brett*

      It’s extremely hard to get laptops right now, and has nothing to do with budget (the laptops themselves are cheaper than ever). There are shortages right and left, and it is taking months to get them purchased, imaged, and in the hands of employees.

    9. Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain*

      California has a new WFH reimbursement requirement, but from what I understand it’s left up to the business to decide what is “reasonable” and my org decided that $20 a month was reasonable to cover people working from home for their internet/phone/utilities (they also got to take their office computers home). I happen to think that is unreasonably low and would expect my employer to pay $100 a month of my internet at the least. If I were to be required to work from home, I might quit if they didn’t make it MUCH more reasonable because right now, we’ve had no increase in salaries for the second year (while inflation has been estimated at around 4-6%) and we’re shouldering the majority of the costs to do business while the org has patted themselves on the back about all their great cost savings.

    10. RussianInTexas*

      My company provided nothing either, I barely managed to take a monitor home (my laptop is too small). When I go to the office to some documents issues, I take printing paper and FedEx supplies.
      I had to buy a printer/scanner, new laptop, monitor stand, etc. Now, a coworker of mine good to the office to print and scan documents (we work with contracts), so theoretically I didn’t have to do all that.
      The company did not close the office (an essential supply chain business), so it was basically “if you want to work from home, do so (for the pandemic), but you are on your own.
      We don’t even have any kind of company approved meeting software. My department organized slack on the down low.
      I am all set up now, and don’t want to go back, partially because I had to invest in working from home.

      1. Elenia*

        I am fortunate that I have my own space and office to work from. But it’s not just that they haven’t provided laptops, it’s that they still haven’t said a thing about it. Just continue shouldering the burden. Here is a horrible app so you can use your own cellphone. But it only works sometime.
        But for now I am doing hybrid.

    11. Yorick*

      My job’s new policy is that they will not provide office supplies. They did give laptops, monitors, and things like that, but I now have to buy my own paper and pens and file folders and what have you.

      We kept seeing all these posts and emails about, “We have so many excess chairs/desks/whatever at Office Location! If your work location needs these, please come get them! Everything left on Date will be recycled! *Note: This does not apply to employees working from home. WFH employees cannot take this stuff*” ugggghhhhhh

      1. Faith the twilight slayer*

        Wait, what? They’d rather throw stuff away that they’ve already paid for than give it to employees who legitimately need it? No offense but what kind of clown college logic is that?

        1. The New Wanderer*

          I’m to return my 2 yr old work cellphone because it’s “too old” to run our latest software, but I can’t keep it or buy it and when I return it, it’s going straight to recycling rather than reuse. Also I’m supposed to voluntarily mail it back at my own personal cost unless I can go to one of the handful of identified offices in person to surrender it. I’m happy they provide us with devices, but this wastefulness is really frustrating!

          Needless to say it’s been sitting here at home with me for six months.

          1. English, not American*

            For our laptops, the company won’t just give them away or sell them to employees because of the laws surrounding batteries as hazardous waste. If they let employees buy/keep the laptops they’d become a distributor and would have to maintain records of who each laptop went to indefinitely, which they’re not willing to do, so everything goes to a recycling/refurbishing charity. There might be something similar at play with your company phones.

    12. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

      I was hired into remote BYOD and I’d love to return to it. My employer-provided stuff is one-size-fits-all, where I can invest in higher quality where it counts to me (including security).

      1. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

        I also would cease to worry about any of the business’s property getting damaged.

    13. I've Escaped Cubicle Land*

      At my job we got told to take our computers off our desks and take them to our houses. So they provided the equipment and we provided the internet. Which means when I do go into the office for a few necessary tasks I do not have a computer to access while I am there.

    14. Pineapple Cake*

      Hard. Same.

      Using my own laptop and my own phone in my tiny flat in a crummy neighbourhood (like…no room for a proper desk and chair, even if I had the spare cash to buy them), paying for 24/7 heat and electricity, has been brutal. My senior colleagues work from home offices or spare bedrooms, and they don’t understand why some of the junior folks are so desperate to get back in.

      (Also — most of us, myself included, are foreign-born, and it’s the type of job where you move around a lot. Trying to build a community during a pandemic when your family’s on the other side of the world and you only just arrived in the country? Difficult.)

    15. Dragonfy7*

      My employer had a limited number of portable devices (laptops, tablets) but most are old, need frequent reimaging, or weren’t capable of handling the work we needed to do. After going through 3 laptops in 6 months, I gave up and hauled my 6+ year old desktop home. It’s slow, but it is working, and I am fortunate I had space/furniture I could rearrange to accommodate it. I didn’t have the funds to buy a new device.

  11. LDN Layabout*

    I work in the public sector, in the UK, and even before the pandemic there was more flexibility about working from home (primarily if you were office based, that you would spend at least 50% of your time in the office).

    I wouldn’t leave over movement in either direction, what would make me start looking would be if either was handled poorly. e.g. Working in the office? Fine. Working in the office without being able to flex my hours to not commute at the worst time possible or being unable to work a few wfh days a month if needed? Not so fine.

  12. Siege*

    I don’t know that I’d quit, but I want my next move to be into local government and I’m most interested in a department that is totally remote. It’s a little harder to fulfill our mission at my current job remotely, though it works well for my role. The bigger issue is that my coworkers are, by and large, BIG personalities who make working with them miserable and I would be happier never, ever seeing four of my coworkers ever again. But it’s balanced by my upcoming healthcare needs and my current insurance situation – I probably won’t leave unless my perfect govt job hires me or I have needed heart surgery.

    1. Gov Drone*

      Just one personal anecdote, but I work for local government and none of us are allowed to WFH anymore, no exceptions. And I know that’s the case in some other systems as well.

      1. Siege*

        The department I referenced went fully WFH prior to the pandemic, and they advertise it as such. I see it’s unclear what I meant, but this one, at least, is totally remote, and I expect to find others as more jobs are posted in my field.

  13. Chairman of the Bored*

    Yes, absolutely.

    I worked from home before the Coronavirus, if my employer told me I had to go into an office now (or ever) I’d quit.

    Remote work is an ironclad requirement in my job searches, to the point that one of my first questions to recruiters is “is the job remote” and if the answer is no then I don’t pursue the opportunity any further no matter how good/lucrative/interesting it is.

    I have several friends who went to remote work as a result of the virus, and they also have no intention of ever going back to an office.

    Things already came to a head between my fiancee and their employer. Company said everybody has to go back to the office, fiancee said “either let me stay remote or fire me”, and then the company switched her to permanent work from home rather than lose her.

    1. Working Hypothesis*

      I’m in an industry that cannot work from home, and I knew that from the start, and I don’t mind. I admit the general idea of working from home is nice, but… I’m a massage therapist. I literally work hands-on-skin. I can and have worked from home before, but only by running my own private practice — which I might do again but I really don’t enjoy marketing and finance and all the other things besides doing great massage that I have to do when I run a private practice. So, for now, the frustrations of doing those extra areas of work outweigh the pleasure of working from my own home, and I stay in clinic work.

      My husband, however, started this pandemic feeling certain that he disliked having to work from home and wouldn’t take a job that required it unless he was desperate. After a year and a half of it, he has discovered that he LOVES working from home, and now has no intention of ever accepting a job that forbids it unless he’s desperate!! He’s fortunate in that his current employer already allowed freely flexible working patterns before the pandemic even began, and plans to continue that. They’ll rent somewhat smaller office space because they have learned that most of their people intend to stay remote, but there will be space for those who want to work from the office to do so. His immediate manager, his grandboss (the VPE) and the CEO of the company all work remotely themselves, from various cities that are not the one that we live in and that the company’s offices are located in.

      So he can, happily, stay put and continue working remotely as he wants to. But he’s firmly decided that he will never again willingly work at a place which does not permit working from home. He likes it too much now. :)

  14. Xavier Desmond*

    I wouldn’t quit my current job if it was permanent WFH but if I was job searching I would never go for jobs that were entirely remote. I would hate starting a new job and not being able to meet my new colleagues in person.

    1. EvilQueenRegina*

      What I’ve experienced this year is that training is a lot more difficult when done remotely, so that’s another reason why I wouldn’t want a new job that was permanently remote.

      1. Gail*

        What we’ve started doing is going in to meet with new hires and do trainings. We also scheduled the trainings so they were concentrated so people only came in a few times. This of course is harder if people have fled the state to work in a cabin in the woods, but that hasn’t applied to my team.

        1. EleanorsMom*

          The issue with that is convincing a company to hold onto office space to accommodate in-person meetings and trainings if it will be unused the majority of the time. I supposed a co-working space might be possible, but I don’t think this aspect is something people are thinking about when they ask for 100% WFH.

    2. Bluesboy*

      100% agree. I started a new job in July 2019 (so pre-Covid) and my company has an office in my city, but my team are all based in another city.

      Honestly, it was so tough to not see them in person, bounce ideas off them over a coffee, get to know them etc. Training on the software we use here was tough, even when you think you’ve understood something, there’s always the exceptional case where in the office you can say “Jane, what do I do when it says X?”, instead of having to set up a call, share screen etc.

      For me, Covid actually improved this – where before I had very little contact, now we have a video call every morning to catch up. But still, I wouldn’t want to go through it again unless I had to, so I would avoid a new job with 100% WFH if I had other options. No problem with some WFH, but every day…naah. For me at least, it would be neither pleasant nor efficient.

    3. Clisby*

      I think that’s entirely understandable. I worked for years entirely remote, but that was after working almost 9 years onsite for the same company. When they hired me to work remotely, I already knew how the company operated; I knew a lot of the people I would be working with; I knew the legacy systems I was being hired to maintain (you can’t just go out on the street and pick up a programmer who’s experienced with IBM mainframes). I loved working remotely, but I do not think I would have loved coming on as a new employee and being entirely remote.

      1. New Job So Much Better*

        Agree with that. I had several years to train and meet folks in person, which makes WFH so much better.

    4. SCORMHacker*

      I started a new, permanent WFH job last fall and it was really surprising to me how difficult it was not seeing people and meeting people face to face. I’ve had to make a concentrated effort to talk to people and make sure I’m on camera on webex meetings just so they know who I am! To add to the fun, I’m a corporate trainer so am doing fully virtual training sessions with employees across the U.S. Virtual training is always a challenge, but can be overcome with some good class design(which is kinda hard to come by. reading your Powerpoint slides over Webex is not a good experience anywhere or anytime!:)).

    5. SongbirdT*

      Even when you’re fully remote, there’s often in-person orientation and / or training that would let you meet colleagues and get to know the office environment. Pandemic WFH is not “regular” WFH, and companies that have large remote workforces have established good processes for onboarding new employees that include in-person opportunities. So if that’s the only reason you wouldn’t want to be remote, consider not ruling it out entirety. It really isn’t that impersonal.

    6. TechWorker*

      +1, this is how I feel too. Even my introvert other half who loves wfh has said he wouldn’t want a fully remote job, I’m kinda surprised there are so many keen for it.

  15. lest003*

    I’ve worked from home for 4 years, even before the pandemic. Prior to that, I worked for companies for years where I’d literally be the only person in my team in my state or even country. I would go into the office, sit at my desk, talk to my coworkers on the phone, then go home. In the last 10 years and three companies, I’ve never worked in the same location as my manager, and most I haven’t even met most face to face…and if I did, it was maybe once. Been promoted many times and received five-star reviews at more than one company.

    So, in other words, if I was forced to go back into the office to sit down by myself in a cube and talk to the same people I always do but on a different phone, yes, I’d quit and find another remote job.

    1. Fabulous*

      This is my job now too. There is no one nearby that I interact with ever for my job, and I’ve never met my (new) manager. My previous manager I only met in person once – when she started she had our entire team gather (from across the US) so she could meet everyone face to face.

    2. Cera*

      I have done this too and I found it very depressing to go into an office filled with people where I work with no one. Surrounded by people…yet alone.

      My work announced that people who were previously remote may have to go back this fall, and did not provide any guidelines. I have very frustrated by it.

      1. Hunnybee*

        Yes, it is strange how lonesome the full offices can be. I generally felt very lonesome and awkward and unhappy in offices. I’m much more comfortable and productive working from home.

  16. Totalanon*

    If I had to go into the office M-F, I would absolutely look for a new job (though I wouldn’t quit without something else lined up). So far, my employer is doing a hybrid schedule, and that’s good enough for me, considering the rest of the job’s benefits.

    1. Shenandoah*

      This is where I’m at as well – a hybrid schedule + a job that’s already fine won’t push be to job search at this point in the game.

      That being said, I can see a point where that won’t be enough – I can see wanting to have a real choice in where I live, and wanting to be full time remote to accommodate that.

      1. farrisonhord*

        Also where I’m at. The current plan is that we’ll ease back into the office at 1 day/week in the fall and then summer of 2022 management will determine a more permanent assignment (hybrid, full-time WFH, full-time in the office). 1 day in the office is perfect for me, but if they start adding to that while knowing that my team has been more effective working from home and prefers to do so, then that says they’re doing it for the wrong reasons and I’d start looking.

  17. Philly Redhead*

    If I was reasonably certain I would be able to get another position soon, yes. In fact, I almost did leave a job over their work from home policy. When I was interviewing, they stressed their “flexible” schedule and stated that working from home once a week was allowed.

    It wasn’t until after I accepted the job and started working that I found out that “flexible” means you can either start at 8 am or 8:30 am, and working from home wasn’t allowed until you’d worked there for six months.

    1. JJ Bittenbinder*

      Wow, if your username didn’t specify a different city than I’m in, I’d assume that you worked for my FORMER manager. It wasn’t even a company policy; she just didn’t provide the flexibility she’d promised during my interviews (although I guess we could also choose to start at 9, but you were certainly going to be staying until 5:30 if you did).

      I wonder how her employees did during the pandemic. I have to assume she got everyone back to the office ASAP and, given the industry, could possibly categorize people as essential. (The industry is essential; her department is not).

      I left after 4 months.

    2. KaciHall*

      I switched jobs when my kid was a toddler because the owner promised flexibly. Instead, I got the same half hour variance AND got shoehorned into a shipping/ receiving position instead of the customer service/design I was hired for. I lasted two months.

    3. MandyDan*

      Similar. Part of the reason I took my current job was the offered flexibility to WFH “several days a week” if I wanted, but that has not really materialized. When the pandemic started the company-wide conversation about WFH became even worse to the point of making requirements that would disqualify most people. My boss has still kept the my department, my rules mentality but it’s hard to know how acceptable it really is. WFH here and there over the past year has made me realize that it’s almost necessary for my mental health and is one of the reasons why I’m considering leaving and would look for it in a new position (at least partial WFH).

    4. introverted af*

      Wow are you working at my job? A transplant from Philly?
      No matter what, these kind of places suck!

  18. MissGirl*

    A big part of the reason I left my old job was the ability to work from home as wanted. The old job had a more than one-hour commute on a train each way. I was worn out. Ironically, old job went remote during the pandemic and have announced they will stay that way for the teams it makes sense for. It took a freaking pandemic for them to realize their butts-in-the-seat at all costs was out of date. Not to mention their strict dress codes. Now if they’d only update their vacation policy, I might go back.

    1. Windchime*

      I was seriously considering leaving my job for the same reason. One hour train or bus ride each way and I was just over it We were allowed to WFH 2 days a week but that wasn’t enough. The silver lining to the pandemic was that our new CIO discovered that our very large (over 400 people) IT department was able to function extremely well from home, so now many departments have the option to be permanently WFH. They are creating some new space with lots of hotelling desks for people who want to come in occasionally, and those who want to come back full time can request a permanent desk.

      I hope this CIO stays forever.

  19. Boyz2Men*

    I’ve been actively job searching, in part, because my employer insists that we all return to the cube farm. We’ve been successfully working from home since covid started… and we don’t do any creative collaboration of any kind, nothing can’t be done remotely, so it’s all a power move on their part… but we’ve been told “we’re working on some sort of work from home policy, but nothing at this time.”

    That was the final straw that broke the camel’s back. My workload didn’t double or triple, it quadrupled earlier in the pandemic. And my review did nothing to acknowledge how much harder I had to work. Not even a thank you for your extra work and hussle. I’ve had it. If I get an offer, even if it’s for less pay, I’m turning in my resignation.

      1. Boop*

        Same, with the addition of our dept handling all the irate employee complaints over management decisions…because I love being yelled at an insulted for implementing decisions I didn’t make or agree with.

    2. CouldntPickAUsername*

      “we’re working on some sort of work from home policy, but nothing at this time.”
      in other words, get them back into the cubes, wait a month and maybe let them work from home for a couple days a month to look like the good guys then.

    3. Nicotena*

      To me this is the issue: my company systematically under-invested in the office environment (squishing in more and more sad little low-wall cubes, asking people to hot desk, putting in a big shared table for people (?)) so clearly they don’t think a pleasant office environment where people can concentrate is a value. But now that everybody’s at home they suddenly feel like the shared office space is soooo important for people who just sit on computers and phone calls all day anyway?? If the office wasn’t so terrible, I wouldn’t be so reluctant to return. I just took a new job – at a pay cut – for a company that is entirely WFH.

  20. C*

    I am not in a job that could ever be done fully from home (healthcare). However due to an accident and subsequent surgery this year I found myself at home for 4 months. The work I could do from home was limited, and as a whole I found myself to be extremely unproductive. The nature of my job is usually one were you are often on your feet, moving around the hospital, interacting with different people and reacting day to day to what happens on site. I found that when I was stuck at home I was very isolated since all my co-workers were at the hospital, I found that without the active atmosphere and people around me I could not focus at all. Now that I’m back at work in person full-time I am much happier. There were a lot of downsides and stresses to working in a hospital during a pandemic, but at the end of the day I would have fared a lot worse mental health wise working anywhere else. I am someone who needs the outside stimulus and pressure to be effective and feel purposeful. I would never take a job that required remote work.

    1. the cat's ass*

      Also in health care, and my specific job also does not lend itself to long-term WFH-I have to examine people, get xrays, etc, so while a subset of my patients can be safely managed with telehealth, most cannot. Interestingly, though, support staff is resigning in droves for other opportunities, including WFH and better-paying jobs. This job suits me and where I am in my career, but I totally respect the lovely bunch of younger associates heading out the door to greener pasture-maybe upper management will finally acknowledge that our pay scale isn’t up to the community standard, and now that the pandemic is winding down they’re going to have to get on board with more competitive $ and bennies.

    2. WS*

      Also in healthcare and my job can’t be done from home. However, what has helped me a lot as a chronically ill person is that suddenly all my appointments were telehealth – I no longer have to drive between 1 and 3 hours each way to see a specialist. I get the blood tests done at my convenience, then just dial in at the appropriate time. It’s amazing, I haven’t had to take a single day off for appointments since COVID-19 started, except half a day when I had to have an MRI and half a day for a medication infusion. Usually it’s a full day at least once a month.

  21. HR Madness*

    This would not be a huge factor for me. I have been 100% remote, hybrid and 100% in office. They all have their ups and downs, but my preference is general flexibility. So if 100% in office means I can still work remotely if my kids are sick, I am under the weather or need to wait for the electrician, perfect!

    If I had an employer that was super rigid, that might be a factor. But I haven’t encountered that yet, even the ones who had a large preference towards in office – were flexible in emergency situations.

    I don’t actually like working remotely 100% of the time, so I guess I would generally stay away from those jobs – but even that wouldn’t be a complete deal-breaker, if I liked the opportunity and the work was interesting.

    1. Mimi*

      Yeah, I expect that I’ll settle into going into the office most-or-all of the time (eventually), but I do really like the convenience of being able to work from home *sometimes,* and I would be pretty grumpy if I was told that I need to be at my office desk all the time, with no flexibility for plumbers/dog care/bad weather/not feeling 100% (especially since my boss had a hybrid schedule pre-pandemic, and our work can almost entirely be done from home). I don’t think that I would quit over it specifically, but it would make me less happy with the job overall, and it would make me feel like the employer was somewhat unreasonable, so it would probably contribute to me having a shorter tenure at a company.

      1. Mimi*

        I wouldn’t quit on the spot if my job turned 100% remote, but I have been looking forward to at some point going back to the office and having in-person interactions with colleagues, so being 100% remote would probably also contribute to me staying for less time, unless I felt like the employer was doing a REALLY good job of otherwise facilitating connections with colleagues, and if I didn’t feel too isolated. (I have definitely felt isolated this past year, but it’s possible that in-person social events would be enough to keep me happy even with remote work. Hard to say.)

    2. Spearmint*

      Same here. Flexibility and work-life balance matter far more to me. I have a slight preference for hybrid or WFH, all else equal, but all else is rarely equal. I would take a fully in-person job where I could leave work right at 5pm and not think about until the next day over the kind of WFH job where I was routinely expected to answer texts and check email in the evenings.

    3. Alexa*

      This is exactly how I feel. I enjoy coming into the office, but I really appreciate the flexibility to work from home when something comes up or some child is sick.

    4. ArtsNerd*

      This is where I am. A mix of remote and in-person is ideal for me, but full remote is only a dealbreaker to me if it’s a culture where I’d go a full week or more without seeing any colleague’s faces in real time.

  22. H. Regalis*

    I would consider quitting if I had to work from home. I like having the flexibility to do so when I would like to, but I have a small apartment and I do not want to be forced to. Most of my coworker have large houses in the middle of nowhere. My boss hinted that I should rent a larger apartment so I can WFH because our organization wants to sell the office building they own. So now I’m expected to pay for my own work space for the job I do for? I deeply dislike the idea of even more business expenses being shifted from the employer to the workers.

    1. A room of one's own*

      Same here–I would need a substantial pay raise and/or ironclad assurance that 100% remote work will be permitted long-term to entertain the possibility. Housing in my area is expensive. I don’t want to eat into my wages to subsidize a workspace, and I’d be hesitant to move out of commuting distance if remote work could be revoked. I would like the ability to work from my living room every once in a while, but not as an all-the-time requirement.

    2. TWW*

      I’m in the same boat. I couldn’t rent a larger apartment even if I wanted to; most landlords here require your income be 3x rent, so I simply wouldn’t qualify.

    3. LQ*

      Agreed. I would be looking for another job if I were told I could not come into work. A day here or there isn’t too bad. But I’ve had to give up my beloved studio space when I had to quarantine at home for a month and I’ve had enough little moments where I haven’t shifted it back to being not work space and it stinks. I have a studio apartment and it’s not big enough for me to not see my work set up everywhere I go so work just haunts me at home. I’d have to buy home or rent an absurdly larger than I want space to make it work.

      Folks on my team who have done well all are lucky enough to have large homes with rooms that they can close the door on. People who struggle are in shared spaces either with other people or other parts of their lives.

      The big boss here rented a smaller space and I’ve been livid about it and trying to make a very strong case that we shouldn’t just do hot-desking and barely enough space for folks with tiny cubes and fewer offices. It’s not enough space right now for the folks who WANT to be in the office which is just a way to pretend to be a good culture while demanding the exclusive use of a footprint in people’s homes. At least we’ve been able to keep the BYO devices culture at bay here.

    4. Spearmint*

      To be fair, what you pay for extra space may be counterbalanced by not having the financial cost of a commute.

      1. LQ*

        I have a 5 minute walk to work. I LIKE my commute. Having to rent a 2 bedroom or 1br/den apartment would double my rent at least. 10 minutes of my life that is a nice stroll is not worth that. Just because it works for you doesn’t mean it has to work for everyone.

      2. H. Regalis*

        That’s not a choice I want my employer making for me regardless of whether that is true is my individual situation. And that’s different from a job where I knew from the jump that it would be remote. Starting somewhere and then being told, “Rearrange your entire life for us so we can save money” sucks. There are a lot of other, non-work reasons I live where I do vs. a hundred miles away.

      3. TWW*

        For me, an apartment with one more bedroom would cost an additional $600/month, which is way more than it costs to drive to work every day.

      4. Lynn Whitehat*

        I pay $46/month for a bus pass. And I may be unique on earth in this, but I actually enjoy riding the bus.

        1. F.M.*

          My commute was a pleasant walk with the option of bus or light rail when the weather was bad or I just didn’t feel like the walk, and I like all three of those options; I get reading done on the bus or light rail, I enjoy the mild physical experience of Going Somewhere By Foot in a way I don’t enjoy exercising for the sake of exercise. My mental health suffered enormously when our offices closed, and improved noticeably when we were allowed to come in as we wanted once again.

          The only thing that would make working from the office better would be if my coworkers were there too, for casual social interaction.

          And, because I know what commenters here are like… Yes, I’m talking about the coworkers who WANT to be there, and WANT to interact with other people casually now and again in person, and who have actively said so. My office always allowed WFH for people who wanted it, with very occasional on-site requirements aside, and some people always took full advantage of that. Those of us who didn’t? We went into the office for a reason, thanks, and we’re looking forward to having it back.

          …all that said, I would not reject a permanent WFH position after this one for that reason alone. If I knew going in that it would be that, I could arrange my housing/transport/social setup accordingly. It’d be suboptimal, but still better than ending up working somewhere that I had to drive to–I would need to get a car!–or with hotdesking open workspaces or some horror like that. My current position is exactly as flexible as I like it, and I’ve got my living location set up to take advantage of that.

      5. EchoGirl*

        It may be true in some cases, but that seems pretty unlikely to be something that’s widespread — at the very least, it’s going to depend on a lot of factors, like what the person’s commute cost actually is and the COL where they live (assuming many people won’t want to just pick up and move to a completely new area just to save on COL; people generally choose the places they live for more reasons than just work). Plus, the added cost of moving is not just about the increase in rent, but also the added costs of heat/AC for a larger space and so on; once you factor those in, it’s potentially a bigger increase in monthly costs than it initially looks like.

        1. Fran Fine*

          All of this. Bigger spaces usually mean bigger expenses – unless an employer is offering to raise an employee’s salary to cover those new costs, then I could see this being a nonstarter.

          1. EchoGirl*

            I think it’s also worth noting that a certain amount of “commuting” expenses would probably continue to exist even if the person started working from home. For example, most people who drive to work would probably keep their cars even if they stopped needing to commute, so they’d still be paying insurance and potentially parking and/or car payments — the only costs that would change are gas and wear and tear, which probably doesn’t cover the cost of a bigger place.

    5. Liseusester*

      Same here. I actually do have a ‘spare’ room in my house but I bought a house with one so I could use it as a craft room/guest room. I am mostly back in the office now and back to doing craft projects after not having really done for a year and a bit. I deeply resented giving up space in my house for work (I did it! I’m not evil!) and was so glad to be able to get back to the office. I also learned that whilst I can get work done from home, I’m not staggeringly good at it and I was starting to wonder if I was even cut out for the job I’d been successfully doing for three years.

    6. Joielle*

      Yeah, my spouse and I bought a whole new house to have space for both of us to comfortably WFH long term. We did it for a year in our previous (much smaller) house and it was miserable being in each other’s space all the time, overhearing everything, having to tiptoe around when the other was in a meeting, etc.

      To me, it was worth it and I’m happy with the decision, but it was VERY expensive (especially since we wanted to stay in the same neighborhood) and we were lucky to be in a position to do it. Certainly should not be required or even suggested that someone else should do the same!

    7. Cricket*

      My partner and I moved into a larger apartment during covid for this reason. In our old apartment, I literally had to work from my bed when she was on video calls. Our new place is awesome but we are paying more money to essentially rent our own office space.

    8. Lizzy May*

      This is my big issue. I have a little living space and I hate feeling confined in it all day and all evening. I go for walks but its not the same. I don’t mind a day here or there that’s WFH but I cannot make it my life where I live now and I own my condo so I’m not selling and buying something wildly more expensive to get more room. I can’t afford it.

    9. Lynn Whitehat*

      Same. There just isn’t space in my house for me to have a good WFH setup. I’ve been limping along with a sub-par setup for over a year (wedged in a corner of my bedroom). I’m sick to death of it. I’m not going to uproot my whole family so I can have a home office, when I might not even need one in six months.

      I guess I could try a WeWork kind of thing, now that the pandemic is receding in the US. I’d be pretty unhappy about having to take that on, though.

    10. Melanie*

      ” I deeply dislike the idea of even more business expenses being shifted from the employer to the workers.”
      100% agree.

      I also hate the narrative that employers who don’t embrace work from home are behind-the time, or out of touch. Some jobs just don’t work when everyone is in their own space! At my job, we’ve always had flexibility to request to work from home for a day, or part of a day, for any number of different reasons, so i don’t think lack of flexibility is an argument against requiring in-office work in our case. I work in a field that is demanding, and high-turnover. We’re constantly hiring entry level people who need training, and training remotely is just not as good. And it’s not as simple as bringing them to the office for two weeks of training at the beginning. On the job training happens constantly for the first 3-4 years (or more realistically, forever) through team collaboration, listening to colleagues and supervisors talk to client and talk through problems with other staff. You lose all of that learning when everyone is working from home.

      On a personal level, I hate working from home. I need clear separation between work space and home space, and work time and leisure time. I don’t want the lines to be blurred. I would quit my job if it was 100% remote (I said so frequently throughout the pandemic). Not immediately, but I’d work my way out eventually.

      Part of me also wonders if WFH is going to be like the open concept office fad. It was all the rage for several years, seemed young and collaborative and open and anti-hierarchical–and then finally everyone realized it was awful because there was no privacy, noise traveled, hard to concentrate, etc. and now the pendulum is swinging the other way (at least from where I sit).

      1. Juniper*

        Exactly. The “average” office job can look wildly different from industry to industry and company to company. Blanket statements about what should be practicable for all employers going forward are myopic at best.

    11. Faith the twilight slayer*

      Awesome! They expect you to find a bigger, more expensive home, so that obviously means they intend to give you a substantial raise to do so. Way to work the system, friend!

      /s, obviously

    12. WFH FTW*

      I deeply dislike the idea of even more business expenses being shifted from the employer to the workers.

      I love WFH, but totally agree with you on this point.

  23. Tinky Winky*

    Probably – I’m looking to leave for other reasons and am mainly applying for fully remote jobs. Our team leader is old fashioned but I’m hoping they’ll follow new rules that say we can WFH if we reach an agreement with our team members

  24. elle*

    If I was asked to go to the office 5 days a week, I would seek a different role within my same company. The commute is 50 miles each way and I have a second job to balance. If I were told there would no longer be an office to return to, I would probably seek out some kind of co-working space. I need to leave my house at least one or two days a week for my mental health.

    1. Museumfreak*

      Same, I definitely need to leave my house sometimes. I do like seeing my coworkers, and I don’t see most of them every day like I used to. But the WFH flexibility has been so great. I would like to go over to the office for some meetings or even get together with coworkers who live close by if we need to work on something together in person.

  25. Susie Q*

    Absolutely. My company initially said everyone back in office 100%. And people have been quitting left and right. HR/Managers have now been asking what our ideal work set up will be.

  26. KareBear*

    My husband got an amazing job in another area and since I was remote over COVID we moved. My company has been saying they will be ‘flexible’ when we go back but it’s now clear this means a few days a week in the office. If I can’t negotiate mostly remote I’ll definitely be looking for a new job! Which is a shame, because I actually really like this job but there is just no way we are moving back to that city. In fact, I love remote so much my job search will only include fully remote options now!

  27. Paranoid about COVID*

    At my previous dysfunctional company, I had a whole escape plan for when they made us go back full time. I already didn’t like working there, and I was pretty financially stable at the time, so it seemed like a no-brainer to protect my health and the principle that I never want an employer to control me (truly the only reason they were making us go in).

    Fortunately, I found a different, fully remote job before I had to!

  28. Mockingdragon*

    My situation is a little different, but yes, absolutely. I began freelancing because I believed I couldn’t ever work in an office job again. I’m non-neurotypical although with no official diagnosis, and the only times I’ve ever been disciplined at work were because of meltdowns and other manifestations of my anxiety and mood disorders.

    However, I’ve been able to work part-time from home during the pandemic and what I’ve discovered is that working at home is a legitimate medical accommodation for me, and I intend to treat it as such if I ever go back to full-time work (or part-time office work, although that doesn’t seem to exist). Working from home, I can mute and turn off the camera or just duck over to the side if I need to scream for a second or make faces to get the emotions out. Nobody has to see me freaking out, when all I need is five minutes of chaos to calm down and get back to work. Not having to hide my symptoms makes them infinitely easier to manage.

    1. Respectfully, Pumat Sol*

      YES! I am also neurodivergent and the lack of forced masking has been SO good for my mental health. Both in how I process it and how people perceive me at work.

      1. Justin*

        Yeah, same for me. I could do it if it were part of the time/flexible, but having to be OfficeManWhoMakesChitChat all the time just makes me come off cold and distant (or overly friendly if I’m trying to push against these parts of me). Again, can do it part of the time, but all day everyday is just a real challenge.

  29. Murfle*

    My employer just announced this week that our company’s plan is to do a hybrid model (3 days in office, 2 WFH) and to start transitioning back to the office in mid-September.

    Before the plan was announced, I thought I was ok with the idea of returning to work. But now that I actually have a date, I’m low-key panicking. My commute over public transit is about 1.5 hours long. That means 3 hours per day. Which, means 9 hours per week of being trapped on trains with tons of people – and spending hundreds of dollars for the privilege of doing so.

    On top of that, a friend of mine who works at a healthcare-adjacent company raised the really good point that mid-September isn’t enough time to see how schools affect community transmission rates. If we wanted to be safe about it, we’d wait until October to see what the effect of schools reopening is.

    My employer has promised to be flexible, and has said that efforts have been made to change floorplans at work, offer rapid testing, and improve workplace ventilation. All very good things! But this news is filling me with a lot more anxiety than I expected.

    1. HarvestKaleSlaw*

      Same. I wanted to go back to the office until we started to discuss it seriously – and now I’m really feeling nervous. I have really gotten used to having those 3 hours of commute time back in my day. I’m in better shape than I have been in years, because I have that time to exercise. I eat dinner before 9:30 at night and get more sleep. I don’t pay hundreds of bucks a month for dry cleaning and shoe repair and rental clothing subscriptions. I know what’s going on with my kids. I’ve finally met some of the elderly neighbors who’ve been in my building for years.

      I know I can do the 10-hour-day, 3-hour-commute, out-the-door-at-seven, pick-the-kids-up-at-eight, never-see-the-sun-all-winter grind, because I did it for years. But I feel low grade panic about it.

      1. Cake, yes please*

        I feel low grade panic just reading about your work-from-office schedule. Not having to do that everyday would be a serious quality of life improvement that I don’t know if I could give up. I’d sacrifice a LOT to never have to do that again.

    2. anon e mouse*

      I didn’t even talk about this below, but yeah. Sometimes I get so worked up about how badly they’ve done rolling out the new wfh policy that I forget that I was almost ready to find another job before the pandemic even started because my commute was too soul crushing to do every single day. And I didn’t have a kid yet back then!

  30. mal.abrigo*

    My husband and I are moving because I got a new job (mine is partly WFH, 2.5 days in office and 2.5 days out of the office, which is my preference). His very small firm was formerly in-person full-time, but during the pandemic went fully remote and is planning to stay that way. He’s definitely paid under market at his current place, but plans to stay with them for at least another couple of years, precisely because they’re fully remote. He loves working from home and never wants to go back unless he can find a commute under 15 minutes. Once he does move on from this place, he says that those will be his search parameters.

  31. The Crowening*

    I would absolutely consider leaving if I didn’t like having the option to work from home at least some of the time.

    Prior the start of COVID, my manager was not in favor of employees working from home, even though we are all desk jockeys who just need an internet connection. We were only permitted to work from home if we were sick or home with a sick kid, vet appointment, home repair person coming over, etc. – in other words, if the company’s options were to lose us for the day or just lose us for a few hours, we could work from home. Once COVID hit, the decision was corporate and it didn’t matter what my manager thought, everyone went home who could work from home. I have wondered all along whether my manager’s attitude would change at all after this – has it been a successful experiment or will he be more determined than ever to make sure no one gets any extra flexibility?

    In the end, it doesn’t matter, because three months ago I started a new job that is permanent remote. :) Although honestly, I doubt the company would have been willing to hire me if they hadn’t seen teams of fully remote workers doing great work for the past year already. So I guess in that sense, hopefully it has opened a few minds among employers out there.

    1. The Crowening*

      Meant to say, I would absolutely consider leaving if I didn’t have the option to work from home at least some of the time from now on. (I don’t know how I messed up that first sentence!) Employees shouldn’t have to grovel or fight for flexibility if they’ve already proven they can get it done at home.

  32. theothermadeline*

    I now know I should never interview for a remote-only position (that doesn’t involve regular travel and interaction with people). I am currently still not allowed back into my on-campus office even though we have already rolled out a vaccine mandate, and it is driving me up a wall. I’ve always been a huge proponent of office flexibility – work from home or work from the office as needed. I’ve greatly benefitted from being able to work from home whenever I want to (and privileged that most of my previous jobs have allowed that) but it is not how I operate best and I would likely need to quit before I got fired if an office I worked at went fully remote with no other options.

    1. Archie Goodwin*

      This is me, very much.

      I appreciate the flexibility of working from home, and as far as I’m concerned, the more places that offer it, the merrier. I love having the option once in a while. But I don’t work well from home…at all. I’m finally back in the office full-time, and I feel so much better about it. Work feels like WORK again, and not just an extension of my home life.

      A previous job announced that it was moving from a building with assigned cubes to one which was entirely, 100% hotel space-based, and that was a major catalyst for my choosing to leave. (Not the only thing, but a big one among several.) I could see that the office culture was transitioning into something closer to full-time work from home, and that really wasn’t something I wanted to get involved with.

      1. A*

        My employer is piloting a similar plan, and of course HR is the guinea pigs. I’m one of the very few that wants to go back in the office most days (currently going in 1x week) and does not want a hotel desk. While I want the flexibility to work from home if I need to, it will never be a regular thing for me.

  33. Darth Brooks*

    Yes, I would. I work for the government and there are a lot of positions for my classification in a lot of different departments that are going remote, so if mine wasn’t, I would definitely look for one that did. In fact, remote work played a role in my choice between two job offers I recently received–I chose the one with more remote options.

    It’s also relevant that these government jobs are relatively easy to transfer in and out of, so it’s an easier decision to make for me than for someone in the private sector who might have a harder time finding similar positions.

  34. no one*

    I wouldn’t quit over WFH status in itself; I personally could be happy with either, and I think both have pros and cons. In the office, I legitimately enjoy talking and collaborating with my coworkers, and i find that easier to do in person. But I also have a much better work/life balance working from home.

    With that said, the past year+ of remote work has made me realize that I don’t need to be living in my high cost of living area, and I’d like to move. If my company turned down my request for remote work after I’ve been successfully working from home for over a year, just because they want me back in the office, I probably would quit.

    If/when I move on to a new job I’d be open to either in-office or remote positions.

    1. Windchime*

      As soon as my workplace said we would be 100% WFH, I moved two hours away. The cost of living is lower, there is no traffic and the weather is so much better. If they changed their tune and said we had to go back in, I would just retire since I’m about that age anyway.

  35. Aerie*

    I am one of the people that have actually followed through in quitting when my employer wouldn’t give me the flexibility I wanted. I work in a fairly specialized role, in a division of my company that saw some record-breaking profits in the last year. I felt I had a pretty strong case to advocate that remote work should be the norm for me, with only very occasional trips to the office (once a month was what I offered). My boss didn’t disagree, but ultimately said the decision was going to be made higher up than her, and I should just wait it out 4-5 months to see what corporate’s official ruling on WFH would be.

    I was already casually job searching due to really bad work-life balance issues, but probably would have stuck it out for another year or two if they just could have guaranteed me some flexibility rather than asking me to keep my life on hold for another 4 months. Instead, I found a new company that while they didn’t have their final WFH plan in place when I was hired, my hiring manager went to the CEO and got special permission for my new role to be 100% remote.

  36. Thursday Next*

    For me it’s a “make” more than a “break” – I’ve been working outside my home state for a few years now and sort of figured that in order to eventually move home I’d have to find a new job. But my company updated its WFH policies in light of the Covid-induced Great WFH Experiment (which worked out really well in general for my department), and now they’re saying we can go wherever we want and just be virtual workers. Since I can move home and keep my job, I’m pretty much planning to stay here forever. (For a company that’s a bit clueless about 21st century business practices and employee retention, they knocked it out of the park on this one.)

  37. luvtheshoes*

    Luckily, my employer (after some arm turning) adopted an official work from home policy that is surprisingly permissive given the commentary from leadership during COVID. Had they insisted I return full time, I would have upped my job search which was already underway for other reasons.

    Along those lines, I definitely don’t consider positions that don’t have at least a hybrid option. I am in legal and there is zero reason for me to be in the office 5 days a week. To me, an expectation of full in-office work force speaks not only to remote work but deeper assumptions about the corporate culture and truly how modern and collaborative the company is/is not.

  38. lillace*

    I am currently interviewing for a new role that’s 100% remote because my current job is forcing everyone to come back to the office at least part time. It’s pretty frustrating because (at least on my team) we have been more productive from home than we ever have been in the office, which can be backed up with actual numbers. But the word seems to be that some of the older executives just don’t like people working from home because….they just don’t like it? It feels very much like a high school attendance policy with no rhyme or reason behind it, and even though I’ve been there for many years and proven myself to be responsible and capable, they don’t trust me enough to let me work from home.

    It’s especially frustrating since I have heard from other folks in our office that they ARE being given exceptions and being allowed to work from home full time or have a more flexible schedule. But the word for me is just, no, you’re in the office on these days from this time to this time. Even when I’ve asked if there is a concern about my performance or anything like that, I’m told there isn’t and that I just have to be there. They won’t address why some people are being given exceptions and some aren’t, so it very much looks like they’re arbitrarily deciding who gets to WFH full time or have a more flexible schedule. That is really frustrating.

    It’s a bummer because I have otherwise enjoyed working for this company quite a bit. But with the kind of job I do, it’s easy to find 100% remote work that will pay me just as well, so I am at least lucky there.

    1. Newly Hired*

      This sounds like my company. People with kids are getting to stay home and some others are receiving exceptions, but I have to be in Tuesday and Thursdays no questions asked. It’s frustrating.

      1. ToddlerMom*

        I agree with you that this is a ridiculous policy, but “getting to stay home”? What are parents supposed to do with our kids right now? My daycare is open 8-4 so I could commute in and work from 9:30-3 and finish the day between 8 and midnight, I guess?

  39. Skates*

    I’m a college professor, and have been on campus teaching in-person hybrid classes the whole pandemic. The thing that would make me leave is if we were forced to continue hybrid instruction in our classes. I am happy to teach some online classes every semester in the name of accessibility, but trying to teach to students in the room and online simultaneously is a model that I don’t think serves either group and makes me a less effective teacher overall.

    1. Skates*

      An addendum: my field is so tight right now that leaving a good job would likely mean leaving the field altogether, and I would rather that than keep hybrid teaching indefinitely

    2. Pippa K*

      Seconding this! In-person teaching (when there’s no pandemic!) works great, online teaching *can* work well, but combining the two modes in a single class where some students are online and some in person is just a workload-doubling nightmare. Of all the adaptations we tried out over the past year, this has to be the flaming worst.

      1. Captain Raymond Holt*

        Part time faculty here – it is absolutely a flaming mistake. My institution called it “High-Flex.” They said it stood for “Highly Flexible” but I think it’s because someone sent out an all-faculty email that said “High-Flex” instead of “Hy-flex” (hybrid flexible). So they’re covering their rear for that typo.
        I taught from home. I was required to have a classroom assignment in case some students wanted to attend remotely. So I did. I had a student show up to an empty classroom every week in case a student wanted to attend in the classroom. Zero students did, but the classroom assistant showed up every week.
        She was taking the same class with another instructor and used my class to actually learn the material (little shade on her instructor).

    3. Another Teacher*

      I haven’t left yet, but it was incredibly noticeable that about 15-20% of my school’s faculty departed at the end of the year, and most weren’t leaving for another school, they were just leaving. We got some “stay home with family” etc, but mostly it was just people fleeing education. I’m not sure if that was our in-person policy (we were in-person all year) or that people were so upset with how they’d been treated this year, but our usual retirement luncheon was very awkward.

    4. Agatha Christie Reader*

      I am also a college professor, an introvert, and very good with technology. However, I’ve been teaching online since the pandemic started and I hate it! My students in the course evaluations say that I am better than most at teaching online but I wouldn’t keep doing it. If we were forced to continue WFH and teaching online, I would retire rather than continuing. I just don’t make the connections with students or get the joy from my job that I get in face-to-face classrooms. I also miss the ideas that spring from casual conversations with fellow faculty. I’m old enough that retirement is a viable option.

    5. Flower necklace*

      I teach high school and I agree 100% about hybrid. I wouldn’t leave teaching completely over it, but if it was just my district insisting on hybrid, I’d be tempted to try switching (not that that would ever happen because the school board knows perfectly well they would lose tons of teachers that way).

      Thankfully, we’ve been told that hybrid was an emergency response only, and that anyone who has to teach hybrid next year will receive extra pay.

      1. Bart*

        I am a dean at a residential liberal arts college and I can’t wait to get back on campus full-time in August! Zoom meetings are not the same as in person meetings on a vibrant college campus. I miss the informal interactions with staff, students, and faculty and the feeling of community.

    6. Cascadia*

      Yes to this! I work with middle and high school students and hybrid teaching has been awful. We’ve lost a record number of teachers this year at our school due to early retirement, people leaving for other schools, or just leaving education all together. Our school finally came out and said vaccines will be required for all students and employees, and we will all be back in person in the fall, with no option for remote or hybrid. Everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief because hybrid teaching has been so awful. We were worried for a while after hearing lots of “hybrid teaching is the way of the future!” comments early on in the pandemic. All in-person, or all online, but none of the hybrid business. It just doesn’t work, it’s exhausting, ineffective, and just plain sucks. If our school didn’t announce the plan to go back to full-time in-person, I’m certain we would have lost a lot more teachers.

    7. Fabulous*

      I have many teacher friends and have heard the same thing from them. You’re not alone!

    8. Tessera Member 042*

      I just got a full-time faculty position at a community college due to the retirements others have mentioned, and I continue to be flummoxed that of all the changes in instruction the pandemic has wrought, the “hybrid” (some students in class and some students online simultaneously) model is the one administration seems to want to keep! I agree with you all that you can’t plan for effective in-person and online instruction at the same time. I actually really like the “blended” model, where some sessions a week are conducted in person and some are conducted online, but for everyone – and that’s because I’m an English prof and I find most students just really benefit from more time to write.

      1. NotAnotherManager!*

        I think your blended model would be great! That would have been great for me for grad school.

        Teaching both in-class and online populations at once makes me cringe. It seems to be based on the false assumption that they use the same tools and techniques, and they don’t. I assume that any administration pushing this has no clue.

      2. Flower necklace*

        That’s just awful. Of all the things to keep! My district is keeping a lot of the tech tools that we purchased and I doubt we’ll go back to paper anytime soon, but hybrid is definitely out next year. I haven’t heard any good things about it.

  40. Web Crawler*

    I would definitely quit if my office required me to come in more than once every few months. But for the record, I was working exclusively from home before covid- I’m a programmer and the florescent lights in the office give me migraines, and having to “mask” as neurotypical for 8 hours a day leaves me too exhausted to get much work done.

    Likewise, I’d make it a key factor in my job search once I’m ready to leave. I’d also look for a company like my current one where a majority of the programmers are remote so I’m not left out of things.

  41. Nessa*

    I’d seriously consider it if we were told to come back full time – currently we’re considering a mix of in-person and WFH which suits me very well, as I do miss my colleagues and my work will end up needing some face-time, but I’ve also been so much more productive working from home and really appreciate the flexibility.

    As a professional services staff member at a university, I’ve noticed that there’s 100% room for that sort of flexibility in our team. The main push for returning full time seems to be not from students but from academics who think we’re there to help them use the printer!

  42. Enginerd*

    Returning to the office would only be a big ordeal if they decided to go rigid with the hours and remove the option of working from home as needed, which luckily my company would never do due to the nature of our work and the travel requirements involved. If they forced us to be in the office 9-5 M-F, I’d be looking to move on but flex time and location do wonders for mental health and work life balance.

  43. Arya Parya*

    My employer is starting to bring people back to the office. They’re doing it slowly, so that’s all good. But the way they’ve communicated about it, it looks like they want everyone back in the office full time eventually. My employer has been very much against WFH in the past. I hoped that had changed, because everything has run smoothly, but alas.

    I would really like a hybrid version, about 50/50 office and WFH with some flexibility to change those percentages when needed. I’ve discussed this with some colleagues and my manager and they all want the same thing, so we are going to try to push back as a group.

    As for the future I would really like to keep doing at least some of my job from home. I really liked the past 1,5 years. It’s been very good for my mental health. So I will definitely look for that. I will also never want to work in an open office plan ever again. After this period of peace and quiet I just cannot see myself returning to that.

  44. The Crowening*

    Meant to say, I would consider leaving if I *didn’t have the option* to work from home at least sometimes from now on. (I don’t know how I messed up that first sentence!) Employees shouldn’t have to grovel or fight for flexibility if they’ve already proven they can get it done at home.

  45. Brad*

    My small office had essentially no remote work prior to the pandemic, but we went to everyone 100% remote during COVID and proved that we could still be just as effective. In discussions about the future of the office during the pandemic, a combination of remote and in-office was held out as likely. Now they’re making noise about a return to the office next month, and it’s unclear if the WFH portion is still in play. If they require 100% back in the office, I will be looking for a new job—I was spending 24 days of each year in a commute, and I’m not interested in returning to that.

  46. Tired of WFH*

    My company hasn’t given a reopening date, but I feel like I would quit if not enough of my coworkers were coming into the office. I don’t begrudge their preferences, of course, it’s just that after working from home full-time, alone, for 15 months, I need more in-person interaction with coworkers than this. A lot of my team is in the “don’t ever want to work in an office again” camp, and if enough of them feel that way, I respect it but I would look for a job with a hybrid plan.

    1. Ace in the Hole*

      I’m of a similar mindset. Currently I work in a role/field that has to be done mostly in person, which is lucky because I really need in-person interaction at work. Like you said, I respect the preferences of people who want to stay remote… but there is a mutual incompatibility in accommodating people who want/need significant amounts of remote work and accommodating people who want/need face to face interaction.

  47. Ace in the Hole*

    I will not work from home full time. If a job forced me to do it I would quit. I find it it demoralizing, isolating, and terrible for both my work performance and my mental health. I really need the structure and camaraderie of working in a physical space with other people.

    Fortunately I’m in a field where remote work is almost impossible.

    1. Lurker*

      I agree with this 100%. I would add to your list that working from home makes it easier for the erosion of work/life boundaries.

    3. SilverNickel*

      I would also leave my position if I was forced to WFH indefinitely. I hate the isolation, and that my living space is now a space where my work intrudes. I feel like I have no respite from work. I’m glad to be going back.

  48. loose leaf tea drinker*

    I would definitely quit if I couldn’t stay remote.

    My office remained in-person throughout the pandemic, but I and several others worked from home either full time or part time due to personal/family circumstances.

    The difference in my quality of life is astounding. I have a whole host of health issues that are manageable and invisible (and sometimes entirely negated!) when I work from home, but range on a scale from annoying to debilitating when I work full-time from the office. These aren’t health issues that I want to disclose to my colleagues, so I just put up with the stress pre-pandemic.

    Fortunately my boss loves me and I do great work, so she’s agreed to retain me remotely indefinitely – and gave me a raise! But since that didn’t become official until a few weeks ago, I’ve spent most of the last six months a little bit on edge and ready to quit if that announcement ever came through. It’s a big relief that I won’t ever have to go back to the office full-time, though I can choose to if I ever want to for meetings and the like.

    2. Cheesecake2.0*

      Can I ask how you opened up the discussion about how your health has been impacted (or did you need to at all? It’s not clear from your comment) I am in a similar position where I have many medical concerns, many of which are invisible, and pretty much all of them are way more manageable working from home. So far my boss has said she’s asking about potential hybrid schedules for me but she thinks it’s just because I’m a hermit who is introverted and quiet. I don’t know how to say “actually it’s because I have complex kidney and bowel issues and the bathroom situation at work really sucks for me and my mental health has been better than ever and I am so sick of people asking me “what’s wrong with your legs” when they see my leg braces everyday so I’d like to just work from home, forever, please”

      1. Never Boring*

        Yeah, pandemic WFH has been awesome in that I have been recovering from a medical issue that leaves me needing to lie down in a dark room for a while at lunchtime and walk away from the computer now and again. I am now in the process of requesting an accommodation, and my doctor was totally willing to write me a letter saying that he recommended 100% WFH. I am totally stir-crazy from spending so much time at home, so I am going to try hybrid and see how it goes. (My employer has indicated that they are amenable to an arrangement that will allow me use of a quiet room in the office for breaks. I don’t know how well it will work – I am not convinced that I will be able to actually get rest on breaks if people can walk in anytime. Plus the quiet room is far from my office and needs to be used by other people, too, which I predict will cause availability issues – I am planning a backup involving bringing infrastructure to be able to take quiet breaks in my own office. Lawn chair, curtain with tension rod, etc. I don’t care if people think I’m weird; it’s a genuine medical issue, so they can go to hell). If it doesn’t work, my doc will happily write another letter. Fingers crossed.

  49. The Crowening*

    Meant to say I would think about leaving if I *didn’t at least have the option* to work from home sometimes from now on. (I don’t know how I messed up that first sentence!) Employees shouldn’t have to grovel or fight for flexibility if they’ve already proven they can get it done at home.

  50. RebeccaKnowsNothing*

    I love working from home so much! I’m noticably healthier in so many ways – it works for my working style, it works for my personality, it works for my gotdang job duties! I’d definitely start looking for remote-only jobs if my office decides everyone needs to be back full time. (That being said, I’m very much in favor of hybrid approaches so everyone gets a choice in what works best for them.)

    1. Allison*

      These are my thoughts on WFH exactly. I would totally quit if we were forced to go back full time, but I realize some people prefer being in the office.

  51. KellyLo*

    Thanks for bringing this topic up for discussion. While I’m concerned about the optics and getting left behind when my company shifts to a hybrid / return to the office stance beginning next year, this is a deal-breaker for me. I want to be full-time remote with only very occasional meetings in person where needed. I’ve thrived in the flexibility and my mental health and how I engage with colleagues has improved dramatically. And, the ability to pick up and go to a fun destination and work from there has been wonderful.
    My boss would prefer minimum 3 days per week in the office as she believes it’s critical for collaboration and that being remote has damaged our team culture (I don’t believe it’s done either, but understand she can feel differently). If she pushes this, I will find a job that allows me to be remote full time.

  52. Nonprofit Worker*

    I have been unhappy at my job for quite some time, and this issue has really brought to light just how toxic my workplace is. Working from home has been incredible for my mental health, and I’ve surprised myself with how productive I’ve been able to be. My job can easily be done fully remotely, so I cannot justify the time, money, and mental health burden of commuting into the office. I also would deeply resent a requirement to come in to the office, as it would indicate a blatant disregard for employee preferences.

    1. Nonprofit Worker*

      Also: I am exclusively considering 100% WFH positions in my job search, as a result of my experience over the last year and a half.

    2. Ozzie*

      It felt like I wrote your comment… agree top to bottom – and am also a nonprofit worker. I’m pushing for a hybrid model, but I am expecting my place of employment to make choices that I will not agree with. No far they’re completely waffling on everything though (which is unsurprising).

      I hope your job doesn’t go against employee wishes, though if it’s similar to mine… well, fingers crossed for you!

  53. Aimee*

    Is it weird to say I’m jealous that people got the option to work from home? It was draining and unnecessary for me to stay in the office. My field was considered essential, but as someone in sales, the office is not required for me to work effectively.
    Had my company invested a bit more in its IT, I would have saved on gas, exposure risk and had other ways to fill my empty time when things were slow

    1. Nicki Name*

      I don’t think it’s weird. Just as there are people who’d prefer to be in the office who’ve been given no choice but to work remotely, there are bound to be some people who want to be remote and can’t be.

  54. Christy*

    I started freelancing during the pandemic and I love it. I am so much more productive. I can work when I am at my mental and physical peak of the day and have very few meetings to endure. No office politics. No commute. I have enthusiasm for my work again and I hadn’t had that for 10+ years. I probably eventually will return to a FT staff position because if the benefits, but I will look exclusively at WFH positions.

  55. Sam Brown*

    My partner has been 100% WFH since 2018 and has turned down offers of employment from Google, big banks, etc. because at the time they didn’t offer 100% WFH. It’s a dealbreaker for him. I’ve enjoyed WFH the last year so much that when I finish my Ph.D and go back to full-time work from my current part-time I will be looking primarily for 100% WFH positions and will definitely privilege those with more WFH capabilities even over criteria like salary and benefits.

  56. Corporate Drone*

    I have the best job and boss and team I’ve ever had. They are not without their flaws–we’re insanely busy and work all hours. I find it hard to disconnect even on vacation days, even when my boss reminds me. And yet it’s still the best job I’ve ever had. I am lucky that we are fully WFH and return to office is totally optional, but even if we had to be cheeks in seats full time I’d still stay.

    All that aside, it’s sooo short-sighted to take this approach. Most office spaces are set up to work perfectly well from home if the workers prefer that–I know I’ve been more productive from home this past year than ever before–and requiring old-school in-office presence when the workers have proven themselves over likely the most difficult year most of us have ever had, personally and professionally, is a surefire way to lose some good talent.

    1. Corporate Drone*

      I do note the irony, though, of “I wouldn’t leave if we were forced back to the office full time because my job is so awesome,” because if they were to be this inflexible suddenly, it would be indicative of a change in attitude and environment that would probably filter into other facets of the job/company that would affect my experience at work, so it’s sort of a catch-22.

  57. Ellis*

    I absolutely despise working from home (for reasons both personal and professional) and I will 100% quit if my office announces we won’t be going back, despite how much I enjoy working here otherwise. Luckily I think many of my coworkers feel the same way.

    The big split in my workplace seems to be down to people who actually enjoy city living versus those who don’t. I work in one of the biggest cities in the US and I think many people moved here for work who actually hate the realities of city living. I’m the opposite—I moved here for the city lifestyle. I liked my train commute and my office space and rolling out my door to a coffee shop. I would have to move out to the suburbs to have the space for a home office and I absolutely don’t want that. About 1/3 of my coworkers did move as soon as it seemed like this would go on for awhile, and those are the ones who want permanent remote. The ones who stayed in the city seem to mostly want at least 50% in-office time like me.

    I think time will tell how successful a hybrid model will be. We do a lot of collaborative, real-time work and that’s harder to replicate virtually.

    1. Ellis*

      I should add, my workplace has always been very flexible with people doing WFH when needed, or having a flexible schedule outside core hours, even pre-pandemic. I get it when people who were never, ever allowed a WFH day previously are against returning to that sort of strict control

    2. Project Problem Solver*

      This isn’t true in my situation, though it may be for others. I live literally in the heart of the business district in a medium-large city and I would never consider moving – I adore city living! But I also really, really love working remotely. It doesn’t matter that I’m less than a mile from my official office location; I still don’t want to go there.

      Part of this is no doubt due to sensory issues where I struggle with the absolutely massive amount of unexpected sensory inputs in a space with lots of people, but I don’t think everyone is moving outside of the city if they can work remotely.

      1. Cdn Acct*

        I live where I live (a 1 br condo downtown) in order to walk to work, and I still don’t want to go back to full-time in the office. I know several others in the same boat, we live in condos/apartments and walk to work, and still don’t want to go back full-time. I love living downtown but still nope.

        I do want to go back to 1 or 2 days a week in-office just to get some of the collaborative work and informal team building done, but full-time isn’t required for that.

        I think if you have a very small space and/or share with others, it’s more likely you’d want to go in, but it’s not everyone.

    3. citygirl*

      I’ve lived in a big city for ten years, I’m very happy here, and I despise going into the office. My city experience is not commuting to the shittiest blandest part of corporate downtown so I can eat a $14 chicken Caesar salad for lunch every day. I feel like I waste the glory of the city when I spend 50% of my waking hours in a fluorescent lit office. I’d rather work from a cafe or a park, or work flexible hours so I can live my life. Not trying to discount your opinion or anything, just saying that it is precisely my love for the city that makes me want the freedom to explore and enjoy it beyond the bounds of the financial district.

    4. Lynn Whitehat*

      Oh yeah, this is me. City girl all the way. The first day I went back to the office last month, I felt like I was awake after sleep-walking through the last year-plus. I could get a coffee! Or a taco! Or go to a park! I could do anything!

    5. BPT*

      Honestly I’m with you. Part of what I love about living in the city is going into an office building, having a reason to dress up, going to meetings with people, networking, etc. I love having my morning walk on my commute and my usual lunch places I go to with coworkers. Like, working from home and not having a reason to dress up in business clothes? Not what I want permanently. I love being able to easily grab drinks after work with colleagues and be near the Hill in DC and the general collaborative atmosphere of working in the city. I moved to the city because I want that lifestyle.

      My work is likely going to be pretty flexible and have us come into the office 3 days a week most weeks, but I would be looking for another job if they went completely remote. I don’t think my particular office would anyway, because it would impede our ability to do our jobs (lobbying), but having an office to work from is definitely a consideration for me.

      1. Bob Loblaw*

        This is me too (DC law). I will probably continue working from home one or two days a week, depending on what type of work I need to get done, but I can’t imagine never going in. Plenty of my colleagues seem to feel the same way.

        It was depressing to go from lots of social and networking activity downtown after work to sitting in my pajamas every evening watching Netflix. Plus the last year has showed me that I need the discipline imposed by non-elasticized pants.

  58. Gail*

    I really like how my company has handled our return to the office. Before covid, we had no work from home policy at all. With covid, we moved to completely remote.

    They’ve now created categories that go from always in the office to completely remote. My job category was in office at least two days a week. Honestly, while I’d prefer completely remote just for maximum flexibility, two days a week is in no way a burden.

  59. Writes About Teapots*

    I am quitting because of my employer’s WFH policy. All my boss has wanted to do all pandemic was get back in the office and “return to normal,” but they couldn’t because the corporation who owns our unit was actually being responsible about WFH.

    Now that restrictions are lifting, there’s no plan, no idea of how hybrid (mandated by the corp) will work, and many employees have relocated to locations that are not close to the office, which is in OMG expensive Santa Monica.

    I have no interest in living in LA post-pandemic, so I started looking. Found several places more than happy to offer permanent WFH, and I start my new role next month. Super excited, but when I told my boss, he just said he couldn’t understand why I would want to leave.

  60. Bye Felicia!*

    I’m ambivalent on where I work, but I care about how I’m treated while I’m there. While my company technically handled the pandemic well (followed guidelines, WFH for those that can, extra protocols for those that can’t) the reality is that our management gave their worst impulses free reign over the last 18 months. Half my team has already quit or been fired for pushing back on things that open us up to legal liability, and the rest of us are actively looking.

  61. not an accountant.*

    I’ve been seriously considering quitting in response to my employer’s new work from home policy. We’ll be in 3 days and home 2 days, which is a huge improvement over where we were before (10 days a year). However, how they presented the plan really rubbed me the wrong way: a flat rule, no manager flexibility, “this is just how it is.”

    I don’t approach my job that way and especially haven’t while working from home – I’ve been flexible, working more hours, etc. I don’t want to sound like a snowflake, but I want some of the same flexibility I give to my job. More than ever, I think of my job as a mutual partnership and if an employer doesnt treat it that way, I’ll consider looking elsewhere.

    1. Never Boring*

      Seriously. We have been told that our industry (law) is “different” and requires collaborative work, so we need to be in the office. Ummm, no, actually, law isn’t different. I know lots of lawyers who are now fully remote and live in different states from their teams. And we have been collaborating quite effectively while working 100% remotely. It’s the inflexibility of upper management (not my immediate bosses) that really irks me. They are going to start bleeding people if they don’t get more flexible. We will be required to come to the office 3x a week starting in mid-July, and a new telecommuting policy will be announced in September. My immediate bosses are hinting that the new policy will be more flexible than the pre-pandemic policy. We shall see.

  62. Grace*

    My company is leaning towards an office-first hybrid model after a company-wide survey, and the current goal is to have people spending ~60% of their time in-office, with priority access for the sales and account management teams.

    I live alone and, despite being a massive introvert, have really suffered from constant WFH. It’s not as simple as just “get a hobby so you don’t need to socialise at work” – there’s a big difference between a scheduled hour or two of intense socialising versus just being in the same space as other people and able to make idle small-talk occasionally. It was less of an issue when I lived with housemates at the beginning of the pandemic, but the latter half when I’ve lived alone… Yeah. A struggle. I’m regularly going days on end without ever seeing another human being, let alone speaking to one, and while I can cope with that, I’m not enjoying it.

    If my company had indicated that they were scrapping the offices altogether and doing permanent remote work, I would have been looking for another job immediately. This just isn’t sustainable for me. My productivity is massively suffering, so is my mental health. I live in a one-bed flat and my desk is right there, all the time. I’m finding myself constantly doing upwards of an hour of overtime nightly, just because I no longer have that home-office divide.

    I like having the WFH option more easily available, but if my company scrapped offices entirely, I’d be job-hunting before the announcement meeting was over.

    1. Tired of WFH*

      I could’ve written your second paragraph onwards! And I have hobbies and friends outside of work (and did before the pandemic!) so I really don’t need all the judgment of “You must be using work to meet your social needs and you shouldn’t do that.” Restrictions are basically gone in PA (except a few businesses still requiring masks, and even some of them with a mask sign up aren’t enforcing it at this point) and I still feel burned out on remote work.

  63. AlexandrinaVictoria*

    Our CEO lives in the 1950’s, and has always said that we would never have remote working because of confidentiality issues (What if a neighbor comes over to borrow a cup of sugar and sees your computer screen? Buh?) and that in-person collaboration is too important. I only have one other person on my team that’s local….the rest are in 5 different states. What difference does it make if I’m on Zoom from my desk in the office or at home? He also proudly stated that Corporate would never close for weather, making people choose between taking vacation time or driving in blizzards or ice storms. Now that we’ve proven that we CAN work from home, and not lose productivity, I will seriously consider looking elsewhere if we can’t at least have some flexibility about hybrid working. And I’m never driving in the ice again, that’s for sure!

    1. Amber T*

      WFH was never really an option pre-pandemic, at least for my team. If you weren’t working in the office, the assumption was made you weren’t working. My car got broken into and was out of commission for a few days (I was NOT going to be driving on the highway with busted windows, and for a variety of reasons renting a car wasn’t an option). Everyone has always had the capability of working from home, so I was still able to work full days, constantly calling or emailing or IMing colleagues to let them know I’m available. And yet, even though I had worked with him on multiple things on the phone and via email, the head of my dept asked me how my vacation was when I got back. It was infuriating.

      The general consensus on my team now is that no one is going to be driving in in the snow or really bad weather, and we’re going to push to work from home more if we have a plumber coming, or a kid is out sick, or we have a doctors appt near home. Enough of my colleagues have enough standing on our team to tell our dept head “hey, this is how we want things,” and dept head is going to grumble but he’ll hopefully give in.

    2. Jessie*

      Do you work at my company? ;)

      My team is about 50/50 east coast/west coast, with a few individuals scattered elsewhere, and until the pandemic happened it was “no remote work ever”. So meetings looked like five of us joining Zooms from adjacent cubicles with maybe one or two people from elsewhere. Or my boss Zooming from his office literally around the corner. The echo/delay was an audio nightmare when you could hear someone talk – and then hear it in your headphones 3 seconds later. Fortunately they’ve gone hybrid, at least.

    3. No clever name*

      Your remark about using PTO during ice storms makes me wonder if we work for the same company. Except we’ve already been given our answer about WFH flexibility, they’ve called everyone back in, and as a result we’ve had a lot of people resign.

  64. LetMeStayHome*

    I’ve been looking for a new job, one of the things I’m looking for is the ability to work from home the majority of the time or (hopefully) full time.
    My current job is in the process of bringing people back into the office, and I’m not looking forward to the constant looking over our shoulders, but they never wanted us to work from home anyway (its a call center job, the office is not necessary, IMO).

  65. Feral At This Point*

    Started a new job about 4 yrs ago that was a good combination of work travel & WFH, with a 2-4 day in office visit (official office is in another state from where I live) to keep the in-person relationships alive and well. LOVE this set up! I can’t see myself ever being willing to go back into an office 5 days a week, the commute, dealing with all of the interpersonal drama that is much easier to ignore from home, and the lack of work/life balance. I’d take a pay cut before I’d do that again …

    1. Both In and out*

      This is my ideal as well. Had it for years until I landed at a company who refused to allow WFH until Covid hit, then had to pivot. Got laid off, then got a job that started remote of course. Company thrived and expanded since, and declared that there will be no additional office space so WFH will be permanent for some teams. Mine included. Quitting to get back to a flex/hybrid scenario.

  66. Damn it, Hardison*

    I wouldn’t immediately leave my company if I was required to return to the office full time, but I would be open to other offers that were 100% WFH. My company is having voluntary returns, and the expectation in my immediate team is that everyone will be in the office a couple of days a week. However, since we are on different coasts and countries, we aren’t all in the same office. My only local teammate is moving and will be 100% remote, so I will probably go in just once a week. I joined during the pandemic so I’ve only known WFH here, but it sounds like company was flexible before the pandemic and is becoming even more flexible after discovering that WFH didn’t have a negative impact on productivity. I definitely appreciate their position, and admit that it would be hard to go into the office every day (ugh, the commute!) after having an entire year as WFH.

  67. CC*

    My current employer is formalizing the hybrid WFH policy we’ve been following due to the circumstances of this past year. I like the hybrid model, and would prefer not to go 100% on-site or WFH. If my employer decided to do one or the other, however, I’d be a little disappointed, but would not quit over it. I have way too much invested here (14+ years) and like my job and my employer. If I look for a new job, WFH will definitely be a consideration but not a requirement. It may even open up new opportunities that I wouldn’t be able to consider because of the commute.

  68. Jack Straw*

    It will absolutely be a factor for me in future job searches. I never thought I’d like WFH, but after doing it for two different jobs (furloughed mid-2020 and then hired remotely in the fall of 2020), I can say that it depends on the role. I won’t actively seek out WFH jobs, but it wouldn’t automatically be something that ruled out a job with many other points in it’s favor.

    Both of my WFH jobs were individual contributor roles. Job 1 was with a small org (10 people) that didn’t have a decent not-in-person communication method (Teams, Skype, etc.). Employees ended up texting each other, emailing, and a few of us set up Skype accounts. I also didn’t have specific deadlines for most things and didn’t collaborate with my coworkers much. Job 1 was an awful WFH experience. I couldn’t get answers until the following day or two days later in some cases.

    Job 2 was a good WFH experience. Larger org (5000+ employees) with and already established use of Teams, so communication was easy both in test and via calls. As they return people to the office though, I’ve asked to return in July. I’m the first person on my team of six to ask to go back. I may be the only won back until the org forces the issue, but they are taking a slow approach and I don’t anticipate that happening until 2022.

    1. Jack Straw*

      Ugh, Typos.

      Larger org (5000+ employees) with an already established use of Teams, so communication was easy both via text and via calls. As they return people to the office though, I’ve asked to return in July. I’m the first person on my team of six to ask to go back. I may be the only one

  69. Ground Control*

    I don’t feel strongly enough about working from home that I’d want to quit if I was forced back to the office full time. But I haven’t found any better-paying options in my niche field over the past few years of passive job searching so quitting wouldn’t really be an option anyways.

    1. Screaming into the Void*

      This. I’m pretty open to whatever home/office balance the employer wants, because jobs in my field (or closely adjacent) are so scarce. Sigh. I wish I could be picky, but I’ve been job searching since before the pandemic and just don’t feel I have the luxury of caring more about this particular issue.

    2. Mynona*

      Me too. Niche field with 100s of candidates for every opening in an industry impacted by the pandemic. My “choice” is to leave the field if I don’t like my employer’s exploitative practices. WFH is so low on my list of issues that it doesn’t even rate.

  70. Anon HR*

    This is a major problem at our workplace right now. We’re in adult education with quite a few vocational courses that can’t be taught at home. Also, a lot of our students have problems with technology or their English so some need to hand in their application forms in person. This means that some employees must work at the office with only rare WFH in emergencies. Others could work flexibly. Management has instead decided to have everyone in the office 100% of the time to be ‘fair’ to everyone. Meanwhile, most of our employees understand that different roles have different requirements. We’ve already lost 2 employees. I know that more turnover is coming.

    1. Aggretsuko*

      My office did say that it’s not fair to force some of us to work 100% in the office (that’ll be my group) and 0% for the rest, but that is most likely how it’s going to shake out because my chunk of the office is public service and the other offices luckily get to avoid other people.

  71. Maggie*

    I have been in a remote TA role since the breakout of the pandemic. My job now is requiring all employees to come back on site. I am definitely searching for a new remote job. I have been happy in my position for the past 6 years, and very proud of the work we do, but the lack of flexibility on this topic, has forced me to re-think my priorities. I have been very successful working remotely, more so than when I was on site, and with this job market, now is the time to make that move.

  72. Female-type Person*

    I wouldn’t quit over being forced to return, but it would certainly impact how many more years I will work before retirement. I did not initially like it, but I came to really enjoy it and appreciate the advantages and the ability to entertain myself with hobbies when there was low demand for what I do (and a lot of what I do is wait for someone to need my services). Happily, I’ve been allowed to transition to a “come when you need to” model, that puts me in the driver seat. Without this change, I probably would have retired in another 18 months. I can now see going for several more years.

  73. Office at home, not home office*

    I’m considering this right now. I’ve had such improvements to my health and well-being while working from home that I will probably find another job if I’m required to go back to the office 5 days a week. I’m not willing to go back to the exhaustion and overwhelmed feelings I had before, especially when there is no business need at all for it. I’m more productive working at home – my boss has even said this. I have some challenges with limited energy and if I have too much “background” energy drag I don’t perform well. I prefer spending my brain energy actually doing my job vs. driving downtown, parking, etc. Most of the people I work with are in other cities, and I have a well-equipped dedicated office at home and no one at home to interrupt me. I’m happy to go in for important meetings and the like, but not as a routine thing 5 days/week.

  74. SidonieThorne*

    I got permission to move several states away work full-time remote in order to be with my fiance a few months *before* the pandemic, fortunately. It’s been really good for my productivity and mental health– before the move, my department was near the break room, with the ensuing sounds/ food smells/ everyone stopping by to chat even when we had headphones on. Half-height cubicles: an absolute nightmare.

    My previous manager’s policy had been “you can only work at home *maybe* one day a week or every other week, it needs to be the same one every time, and it can’t be Monday or Friday.” I think there was some concern about people sneaking three-day weekends (fair enough if they’d been burned), but there was absolutely no reason for the rest of it (I’m in tech writing). My current manager has been a lot more flexible, and I think the pandemic has only boosted that.

    I’d consider a new job that wanted people in the office 2-3 days a week if the location was right; some in-person meetings really can smooth things along. But with all the improvements I’ve made while working from home, I think I’d turn down an offer from a company/team that was rigid about being in the office *every* day. More and more as I talk to my teammates, I think that “in the office all day every day regardless of whether you have meetings or need to collaborate” is just a controlling power move or sign of bad management.

  75. Amber T*

    They’ve brought everyone back to the office 4 days a week now, with one day “permanently” working from home. I grumbled, and I much prefer working from home for time/cost saving reasons, but it’s becoming the new norm again so it’s not that bad. Admittedly, when they gave us the definitive date of returning back to the office, I looked through job openings that offered remote work, but now that I’m back, I’m okay with it. Still looking forward to Fridays where we work from home, and sincerely hoping people will work from home when they’re sniffily/minorly sick (and management doesn’t pressure them otherwise).

  76. Chainsaw Bear*

    If my job decided to go remote full-time, I would look for a new one. I’ve discovered I really like having at least a couple days in the office a week to see and talk to coworkers, both socially and for talking out work issues. However, that’s definitely also influenced by my current living situation. Since I’m in a small apartment, I never got a permanent desk set up since I didn’t want one in my bedroom. If I took a new job with a permanent hybrid schedule, it would only be if I had a designated office at home. Going back to full time in the office would definitely be an adjustment, but I don’t mind it.

  77. Hiring Mgr*

    In my case, the labor market has already spoken. We’re still remote but the plan has been to return after labor day – as I’m hiring though we’ve lost a few candidates who want full remote. So we got the higher ups to be more flexible and allow WFH – had to do it to get the best candidates (and in the role I’m hiring for it doesn’t matter)

  78. Over It*

    tbh, I’ve been frustrated with all of these articles recently talking about how employees are quitting in droves instead of following their employers’ mandate to come back to the office–it makes it seem like this is a super common phenomena when it isn’t really accessible to most people. People are justified in feeling however they feel about being asked to come back to the office/staying remote indefinitely and should absolutely advocate with their employer to try to find a situation that works for them. But most people don’t have the resources to just leave if they’re unhappy without something else lined up. So the tl;dr for me is that I’d likely start job searching if I was unhappy with my employer’s WFH/in-office policies, but I’d be prepared to stay at my job for several months to a year+ until I found a new job purely out of financial necessity.

    1. Aggretsuko*

      Right. I’m really surprised that THAT MANY can quit with no job lined up. Really?

      Honestly, I don’t think my office would care if people started leaving over this, though. They had people leaving before when the office wasn’t flexible about things and everyone is replaceable, after all.

    3. Epsilon Delta*

      I read an article that proposed that a lot of the excess quitting is possibly people who were waiting out 2020, which had a record low number of people quitting. So it’s higher than we’d expect because we’re seeing a lot of people who would have quit last year quitting now instead. And I think a lot of people are finding it easier to find a new job right now, so they’re not necessarily quitting with nothing lined up (not everyone, certainly, but a good proportion of industries are still short workers).

      1. Over It*

        I agree that many or most people who are quitting over return to office policies probably have other remote jobs lined up, and that’s perfectly good and fine. The issue I have is more around the narratives being presented. Every time I’ve read an article about people being told to return to the office, and I have read several, the authors exclusively interview people who chose to quit their job and start their own remote freelance business, or drop out of the workforce entirely. It feels like this is being presented as such an obvious solution to the problem, when in reality it’s unattainable for most people.

        1. Over It*

          This is also not to mention huge swaths of the population who work in jobs where remote work isn’t an option, and how (with the very notable exception of doctors who deserve every penny they made this pandemic) these jobs on average skew much lower income than people who could potentially WFH. That’s not at all an argument against moving toward remote work for jobs where it’s an option. I’m all for flexibility and increasing happiness at work. But we really need to diversify what narratives around work in 2021 look like.

          1. L in DC*

            Agree. I work in a field where physically being seen is a core tenant of our culture. Some can do work remotely but it’s not the norm and being in-person will always be the default. Our “CEO” unequivocally stated that we “cannot accomplish our outcomes remotely; period” We also tend to skew economically lower.

            I will be leaving this line of work soon and it will be new for me to consider being fully remote. I would probably prefer hybrid because I’ve found that I need a clear delineation between work and home. I feel like working from home is an encroachment on my life and makes work mentally harder to do, and conversely I don’t like conducting personal business while I’m at the office. Weirdly, my commute is useful because it allows me time to transition between the two.

  79. LilacLily*

    As someone with ADHD who’s been struggling and is really looking forward to returning to the office, I’m torn. On one hand I’m happy that my colleagues with long commutes will get to choose whether they’d like to return or not, but on the other I’m a single young woman who lives by herself and I really enjoyed getting ready for the day, walking to the office, seeing everyone in the morning, having people around so I could easily reach out for help, plus all the office perks, like the free snacks and drinks and the Friday pub hangouts. Just thinking about how empty the office will be and how these perks may never return (but also how we’ll keep on having awkward Zoom team meetings) kinda depresses me. Also, I hate hot desking, but I know will be inevitable once we change office spaces in order to adapt to the amount of people migrating to near-permanent remote working.

    So yes, I have thought about looking for a job that has most or a least a good part of its employees in
    the office in the near future, but at the same time I think that it’s important for companies to have a flexible working from home policy, so I worry about moving on to an unwielding company that doesn’t treat its employees fairly. It’s tough. My office hasn’t yet reopened (I’m in the UK) so we’ll see how things go.

    1. Tau*

      I hear you (no ADHD – I think – but am autistic and have some very similar problems). I feel lucky that it seems most of my colleagues are interested in working in the office – there are some who want full-time remote but they’re a clear minority, most people have been talking about 1-3 WFH days per week – because working in the office with other people around is in fact my ideal environment. WFH has been miserable, but going to an empty office wouldn’t be much better. And I’m not looking forward to hot desking but I have no idea how we could possibly avoid it without mandating in-office time, which I don’t want because I want my coworkers to have the flexibility!

      1. LilacLily*

        Yup! Exactly this. No matter how much I hate hotdesking, I don’t see a way around it either.

        I’m supper happy that your coworkers are all on the same boat as you are. My issue right now is that I work for a small team – we’re five atm, hopefully will go up to either seven or eight soon – and three of us have said they’d like to WFH permanently, only having to go to the office occasionally, whereas another said they’d like to WFH three days a week, meaning I was the only one really itching to go back, which really bums me out :( so even if I go back to the office the things I like about it are most likely not coming back and I don’t know how to feel about that. I’m willing to wait and see how things play out as the office reopens, but I’ll admit I’m worried.

        1. Tau*

          One thing on the hotdesking – you might be able to talk to your company and ask if you can get an assigned desk because you’re planning to be in the office nearly 100% of the time? A previous company I worked for did something like that when they implemented hotdesking.

          But that sucks with your team :( Definitely a pity if nobody you work closely with is going to be there. Maybe the permanent WFH people would be up for the occasional Friday pub evening, but I hear you that it’s still not the same.

  80. CatCat*

    Probably not right away, but I would like to eventually move away from my current city (and its suburbs). I also want more flexibility with helping aging relatives that live outside my city. Not around the clock type of care, but help with errands, cooking, and cleaning after a surgery, injury, or illness. I went and stayed with one relative for a month and no one even noticed my location had changed while the work would still got done. Full-time remote work would afford me these options.

    1. CatCat*

      And as the only person on my team at the office location in my city (we have offices in different cities), I am not sympathetic to the hum of “we need opportunities for spontaneous collaboration/dropping by the office/chatting at the water cooler” buzzing around. If you want a collaborative culture, then work on building it for everyone. I would be interested in seeing an article about what employers can do to build a collaborative culture with remote workers.

      1. Rebeck*

        Yes! This! It’s SO frustrating to hear all this “yay, corridor conversations, yay collaboration” when for the last twelve months those of us not in the main office have, for the first time, been included in trainings, farewells and consultations, generally been acknowledged as existing, and so all I hear when people say “we can’t wait to get back to normal” is “can’t wait to go back to ignoring a quarter of our staff again.”

        (Not helped by the fact that there is NO travel budget now, so that we can’t actually go to the main office for face to face at all where we used to go occasionally, even once we’re willing/able to travel again.)

  81. KD*

    I looked for and started working at a new job during the pandemic in publishing. It was part of the discussion/negotiation that it would be possible to have part time in office and part time from home permanently. I’ve been remote so far but will start going into the office half-time this summer. I like working from home, but there are some projects where it’s easier to sit together physically and work on things together.

  82. christine*

    I’d look for a new job if we went remote full-time. My home doesn’t have an office in it; it has a dining room that’s been my office for 15 months. I want *some* work from home days–the flexibility is great, not having to commute is great, there are tons of benefits. But ultimately, I need to get out of the house sometimes, and I need work out of my house, too.

  83. Marie*

    WFH this past year has been so amazing for many things in my life- I’m sleeping better, less stressed, my productivity is through the roof, my house is cleaner…. and on and on. There are some downsides too- I miss being around people, my activity level is way down (a lot easier to go to the gym every day when it’s on your way home from work), I have to actually plan to have food around for lunch vs. walking to a restaurant for takeout or taking advantage of catering leftovers. However, all of those downsides are things that I can easily control for myself, whereas all of those upsides are things that I cannot get back if I go back to the office.

    I’m a consultant, so I’m in a slightly different boat given that our clients dictate what they want from us vs. it just being my direct employer. Right now, I’m at a client that is in a different part of the state, so I would be WFH even if that client went back to five days a week in-office (they’re going back to 2 days a week starting in September).

    If I changed clients to a client that wanted me in the office more than twice a week? Absolutely no way. Two days a week would be pushing it, honestly- I live in the DC Metro area and do NOT miss commuting at all. I don’t mind the idea of going into the office occasionally, as the camaraderie is great and it’s nice getting in a room together and bouncing ideas off of each other. That being said, I would absolutely quit immediately if they tried to push me back to working in the office. My husband and I talked about it, and he feels the same way in his job. We’ve got enough money saved and I have a strong enough skill set that I’m positive I could find another job in a timely manner, and so I’m not worried about the consequences to taking a stand. However, I highly doubt my company is going to push that on us, since there were a lot of employees who moved during the pandemic, and our talent pool is highly skilled and so are all poised to take other jobs pretty much immediately if pressed.

  84. Mike*

    Software engineer. Remote has been life-changing for me, in a positive way. Having two hours of commute time back for my own purposes every single day is just mind-blowingly incredible. If they tried to force us back in the office, I’d be talking to recruiters within the hour.

    (Thankfully, it looks like they’re not going to do that. I am still worried that we’re going to do some poorly-thought-through “hybrid” thing that leads to a lot of chaos and confusion for a few months until we get it figured out, but oh well, probably lots of companies will go through those pains as everyone learns how to make hybrid work by making all the mistakes upfront.)

    1. Nicki Name*

      Same situation here, with about the same length of commute. Of course, part of it would be that now we all know a lot of the tech industry is fine with full-time remote work, so I know that I would be able to find a similar position with similar pay and benefits that does allow it.

      I’m also lucky that I don’t have to contemplate it right now. My company is having to look for a new office anyway (for non-pandemic-related reasons), and since over half of us said in a survey that we’d prefer permanent WFH, we’ve already been assured that the new office won’t be big enough for all of us anyway.

  85. Lizzybee*

    100% – in fact I’m in the negotiation stage with a competitor offering my my exact job with the exact same benefits/pay/ect…but I can work from home. I’m genuinely sad to leave my job as I love the company and the people, but we have an “old school” CEO who doesn’t seem to want to budge on the issue. And I’m not the only one! Every person (save 1) in an adjacent department has left over this issue. It’s madness and it’s REALLY going to affect the business. For background, I have a job where I sit in a cubicle and rarely interact with anyone. So why do I have to go to the office to do that? I’d have even been happy with a hybrid. But nope! So…off I go.

  86. Sam*

    I left my job of 6 years in 2020 in part because of their insistence on returning to the office. It was really a sign of bigger issues – poor management meant our senior leaders felt like they needed to see employees at desks in order to measure productivity.

    I wasn’t planning to leave, but when a job ad was posted for a local company already known for their strong work culture, and the ad said the position would be permanently remote, I decided to apply. Alison’s advice on applications and interviews helped me get an offer and helped me confirm that we were a good mutual fit. It’s been a wonderful 8 months so far and I’m so glad!

    I feel like this job is “spoiling” me for future jobs. There’s so much flexibility – on work environment, hours, and approach to work. There are commensurately high standards but it’s a joy to collaborate with hard-working, passionate colleagues on important projects we get to own. I have no plans to go anywhere anytime soon. If I do ever find myself job-hunting, I’ll be looking for remote work – or an office with an incredibly trusting, open culture. I can’t go back to being micromanaged ever again, and refusing to let us WFH was a symptom of that.

  87. Crivens!*

    Note that my job started remote and has no business reason to be done in-office.

    Also note that I am privileged enough that we could comfortably live off of my husband’s salary while I job searched and/or worked part-time.

    Absolutely I would. Between extra sleep, not having to worry about travel time, not having to actually be on the El or bus, and having alternatives to “staring at a screen” when work is slow, work-from-home has been a huge boon to my sanity that I have no interest in giving up.

  88. BugSwallowersAnonymous*

    I’d prefer to have a hybrid schedule going forward, and I’d be annoyed to never be able to WFH, but I don’t think I’d quit over it. Mostly because I like my coworkers, we have a small office (less than 10 people), and my commute is only 20 minutes. If I had a longer commute or a bigger office I might feel differently.

  89. Former call centre worker*

    I would possibly quit if we went to 100% work from home permanently – it’s too isolating and makes it more difficult to familiarise yourself with colleagues.

    I moved to a new department on the day my employer put in place a work from home rule last year, so I haven’t met or got to know most of my colleagues.

    I would be OK with 100% office based but I prefer the flexibility of being able to work at home when I have a reason to. Thankfully my employer already allowed some working from home for roles that aren’t location-sensitive.

  90. KayEss*

    I wouldn’t quit immediately if WFH became permanent, but it would probably be a contributing factor to whenever I decide to leave. Whether I could arrange a satisfactory coworking space outside my home would be key.

    I do a job that could easily be entirely remote, and a lot of my coworkers are angling for full remote status… but I just hate it. At home my attention wanders, I get tired more easily during the day and wind up shifting my work hours late into the night (which wrecks my sleep schedule), and I’m just a crabby, dirty gremlin 24/7. Basically my whole daily life has become a mess over the past year and I’m just hanging on by a thread until they reopen the office.

  91. insert pun here*

    I have been full time WFH since March 2020, and I would absolutely start looking for a new job if I were told to remain fully remote post-covid. 1-2 days a week wfh would be okay, but my preference is to be in the office 5 days a week (which is likely what will happen.) I wouldn’t quit on the spot or anything, but full-time WFH would definitely push me out the door.
    98% of my job can be done while remote, I just really need the separation between home and work. (I will note that my employer is requiring vaccinations, which definitely makes me feel much safer.)

  92. ObservantServant*

    I have worked remotely for about 10 years, the last 8 at a fully remote small business just past the start-up stage. The owner stated when I was hired that they hoped to open an office eventually. I’ve told them that being in an office is something I’m not interested in full time, especially since it would add hours to my day as the location would certainly be in the opposite corner of the large metropolitan area we live in. If it ever happens, I might be OK with having to go in a few times a month but would absolutely be looking for a new job if it was any more than that.

  93. Dino*

    I was working in K-12 and continued until Dec 2020, when talk of going back to in-person started. I didn’t trust the district/state/families to actually follow social distancing and PPE, and realized that after working from home I didn’t want to be back in person in K-12. So I switched to a different setting (still doing my same job, but serving different clients) where WFH is possible with restrictions. I haven’t applied for WFH yet because I don’t mind going into my specific office, but essentially the end of WFH in schools meant I changed jobs.

  94. OliveJuice90*

    I love working remotely, but I’m also fine to work in person. What I’m not fine with is my workplace’s total lack of flexibility after our return date in late July. WFH will not be possible at all and I work in higher ed with a brutal commute and an awful parking situation. I have already been applying for jobs at the much closer (50% less drive time) but less prestigious university that my spouse works at. WFH mostly taught me that a ridiculous commute is absolutely not worth it in my personal case. I don’t need to work from home, but if I can at all avoid it, I want an hour or less of my day dedicated to a commute for the rest of my career.

  95. Aggretsuko*

    I think quitting is for people who have options. It’s become quite clear over the years of job hunting that I have none.

    1. New Senior Mgr*

      I’m so sorry. I hope you have a turn of events really soon and maybe realize there are some,

  96. Lacey*

    I love my job, so if they had asked us to come back in, I would have done it even though I much prefer working from home.

    My office has unexpectedly been extremely accommodating of people’s preference and many people have chosen to work from home permanently, so I haven’t had to make that choice.

    But what it has done is cement in place that I would be extremely unwilling to leave this job.

  97. Janie*

    I reached this point years before the pandemic and I negotiated a WFH arrangement as a condition of accepting my current job. The nature of my work means that most of my professional interactions are with folks outside of my corporate offices–I spent years commuting for hours each day only to sit alone (surrounded by the noise of ppl I didn’t work with). And that commute meant no time for all the other things in life that are important.
    If I were to consider changing jobs, the ability to WFH most days would be a requirement. Fortunately, in my subfield, everything was moving in that direction anyway–a few years ago at a conference, a group of us took an informal poll and discovered that almost no one in our roles were in the office 5 days a week anymore.
    I will add that working at home has not harmed my career. In fact, once I wasn’t so burned out from the commute and the stress of having to work AFTER I got home (because of so many office distractions), and had the time in my life for things that make me happy, my work quality increased dramatically, I had time to develop new skills, and I’ve been promoted multiple times.

  98. ILoveWFH*

    I actually just did. My company’s plan to return to full time in office, coupled with moving the office to a much less convenient location for me, was a major reason I just quit for a job that will let me work remote the majority of the time. It’s been a huge weight off my mind to not have to worry about how to manage a 2 hour commute each way with my already unsustainable workload at this current job.

  99. DrivenCreative*

    I’ve been working for a small company in a niche industry for six years. I worked from the main office, in a small-medium sized town that many (maybe most?) would consider undesirable outside of the plains states, for just over three years. For the last year of that, my direct supervisor was remote. When my personal life changed, I desired a shift to remote and was able to do that. I was the fourth full-time member of our small staff of about 30 to be remote, and the first to transition from in-office. I’m still working for the company almost three years later, though working for a different remote supervisor. There are now 12 of us on the “remote staff” including the CEO and three other executive-level directors. There’s always been a little resentment from those working exclusively from the office, and I don’t think COVID helped that as the office closing for about two months coincided with a furlough of 75% of the staff. With the exception of 2020, the remote staff does travel to the office at least once a quarter. I do believe our company is past the point of being able to return to 100% in-person but I’m interested to watch the culture shift and see if we can overcome the resentment that occurs between the in-person and remote staffs.

  100. Escaped a Work Cult*

    I’ve been required to be in the office over the pandemic, despite being clearly non-essential (project management can and will happen remotely). I negotiated a WFH day but now that everyone is returning, my WFH day will end. There are other factors of why I will leave but the lack of flexibility for hybrid work is the main reason why I’m job searching.

    1. Project Problem Solver*

      Good lord, project management, really? I mean, we’re essentially, but not essential to be in person. I’ve been PMing remotely for several years now.

      1. Escaped a Work Cult*

        My boss was one of those people who wanted someone around them in order to feel like they were getting things done. My team is still remote, I have no reason to be here. That’s why I am looking to jump into a different environment all remotely.

        Don’t even get me started how methodologies are being bashed over here. We’re doing 1 day sprints, pseudo Scrum, and any pleas to drop the other meetings and do a stand-up meeting and Kanban boards only is being rejected. “Have to learn the basics of this current system.” Boss, no one has caught on to this system in the last YEAR, we need to swap.

        Again, job searching time!

  101. HarvestKaleSlaw*

    My thoughts: Work from home is going okay for me right now (advantages and disadvantages), but I had a lot of time before it started to build capital. I would be worried, right now, starting a new job fully remote. The work I do usually involves establishing myself as a resource at places that have not had someone in my role before. In the first few months on a job, that means training people on how to use me and what I can bring to their company. I kind of have to push my way into things and say, “I can take this off your plate,” or “There’s a faster way to do that.” I have to teach people that I am responsive and unflappable.

    I know how to do all that in an office environment, but remote, there is a lot less chance to overhear things, be right there in the field of vision when someone is wondering about something, catch someone when they are free to ask “so how has Company typically handled x/y/z?” I work for smaller companies typically, where if you don’t make sure people know your capabilities, you can get shunted into an admin role. Admin work is a great job and actually my background, but it’s not the direction I am looking to grow in.

    I am not looking to switch jobs right now (I’m at a great company), but if I were, I would feel like I actually had less power right now to leave. I would be trading a job where I have a solid reputation built for one where it would be tough to establish myself.

    1. Both In and out*

      I agree with you. I started a job last year and it took way longer to gel with my team not having met them, and in some cases never having seen them on video. Building capital takes longer. And I’ve done fully remote work before with my teams not in the same location. But pre Covid, I could fly them out once a year or so and have a work planning session where we’d get so much accomplished in person in 2 days with a dinner and beer, that we’d feed off that for months of increased productivity and good will. I like WFH but prefer some in person engagement in a hybrid situation.

  102. 3DogNight*

    We have been working from home for 4 days a week for almost 10 years. When covid hit, it was an easy transition to be FTR. If our company required us to come back into the office more than 1 day a week, I’d look for a new job. Honestly, if they asked us to come in for more than the occasional all hands meeting, I’d probably start looking. WFH is a big part of why I have not done more to move into a more managerial role. I’m not sure the in-person part of the job is worth the trade off, for me.
    Our company is taking the return to office very cautiously, and our culture is very inclusive and understanding, so I’m expecting no big changes.

  103. sequitur*

    I’d definitely be looking around if I couldn’t work remotely at least three days each week, but fortunately my company has already committed to hybrid working after the pandemic (and the way they’re structuring it means I probably won’t need to go in more often than everyone 1-2 weeks, which is pretty much perfectly aligned with my personal preferences).

  104. calonkat*

    I’m realizing how much more productive I was when my energy didn’t have to be spent being social. I’m very introverted, and didn’t miss in person social interaction until about 3 months into the lockdown (and I lived alone and had no pets then!) I’m absolutely exhausted at the end of workdays now, even though I sit in a cubicle and most days only talk to people on the phone and through email/zoom (even team members due to social distancing requirements. ) Just having to be around people is exhausting and after a year + of having energy at the end of the day, I’m really disgusted that WFH isn’t even a possibility now. I’m nearly 60, so only 8+ years until retirement (I have limited savings and this job is the first I’ve ever had with retirement benefits). But if another governmental agency with the same benefits package offered me work from home (with occasional in office), I’d probably jump at it.

  105. Two Chairs, One to Go*

    I worked for a fully remote company that got bought by a larger one (take as old as time). While we’re still for the most part a dispersed, remote team, there’s no opportunity for growth because you have to live near an office to apply for a different position. So yes, I’m thinking I might need to find another company if I want to make a change.

  106. At home with work*

    Of course employees choose. The working from home factor might be newly available to more people but there’s nothing new about choosing to work for a company based on the work environment, culture, location etc. I should add though, I’m not American and there isn’t such narrative going in here because the idea of employees not having that voice just doesn’t make sense here. It’s almost laughable.

  107. TWW*

    For me the answer is “yes.” I wouldn’t quit on the spot, but I would start applying for other jobs.

    My preference, by the way, is to work in office. And it’s not just a matter of what I want, it’s also a question of what’s possible for me. My 2-bedroom apartment is too small to WFH, and I wouldn’t qualify to rent a 3-bedroom anywhere in my area unless my salary increased by 10%.

  108. Exhausted Trope*

    I’ve been seriously considering what I really need in a job: flexibility, short or no commute, wfh options, skill building. I would absolutely not consider any positions that don’t allow at least partial wfh. I need that kind of flexibility in my life now and with a dedicated home office, there’s no reason to look at companies that don’t allow it. My current employer still allows wfh but I’m waiting for the day when they end it and I’ll definitely try to negotiate at least 2 wfh days. It’s that important to me.

  109. Just Another HR Pro*

    I absolutely would, although luckily that has not been the case for me. Every time the terms and conditions of your employment change, you may need to reevaluate whether or not the job is still a good fit. For most people, choosing a job isn’t just about the money, but also the other perks and details such as WFH, commute, etc. For me? I am not a huge fan of WFH, so if my office were to go 100% remote, sadly I would have to consider leaving, even though the benefits here are great, I love my coworkers, and this is exactly the work-life balance I am looking for. Im one of those odd-balls who doesn’t see a better work-life balance workign from home. Plus – I have a closet full of beautiful clothes, shoes and handbags that I am just not wearing.

    It has happened to me several times in my career, and it is usually more in cases where your office moves to a new location. Living in a very high traffic area, commute is surely a factor. So if my office were to move closer to the city, that would make my commute a nightmare and it would most likely trigger a job search.

    So yes – I would for sure start looking for a new job if my company were to go to 100% remote.

  110. Reality Check*

    This absolutely is a deal breaker for me. It is perfectly normal in my industry to WFH, but my current employer doesn’t trust us. At all. Last year, while everyone else was home, we still had to come in half a day. They were overheard talking about pay cuts because “they won’t work as hard at home, so why should we pay them the same?” And the instant our state came off lockdown last May, it was right back to the office full time.

    The deal is broken. I’m actively looking for something else. I’m seeking the obvious perks of WFH, and also to escape this mentality. It’s insulting.

    1. Reality Check*

      To clarify – we spent 1/2 day WFH and 1/2 day at office during our state’s brief lockdown.

      1. Rusty Shackelford*

        How was that supposed to make a difference? Were you split so half of you worked in the am and half in the pm?

        They were overheard talking about pay cuts because “they won’t work as hard at home, so why should we pay them the same?”

        Ugh. I hope you find something new soon.

        1. Reality Check*

          Yes we were split in 2 groups. Half at office in a.m. the other half at home. At lunchtime we swapped places. This had the effect of eliminating a lunch break, since we were driving to or from. Everyone HATED this set up. Chaotic & stressful.

          As for reporting them – no. We were deemed essential, so technically no rules were being broken.

          1. Anoni*

            If there were any non-exempt people having to use their lunch breaks to commute, it might bear a closer look by the state DOL.

  111. JillianNicola*

    Personally, I moved into my first office/admin job in 2020 after working 20+ years in retail and restaurants. Retail is full of bees anyway, but after working retail during a pandemic – my office job is such a MASSIVE, life-changing improvement to my quality of life that I cannot even fathom rocking that boat. I just can’t. I totally empathize with those who have been in offices their whole working career and need/want something different than what they’ve been given – but I’ve personally bore witness to a situation that is so much worse than a commute and chatty coworkers that the thought of giving it all up to stubbornly continue working from home is a hearty laugh.

    My office is currently still exploring it’s possibilities. They sent everyone home at the beginning, then pretty quickly (a few months later) opened the office back up for those who preferred to come in. Most of the office continued to work from home by choice, but I’d say about 25-30% came back right away, and now I’d say maybe 50% is back in the office at least part-time. I could see them doing a tentative hybrid situation, but they’re also exploring the fallout that might happen if they choose to be in-office full time again. For all these reasons, I feel relatively safe, as WFH is not for me. After spending 20+ years in an industry that takes the concept of “work/life balance” and shoves it as far up your backside as it can while it laughs maniacally … now that I HAVE that balance in my life I would despise having to make my home my workplace as well. I suppose if they decided to be WFH permanently, I would have to seriously consider what other options there are available, but I’d be a bit shattered as I love my job, my boss, and my coworkers.

  112. Just Another HR Pro*

    I absolutely would, although luckily that has not been the case for me. Every time the terms and conditions of your employment change, you may need to reevaluate whether or not the job is still a good fit. For most people, choosing a job isn’t just about the money, but also the other perks and details such as WFH, commute, etc. For me? I am not a huge fan of WFH, so if my office were to go 100% remote, sadly I would have to consider leaving, even though the benefits here are great, I love my coworkers, and this is exactly the work-life balance I am looking for. Im one of those odd-balls who doesn’t see a better work-life balance working from home. Plus – I have a closet full of beautiful clothes, shoes and handbags that I am just not wearing.

    It has happened to me several times in my career, and it is usually more in cases where your office moves to a new location. Living in a very high traffic area, commute is surely a factor. So if my office were to move closer to the city, that would make my commute a nightmare and it would most likely trigger a job search.

    So yes – I would for sure start looking for a new job if my company were to go to 100% remote.

  113. MissFinance*

    I’m in the small percentage of the population that can’t get the vaccine, so my office is allowing me to remain remote for now even though everyone else is coming back. They’re asking everyone to come back mainly because of a large IT project, and then they’re going to review our WFH policy, which is very stingy unless you’re a fully remote employee. I’m not sure if at this particular company I see it as a make-up break scenario because we get four weeks PTO a year, which is pretty much unheard of. My health and dental insurance is also excellent, which is a huge deal for me because I have multiple chronic illnesses and see a bunch of specialists. My commute is only 20 minutes, and our dress code is casual, so I can wear jeans to the office. I’d rather work from home, but it’s not a make or break scenario, though I overall have definitely been healthier and more well-rested this past year.

    If my commute were longer or I didn’t have as many benefits, I would be looking for a new job.

  114. Person from the Resume*

    Probably not. I was WFH before the pandemic and it is unlikely that I will be forced back into the office. * But I have been with this organization an extremely long time and get great benefit including a pension which will allow me to retire earlier than many Americans or just retire as some friends say they think they will have to work til they die. My org kind of has me hooked because of that.

    That said I live nowhere near my organization’s office. It seems unlikely (not legally impossible but unlikely for publicity and public goodwill reasons) they could force me back and force me to move without them paying for my move. If they worked out a deal where there was a local office I could go to, I would probably agree to do so to keep my job.

    * Just after I switched to full time WFH and moved far away from any office, my organization’s policy changed unexpectedly (because of one senior leaders disapproval of WFH). Lucky me; no one saw it coming and it even contradicted highest levels encouragement for WFH when feasible. They still couldn’t force me back because daily commute to an office is impossible for me and many others. But some new employees were not yet approved for full time WFH but had made decisions to take the job based on old policy, planned to put in their initial 6 months in the office away from family, and return to their home and family as a full time WFH. Others were buying or building houses planning to go or remain full time WFH. They forced people into the office at least a few days a week if they were in commute distance.

    This was just one senior leaders opinion about WFH. And it’s silly because our teams are not organized by geographic area. Being in the office does not get you face-to-face with the people you work with daily. You still need to teleconference to all meetings except now you’re in an open office plan of a bunch of people doing that instead of a quiet house.

  115. Connor*

    I work for a marketing agency and pre-COVID, about 25% of work force was fully remote. During the pandemic, we have all been working from home. I changed roles to one that is 100% remote and I have moved out of the city where the office is located. Our agency is promising to give us the full reopening plan next month (July) but has let us know that coming back will happen in September. We expect office workers to have more flexibility than pre-pandemic (where we each got 1 WFH day per week, on a day that was assigned to us) but certain teams (creative specifically) will be expected to regularly be in the office. Some of my friends on the creative side find it very unfair that their team doesn’t have the remote work option that other teams do and have been polishing their resumes and portfolios because of this.

  116. singlemaltgirl*

    i enjoy working from home but i know that it doesn’t make sense in all circumstances and for the work i do presently, my staff do need to be in the office since we serve clients in person (mental health). we can’t affordably ensure encrypted, secure, services for tele-health and virtual services for multiple sites (ie everyone’s homes) without incurring a great deal of costs so this is the stuff that needs to be done in the office. some of our work is field work – off site – and for those individuals, they come into the office 1 day a week but then have flexibility in how they schedule their time to meet the needs of the programs.

    for me, make it or break it is not wfh – but i’m not disabled nor do i need accommodations where a wfh situation would make things infinitely easier for me to do my work. my make it or break it is my management (do i have support, are they fair, are they ethical, do they put their money where their mouth is), chance to create a positive culture and address issues of inclusivity, diversity in a meaningful way (rather than slapping a policy on it and saying we’re covered). i’ve worked for too many toxic fucked up places and i’m just too old for that shit. i have a demonstrated track record and i use it. i vet my future employers just as much as they vet me.

    i think also being a woman of colour in leadership has impacted my bull shit threshold as well and what i look for. wfh is far down on the list. i want challenge, job satisfaction, a supportive environment, flexibility (in scheduling, time management, etc) and trust. those are my make it or break its.

  117. Mickey*

    Yes, I would quit over this, and I am considering how my company is handling it now. My company put out a permanent flexible working arrangement option last year including full time WFH. However, since so many people want to take advantage, the leadership team wants to walk it back. Leadership wants to now mandate 2 days in office. For me, I had arranged full time WFH with my manager since last July, and hired a fully remote team across the U.S. So working in the office means that I will sit on conference calls all day, but from our office vs. home. The company just put out a notice that you need manager +1 approval, so I put in a request… and it was denied by boss’s boss. I had included in my request a proposal for when we would be in person which was significant (time wise) and related to the work needs. Still not enough. She doesn’t envision us collaborating and working from home and wants us to sit in the office 2 days. This is regardless of whether my team or others I work with are in the same location. My boss is somewhat supportive of trying to push back and use the ‘as needed’ model. They were ok with WFH until people wanted to use the flexible work arrangements… If the 2 day regardless of needed mandate stands, I consider it a broken commitment, and I will be looking for a new role.

  118. RandomLawyer*

    I think the problem here is dealing in absolutes. I don’t understand why it has to be one or the other. I understand that for many people WFH has had great benefits in quality of life and mental health. I would not begrudge anyone who can do their jobs remotely from doing so.

    But I HATE it. I cannot state enough how over I am working from home. I don’t feel effective at my job and don’t feel like I am working to my potential. Part of that is, as stated above, I don’t feel like my employer (the “government”) has done anything to set up good work from home situations pas the (admittedly necessary) ad hoc ones the did in March 2020. But even if they had done more, I miss the camaraderie of the office. I miss being able to bounce ideas off people face to face (slack/teams just isn’t the same for me). But mostly I miss being able to have my work space laid out how I want it, and then leave it that way when I’m done working and not have to clean it up so my wife and I can have dinner. This has made the work life balance worse for me and I need the physical separation of the “where I work” and “where I live” spheres.

    I get that it is working for others, and god bless you and I’m glad for you. But this sucks for me.

  119. Respectfully, Pumat Sol*

    I have discovered that I like working remotely, though I know a large factor in that is that my husband is also working remotely. If he weren’t home, I’d be quite lonely. My current job is fully remote, permanently – though I do have the option of going into the office when it reopens if I want to. I don’t plan to and even sold my car with the expectation that I won’t. My husband will likely have to return to the office eventually, but there’s no timeline for that. In future job searches, I will be looking for a hybrid model. I don’t ever want to be back in the office 40 hours a week.

  120. Squeakrad*

    I am an adjunct lecture at two local universities. One, the state university started remote back in March of last year and is continuing primarily remote for the fall semester. So I had no issues there staying remote especially as I am older and up until recently there wasn’t a requirement that students be vaccinated.

    However the other private university I work for part-time was
    insisting that faculty go through the ADA disability process if they wanted to teach remotely.I contacted my union who was ready to go to bat for me to be able to stay remote given my age, health concerns and again lack of requirement that students be vaccinated. However, my chair made the case that since I teach primarily international students, and many of them will not be able to come to the US for study in the fall,
    I’d be granted a special remote exemption for the fall semester. That not come through or the union not been able to go to bat for me successfully, I would have seriously considered stopping work for that university. I didn’t mind applying for disability exemption but other every piece of evidence I provided,I was told “that’s not enough we need more information.” Based on that and other experiences I’ve had there, it was apparent that it was just a ploy to force people to come back into the classroom.

  121. npoqueen*

    My organization has been WfH since the start of the pandemic, and there’s a good chance we won’t go back until 2022. I have mixed feelings about returning; my org and my job in particular rely on good relationships, and it’s easier to build and maintain relationships in person. However, I also don’t like wearing pants, and I like having no commute. I don’t think I’d leave my company over their remote policy (the benefits are best in class and way too good to give up), but many of us are advocating for a more robust and equitable policy. Often, it’s the high rollers who get perks like WfH, but admin staff have proved they can work well outside of the office too. I’m pretty lucky, my company asked for feedback and really seems to be taking suggestions very seriously.

  122. Dona Florinda*

    I used to work from home when was a freelancer, and was relieved when my 9 to 5 office job went remote during the pandemic. I love having my dog around, working in comfortable clothes, being able to do chores during my break and most important, not having to spend +2 hours every day stuck in traffic.
    Now that I’m back in the office, I’m actively searching for a job that can be done from home, altought my boss is aware that I very much would like to go remote again and told me that’s not off the table yet.
    But if we can’t meet halfway, than yes, I’m willing leave for a job that offers me these perks. I wouldn’t leave for a worse deal (less money, more hours or something like that), but a lateral move would be just fine.

  123. WFH dream come true*

    As my company weighed whether we would need to return to the office I told my boss that I would do whatever it took to be able to stay home. It’s an hour commute both ways, I am so much happier in all aspects of my life since WFH, and I just can’t see going back. Luckily our particular group is the only ones in our nationwide company being allowed to stay home as we have actually showed higher productivity in this time frame, while others have declined. It would definitely be a deal breaker for me.

  124. CreepyPaper*

    I love my job and remote or not, I’m happy to stick with it because at the end of the day, for me anyway, I work here because I wanted to work here and I’m the kind of person who would roll quite happily with any policy changes. I have very few deal breakers and I’m lucky to work somewhere that actually genuinely puts emphasis on how happy us worker bees are.

    We’re already back in the office on a rota basis anyway (3 days in, 2 days at home) because our office is in an old building that’s quite small and we’re not taking any chances getting everyone back in until curbs are lifted which I think is 19th July for the UK. There’s been rumblings that once curbs are lifted it’ll be ‘come in if you like’ and that’s fine for me.

    I like people around me and the buzz of an office, I found the first lockdown hard because I was totally at home with no option to go in, husband was deemed an essential worker so he was in his workplace all day, and it was just me and the dogs who aren’t the best conversationalists. So I’d absolutely go back full time if I had to with no complaints.

    One caveat, if we were to be permanently remote, I would like a laptop provided by my company, I am literally working on a gaming laptop and it’s very peculiar.

  125. Metadata Janktress*

    In general, many jobs in my field can’t be done remotely and I’m in one of the few ones that can comfortably do so. That being said, I really, really dislike working from home full time. I really enjoy interacting with others at the office and sometimes it’s just faster to go find a colleague than to play email/IM tag. Ideally I’d want to be hybrid, where I work in the office 3 or 4 days a week and work from home the other days, especially if I have a project that requires absolute quiet so I can focus. The pandemic has taken a massive toll on my mental health as I feel incredibly isolated and kind of lost. If they were to decide that I can only work remotely, unless there’s something else about the job that makes it worth my while (and it would have to be AMAZING), I’d be looking for a new gig.

  126. JM in DC*

    I work for the Federal Government. Two administrations ago, our department was granted up to WFH four days a week. Last administration went the opposite to four days in the office (wanted to see people in chairs, which equated to if I can physically see you, then you must be working). Current administration went back to four days WFH, once the pandemic is over.
    Before the pandemic and last administration crack-down, most people WFH’d 1-3 days per week, on average.
    I have an accommodation, so I could technically WFH full-time, but I think during the pandemic, my colleagues and I proved we don’t need to be in the office, and was especially made easier for me once my young kids went back to school in person in March 2021. My colleague and I will push for one day in the office that we all agree to come in for collaboration and staff meetings, and WFH the rest of the week. We do a lot of document writing and analysis, which isn’t conducive to a cubicle environment. Additionally, our supervisor isn’t on site, so it never made sense to us…

    1. JM in DC*

      With regards to if they made me come in/ stopped WFH, I can do 100% of my work from home. If I didn’t have an accommodation, at first, I don’t think I would quit. We just bought a house in 2019 so wouldn’t move closer, and the commute isn’t terrible, but it is tiring. Probably after a year, I would have to consider working elsewhere, though I love my job and colleagues, and my agency. I am mid-career, so retiring early wouldn’t be an option.
      When the last administration changed to 4 days in the office, almost all of us pushed back and they didn’t care. Many left or retired early. Morale was low. When the new administration came on, the first thing they addressed was restoring the 4 days WFH policy, and reviewing all the policies from the last four years.

  127. Chc34*

    My current position is remote for a company in a different state, so if they reversed course and decided everyone had to be in person, I’d have to quit because I’m not moving. This was not a company that originally supported remote work so this is new to them, but they’ve been very open about the fact that everyone can make the decision about staying remote or coming into the office that’s best for them.

    If, however, I were to look for a new job at some point in my actual city, I don’t think I’d mind one where the default was coming into the office, although it would be nice to have some flexibility to work from home when I needed to. I’m in the boat where I need to be remote for my current job, but I’m not adament about being remote forever.

  128. Pollywog*

    My work is doing a gradually return – 2 days a week in July, 3 in August, full time starting in September with no regular flexibility, only the “occasional” option to work from if, say, a kid is sick, or some other extraordinary circumstance – and I am actively looking for another job that will allow continued flexibility. It makes me sad because I love my job and have built a really strong team, but after working from home for a year+, my quality of life is so much better. No more losing an hour each way to commuting, no more frantically trying to spend time with my son in the evenings before he goes to bed, no more sacrificing exercise and my own wellness habits for things like grocery shopping or other necessary errands when I can be home to have those delivered, etc. For the past year+ I’ve sat down and eaten breakfast with my son every morning, because I am not trying to get him dressed and fed and myself office-ready at the same time. The pace of life is so much slower and I’m able to prioritize my home life in new ways, and having lost friends and family to COVID and seeing their devastated families, I cannot stomach giving up precious time again.

  129. ATX*

    We’ve been part-time back in the office (every other week) and we’re going back full time in a month (1 day/week remote allowed and if needed, more time is permissible).

    I love my job, my boss, the flexibility I have, my paycheck, and the people I work with. To me, that outweighs working from home. You never know what kind of toxic BS you’ll be walking into with a new job that allows full or partial WFH.

  130. Richard Hershberger*

    The question doesn’t apply to me personally. I work in a very small office: me, my boss, and a secretary. When the shutdown happened I volunteered to keep coming in. There were practical reasons for one of us to do this, and my home setup would have been squeezed pretty tight with me, my wife, and two daughters all at home.

    Would I, under different circumstances, quit over this, in either direction? Probably not. But I might start a low-level job search. So I guess the answer is yes, I would quit if I had a different job lined up that I liked better. The only way this is different from the Before Times is that office vs. home work would be higher on the list of priorities.

    My suspicion is that we will see a bifurcation of jobs into those that can be done remotely, and those that really need physical presence. Workers will divide themselves into those groups based on their personalities and work styles. And while some employers will try to insist on physical presence even for jobs that don’t really need it, they will be at a severe disadvantage hiring workers. The idea of physically relocating to be within commuting distance of the office will seem increasingly unreasonable, for those jobs that don’t actually need it.

  131. IdahoSmith82*

    I had to move out of state during Covid, and got approval to work from home permanently. We recently acquired an office in they city I moved to, and since I’m still based out the original location, I was grandfathered in and get to maintain my work from home agreement. Which is good for all of us, because I truly am more productive at home.

    My company also realized that the majority of the folks in my same position are actually more productive working at home, and has made the work from home a permanent option for the long haul. It was something we had to earn, and prove some of the folks wrong in order to maintain it. Our role really can be done successfully from our homes, and it just makes more sense to retain us than lose all of us over something that has been proven to work.

  132. PJS*

    For me, as much as I loved being able to stay up later, sleep in, and be there for my sick dog more often, I do actually think it’s easier to do my job in the office and I don’t really mind that my employer has us all back (I’ve been back for months). I might feel differently if I didn’t have an easy commute (I live in a major city and most jobs would not have an easy commute). However, my boyfriend’s job has gone permanently remote and that has made him decide to stay there when he had been previously thinking of job searching for unrelated reasons.

  133. Nancy*

    I would have looked for another job if full remote had become permanent. I always avoided applying for jobs that were full remote in the past, and if I ever look for a job again, will do the same. No different that leaving/choosing jobs for any other number of reasons that people have, really.

  134. HailRobonia*

    Yes, I would… but I’d need another job lined up (I’m actually already searching).

  135. Petty Editor*

    I actually successfully negotiated to work from home just before the pandemic started so I could move to another state to help care for a recently disabled terminally ill parent. While there is a local office in my current city, I would absolutely quit this job if work from home was revoked. Wfh allows me as a caregiver to find work-care-life balance in meaningful and deeply important ways – reclaiming time from commuting, healthier cheaper meals at home, being able to run a dishwasher or laundry during morning breaks, soaking my feet during email management, a quick lunchtime nap when I’ve been up dealing with a sick adult since 4 a.m. to just not needing to do the full hour of morning prep to dress in full femme corporate attire. Plus not bringing home the flu or other sicknesses to an immunocompromised person is immeasurable. She has lived far longer than expected probably because of that. I have passed on other local job offers in the past 6 months because they did not offer wfh even one day a week. My Fortune 500 company is moving to offer more flexible scheduling to all employees now – 3 days in office and 2 at home, four 10 hour days, etc. – as a recruitment and retention strategy. I know it is certainly retaining me!

  136. TwoDaysAWeekFromHomePlease*

    My company has no work from home option anymore unless you are sick (think cold/ flu where you may have normally came in and proceeded to give it to the whole office), or if you or your child has an appointment during work hours. It’s expected that WFH is something that happens infrequently if ever. This has definitely impacted my view of my company and has me considering another job search, but more than likely it’s just going to force me into going part time which will hinder my career growth. It’s unfortunate that a more hybrid schedule isn’t being considered considering how we all proved that we could still do good work from home, and even more unfortunate that this lack of flexibility will inherently negatively affect female employees more so than male employees (generally not always).

  137. LKH*

    I have been able to do 99% of my UK museum-based job from home. I miss being in stores and with the colleagues I love, but if I were ordered back to the office full time, I’d be out. Especially as office space was already extremely cramped before the pandemic and we were in dire need of more room. I want a balanced approach, which is thankfully what my employer is now piloting for 18 months.

  138. Liz*

    As a parent of school and daycare-aged children, working from home has been an absolute lifesaver. I used to get so anxious over how I was perceived if I, say, left the office 20 minutes early to get to pickup on time. Now, I can leave and come back without anyone even knowing I was gone. I still get all my work done and perform well, but without the constant stress of worrying about who needs to be driven where and whether I need to find my kid a ride or whatever.
    It’s also put money back in my wallet. I used to spend thousands of dollars a year for someone to care for my kids from 3 to 5. Now, I can continue working while they do homework at the kitchen table or play in their rooms.
    I actually changed jobs during the pandemic and don’t think I would have accepted a role that wasn’t fully remote.

  139. Spooncake*

    I’m actually job-hunting right now purely because the last year and a half has shown me how much going to the office every day was taking out of me. I have endometriosis and other health issues that make things like commuting and office bathrooms really difficult, and while I’ve been working remotely I’ve been able to look after myself properly AND be more productive at work because I’m not constantly sick and exhausted (…as much, lol). Ideally I’d like a hybrid system with WFH days for focus (and bad pain days) and office days for collaboration, but my current employers don’t allow for that and I’m not sure I can physically manage 5 days a week in the office any more. So WFH availability is a deal-breaker for me, but if my circumstances were different it might not have been.

  140. onyxzinnia*

    I wouldn’t outright quit with nothing lined up if my organization returned to the old “butts in the seat” management style, but I would definitely be looking at my options in the job market.

    My employer is doing a gradual transition into a hybrid workplace and letting employees decide with their managers how often they want to come to the office (if at all) this fall. It never would have happened if the pandemic hadn’t forced them to go remote. I’m going to try the hybrid situation, but I don’t think I will ever go back to 100% office work.

    I was surprised by how much I enjoy working from home with a more fluid work-life balance. There are fewer distractions at home than there are at the office, meetings are run more efficiently, my own private bathroom, my favorite homemade coffee, and the cutest furriest coworkers. No more commutes and I save money on lunch. I can even catch up on laundry between meetings. That being said, as a DINK couple in good health, I recognize that my partner and I have a lot of privileges that others have not had during the pandemic.

  141. The Balance Hasn't Shifted That Much*

    I could not afford to quit my job, period. It would have to be Hellmouth levels of bad for me to quit. Work from home vs work on site is nowhere near a big enough deal for me to give an ultimatum to my employer. I understand it’s a bigger deal for other people; for one thing I don’t have kids.

    In some hypothetical future job search would I ask about flexible work options such as work from home or flexible work hours? Yeah I’d probably ask but in the same way I would ask about the office culture. It would be a minor factor in my decision.

  142. Chairman of the Bored*

    Another data point: My brother works for a big technology/manufacturing company. It’s a household name with thousands of employees.

    His whole building went to WFH at the start of the pandemic. A few months ago the big bosses said it’s time for everybody to come back to the office, and set a date when everybody was supposed to be at their desks.

    When that day came, only like 15% of the employees actually showed up. The rest just …. stayed home. And they kept staying home for the rest of the week.

    The bosses had to send out an email saying “Uh, maybe we jumped the gun on coming back to the office” and reinstating site-wide WFH until further notice.

    1. Richard Hershberger*

      This is fascinating! I suspect we are talking about workers with skills in high demand, who were pretty confident they could land on their feet if it came to that. Was there any coordinated resistance, or was this spontaneous? It is impressive either way, but if spontaneous this is very telling of worker attitudes.

      1. Chairman of the Bored*

        Yes, given the work they do and where the place is located I would imagine most employees here wouldn’t have a hard time finding another job if needed. My brother certainly wasn’t worried about it.

        As I understand it third-hand this was not organized in any real deliberate way; but people had had enough conversations with each other beforehand that they all knew that whoever stayed home would be in good company.

  143. Sunny_Side_Up*

    It has become my #1 consideration when job searching. I am now only interested in remote positions- something I had never even considered pre-pandemic.

  144. Anc*

    I would absolutely leave if a company did NOT bring us back to the office. Not just because working from home did not work for me, but because it feels like reneging on the agreement of employment. If I signed up for an in office job and they make it permanently remote, that is not what I signed up for. I am ok with taking the needs of the business and the employees into account and working out a hybrid model that will work for everyone, but yanking the rug out and saying we are never bringing you back to the office would be a deal breaker for me.

  145. VickiH*

    My husband is an engineer, working for a medium city. For years City Hall has needed major updates, and they have been renting out space around the city to make up for the lack of offices at City Hall. As you can imagine, councillors have jumped on the idea of having everyone work from home to avoid the expense of a repairs/renovations.
    The problem is that this leaves people who can’t afford to work from home (like recent graduates with no space/money to buy printers, desks,etc) in the dust. Boosting internet capacity, printer ink, paper, so many other costs, are all going to be downloaded onto the workers.
    Mandatory WFH is going to leave a lot of people behind, especially low-income people who literally cannot afford to apply for these good, stable jobs.

    1. Chairman of the Bored*

      Do reduced costs for things like commute/clothing/etc help balance out printer ink and related expenses when people shift to WFH?

      I wouldn’t be surprised if most employees spend more to work than the value of the office supplies they consume on any given day.

      2. Person from the Resume*

        I agree. I work from home for the federal government. They provide a computer to connect to their internal network using a VPN. (You cannot reasonably work using the technology provided for using your own equipment.)

        Other than that I pay for everything else in my home office. Desk, chair, internet, power (A/C), even wireless mouse and extra monitor (although they might provide a mouse or extra monitor). I don’t print anything so no printing costs. I barely hand write anything, but I do provide my own pens and paper. I think the pens are all free pens honestly.

        I don’t mind paying the cost for the benefit. I see the biggest benefit as mostly time saved in commute and getting ready for work. But I get gas once a month or less now unless I make a long drive for fun. I put average around 7,500 miles a year on my car so so much less wear and tear. I haven’t bought “work” clothes or shoes since I stopped going into the office. The hidden benefit for me is the cost of things I used to pay for because of dressing for the office or commuting to the office.

        It’s a fair tradeoff for me. I don’t complain about providing my own desk, chair, workspace, internet, electricity.

      3. Brett*

        At least for local government, commute expenses are typically offset in some way (e.g. when I worked local government, all my public transit and parking were free or discounted ~90%). Many departments provide clothing or clothing allowances as well. But anything that stays in your house is not paid for or reimbursed. But they won’t provide equipment that stays at your house, so no monitors, keyboards, desks, chairs, printers, paper, pens, notebooks, etc can go home with you even if you work from home.

        1. Chairman of the Bored*

          That sounds like a policy that they could change if they wanted to move to a work from home model, right?

          1. Brett*

            Probably not, no. The reason transit passes, clothing, etc work out well is because they are the property of the employee, not the employer, for government, and so employees don’t have to account for personal use of those items. There is also therefore no requirement to return them when your employment ends because you own them.
            This is how it would need to work for furniture and peripherals, but it can be a hard sell with the general public to buy furniture, monitors, desk, printers, etc that become property of the public employees forever.It might seem like the best alternative is to make those pieces of property taggable capital assets, but then you start pulling them out of capital budgets instead of general funds. Laptops and phones normally already are capital assets, so that’s why those are devices that typical do go home and are purchased for employees. Consumables like paper and pens are an even bigger landmine, because either you allow personal use (not going to happen) or you have employees account for business use of all of their supplies.

            1. Brett*

              “so that’s why those are devices that typical do go home and are purchased for employees”
              I phrased that wrong.
              “so that’s why those are devices that typical do go home and are purchased as property of the agency for business use by employees”
              i.e. the government employer retains ownership of the phones and laptops, but to do that, they have to purchase them out of capital funds.
              The ability to “control” the devices (i.e. remotely disable them) probably fits into that too for many local governments.

    2. Sanity Lost*

      You make a really good point regarding the socio-economic standpoint. When the last administration re-wrote the tax laws, one of the items they took away was the ability to write off home-business expenses (computer, ink, printer, etc.). I know a lot of small business people who worked out of their homes were very angry that this tax exemption no longer existed and it severely impacted their financial status. I wonder if the companies would be willing to subsidize, or provide these materials to their remote workers. I also have to wonder if that tax law will be repealed in the coming years when people start clamoring for it to come back.

  146. Unfettered scientist*

    I’m starting a new job in a few months, so I actually look forward to meeting people in person. That said, I’d prefer working from home at least some of the time. I’m not sure if that will happen in this position (likely not based on how things were a few months ago when I interviewed), but I’d certainly welcome the option.

  147. cactus lady*

    Yes, I would quit over it (and possibly will). Pre-COVID, I didn’t like working from home. It took a little while to get into the groove of it, but now I LOVE it. I am WAY more productive than I ever was in the office and am happier with the balance of working hard and getting to play fetch with my dog for 10 mins in the afternoon. I am absolutely dreading going back to the office, which we will be required to do in August. I really like the work that I do, my company, and my team, but I moved for this job and I don’t like the city it’s in. I would prefer the freedom to work from anywhere (or at least more than one geographic location). I’ve always been like this – I’ve moved jobs every 2-3 years because I get restless being in one place – but now that I have been able to make WFH work for me, I would like to find work that I enjoy as much as my current position but allows me the freedom to move around and live the lifestyle I would like to live without having to change jobs.

    1. cactus lady*

      One other thing (pls don’t quote this), I have Crohn’s disease and am able to work through symptoms that I would not be comfortable going into the office with. I have only taken 1/2 day in the past 15 months due to Crohn’s symptoms, when usually it’s 5-7 days a year.

  148. Sanity Lost*

    I haven’t stopped going into work since the pandemic started. First it was in retail, then I was able to transition back into an office position. One of the perks that I have come to really enjoy though is the hybrid model, especially on bad weather or pain days. If I start looking for a new position, I would really prefer a more hybrid model personally. It won’t “make or break” my decision if they don’t offer it, but it would definitely make the position more attractive to me.

  149. Stavia*

    If my employer wasn’t willing to let me be remote from another state, I would 100% be job hunting right now. They relocated me 2000 miles away from home when I started this job, and while I love my job I hate Texas SO MUCH. I have no friends here, and with the pandemic it’s been me and the cat for 18 months or so now.

    My priorities have shifted with the pandemic. I need to be home, with the ability to go outside most of the year and in reasonable proximity to friends and family. I’m lucky that permanent remote work is 100% supported now by my company, and that selling my house and moving won’t financially break me, but if that were the case I would absolutely be planning to quit.

  150. BlueWolf*

    I think if they said we had to go back into the office fulltime, I would definitely explore other opportunities out there, since there seems to be quite a bit of demand for my position. My office hasn’t told us exactly what they’re planning yet, though. They’ve sent out surveys asking about our preferences, and so far they definitely won’t require anyone to go in before Labor Day. My guess is that they will at least allow a hybrid model because we’ve managed to work successfully from home for over a year now. Prior to the pandemic, my department didn’t have the ability to work from home, except for managers, but since it’s been proven to work I think they would be willing to allow it going forward.

  151. Leelee*

    If I had to work from home 100% of the time I’d leave.
    My company closed my local office location during the pandemic, and all of us based there are now ‘agile workers’ (aka still working from home). We’re currently discussing if we can have a part-time office, so we can go in a couple of days a week. I’m very lucky to have a dedicated office space in my house, but the isolation is really wearing on me. Zoom is not the same, and I miss seeing people. I think 2 days in an office and 3 days from home would be perfect.
    If they decide that I’ll need to WFH forever I will look for another job that has a mix.

    Being asked how a company has handled WFH during the pandemic should be something that recruiters are prepared for, I would certainly ask it if I was a candidate. I want to see that the company values safety, but also that it’s robust enough to adapt quickly.

  152. El l*

    My organization chose to bring us back into the office – in August last year. Really. They used what can best be described as a loophole to do it, and we were the only one in our industry to do this. It’s been 100% in office ever since. For context, I do analysis in the power industry, I’m in my late 30s, and the decisionmakers involved are small-town and older.

    Whether it’s 50% WFH versus 100% versus whatever is not why I’m interviewing elsewhere. It’s not why one of my colleagues left, and why at least one more besides me is on their way out of our small office. I’m leaving because I want the flexibility to be “where I’m most productive” when I don’t have meetings.

    We can accept all kinds of provisos – but the expectation that we must be in the office 9 to 5 like it’s IBM in 1959 really rings hollow today. 9-5 is simply not fit for purpose, either in our personal lives or for that matter in today’s competitive environment in our professional lives.

  153. Voodoocanoe*

    I was full WFH before the pandemic, so i would DEF quit if they tried to make me move to HQ and be in person.

    If it were a temp pandemic thing that they were going back on, I wouldn’t quit outright, but I’d be heavily job searching and quitting as soon as I found a full remote job.

    1. Project Problem Solver*

      Yeah, our leadership is talking about moving to a hybrid model. Which is fine for people who had to go in every day before the pandemic, but met *incredibly stiff* resistance from my department, since most of us were hired as remote employees well before the pandemic. If they move forward with this, they’ll definitely lose more than a few people. (I will probably not be one of them because my time with the company gives me very good benefits, but it would significantly and probably irrevocably damage my morale and faith in the company to keep its promises.)

  154. The Original K.*

    I’m definitely reconsidering what I want from a job, and hoping to shift my long-term financial goals to be able to retire sooner (that’s literal decades away, but maybe I can retire closer to 60 than 70). To be blunt, I didn’t come this far surviving a pandemic only to work myself to death. My peers and I (white-collar professionals in our 30s, mostly) are all having these conversations, and all of us either want to work less or do work that matters to us more. (As I’ve said, I feel really negatively about “getting back to normal,” when normal was bad for so many. I also feel like it’s disrespectful to those who are grieving people lost to COVID – there’s no “normal” for them, and we as a nation in the US have barely acknowledged that grief at all.) I’m doing some fully remote contract work now for an org where work/life balance isn’t a thing (people work on vacation and around the clock, there’s very little PTO offered and virtually no sick time), and that’s not the life I want.

    I am actively interviewing and am not considering roles that are not at least partially remote, and the remote side needs to outweigh the in-person side (e.g. 3 days a week remote, minimum, if we’re going in for part of the time every week). I’ve developed a routine that I like, I don’t much care about “office culture,” I experience fewer micro aggressions as a WOC being at home than I do in person … I don’t feel the need or desire to go into an office every day, and my line of work doesn’t require it.

  155. Snow globe*

    I have been WFH for several years, and it is a big reason why I am still here. When our company went through a restructure in 2019, I thought about leaving, but decided to stay because I didn’t think I’d be able to get full-time WFH elsewhere.

    I’m now at a point where I’m ready to move on (for other reasons), and I’m definitely focusing on remote work. If I had two choices, and one offered more WFH flexibility, that would probably weigh more heavily than salary for me.

  156. amoeba*

    Would definitely actively job-search if my job changed to 100% remote or even if most of my colleagues changed to remote permanently, leaving me alone in the office. Luckily, we have labs so that’s quite unlikely. Have worked from home for several months in a new job this year and it sucked – much harder to supervise experimental work remotely, and also honestly just felt super isolated and depressed. Also, the meeting load apparently doubled when people started working remotely, the workload increased, and video calls are so much worse than in person meetings. And I seriously missed our canteen, cooking all my own meals was a nightmare.

    On the other hand, 100% office presence without any flexibility would strike me as slightly old-fashioned and I’d miss working from home for a day when visiting my partner or for doctor’s appointments etc., but no dealbreaker.

  157. EvilQueenRegina*

    Where I am, they’re still working out what’s going to happen – the all staff communication says something about balancing flexibility with the fact that some jobs can’t easily be done fully remotely, and the fact that some people prefer not to. But after a year and more, I still truly don’t like remote and the thought of permanent remote makes me want to run away screaming. (My specific job is actually something that isn’t easy to be fully remote, at the moment I’m going in one day a fortnight but would willingly do more).

    So my honest answer is, I’m waiting to know what the actual proposal is before I make a final decision on that. If it looked like they were trying to make me go fully remote, I wouldn’t quit with nothing else to go to, but I would seriously consider job hunting. I could live with partial remote if I really had to.

  158. Anon for this*

    I did quit. We required all employees to return to the office in anticipation of our state opening. I gave two months’ notice and was able to transition everything.

  159. Canonical23*

    While I definitely see the media story of a “reckoning” being on its way, as someone who got laid off of one of my adjunct jobs early on into COVID, I don’t see the reckoning much in practice. I worked with organizers to form a union in my metro area and we’ve been working non-stop for over a year now and we have maybe 2 or 3 dozen people involved. I think there’s a lot of talk and very little action.

    I have friends who quit their jobs early on in COVID because they were front-line workers and their managers weren’t taking safety measures seriously. I have a few friends who have negotiated a hybrid set-up. But WFH/permanent remote just doesn’t seem to be taking on where I am in the Midwest – only in really large metro areas that are hubs for tech industries.

    My other adjunct job just returned us to campus last month and while it’s been frustrating that I can’t work remotely on the days that I’m not assigned to public places, I’m not about to quit over it. It’s just yet another demonstration that administration members (whether non-profit directors or academic presidents or CEOs) are fairly out of touch with the general employee public. I’ve been interviewing at full-time non-academic jobs and I consider it a bonus when they offer regular WFH days (rather than just saying “oh we can occasionally be flexible”) but it’s not a requirement. I think companies should see WFH as something a lot of people need once or twice a week and also realize that the reason many people enjoyed working from home was that they could use their breaks to take care of “at home” stuff. So even just being flexible for people to go to a doctor’s appointment or leave early to pick up groceries would go a long way for a lot of workers right now – I think the anger about returning to work in-person is tied heavily to how inflexible your job was pre-pandemic.

  160. Pickles*

    I was 98% in the office during Covid, often in the office by myself but there as the interface with other branches. Conversations with employees inside our branch took two weeks minimum with some security and technical hurdles, and the rules on who could be in the office when kept changing (most people had to come in ~10 hours a week, scheduled for spacing). We arguably implemented telework quite poorly, so it’s 100% clear we’re more efficient in the office.

    Most people were given a few months to transition to being in the office more, and telework was cut off this month unless you have special circumstances. We’ve seen a wave of retirements and a few stay-at-home parent decisions, but no significant impact on retention just for the telework aspect. That said, I’ll consider it more when I think about moving on than I would have previously. This might be a “not yet” factor.

    Long term, I definitely think this will impact our recruitment, but we have a unique selling point that usually gets us past the other disadvantages. We’ll see if it works for this one too.

  161. socks*

    My company is planning on making all current employees come back to the office full-time by Labor Day, BUT any new hires in my department can work remotely, so that’s…something.

    Remote work is the new default in my sector, so they know they can’t get good people if they don’t allow remote work for new hires. What they seem to be missing is that they’ll lose most of their current people, and then have to hire a bunch of new people who all work remotely anyway. (And, for what it’s worth, productivity actually went up in my department during the pandemic, and we have to work with teams across the country and internationally, so me being in the office really just means my Teams calls have more background noise)

    1. Not So Super-visor*

      That’s definitely odd… we are telling all current employees that they have to return after Labor Day but any new employees that are starting this summer are starting at and staying at the office

    2. Richard Hershberger*

      This is consistent with my Great Bifurcation prediction. Your sector can do its work remotely, so requiring physical presence has become untenable for recruiting. Your company realizes this, but hasn’t connected the dots between recruitment and retention. This suggests that the capability for abstract thought is not widespread in your company’s C-Suite. This leaves the question of whether they will figure it out once the resignations start coming in.

      1. socks*

        > This suggests that the capability for abstract thought is not widespread in your company’s C-Suite.

        Lmao, sounds about right!

  162. Wayward San Diegan*

    My employer (private, mid-sized university) is telling everyone we will Absolutely All Be Back On Campus come the beginning of the fall semester in August. The University was very anti-WFH pre-pandemic so it was a major culture shift when we all started remote work. By all accounts, full-time or hybrid remote has been successful for almost everyone. But the student-facing staff who have had to return to campus full-time have complained about others being remote, so HR and the powers that be are baulking at the idea of keeping us remote due to… fairness? Obligation to our students? Who knows. I love my employer (my alma mater), but am highly considering leaving over this just because it’s so unnecessary. There are lots of other jobs in my area and other universities that I know are keeping a lot of staff in a hybrid model. (I should clarify that while I feel safe returning to campus, it’s purely a quality of life issue for me. I have a husband with a very demanding, non-flexible job and kids, so being able to throw yoga pants on at the last minute and hop on or being able to toss a load of laundry in on lunch has been a lifesaver for my sanity.)

    1. RemotelyCommenting*

      Everytime I hear workers whose roles require them to be in office complaining about others being allowed to work remote, I wonder if they also complain about the traffic commuting to work. Imagine if half the cars commuting to work suddenly got out of your way because those jobs don’t need commuting anymore. I think there should be other incentives and benefits offered to in office workers for fairness, but I don’t understand wanting to make other people commute in just for “fairness.”

  163. working mom*

    I would and I did. My company had started moving back to the office late last summer and slowly increased the amount of days to be spent in the office. I had worked from home before joining that company, and went fully in-office when I moved there. COVID helped me realize that having the autonomy of working from home helped me do my best work. When the final plans started rolling out (4 days in office, no exceptions) I was already looking due to other factors, but that was really a nail in the coffin. I couldn’t keep running the marathon of so many days in the office and keep my sanity. WFH is where it’s at for me and all my future job prospects will need to have a strong WFH program.

  164. AJ*

    I actually have a positive experience with COVID WFH. I made a big career transition in early 2021 by looking for 100% permanently remote positions. The company had some experience with remote employees but I have to think that having everyone remote made them more open for it at my level. The existence of WFH roles and companies’ willingness to advertise that they were remote really helped my job search. Also, the infrastructure (onboarding, web conferencing and IT setup) was ready to go to make onboarding a 100% remote employee go smoothly.

  165. Littorally*

    Would I leave this job if my employer mandated a WFH policy I didn’t like? Probably not, as my employer does enough other stuff I really do like that it would take a lot for me to leave. Would I leave a job over a WFH policy I didn’t like? Heck yeah. I do not like working from home, I do not do well working from home, and I would need a lot of other valuable upsides to the job in order to accept a permanent WFH situation.

  166. ivylaughed*

    Yes, I would quit.

    I am immunocompromised. I have my vaccine; however, there is no way to tell how effective it is. Therefore, I need to remain at or about the same level of vigilance as the year of quarantine until – honestly, I think I’ll be lucky if I can ever go back to pre-pandemic times. It looks too likely that COVID is being endemic, especially with the insufficient percentage of people vaccinated and the variants, both those that already exist and those that will spring up because of the unvaccinated population.

    I don’t know if I’m ever going to be working outside my home again.

  167. Melissa*

    I’m in local govt, current job brought everyone back beginning of May (earlier than I thought prudent, but I wasn’t surprised they brought everyone back). New job has indicated they’ll be allowing everyone that it makes sense to one day remote, which honestly is exciting and unexpected.

  168. No Ragrets*

    I left a job with a long commute (and an open office plan that was not conducive to the client-facing work we did with lots of intense phone calls) for a company where everyone is permanently remote. Because the company is focused on setting us up for remote-work success, I’ve been able to excel in my highly collaborative role, I have great relationships with my coworkers, and I’ve evolved practices that help me maintain work-life balance. (My company will also pay for coworking space, so no one is stuck working from home if they can’t/don’t want to.) Having experienced both ends of the spectrum now, I would be *extremely* unlikely to even apply to a full-time in-person job in the future, and would never voluntarily commute more than 15-20 minutes. The flexibility of my current job is a big part of what’s kept me there through an incredibly stressful year.

  169. Anonymous Koala*

    I wouldn’t quit my current job if they made us go back to 100% in person (although that’s unlikely – even before the pandemic they allowed 50/50) but it’s going to be a major consideration for future jobs. In my line of work everything can be done remotely. We’ve been even more productive (from a metric standpoint) than we usually are this year working 100% wfh during the pandemic. Upper management has made it clear that 100% remote work won’t last forever and we’re really pushing back on that as a group, but I’m not sure how it’ll work out.

  170. The Balance Hasn't Shifted That Much*

    I could not afford to quit my job, especially not over work from home vs work on site. It’s not a super big deal to me either way, but even if it was, I could not quit my job. I understand that it’s a big deal to other people, and maybe if I was in an industry with more job openings I might feel more like seeking out the “perfect” working conditions. But honestly I just can’t imagine quitting my job or giving my employer an ultimatum over this. Maybe if I had kids, or a super long commute, or a chronic illness to manage, I might feel differently.

    In some future hypothetical job search would I ask about flexible work hours and work from home options? Yeah probably, but in the same way I’d ask about office culture and how vacation time is handled. Considerations, but not deal breakers.

  171. LadyByTheLake*

    I have been work from home for many years — as have many/most of my peers in similar jobs. My work is 100% being on the phone or needing quiet concentration time — perfect for remote work. The occasional (every 2-3 months) face to face meeting can be helpful no more than that. I have a good set up at home — separate office, huge desk, powerful wifi, landline with a headset. There is no scenario where I need to go to an office to do my job and I would quit over it (and not take a job where that was a requirement). I hate commuting, I don’t want to have to maintain a work wardrobe, I don’t want to have to deal with the kind of grooming that is expected in my field (hair styled, face made up), I like the flexibility of starting early, running errands in the day, being at home for workers, etc. I can’t imagine any tradeoff that would make sense (for me or employers) that would make being in the office make sense.

  172. greenwalker*

    I am a psychotherapist in the US. Pre-pandemic, video sessions were generally looked down on in the field here, and used only for emergencies by most therapists. Since the pandemic, well, we all had to reckon with that pre-existing bias and suddenly adapt. For myself, having practiced solely via video sessions for over a year, I do not want to go back full time to in person sessions.I miss my colleagues terribly that I shared a suite with, but going forward I know that there is less stress to not having a commute every day, and not contending constantly with all the downtown big city energy. I imagine a future where I split between WFH video sessions and in person office sessions. For many of my clients I imagine they will elect to stay in video sessions if they also continue to work from home. I am still recovering from long haul CoVid so I am not eager to rush to change anything. Psychotherapists (from several disciplines) are currently lobbying to change existing laws to allow nation wide licensing and equal insurance reimbursements for video sessions. These are crucial factors in allowing more Americans access to mental health care. I have sub-specialties with some populations that have limited access to competent care, so given the grave mental health demand in this country, these policy changes are crucial to our national health.

    1. Richard Hershberger*

      My daughters (aged 11 and 13) both have therapists. I was initially skeptical about the switch to remote sessions, but they seem to work just fine. That age group is so acculturated to virtual social interactions that extending them to therapy sessions comes naturally to them.

      1. Anonya*

        On the other hand, my 11-year-old’s virtual therapy has not been especially effective. Possibly because his is less talk therapy-based, but let me tell you, I cannot wait to get him back to his therapist’s office in person.

  173. tech issues?*

    I’ve been seriously considering quitting in response to my employer’s new work from home policy. We’ll be in 3 days and home 2 days, which is a huge improvement over where we were before (10 days a year). However, how they presented the plan really rubbed me the wrong way: a flat rule, no manager flexibility, “this is just how it is.” I don’t approach my job that way and especially haven’t while working from home – I’ve been flexible, working more hours, etc. I don’t want to sound like a snowflake, but I want some of the same flexibility I give to my job. More than ever, I think of my job as a mutual partnership and if an employer doesnt treat it that way, I’ll consider looking elsewhere.

  174. SB*

    I feel incredibly lucky to have landed a job (right as COVID was creeping into the United States in March of 2020) that is 100% remote. My husband, on the other hand, has been navigating some tough conversations with his supervisor who frankly led him on a little too much as to the possibility of staying mostly remote (4 days/week) permanently — a job that he can very clearly perform remotely with an occasional day in the office here and there. It now looks like he may only be remote 2 days/week per guidance from the higher-ups, and he’s definitely considering looking for other opportunities if the 60/40 schedule holds.

  175. Lily*

    I am in the minority as someone who generally dislikes working from home. Although not having to commute is nice, the lack of physical boundaries between work and home life has destroyed my mental health. My productivity is excellent because I literally cannot stop myself from working all the time. Things have been better since we moved into an apartment building with designated co-working spaces, but I would probably consider leaving an employer that did not plan to offer some kind of office space after this year.

  176. Mouse*

    My company is trying to figure out what to do. Right now, returning to the office is completely optional, and very few people are coming in. If we were to go fully remote, I would look for something new. I might even consider looking for something new if I’m able to go to the office but nobody else does. For me, the value is being around coworkers and learning from them.

    I also think that people are thinking about other priorities as well. We’ve seen a large number of people resigning to go back to school, change careers, or radically change environments (like going from our small but corporate office to a trendy startup). Now that jobs are more available and other possibilities in the world seem more open, I think we’ll continue to see a wave of people evaluating what they want in their lives and seeking it out.

  177. no_more_office*

    I am actively looking for a job that is full time remote. I wanted to relocate during the pandemic and while we are WFH currently corporate was inflexible with allowing me to do this. They said by Labor Day (in the US) that we will be in the office 3 days a week — I aim to have a new gig before that. I am open to being in the office occasionally, but am looking at primarily WFH positions now. And I definitely want the freedom to move where I’d prefer to be located.

  178. Ali H*

    I would consider searching for a new job if I was told to return to the office full time with no flexibility, as was the norm pre-COVID in my office. My company is a global Fortune-500 company, and there are some employees who did work remotely previously, particularly if they have field or sales-based jobs, but a significant portion of upper management also has flexibility to work from home whenever they want to, which is not afforded to the rest of us.

    My company is currently entertaining the thought of a hybrid approach with so many stipulations that all of the benefits of working from home would disappear. Employees would be required to be in the office on Mondays and Fridays, conform to office dress codes, have no “distracting” pets or children present during work hours, have a designated office space in which to work, etc. This policy, if implemented, would absolutely cause me and several others in my company who I’ve spoken to, to start job hunting. It’s a horrible idea and completely devalues all the work we’ve done remotely (with distracting kids and pets and in sweatpants!) for the last year and a half. It’s a ridiculous way to make it seem as though they’re adapting to the changing work landscape without actually doing any adapting at all, as most people will come into the office to avoid the hassle.

  179. TeaWrecks*

    I would be very tempted to look for a new job. I was already remote 3 days per week before the pandemic, but being at home fully for the past almost 16 months has solidified how much I enjoy it. I am honestly just more productive. My commute is a 30 second walk from my bedroom to my office (and yes, I know I’m lucky enough to have an actual home office which is probably one reason I like this so much!). I get just over an hour extra sleep each morning and work in my pyjamas since I rarely have to ever do video calls. I haven’t had to buy work clothes or shoes and my bank balance has gone up quite a bit (some of that is because we no longer pay for after school care for my youngest since she’s aged out of that, but where I live it was subsidized anyways and a very low cost). I’ve lost about 30 pounds since now I can eat when I’m actually hungry and fresher food instead of packed lunches and snacks only at specified times. In my downtime or breaks I can get the household chores done instead of just browsing websites at work and pretending to be busy, and that also means there’s no huge rush to get stuff done the minute we walk in the door after work and spending the evenings cleaning up.

    Thing is, nothing about my job in particular or those of most of my office requires people to be there in person. We can theoretically do most of what our jobs are pretty much wherever there’s an internet connection. So I know if I’m told that I have to go back in even part time I’ll be asking for an exception – which many people have already. And if I do end up looking for a new job then being fully remote will be something that is super high on my list. It would have to be a super pay hike over what I’m making now and having a private office with a closing door to make me consider a full time in-office job again.

    1. KHB*

      “a private office with a closing door”

      I wonder to what extent this is the deciding factor in who’s coming down on the back-to-the-office side versus the work-from-home side. I have a private office with a closing door at work, and I don’t have one at home, so I’m all about going back to the office – if it were the other way around, I could easily see myself joining Team Work From Home Forever.

      1. Tau*

        If my office mandated 100% WFH, I’d be job searching. I’ve somehow managed through the pandemic but I am a lot less happy and productive at work than I used to be. I need the separation of space and the colleagues around me to be able to focus properly. (I suspect this may be disability-related; I’ve seen people with ADHD saying they have similar issues, and although I don’t to my knowledge have ADHD I am autistic which has some symptom overlap.) I do like the flexibility of being able to WFH a few days a week as needed or for an entire week to support holidays and family visits, but I could also handle a 100% in-office job – I’ve done it before.

        Luckily, although a lot of my colleagues have expressed interest in being able to WFH a few days a week, it’s only a minority who have talked about staying full-time remote. I’ve had a lot of sympathetic “yeah, me too”s when I talk about how much I miss the office and just being able to have casual interactions with people again. But since I’m in an industry that often gets touted as great for remote working, I suspect I’m going to have to be careful in my next job search.

  180. KHB*

    It would take a lot for me to quit my job. There is so much about it that I love: The subject matter itself, the impact it has, the satisfaction of a job well done, the respect I get from my immediate boss and colleagues.

    But my current work-from-home setup is becoming increasingly untenable. My partner and I live together in a one-bedroom apartment, he spends most of the day on loud conference calls, and I need a quiet workspace where I can concentrate. Fortunately, I have an office at work that I can go to most days if I want to; I don’t think they’re planning on taking that option away from me permanently, but if they did, I’d be very unhappy. I’d need to get either an office in a coworking space or a bigger home, and I would push hard to be reimbursed for that.

  181. MrsFillmore*

    Fortunately, my job has always had some flexibility about working from home and will have more flexibility on this in the future even after our office reopens. If I were in a scenario where there was a firm 5 days per week in office requirement, I would definitely look for another job because I know that I’m in a field (nonprofit management) where many of the jobs I’m interested in and qualified for offer greater flexibility.

    I definitely think that work location flexibility will be a consideration for job candidates in the future. My husband has a job now that he likes with good flexibility (likely to be 3 or 4 days work from home post-pandemic). He’s in the process of interviewing for another job that is interesting, but isn’t yet at the point of the process where he has a firm understanding of their work location flexibility. He said yesterday that if he is selected as top candidate in this interview process, even if everything else about the new job aligns ideally with his next step of career growth, he’d only accept if they can ensure at least 2 days per week work from home.

  182. fedupmarketer*

    I’ve always worked in a very in-office industry but since the pandemic I’ve been working from my kitchen and find it really difficult. My company as a whole is going back but my market is going to be 100% WFH for at least the next year, maybe two (for company, not Covid reasons). I immediately began job hunting and got a new position which (Covid permitting) will be a mix. I like my current job and the people and I’m paid well, but it wasn’t worth more than a year of being miserably stuck at home.

  183. SunnyGirl*

    Quit? No. I’ve got a salary and a pension I can’t get elsewhere.

    But we’re in bargaining. When the bargaining survey came out, I stressed the importance of adding work from home language to our collective agreement. After all, we’ve all demonstrated it can be done, even for the receptionist.

  184. Amethystmoon*

    I wouldn’t consider leaving at this point, at least not right away. It looks like we are going to have some sort of hybrid policy. Besides which, it seems like every couple of years we get a new CEO, so the minds of TPTB will be changed eventually.

  185. Epsilon Delta*

    Working from home to me is one part of the equation. It’s not a deal breaker, but it has a lot more weight now than it did two years ago, so the rest of the benefits and job would have to be quite stellar to compensate for losing the ability to work from home, or even going back to the 2019 policy of “once in a blue moon, for a good reason only.”

    That’s not to say I want or need to be 100% remote, but I do now expect some baseline level of being able to work from home on a regular basis just like I expect a certain amount of PTO or health insurance coverage.

  186. Natalie*

    My office is still fully remote (went remote due to the pandemic) so I don’t know what it’ll look like yet…looks like they’ll announce the return to office plans in a month or so. But work from home will absolutely be a big factor in future job searches. Work from home has increased my productivity, health, and work/life balance. I also despise commuting on super crowded buses, which was my reality pre-pandemic. If my current office decides to be ungenerous with work from home, I will start looking to see what other roles are out there that have more work from home days, even though I love my job and co-workers. My ideal would be 3 days WFH/2 days in office per week.

  187. David R.*

    It’s going to be a stronger factor going forward, definitely. I liked being in the office previously, I even chose an apartment with a 10-minute walking commute to my previous job. I ran a weekly end-of-the-week guided beer/cider/mead tasting 5 years straight (and that’s definitely not doable remote).

    But now? I have a sub-specialty I’ve worked my way into. There’s enough companies in my industry around here that I *could* find a role locally. But I’ve had two companies back to back work pretty hard at recruiting/poaching me from out-of-state, with the expectation that they would be 100% remote roles (maybe with some occasional flights back to the home office once that’s reasonable again).

    So I’m not against being in an office, but I’m seeing the writing on the wall and it has me either leaning into my found specialty and casting my net into a pool wide enough to catch the level of company that can use what I do; or staying local and likely falling back to ‘generic’ and having to compete much harder against many more people.

    And at that point it has to be something pretty good to balance that scale, much less make it the preferable option.

  188. Mandi*

    I’m not a fan of working from home full-time, so that’s not a deal breaker for me. But I have decided over the past few months that I am no longer willing to function under an insane level of stress all day, every day. I’m in the middle of a job change now because of that.

  189. Marcey Marketer*

    I like five minutes from the beach and five minutes from my parents, 30 minutes from my husband’s parents. We see both sets every week; my children benefit immensely from having a relationship with their grandparents. We visit the ocean three or four days a week after work or on the weekends. I would never live anywhere else. There are no great jobs by me so I have to work remote. I’ve said many times that I would never consider moving for work, although my company has asked me to. I would quit before I would move– I can easily find another remote job, though it might pay less, or start my own business.

  190. He's just this guy, you know?*

    I landed what I consider to be a dream job a couple of years ago (it’s a long-standing, local company in a very secure industry), so no, I will not be quitting over WFH policies. I’m hoping that we’ll have some flexibility once we return to the office in a few months, but even if we don’t, it won’t be a make or break deal for me. I’ve worked a lot of crappier, more temporary jobs on my way to this one, and I really want to hang on to this one.

  191. Jennifer Strange*

    I work at a theatre, but on the admin side of things. I am very lucky that my job (which previously allowed me to work from home now and then) looks like it will be moving to a hybrid schedule for those who can continue working from home.

    However, if they had told us we had to return to the office full time, I wouldn’t quit, but I would want a discussion about the thought process behind the decision and what factors are considered. It could be that there were very important reasons why they would want us to be in the office to work, especially since there are departments that, by their nature, cannot do their work from home. But if it were just a matter of them thinking “it looks better” or they didn’t want other departments to get jealous, I would definitely consider whether or not I wanted to remain there.

    My productivity has greatly increased since working from home since I am able to give my work my full attention without interruptions (we had an open-office plan and you can hear every conversation that happens) and our Zoom meetings, I think, are more thoughtful and better focused with fewer tangents, since we don’t have the safety net of just turning around to talk to a co-worker as we previously did.

    1. C.P.*

      I also work in a theatre (admin side) and completely agree. However our CEO is very against WFH flexibility. I’m not asking for 100% at home, just the flexibility. Especially now that my husband is WFH full time and we are looking to have children in the future.

  192. Monty & Millie's Mom*

    I have not read all comments, so maybe it’s already been addressed, but I hope that people who WFH realize how privileged they are to be able to do so. I am not saying it’s a privilege that their employer lets us WFH, but that it is typically the more privileged people who have jobs that allow them to WFH. There are many, MANY people who work at jobs that cannot be done remotely, and are essential, and my thoughts are that I’d kinda rather make sure that their working conditions are reasonable and made better before I get myself all worked up because my employer might not let me work from home. Before people pile on, I want to say that absolutely many jobs CAN be done from home, and there’s no reason for people to be in the office, but I honestly can’t see quitting if I cannot work from home. I feel like if the employer/company is good overall, but won’t budge on this one thing, it’s probably not worth quitting over. I just think it’s often a bigger conversation or a bigger thing that we as employees don’t have all the context for. Anyway, there is a LOT more that I could say, but I feel like I’m not making coherent sense, so I’ll just leave this here. Just – in most situations, I cannot see why people are willing to die on this hill. It can/should be part of your consideration in deciding to accept a job or whatever, but I find the entitled attitude of many people (even here in these comments, unfortunately) distasteful. It just feels icky, even though I agree that many jobs can be WFH!

    1. BethRA*

      “I just think it’s often a bigger conversation or a bigger thing that we as employees don’t have all the context for.”

      Don’t have full context for why an employer might want their workforce structured a certain way? Sure. But people do have full context of what they want and what works for THEM. That’s not dying on a hill, that’s re-evaluating your situation (and that includes what your options are and whether the jobs you want can be done remotely – and trust me, I think most people understand that distinction and that even being able ponder WFH is a an option lots of folks don’t have) and making decisions accordingly.

      And I really want to push back on the idea that wanting to advocate for WFH or hybrid arrangements somehow

    2. Chc34*

      The thing is also that people are allowed to choose whatever hills they want to die on in regards to if they want to continue working for their company. If my company puts purple wallpaper in the bathroom and I hate purple so much that I decide I want to find a new job, other people might think that’s weird, but if that’s a hill I want to die on, so be it.

    3. CupcakeCounter*

      I think part of the problem is that in a lot of these cases, the employer isn’t good overall. Good employers will recognize that a WFH/hybrid option is hugely beneficial to many employees and they have proven they can be as or in some cases more effective in their roles without certain stressors. Good employers will properly manage employees who aren’t effective at remote work. Good employers will be up front and clear about why full-time WFH or a hybrid schedule isn’t possible.
      The problem for those of us who do have the ability to WFH is we are being told “because” as the reason for return to work. Or that “we need to be more collaborative” and then I sit at my on-site desk for several weeks and interact with almost no one because I’m an accountant. Not an overly collaborative role. The one person I talked to the other day, a customer service rep, wishes we would all get out of the office again. The people talking and chatting are distracting and makes it harder for her to talk with clients on the phone. When we were gone, she and the other CSR’s spread out and moved to desks farther away from each other. While some probably would have loved to WFH they understood that their jobs weren’t ideal for it and appreciated the quiet and the extra space to distance.
      I was laid off in May of 2020 and when I was interviewing for my current job, they told me that everyone was working from home. The second I signed the offer letter, they said “oh well training can’t be done remotely so you have to come in”. I have an older child – doesn’t need constant supervision but can’t be home alone for 8-10 hours a day – so had to scramble for child care at the last minute during a pandemic (last July). I caught on quickly but then they said it wasn’t a remote position so I once again had to figure something out until school started. They’ve been yanking us back and forth for nearly a year now. In most cases, the WFH thing is more an indication of other issues in the company. Which is why my last day here is in 2 weeks.

    4. J.B.*

      Even for those of us who are privileged, we don’t necessarily have good setups for two adults. I like many moms had to scramble to get a workable setup and I would be more comfortable in the future if I could use the home office, not a side desk in the bedroom.

    5. citygirl*

      This comment makes me feel icky. The outrageous costs of childcare and the inability of companies to support disabilities or chronic health concerns are widespread issues which WFH reasonably addresses. One group of employees advocating for themselves at work does not negate other employees doing the same. This is some capitalist thinking here – instead of thinking that one group of employees is getting pitted against another, why not think about all employees having leverage to advocate for their needs against the employer. WFH employees are not the reason essential workers are treated like shit. Fight the real enemy here.

    6. Ask a Manager* Post author

      Couldn’t you say the same thing about anything else at work — like that it’s entitled to leave a job over money when other people earn less, or entitled to leave a job over boring work when other people have more difficult jobs? We don’t generally consider those things entitled, so why this? I suspect it’s just that it’s new to see WFH put in the same category as other things a reasonable person might leave over … but it’s really not entitled to decide you prefer the working conditions being offered by another company. (And if there weren’t plenty of companies offering this, people wouldn’t be leaving their jobs over it — but the point is that it’s suddenly a thing that’s much easier to find, and people would like to do so. Why is it entitled to change jobs, when the thing you want is suddenly a lot more plentiful?)

      1. Monty & Millie's Mom*

        I’m not sure why, exactly. What I was trying to say – and not doing it well! – is that it can/should be a consideration, much like benefits/wage/office culture/etc. and everyone can make their own decision on it, but it’s just one part of the package. I think it’s striking me as “entitlement” so much because some people are so very strident about it in a way that I don’t think I’ve seen about other things, and again, most jobs that can be WFH are office jobs that some don’t have real access to. I’m not trying to fight about it or say anyone is wrong for wanting to WFH, but I just see some comments/opinions that are striking me as much more…….angry?……than the usual we get here. It just makes me a little uncomfortable and I realize that’s just my own thing and no one else’s problem, but the level of anger and emotion just seems disproportionate for something that is just a part of the overall picture.

        All that said, I realize I have a lot to say about a lot of stuff but not a way to condense things concisely here, so while I stand by my statement, I will say that it’s just my opinion, and I hope that people realize that it’s not an attack on anyone!

      2. Monty & Millie's Mom*

        Okay, maybe I can clarify a bit better. A business/employer/company doesn’t owe its workers the opportunity to WFH, and some of the comments seem like the employee feels it is owed to them, and that is what is rubbing me the wrong way. It’s possible )and even likely?!) that the commenters don’t actually think like that but instead just mean to say it is a very big factor for them, but it’s coming across badly to me. That’s all! I’m guessing that some people actually DO feel like it’s owed to them to be able to WFH b/c they want to, but I suspect that’s a pretty small percentage! So basically my fault for focusing on that small percentage, I guess!

  193. Hamburke*

    I think that it would depend on the job. I had a fully remote job some time ago that was very isolating – everyone stayed in their towers, working on their own schedule, and there was very little interaction since everything was pretty much followed in the project management software – I was assigned tasks and marked them complete without talking to anyone unless there was an issue or change in scope. After the initial meet-and-greet, I think I had 1 or 2 team meetings the year that I was there. I left it for an office job where there was a warm, collaborative atmosphere. That office job went remote in March 2020 and it looks like we’re staying that way (always the owner’s vision but this made it happen). We have biweekly team meetings with a limited amount of social time built in and it’s not uncommon to call or video chat/screen share with a teammate fairly regularly.

    I do share dedicated office space with my husband (this is not a change – he’s been fully remote for years) so I have a bit of in-person social interactions during the day as well.

  194. Never Sleeping Beauty*

    I started my job in January with an employer who I’ve worked with before but who had pre-pandemic been opposed to work from home. Obviously with COVID that changed so when they asked me to come back I said yes, on the condition that I also be part time because it would be cost-prohibitive to work full time and need childcare. Our CEO recently indicated he might ask people to come back to the office, and if I did that I’d be making less money because I’d have to work less hours so I can get home in time for my spouse to go to work. So I would definitely push back on that, but I don’t know yet if I’m going to have to. For now, I just keep trying to show that I can be reliable and productive when not in the office. I’m not opposed to going into the office once in awhile, but if it was a regular thing, at this stage in my life that would be a problem.

  195. Trivia Newton-John*

    Absolutely.

    Pre-COVID our organization never allowed staff to WFH for any reason.

    Once we very abruptly shut down and were sent home, we had to use our own laptops, phones and other equipment to connect remotely. (Management got firm laptops) We were given no stipends to purchase any office chairs, extra monitors, etc. AND we were told no overtime and given a 10% pay cut (since restored). There wasn’t really any engagement or concern over staff from management in our office, or anyone from our home office (according to the rest of the staff in my office) this entire time. Staff checked in with each other.

    I have been the only admin going in this entire time, usually for my team but also to cover for the office. I’ve done this 3 or 4 times a month (sometimes more frequently) which works well, as I can accomplish some things easier from there (because high speed scanner/copier is there) but the resentment is growing very strong with me for several reasons.

    We don’t have any need to “collaborate” in my position. Throughout this time, Management On High has repeatedly stated how impressed they are with how productive everyone is. No catastrophes have happened. We have consistently met and even exceeded expectations. We are all able to (mostly) do our job from home. We all feel that we are more productive, more efficient and we are able to manage our time a lot easier while still working our stated hours.

    No one in my (branch) office wants to go back full time – we all want hybrid.
    But, our Home Office in the South, who is moving into Fancy New Digs is determined that all offices go back slowly over the summer and are there 5x a week after Labor Day. They haven’t said whether we can continue any sort of WFH when we return to the office. The managing partner submitted a plan for our office, which was promptly ignored and he’s submitting a second proposal this week to see if we can get anywhere.

    All of the other offices in my metro area that are comparable to mine (some bigger, some smaller) are going back later than us, and on a hybrid schedule. Why wouldn’t I want to go to a company that offers that, and also gives me a firm laptop for that matter, if I have that option? After this past year, seeing what other colleagues around the country have done in similar companies/roles have done, and what my company has done, I am actively looking if my company doesn’t change their mind.

  196. Daisy-dog*

    Maybe. I started my job early in the pandemic. I have not had a “normal” work schedule in the office. The latest that I have heard is that I will be expected to be in the office 3 days/week. I don’t know how that will feel. I am not particularly looking forward to having to get ready, leave my dog, commute in awful traffic, and be under fluorescent lights with uncontrollably cold temperatures for 9 hours/day. But maybe it will be worthwhile once I get in the routine. Or maybe I will be able to arrange for more flexibility if I am miserable. If not, then I would consider leaving for a fully remote role.

    I currently enjoy working from home because my entire day is no longer about work. I don’t have to prepare all my meals and snacks the night before. I don’t need to wake up earlier to take care of my dog and fix my hair & make-up. I don’t need to drive anywhere. I get to do chores or lay down on my lunch break. I can start my work-out right when I clock out.

    I want to add that prior to Covid I was extremely burnt out and being away from home for 10-11 hours/day was not helping. I do fear having those same feelings again.

  197. Kent Clark*

    I hated working from home and when my company announced that it was giving up our office space and it would be permanent I did quit. Since most of the industry is moving towards permanent work from home I moved into an adjacent industry where working from home / accessing work outside of work is not physically possible. My manager didn’t understand why I quit and I ended up not working my notice period because she wouldn’t leave it alone. I did like my old job (there for 12 years) and industry before work from home. I’ve been in my new job for 3 months and even with the pandemic restrictions in place I’m so much happier. I know it is the opposite for most people but the separation between work and home is the best thing for me.

  198. Vox Experientia*

    i work in a large IT department within a larger non technical org. senior leadership is non technical, but the workforce is very technical. the majority of people have been working from home during the pandemic and things have been moving along very well, with productivity high. upper management is very anti-work from home. they dont see the value, and worry about the few slackers wfh and not producing. i think the fundamental disconnect is a lack of understanding of the responsibilities of middle management. if people are not contributing commiserate with their pay rate, it’s the responsibility of middle management to monitor and act on that, regardless of wfh or in office. lousy employees goofing off at home who are required to come to the office are still going to be lousy goof offs. and none of them will leave. exceptional and highly productive wfh staff forced to return to work are going to be unhappy and start to look for work elsewhere (it’s already happening). so the end result is – your lousy people stay, and your good people start to leave. forcing return to work instead of just requiring middle management to correctly manage their people is a bad policy. that’s the piece we can’t get senior leadership to understand.

    1. Girasol*

      Managers who need to see people working in the office to know that they’re not slacking are the ones who are so often duped by workers who make a big show of how very busy they are and how many roadblocks they’re dealing with, while getting nothing done.

  199. C.P.*

    My current employer is slowing transitioning back into the office. (2 day/week in July, 3 days/week in August, full time after Labor Day) our CEO is very against WFH flexibility. Even though every employee has expressed that they would like that flexibility. If it does not change I will leave and find somewhere that will be flexible, with planning for children in next year.

  200. Phantom*

    I started my current job right after the start of the pandemic. I was pretty reluctant about the hour long commute when I applied, and I learned early on that working from home even one day a week wasn’t going to be an option. But, by the time I had an offer, it was clear that there would be no open office to go into for at least a couple months. Thankfully, my employer has done a complete 180 and has said that no one needs to go in ever. If that were not the case, I’d probably at least try commuting for a bit before starting a job search. But, I’d probably start exploring my options anyway.

    Honestly, the surge in remote work has me looking for financial reasons. Although we’re hiring remote people now, our salaries are still pegged to our low cost of living area, so hiring has gotten very difficult. It’s hard to keep losing good candidates over money and to not start looking for a higher salary yourself. If I’m going to be working remotely anyway, there’s not much reason for me to favor an employer in my area over one in an area where salaries are higher.

  201. Xenia*

    My company did a really solid job at WFH support—sent everyone the equipment they needed, including the new interns, had some virtual meet and greets to try and lessen the strain of never seeing anyone, and did a good job of making the workflow smooth. I still think that I would ultimately lose it if I had to work from home full time. The isolation was terrible for my mental and physical health and didn’t help my work ethic much either. So if they announced that they would be going fully work from home I wouldn’t be able to stay.

  202. Mel*

    I just did! At the beginning of 2021 I learned that my company would have a “strong preference” for local employees to come back to the office. I started job hunting that week and just started a great position that’s fully remote. I respect an employer’s right to have employees where they want, but that comes with the employee’s right to work how they want.

  203. Justin*

    I don’t think I can financially, but because I’m planning a new path once I finish my doctorate, will probably just suck it up from, like, September to next year, provided there’s any flexibility at all.

  204. Mallory Janis Ian*

    I wouldn’t take a job that could NEVER be done from home (like for occasions such as needing to meet a repairman or the dog had surgery or various one-off circumstances), but I don’t want to be full-time remote, either.

    I’ve been remote for over a year, and it was fine at first, but my productivity has been gradually slipping away as I become more tired of working from home. I have a good set-up, too (separate home office room, nice desk exclusively for my use, Aeron chair from office, and all the computer and A/V equipment I needed provided by my work). So my working conditions are as ideal as they can possibly be, but I just am not thriving with the mixing of home and work.

    All the cues that make me feel productive (other people around me also working) are gone, and all the cues that I should be relaxing and enjoying myself (husband relaxing and enjoying himself) are present. I hate having to make myself work when I want to be relaxing, and I’m not even lazy. I’m perfectly fine working when all the cues say “Work”, but I hate working when all the cues say, “Relax and have fun”.

    1. Anonya*

      You articulated this really well. This is exactly how I feel. Apparently my brain is really, really bad at switching between home mode and work mode. I have a good setup, have set boundaries on when to work and not work, all of that jazz. But I seriously hate this.

  205. Higher Ed Library Chick*

    My job was full-time in office before the pandemic and I never questioned it — I felt stressed all the time with two kids under 5 and both parents working full time, but I just figured this was life and I’d have to deal. In general, I liked my job and I was grateful for what flexibility I had. Then Covid happened and I was suddenly full time remote. I got so much of my time back — now I could switch over the laundry or empty the dishwasher during the day, so when the kids got home in the evening I could enjoy them and not feel like I was scrambling. My whole weekends were no longer tied up with running errands or cleaning the house or meal prep, because I could do those things in small increments during the week — I could actually relax on my weekends for once. Now that the pandemic’s over, my employer is really pushing for everyone to come back to the office full time, for what seem like really flimsy reasons. I want to come back 3 days a week with 2 days a week WFH, but it sounds like they won’t allow it. I don’t want to go back to the way things were. If they force me to come back without any WFH options, I’m going to start looking for another job.

    1. I've Escaped Cubicle Land*

      You’ve pointed out some great things. Like stepping away for 5 minutes to load laundry or let the repairman in. Someone up thread mentioned saving $ on groceries and work clothes, car maintenance and insurance. Our top management asked us for a list of pro’s for WFH to help them push back against the ones trying to recall us. These kind of things, and things like using sick/vacation days due to kids being out of school, less paper waste due to more work being converted to PDF and Excel were all mentioned.

      1. Higher Ed Library Chick*

        See, at least in my case, I think a lot of those “pro’s” wouldn’t matter to our management because they’re considered “personal reasons.” A higher up admin said the other day that he didn’t think “because I want to” should be a good enough reason to WFH. I think my best chance is to talk about the work-related pro’s — like the ability to work on projects that require a high degree of concentration without interruption, to be able to record video or teach webinars in a quieter environment, etc. Maybe if I can make a business case for it, I can make it happen, but if I’m relying on the mental health benefits, being able to load laundry, etc., I’m pretty sure the answer will be no.

  206. SentientAmoeba*

    I was working from home 2 days a week before the pandemic so the shift to 100% remote was easy for me. I did end up having to buy a much bigger desk to accommodate the additional reference materials etc. that I keep on hand but that was more personal preference than true need. At this point, I am looking to transition to being in office 1 day a week. Ironically, I will get less done on in office days because factoring in commute time, less privacy compared to my home office, less work space, more distractions and having to take longer breaks to grab a bite etc. it will be a net loss. But them’s the breaks.

  207. Yellow*

    I would not quit over being forced back to the office full time, but my company’s decision to allow us flexibility in WFH/WF Office will certainly play into my decision to NOT job search any time in the near future.

  208. Accounting Otaku*

    I actually had a breakdown over the first part of lockdown from the isolation the 100% WFH set up caused me. I could not do a job that was 100% remote. My team was called back to the office full-time before any of us were comfortable doing so. I was both eager to go back and upset it was too soon. We were called back in early May of 2020 for reference. I needed the structure of the office to protect me from the distractions at home. That being said, when I started this new job in November with their hybrid model, I absolutely love it. I cannot imagine going back to 100% in office work again.
    This set up has increased my reliability so much. I take less sick days because I can just log on from home and get what I need done for the day. I can actually schedule days off and use them for what I want instead of keeping days in reserve for when I don’t feel well. I have the structure of the office when I need to be really productive. I can actually make the connections I need to at work without feeling siloed. I am in this job for the long haul and this policy is a large part of it. A company being 100% on-site or 100% remote will be a deal-breaker for me going forward. I have to have the flexibility.

  209. AnnieM*

    I anticipate my company will make us come back to the office 5 days/week at some point after Labor Day (everyone at my office is fully vaccinated – my employer required it). I don’t anticipate I’ll quit my job over this in the short-term, but I do think it will prompt me to leave sooner than I would have otherwise, say in one year instead of two or three. My workplace is fairly dysfunctional, but I’m paid well and working from home 2-3 days per week keeps me sane, so the trade-offs are currently worth it for me. I’ll have to re-evaluate once I’m back in the office full time. However, I know at least three coworkers who will likely begin an active job search if they’re required to be in person everyday.

    I’m also watching how my company handles remote work on a case-by-case basis, and if they can come up with a fair policy. For someone like me who lives close to the office, they are more likely to be rigid about in-office requirements based on past experience. Coworkers who live an hour or more from the office may be able to go on working remotely part time, even if they were here 5 days before Covid. If the company begins making exceptions only for people who drive far, I expect there will be revolt among the locals.

  210. code red*

    WFH is not my hill to die on. Granted, I’m overall happy with my company and they’ve handled the entire pandemic as well as they could (especially reading all the horror stories from other companies). They supported all employees (not just parents) with flexible schedules (as long as we attended mandatory meetings and gave them a heads-up about approximate times we’d be reachable), didn’t require cameras to be turned on, allowed us back in office when we’re ready (not when management is), had virtual happy hours occasionally that were 100% optional.

    Some coworkers have started going back in a couple days a week, including the boss, but it’s been made clear that returning to the office is entirely dependent on when we feel comfortable doing so. I’m not sure if or when they’ll decide we must go in if we’re local. Pre-pandemic we were expected to go in the office if we lived locally, but were allowed to WFH if sick (well enough to work, but not wanting to infect co-workers), had sick kids home, were expecting a package, etc.

    TBH I’d probably prefer to remain remote for the most part if they continue giving us the option. Mainly because my team lead isn’t local and I’m usually on calls with them randomly throughout the day. Having to go jump in an empty office or conference room every time that happens sounds like a pain.

    1. areyoumymother*

      I think how companies have handled this is so key. In my friend group, those whose offices did remote work poorly, remain too rigid, or treated staff poorly during the pandemic are losing staff. Not necessarily because people don’t want to return to the office, but because of the rigidity around the return.

      1. code red*

        Yes, I agree. My company understands we’re human and have lives and other stuff going on and that comes across so clearly in how they treat us. Last job we were just faceless workers expected to put the company first (not all supervisors were like that but all upper management was, so there was only so much the supervisors could do). I can’t imagine they handled the pandemic in a way that would’ve kept me there had I not already left.

  211. areyoumymother*

    I left my job a little over a month ago and am actively job hunting. The job I left was fully remote (I’ve been remote off and on over the past 10 years), but they did remote work really poorly. I felt isolated and lonely. I felt like there was no mentorship or room to learn from peers. I was working across time zones and suddenly my workday was stretched from typical work hours to days that started at 6am and ended at 10pm. It was a rough year at that job.

    So I put in my notice.

    I’m still looking for roles that are either remote or hybrid. But I’m much more selective. I honestly care less about actually being remote and more about the flexibility that remote affords. I’m a single mom. Flexible work allowed me to minimize daycare costs (due to no commute) and allows us to live in a lower cost of living area. If it was not for my previous remote roles my career would not be where it is today.

    However, HOW a company handles remote or hybrid roles matters a lot and I’ve learned to ask probing questions during the interview stage to weed out “remote” places that allow people to work from home, but that don’t do that very well.

  212. The Other Dawn*

    Prior to the pandemic, I was in-office full time with a very occasional WFH day. At the time I was fine with that.

    When the pandemic started and we were all sent home, I absolutely hated it; however, there were several factors. I’d just had major back surgery and was recovering during the early pandemic; I was coming off pain meds I’d been on for a year and I wasn’t physically ready or mentally prepared for that; I didn’t have a home office; and I’d never worked from home for more than a few days at a time. But now I’ve grown to prefer working from home. I’ve loved the convenience of being at home and not having to commute, being able to run an errand here and there, take care of appointments for the various health issues that have popped up in the last year, and just being able to be much more flexible than I was before.

    But my company has decided to go hybrid, with a 50/50 split between home and office (the C-suite had to fight for it, though). At first I was upset–we all were–because our department is siloed and doesn’t need to be in the office at all. That said, I’ve grown used to the idea and now that we’re starting hybrid in a couple weeks, I find myself looking forward to a change of scenery twice a week.

    As to whether I’d leave or not, if the company takes away hybrid, yes, I’d absolutely leave. And if I happened to find another job that was comparable and at the same rate of pay, but it was 100% WFH, I’d leave for that job. I think my team members would, too, after having a taste of WFH. I think that’s where companies who are in-office only (when it’s not really necessary) are going to lose their competitive advantage. If people can work at a company that’s hybrid or 100% WFH, with the same job and same pay, why would they stay at a company that’s completely in-office?

  213. T. J. Juckson*

    Yes. I am actively looking for a new position, and WFH or, at the very least, a hybrid schedule, is high on my list of priorities. At this point, I will not take a job that does not offer some remote flexibility.

    I had to go back the very first day it was permitted for non-essential employees in NYC, so I’ve been in the office since last June (excepting the week when I worked remotely because my boss and his wife tested positive and didn’t bother to tell me, which is a bit of a problem since I work out of an office in their apartment).

    I used to be willing to work longer hours or extra days when needed (I am part-time), but since my employer’s is not flexible, I am not either, anymore.

  214. Love WFH*

    I work in IT. I will start looking for another job if my employer requires us to go back to the office — and judging by the number of recruiters I’m hearing from, a new job won’t be hard to find. I wouldn’t mind doing something like one day in the office every two weeks or so.

    Before the shutdown, I could WFH one day per week. I am loving working entirely remotely! My commute isn’t a terrible one, but eliminating it really adds up in time!

    It was delightful not getting colds last winter — I know the bus and office were the source of those.

    I have arthritis, and WFH allows me to migrate from desk to recliner and manage pain much better than an office environment.

    I’ve saved a lot of money on transportation, dressier clothes, and buying lunch. Bus passes alone come to $1,200 for the year.

    My software development team is more productive than ever. Four people were hired during the shutdown, and we had no trouble with training them and them fitting in happily.

    We have some people in India, and one who lives in another state. The most we can do is hybrid. Hybrid is frankly worse for communication that fully remote is. When everyone is remote, all communication takes that into account. With hybrid, the remote folks miss information that the people in the office are sharing. Anyone who has been in a meeting where everyone is wearing a headset knows how much better that is them when you’re trying to hear people speak in a conference room that has a speaker phone. It’s really difficult when you’re remote and they’re writing on a white board.

  215. Liv*

    Luckily my workplace is going hybrid from September. The guidance for my type of role is ‘2-3 days in the office per week’, but my department has said it will be at managers’ discretion to find a balance that works best for each individual. They’re not allowing total WFH yet, but have said they’ll be revisiting in 2022.

    The 2-3 days in the office per week is ideal for me. I probably wouldn’t leave my job if they’d reverted to our previous WFH policy (which was 1 day a week at home if we wanted it), but it’s definitely factor into my longer-term career planning. I think I would leave if it was to become 100% remote as I do miss my colleagues and the organic conversations/brainstorming/problem solving/general venting that happens in the office. The key to me is giving employees the flexibility they want and trusting us to work how we see fit.

  216. Not So Super-visor*

    I’ve already seen 1 resignation over our plans to return after Labor Day, and I will suspect that we will see more. I have no power to negotiate it as VP has declared a return to office. It just all comes at a bad time — we’re in the middle of a merger, and our office was the only office to let this category of employee work from home (essential business!). New VP is absolutely appalled that we allowed it at all, so he has no sympathy.

    Personally, I don’t work well from home, and I work best when I am around other people. I don’t know that I would have quit if we’d decided to be 100% remote, but I think that my performance would have struggled.

  217. Data Analyst*

    I interviewed for this job in March 2020 so it was intended to be on-site but I’ve never been to the office, and now I get to work remotely permanently (but could have chosen to be full time on-site or hybrid). I am thrilled to be WFH – I really wanted this job and the commute was the only thing I wasn’t excited about. If they had required me to come back, I would not have quit, but mostly because the other benefits are so good. We work slightly longer days in exchange for every other Friday off. We have a pension (in addition to a 401k with match). My team is great. Without those factors I would be much more likely to look for another remote job if I had to go in.

  218. gbca*

    I feel fortunate that my company’s approach to WFH/flexibility is very aligned with my wishes, but if it wasn’t I’d definitely be looking elsewhere. I have been WFH for the past 15 months along with all non-onsite-essential employees at my company. We are about to be allowed to return to office on a completely opt-in basis. The long run plan is that most people will be in the office to some degree, but there will be a high level of flexibility in terms of days/week people are expected to be in the office. Personally I’m really over WFH and am looking forward to in-person interaction again, but with young kids I also strongly value flexibility, so the overall plan works well for me.

  219. Persephone Mulberry*

    I have always, always believed that that I don’t have the self-discipline to work from home, so the last 15 months have been stressful to say the least. Turns out, learning (just in the past two months or so) that I have ADHD and learning how to work with my brain instead of against it has had a huge positive impact on my at-home productivity. I did return to the office when we reopened at the beginning of June but I’m surprised to realize that while I enjoy the casual camaraderie and water cooler chitchat of “the office,” I actually do miss the quiet productivity of my home office (not to mention the easy access to a full kitchen and my feline companions). I love my job and my company and I have no plans to leave regardless of what they may decide about working from home in the future, but if and when the day comes that it’s time for me to explore new opportunities, work from home options will go in the “pro” column instead of the “con.”

  220. SheLooksFamiliar*

    I’ve been mostly-to-all WFH for the past 15+ years. I manage my work well, and I’ve been told I’m also good at managing remote teams. Since I returned to consulting, I’m grateful to have more WFH options than some folks do. I don’t mind going onsite for a monthly staff meeting, or once in a while just to spend time with my colleagues. Still:

    Last fall I worked on a project with a huge, global company. The Program Director knew I lived 75 miles away and said WFH wasn’t a problem, most of the team was WFH. In January, US Operations went to one week onsite/one week off. I live in the Chicago area and that commute would be cumbersome, even in good weather. The Program Director said I was not an employee and thus exempt from the requirement, then they backtracked.

    I landed 2 new projects fairly quickly and gave notice to sever the arrangement. The PD was a little surprised I’d leave a Fortune 50 company over a commute, but ~4 hours round trip? Nope.

  221. aubrey*

    My company has been 100% remote for several years now, and a new job would have to be truly amazing in every possible way for me to consider full-time office work again. I love working from home. Commuting in particular just drains all my energy, but I dislike most things about working in an office.

    However, it’s much easier to be remote when the whole company is remote or hybrid, especially as a new employee. And I have a good home office setup and live alone – it would be way different if I was working in my bedroom or kitchen table or sharing space with others.

  222. Women Who Die On Rocks*

    If I had to work from home full time in my current situation, I would look for another job. Working from home has been hell on my mental health, physical health, and my productivity. And short of building a second bedroom with a workstation just as good as my office, and getting a generator for power outages (I live on an island with shitty infrastructure), there would be no way to make it work. If I could work from home well, I would definitely have chosen a different career, perhaps as a graphic design contractor instead of a finance worker.

  223. ThatGirl*

    I like having flexibility. I like having the option to WFH on Mondays, or when the weather is bad, or if a service person is coming (cable, repair, whatever). I appreciate companies that recognize flexibility like that is important.

    I started at this company in January, and prior to the pandemic, they were very old school, butts-in-seats sort of place. But when they had to adapt, they discovered it worked pretty well for most people/departments. Now there is still flexibility and discretion about when you come in/when you stay home, but they are encouraging folks to be here a few days a week if possible. So right now I’m WFH on Mondays, coming in Tues-Thurs and some Fridays. But I also am lucky to live very close to the office; if commute were a big issue it would change the equation.

  224. Wats*

    It depends on the job, but I would strongly prefer to stay remote. In my current work, 90% of my team including my boss, isn’t even in the same city as me. So, I would be coming in to work with only a couple people while still having to set up everything as remote.

    In my previous job, I might have been okay with going back. I loved my team and are still close to a few people. I do miss them.

    But, I had a child during the pandemic and having the ability to spend so much time with them is irreplaceable to me. We’ve been able to keep the household (and our sanity) in great shape because of the flexibility it’s offered. I’ll never forget that.

  225. Bigglesworth*

    I would most likely leave if my employer asked me to start coming into the office every day. I was hired fully remote and then moved about an hour away from my employer’s office space.

    Although I understand as a new attorney that there can be quite a bit of good feedback during the day if I’m in the office, my boss and I are in the phone pretty constantly throughout the day regarding client matters, updates, and feedback and it’s quite a bit like having someone just drop into my office. She’s a former solo who is expanding her practice and wants to appeal to attorneys with a variety of benefits, so it’s been nice to be a part of the discussion as to what appeals to me.

  226. SnapCat*

    I just changed jobs from a pre-COVID hybrid model (generally in the office, but highly flexible about WFH) to a 100% remote role. I’m generally happy and productive working remotely, but I do miss the social elements of being in an office – happy hours, impromptu conversations, dressing up, etc. – especially after being stuck at home for so long! It’s also been harder to get to know my new colleagues with everyone remote, or to feel as integrated here as I was in my old role (though I was at my old company for 4 years, compared to just 6 months here, so it’s not a fair comparison.) Going forward, I don’t think I could ever take a role that was 100% in office with no flexibility, but I’d probably be happiest with a 2/3 split.

  227. MoinMoin*

    The pros/cons balance has drastically shifted. I was really happy with my company’s Covid response and discussions about returning to work leaned towards flexibility and hybrid schedules, which I was really excited about. Then…. just an email that everyone is back in the office. Departments are still allowed flexibility but for my department it’s working out with the same pitfalls of unlimited PTO policies- without setting a guideline the perception of actually using the benefit feels like you’re being lazy, and when people do stay home there’s grumbling about whether they’re working (which- hello!! You’ve been working at home for the last year plus! Are you telling me something about that?). There’s also resentment from people that can’t do their jobs from home, and I empathize with that, but it’s the nature of work. I work in finance/accounting and I’m usually the only one working around Christmas to finalize year-end stuff. Things aren’t always fair.
    I do think there are pluses to coming into the office for me, but that can easily be achieved with a hybrid schedule, and I do intend to push for that. I’ve hinted but haven’t outright asked because a current project means that I really do need to be in the office everyday at the moment, but this is rare and temporary. Still, I worry I’m like a frog in boiling water and without making a stink now it will be harder to push for later. An added wrinkle to this is that I’m currently pregnant and we’d talked a lot about my plans on being out and returning, which hinged on a fair amount of flexibility. This adds an extra layer of urgency and importance to me, but I resent even having to bring it up as a reason. I can do my job well from home and throughout the pandemic I showed flexibility by coming into the office whenever it was needed, often with no notice. I expected that to be reciprocated to some degree. I may not leave right away as I see how maternity leave and returning works out, but if the expectation is that my role is office only it will be the deciding factor in how satisfied I am in the job and how willing I am to stay.

  228. Annie*

    I’ve been at a fully remote company since early 2019. The difference this made in my life was astonishing. My previous job was a butt-in-seat, old-school company with leadership that thought they were progressive because they put a foosball table in the lunch room (which could only be used on designated lunches and breaks, of course). EVERYTHING was a hassle: getting sick, vet appointments, dentist appointments, having a contractor come to the house, etc. With a WFH flex-schedule, the stress of these everyday things that everyone must deal with was gone. In exchange, I give my employer my all, happily. This means that on the rare evening all hell breaks loose at work, I’m there in heartbeat ready to do what it takes to get the job done with no accompanying resentment. So it benefits me, it benefits them, and literally no one loses (except my last company, which lost me! :) )

    I would never, ever consider going back to an office environment, especially one like my previous employer fostered, unless I was desperate for employment (and then, I’d job hunt and leave immediately as soon as I found something remote).

    Companies that are not giving serious thought to accommodating employee desires in this regard are going to quickly find themselves doing some soul-searching, I hope.

  229. MechanicalPencil*

    I’m not sure I’d leave my job if I had to return to the office, but it would definitely be something to put in the “con” column of staying, in addition to my company’s lack of WFH setup support. I’m actually taking home less money now since I’ve had to up my internet service, buy items to make working at home more convenient, etc. If a stipend of some sort was given to compensate for upped utility usage, that would be greatly appreciated. Or even just a flat “here’s $X, use it as you will”. At this point, anything is better than the nothing I’ve gotten.

  230. Brainstorming*

    I just experienced this situation. After months of telling our team we would be allowed to stay flexible/remote through the foreseeable future, our overarching organization came through with a mandate requiring a return to the office full time this summer. For me, the mental health benefits associated with being able to be flexible, even if not every day, outweighed the return to the office. After consulting with my supervisor and HR to confirm that no flexibility was going to be allowed, I turned in my noticed with the intent of my last day being the Friday before return to work kicked off. Three days later, I was told that I my position could be accommodated as a remote role permanently.

    In no way was I trying to play chicken with my employer, and I was prepared to leave (in fact, I was overwhelmed by the prospect of staying after coming to terms with resigning!) and do all I could to endure a smooth transition. It was very encouraging to see that they recognized my worth as an employee and the quality of work that has been provided from home. I’m sure the transition will not be perfect, but I am delighted to continue my remote work and will gladly go in to the office for larger meetings and events moving forward.

    Many of my friends are facing similar situations right now, and I am encouraged that many of us (elder millennial age group, haha!) are willing to speak up and even make uncomfortable choices that feel less “secure” (that 9-5 life with benefits is, if anything, comfortable) to ensure an overall balanced lifestyle.

  231. Martha Marcy May Marlene*

    I found a new job and resigned from my current one because my company decided to stay with work from home only. I despised working from home and I won’t work any job where it is a thing, unless I’m in a dire situation.

  232. sam_i_am*

    I don’t plan to leave my job in the near future (I love it!). This won’t be a make-or-break thing for me, but I think it will weigh on my decision in the future. On top of working from home itself, I think it’s a sign of overly restrictive employers/HR policies. I don’t think working from home full-time works very well, but flexibility is something I value.

    It’s tough because, working for a large employer, balancing the fact that some of us can easily work remotely while others simply cannot due to their job requirements is tough. Something to note is that I also make less-than-market-salary, but the culture of my team and the benefits are more important to me than that. So taking away a benefit I could get elsewhere would be a factor.

    My psychologist also said they would support me pursuing accommodations for hybrid work if possible, but that wouldn’t fix the feeling that the larger employer (not my team) is being overly bureaucratic.

    My feelings are still mixed because I don’t know how I’ll feel once I’m back in the office. I could end up wanting to go back more-or-less full time!

    This is all speculation, though. There’s a good chance I’ll never end up leaving. I would probably be a fairly good candidate for working at a FAANG or similar company, but my team is amazing, committed to equity, has a number of queer people (including team leadership) which makes it easier to be out without fear, and is doing work I think is important.

  233. lazimpat*

    Yes, I was going to quit if I had been required to return to the office. My company is a niche industry based in a very remote small town. I left town in March 2020 when everyone was sent home to work (whether I had permission to leave is unclear; an email was sent out after I left stating that all employees were required to remain in town/in state for the duration of the time we were working from home). After a few months of living elsewhere, I realized that I didn’t want to live in that town again and that I was willing to risk leaving my job if I was required to return. My salary is less than half of market rate in my current role, which made it easier to take this risk than it would have if my pay was higher; if I had to leave I was pretty sure that eventually I would find a much higher paying job and that would allow me recoup any financial losses pretty quickly. Although it took nearly 7 months for the decision to be made, I’m really grateful that my company ultimately decided to make my role fully remote and to set things up so I could work from a different state (which required more work from the company than I expected). While I now pay state income taxes (my company is based in a state with no income tax), my current state has a higher minimum wage threshold than my previous pay and I received a 4% raise to meet that threshold; the raise kind of pays for the new taxes, meaning that I still take home the same amount as I did before I moved. A win for my company is that they now have 4 remote employees in my new state and the company is finding it easier to recruit for roles now that they have some remote opportunities.

  234. RCrease*

    I’m looking to fill some positions and it’s been exceedingly difficult to attract any candidates, much less quality candidates, with our no-flexibility policies. We have lost out on multiple quality people to competitors with more attractive workplace policies around flexibility. The companies that refuse to adapt are going to feel the effects of this in the coming months and it’s not going to be a good thing, unfortunately. I myself am looking aggressively to move to a 100% remote position and I’m far from the only one in my company to leave over the outdated “butts in seats” mentality.

  235. Noriko*

    I was considering it if I didn’t like my company’s new post-pandemic WFH policies. I started the job remotely and apparently they were a company that claimed they could never function remotely and were hugely inflexible prior to COVID, so I was quite apprehensive.

    Thankfully, it’s going to be a requirement of 6-8 days/month in the office which is acceptable to ideal for me (especially if we can work remote in the mornings and afternoon to avoid rush hour). I like getting to know my coworkers and doing large planning meetings in person but I find I am more productive at home because it’s more relaxed. Sometimes in the office I would find excuses not to work.

  236. Anon for this*

    I might be tempted. The problem is that I’d be quitting not so much over our work from home policy, so much as being able to hug my cat whenever it gets bad to remind myself that she depends on me continuing to collect a salary sometimes gets me through the rest of the day in the face of how dysfunctional some aspects of my workplace are. I’m currently applying for exclusively remote only jobs, but that’s more a coincidence than something I’m actively seeking out.

    1. Anonforthisoneplz*

      Honestly, I get this too. I have a dog and while we had no problems before I worked from home… I like spending time with her! Even if it is just her snoozing in her dog bed while I am on calls, it is nice to be able to pat her on the head as I go to the bathroom or give her a kiss on the nose while I’m stretching my legs.

      It feels like the pandemic highlighted that so many of the things that make life enjoyable are always limited or kept out of reach in favor of our survival.

      Due to health concerns, I have been isolating but the idea that when things are better I might be able to occasionally see friends after work without having to make a long commute to see them and then a second long commute home (getting me home late and causing me to lose sleep because I have to get up early and commute the next day) was a nice idea. It would make me happier, which would make more productive. But no, apparently I am only productive when 5 days a week my life revolves around commuting.

  237. BethRA*

    “I just think it’s often a bigger conversation or a bigger thing that we as employees don’t have all the context for.”

    Don’t have full context for why an employer might want their workforce structured a certain way? Sure. But people do have full context of what they want and what works for THEM. That’s not dying on a hill, that’s re-evaluating your situation (and that includes what your options are and whether the jobs you want can be done remotely – and trust me, I think most people understand that distinction and that even being able ponder WFH is a an option lots of folks don’t have) and making decisions accordingly.

    And I really want to push back on the idea that wanting to advocate for WFH or hybrid arrangements somehow precludes being willing or able to advocate for better working conditions for people who have to work in-person.

  238. Anon for this one*

    Honestly, the events of the last year have me wondering if I want to stay in this corporate track at all, remote or not. Some of my peers are excited to go back to the office, but not me! (As much as I enjoy their company and the work we do, the thought of returning to that commute and to a formal business environment, even one day a week, is pretty crushing.) I can’t afford to quit, though!

  239. Krabby*

    I wouldn’t quit a job based on not being able to WFH, but it would certainly make it easier to poach me away if another job was offering it. I’d also look out for jobs that allow WFH when on a job hunt, but it wouldn’t necessarily stop me from applying to companies that don’t allow it (but their other perks better be pretty awesome).

  240. Kiki*

    Software engineer here. Interestingly, I am just leaving a job that would have allowed me to be fully remote and move anywhere for a job where I’m expected to come into the office a few days a week. At this point in my life and career, I’m actually happy to go into the office– it’s a short bus ride from my apartment, it’s downtown so I’ll be closer to some museums and other fun stuff, and I honestly feel like it’s easier to onboard in person. If my new company were to become more strict and require 5 days a week in the office, I’d probably start looking. Additionally, I think when I look for my next role I’d be interested in 100% remote

  241. NewYork*

    I would quit. I have moved out of the city and NOT moving back. My employer is great, and I recognize their right to set reasonable parameters, but moving back would not work for me.

  242. Laney Boggs*

    I was always planning to leave this job (I knew within a week I needed to go, but unfortunately I had job hopped a lot previously, so I knew I needed to stick it out at least a year….then 2020 happened). Anyway, I’m not against full work from home, or hybrid like my office is doing now, but I’m so unhappy hear that coming back to the office is jsut making me want to leave more.

  243. Cippa*

    I was never really into work from home and wouldn’t usually do it when my job offered it before, save for expected snowstorms or when I needed to do research in silence. Once I got past a rough few months I started to really like it. I’m spending this month working from my moms cabin and worked for three weeks out of Hawaii in the spring. That’s what I don’t want to give up. I’m fine coming into the office when I’m home a few days a week, but my company is trying to limit the weeks we can be completely away from the office to two. That what would make me walk, especially because my boyfriend works fully remote. I get so little vacation time it’s great to be able to work from places I wouldn’t have time to visit. This time with my mom has been incredible, and I haven’t gotten to spend more than a week with her for five years. Employers need to understand that’s what we’re giving up.

  244. SnarkyMonkey*

    At the risk of sounding like my dad (who apparently had to walk uphill both ways to school, in the snow with no shoes, natch)… back in my day, you got a job, lived according to company rules, worked hard for the accomplishments that led to raises and promotions, and worked there until you retired. It’s just so interesting to see how things have shifted – the power seems to now be in the hands of the workers due to the intense workforce shortage.

    Here in SE Wisconsin, this shortage is significant, for both knowledge and labor workers, so the employees at my company have basically held the company hostage to get whatever they want. *Some* people have been able to move to 100% WFH, even though the policy is 50%, several people have gone the route of “gimme a raise or I’m quitting” and won, etc. I’m torn about the attitude of entitlement that went along with these demands – the company isn’t an evil villain. It’s a collection of people, a team, that thrives when everyone is treated equitably and pulls together toward a common goal.

    1. a clockwork lemon*

      It sounds like you are working in a free market corporate environment where workers are negotiating for the value of their labor and companies are forced to compete with each other to hire and retain the most talented employees. Isn’t capitalism just the worst?

    2. public defender*

      Eh, your company wouldn’t give into these “entitled” people’s demands if they couldn’t afford it or thought it overall benefited the company’s bottom line. I think you can save your sympathy for your company here.

    3. Jennifer Strange*

      I don’t think it’s “entitlement” to recognize your own worth as an employee and be clear about what your deal breakers are, even if they have evolved since first being hired (though it’s more likely that the employees now realize that, for once, they have some power). The company was well within their right to say no let that person quit; the fact that they chose to give in signals that they actually can afford to allow WFH/give raises and that the employees in question are of value to the company.

    4. quill*

      As someone who left SE Wisconsin precisely because the job market was bad & I couldn’t get a job with benefits, stability, and a living wage… good for your coworkers. 100% remote is a reasonable precaution for avoiding a disease with a high death and disability rate, and if the raises were really going to hurt the company they wouldn’t have given them out. Heck, most companies aren’t willing to do much in the way of raises or increasing headcount even when it WON’T hurt them financially or would actually be better in terms of efficiency and retaining institutional knowledge.

      If you feel jealous of the rest, now is probably the time to ask for a raise, and making that case however you would have back in your day can’t hurt.

  245. a clockwork lemon*

    I’m job hunting for a bunch of reasons right now, but a big push to have everyone back in the office and a manager telling all of us that it was possible they’d phase out the hybrid work options we had previously applied for and had approved was kind of the last straw for me. In my search, I’m only looking for work with companies where I’m required to be physically in-office twice a week or less.

  246. Lana Kane*

    *History Nerd Alert*

    I’ve been thinking of the effects on labor that the Black Plague had in the Middle Ages, and how we might see something similar now. That pandemic led to the end of feudalism – after so many people died, disproportionately peasants, laborers were in more demand and took the opportunity to demand higher wages. As feudal lords started paying more and more in wages, Parliament enacting a wage cap. This then led to peasant revolts, and feudalism collapsed. This was a complete turnaround of an economic system that came about because of a pandemic.

    I don’t think something of that magnitude will happen in our case, but there is no way that labor will go back to the the way it was, exactly, after COVID. Workers know that what they were told was impossible before, is in fact possible. We’re already starting to see employers that normally had no problem filling low-wage jobs start to become desperate for workers, to the point that some are displaying large banners touting $15/hr starting wages in areas that have much lower minimum wage. Lower-paid workers are starting to get the upper hand by realizing that their labor is actually indispensable (or in our parlance in COVID times, essential).

    Same with WFH . Many jobs can be done remotely – some to the point that you don’t even need to live in the same state, or even in a house or apartment (see the #vanlife hashtags on social media for how this has grown). For those who don’t want to be remote full time, hybrid options are possible. People who are caregovers have been able to work out flex schedules. Employers had to perform a huge shift in work modes in a short amount of time – it’s clear that if it could be accomplished in a matter of weeks, we can certainly take some time to reconfigure how people work. So I do think we will see a significant amount of people putting pressure on employers for more flexible schedules/locations.

    1. Bloopmaster*

      Love the history-nerdom! Also makes me think: how can employees of all working preferences and needs best advocate for EVERYONE to have the flexibility and working conditions they desire. Personally, I think that people who work on site (by choice or by necessity) should routinely negotiate their salaries higher than WFH staff doing the same work because they have the additional burden of commuting, etc. This would help reinforce remote work as something normal AND cost effective. Also–ask in interviews about various flexibilities and benefits (from flexible hours to telework to parental leave) even if you don’t intend to use them.

      Other ideas??

  247. Mockingjay*

    My company has always been forward thinking and let a select few employees work remotely permanently due to life changes prior to COVID. During COVID, the company was nearly 99% remote. We’re in engineering and communications, so we all knew that most of us would have to return to physically work with the systems and equipment. Returns begin in September.

    I myself just began working remotely permanently. It’s actually not my personal favorite choice; I enjoy being in the office. But life circumstances – my father-in-law is coming to live with us – meant that we pushed up my husband’s retirement and bought a one-story, smaller home more conducive to an elderly man’s needs. (He’s still pretty spry, but stairs are a no-go.) There were conditions to my company’s agreement: Separate work area in the home, set hours of availability, etc. I have to be willing to travel back for big meetings and engineering events (tests, installs). I still have family in the area, so accommodation is not a problem. (No, they aren’t paying me to travel back to headquarters for routine business. It was my choice to move away. I will still get paid for official trips to work sites around the country.)

  248. Bow Ties Are Cool*

    I love working from home (I did not expect to, and I didn’t until the longevity of the pandemic forced me to rearrange my space to better accommodate full time WFH instead of the occasional day here and there that I did before), and I really want to continue it after our office reopens. It’s looking like my worst case scenario is going to be 2 days a week in the office, but even if I had to come back for most days, I wouldn’t leave my job, though I would not be happy about the decision. BUT, that is entirely because I have a job I enjoy with people I enjoy. If I was not happy in my job I would definitely leave over inability to work from home. And I think we’re all doing that “will I be happier in this job or out of it?” math all the time, with remote work just a new part of the equation for many of us.

  249. Anon WFH*

    My company’s CEO is extremely resistant to WFH, so every time he spouts off about returning to the office, more people quit. It’s gotten so bad that entire cross-functional teams have left, which has noticeably affected project deadlines and will affect profitability long-term.

    Personally, I’ve gotten accommodations for WFH 3 days a week, because my health improved so dramatically during lockdown. Since the clock is ticking on my being permanently disabled, anything I can do to delay that is a high priority for me.

    1. Lana Kane*

      I think this is an example of how some employers will act as COVID starts to wind down. Some will be unable or unwilling to see the writing on the wall. Tehy’ll see people quit and assume they can just hire new people. The problem is, that now more and more people are looking for flexible work arrangements. Finding candidates willing to be in the office every day when it’s not necessary for the role will become harder than they anticipate. So either they will need to significantly increase wages, or accept that they’ll n eed to reconfigure. I think some employers will reach that conclusion too late.

      1. Anon WFH*

        What’s weird is that our CEO is normally a canny guy who is good at keeping both employees and stockholders happy. This is an unexpected blind spot where he’s obviously either not listening or the reports aren’t making it to the C suite.

  250. Another Reader*

    Another observation: companies that claim to be committed to sustainability & “going green” are really missing an opportunity to back up their words with action when they choose to not allow remote work when it is practical.

    Having 500 cars in a parking lot sit there for 8 hours? Clogging up the interstate on the way in and out? Not green. Not sustainable. Let those who want to be car-free for their “commute” have their choice.

    Not allowing remote work for those that can do it and want it is also a HUGE MISS to be more inclusive for those who cannot drive or do not drive due to disabilities… employers could choose to recognize this, but they don’t.

    1. Anax*

      Yep. I have very limited ability to drive, so WFH has been a huge boon, and thankfully, I’m staying permanently 100% remote largely because of that. I miss seeing people in person and having the separation of work-environment and home-environment, but my body just can’t do it anymore; heat is really hard on me, and I live in a hot climate.

      Carpooling with my partner was… workable-ish, but it meant staying an extra hour or two at the office every day, since we work different schedules, and promptly conking out for several hours because the office was too warm. WFH gives me an extra 2-5 hours in my day, plus not feeling sick all the time.

  251. GetBackToTheOfficeInTwoDays*

    We were given essentially 2-7 business days’ notice to get back in the office. (We have a weeklong company closure coming up, and many people take additional vacation around this time, so receiving a “back to office” email yesterday after work hours has amounted to two business days’ notice for me, and a max of seven business days’ notice for others). I love my job but I’m extremely disappointed and frustrated with how they’ve handled this. No flexibility, no transition period to ease back into it, just a requirement to start working from the office for five days a week. No apology for late notice. No thank you for the past year and a half’s work. No recognition that the transition will be difficult but we’ll get through it.

    I’m not even sure I *want* to work from home. I really appreciate being able to leave work at work, and that’s something I’ve been unable to do during COVID. I just don’t have the discipline to shut down my laptop and stop working at 5. Being back in the office will help. So my issue isn’t even that I’m dreading being back in the office—it’s the fact that we weren’t given any choice, input, feedback, recognition, thanks, apologies. It’s been a hell of a year and we have worked extremely hard, and they want us to continue some of the virtual programs we put in place to benefit patrons while ending the WFH benefit from employees. The biggest impact, especially for our younger and lower-paid employees (like me!) who tend to live farther away from work than our VPs do will be commute time and money savings. Vanishing with little warning.

    Will I quit? No. Will I be exploring the current landscape of hiring in my industry to see what benefits and options are being offered by other organizations? Yep.

  252. Anonforthisoneplz*

    I work in higher education and I’ve been fortunate enough to be working from home this whole time. It looks like soon, we will have a hybrid semester with a goal of staff being back on campus 5 days a week before the spring semester, with no talk of any WFH policy at all moving forward. It has been said that our upper level administrators basically think staff who are working from home have been on a paid vacation this past year and change, and that they don’t think we are capable of working if we aren’t in offices.

    This makes me furious. If these folks had to do what we have done, they would absolutely quit in frustration or be fired because they couldn’t keep up. But that’s neither here nor there, I only share this to show how unlikely we are to maintain any kind of hybrid schedule –which would be my ideal work scenario. Not having a commute has been great for my health. I have been able to exercise consistently. I am getting more sleep. I am able to have a bit more leisure time. I can cook healthier meals. It has also been good for my work, because I can provide more flexibility to students (instead of being bound up by having to catch the commuter rail on time), and I can focus more on my work. I have definitely worked more hours in a day at home than I normally would in the office at times, but I haven’t minded doing it because I know I have the flexibility to meet my own needs when I have to as well.

    Would I quit and find a WFH position if I could? Yes. Many jobs in my industry though are not currently work from home, and those that are don’t seem to offer my level of salary and benefits. I would likely have to change industries to find all three: WFH, salary, and benefits.

    So I am taking advantage of the tuition benefit I receive and pursuing some higher education that will help make that a possibility in the future. I have to work a few more years to secure a certain benefit level towards my retirement, but once I have it… I might start looking for greener pastures, even if I have to leave the industry.

    Which is a shame because for the most part, I like my work and I have been told I’m good at it. I don’t think college administrators realize how many good people are going to leave their positions a lot sooner (and take their institutional knowledge with them) because of this rigidness. One of my colleagues bought a house outside of our area (because as a single person, there was no way a they could buy a house in this area), and I can’t imagine they are going to be willing to make the long commute they have five days a week. Another friend from work used to commute with her partner, who now works from home, so she will be doing 3 hours of commuting a day alone; that time used to be spent with her partner, so it didn’t seem so bad, but now it is time away from her family that she doesn’t want to keep doing. I imagine still another will retire sooner, since she has had a taste of not having to get up early and deal with the hassle every day. All of these people likely could be retained if there were flexible schedules and work scenarios, but they will ultimately likely be lost due to rigid ideas about work and the capabilities of staff.

  253. public defender*

    I very, very much would like a 100%-75% WFH set up. At first WFH was weird and I felt like there was no separation between days, but over time I’ve come to love it. I wouldn’t leave my job over it though. I’m an attorney (public defender who has to appear in court almost every day) and at some point I assume the court will go back to having 100% in person hearings so coming back to the office is pretty much unavoidable. But oh boy, I’d love for the court to consider keeping some hearings by phone going forward. It’s so much less stressful as an attorney not to have to run around the court trying to find my clients. True there are some aspects that are not so good, in the before times you could negotiate a deal for a client right on the spot in a way you can’t do remotely, but on balance it’s just so much less stress for me.

  254. JustMyImagination*

    Pre-COVID I had an hour+ commute each way which I didn’t mind. But, having had a baby over the pandemic, I can’t picture that type of commute anymore. Luckily, my job will be staying full remote with only occasional days in the office. If I have to job-search again, I’ll either be looking within a much smaller geographic area or for fully remote.

  255. Nonny*

    I absolutely would leave over it. This past year has proved that we can work successfully remotely (it’s still pretty common in my industry before the pandemic – software engineering), and I’m lucky to be in a position that I can throw a rock and hit a job that will not force me to come back into the office. My team is distributed anyway.

  256. ThisIsTheHill*

    Yes. I start a new remote, 6 month contract-to-hire position in July. I’ve agreed to occasional trips to HQ, which is about 140 miles away; if they ask more than once a month, I’ll finish out my contract & leave. I am more productive in 3 hours at home than a full day in the distracting, constantly interrupting cube farm. The same goes for video calls, as New Job seems to prefer them (3 interviews, even the 1st, were all video calls). Part of why I like remote work is that I can wear comfy clothes, use my lunch to shower, & not have to wear a bra & makeup. All of that goes out the window if I’m on video calls that could be conference calls/e-mails 6-8 hours a day. My husband is still WFH indefinitely so trying to find a place in the house that a) doesn’t distract him & b) is acceptable for video is difficult.

    My husband is in management for IT. He’s been pushing his reluctant company to allow FT remote (they were hybrid in the Before Times) because he has a shrinking candidate pool with even less qualified candidates willing to work 3-4 days/week in an office when they reopen. It finally came to fruition last month, where the only candidate w/ specific skills was out of state. So now he’s managing someone who makes $30k more than him (higher COL) but he’s got his ideal employee.

    1. ThisIsTheHill*

      Adding: If New Job asked that I show up in their local office once a week (3 miles from home) if/when I get hired permanently, that wouldn’t be a deal breaker. Until my husband is back in the office permanently, we could use the break from each other. :)

  257. Spreadsheet Enthusiast*

    Quit on the spot? No, but I’ve been aggressively applying to jobs with well-defined remote work policies.

    While working from home I took a promotion within the same organization but under a different management chain. They’ve required everyone in the report structure to work from the office, and the possibility of remote work is immediately shut down every time it comes up despite access to the org’s VPN and a policy of video calls instead of in person meetings. Beyond my preference for remote work, this has highlighted other problems with the culture here, and we’re already seeing an uptick in turnover rates.

  258. Anonynewjob*

    I did quit! After nearly nine months working from home we were asked to come back. I wasn’t comfortable with the levels of safety or the levels of adherence to the rules. I found a fully remote job, interviewed, accepted, and then quit my old job.

  259. Red 5*

    My department in particular already had hit the sweet spot of what I wanted regarding remote work, so we’re mostly just going back to that and we’re all generally in agreement.

    The thing that made it easy for me to just not have to consider the topic much was that my boss actually had a team meeting to discuss it as a group and was clear that she was listening to ALL of our input and opinions and that it wasn’t something that was decided and we were supposed to just agree with it. Her proposal for how hybrid would work for us was totally reasonable, etc.

    But that’s just my department, because my boss is reasonable and was already a task-oriented manager. There’s a lot of grumbling and unhappiness at the company in general and well, I don’t blame anybody. The managers who hated remote work haven’t changed their minds despite all the evidence in their face that it was fine for us. And upper management is frequently kicking things down the line by just saying everything is at the individual department head’s discretion so that they don’t have to enforce anything or think about it much.

    But to be fair, if I was on one of those teams with a manager who was against remote work, it’s because they like to micromanage and hover and I wouldn’t have lasted in that job anyway.

    I am looking forward to going into the office a couple days a week to see people. It’s just easier for a few parts of the job to have that kind of interaction. And I’m so zoomed out that I can’t even with the webcam anymore. But the only reason I’m comfortable with going in is because my entire team is also fully vaccinated and I’ve checked the safety measures on the public transit system and I feel okay with them (now that I’m vaccinated). If anybody on my team wasn’t getting the shot, I’d still be all “nope, I’m good here at home.”

  260. De Minimis*

    I’m in a odd situation because I started my current job during the pandemic. The job normally was 100% in-office, but everyone has been working remotely for over a year now. There are plans to begin a gradual return this fall. I’ve had to go in a couple of times to handle some occasional tasks that have to be done in the office, and that’s the only time I’ve seen what my commute might be like, etc. It’s amazing to me how drained I feel when I head back home on the days when I do come into the office, and I’m considering eventually changing jobs again once we do return to being in the office, if we go back to the regular five day a week office schedule.
    My boss moved out of state during the past year and intends to retire if they tell him he has to return [it’s a government job so it’s likely he will be unable to be a permanent remote employee due to regulations regarding locality pay]

  261. Kate*

    I feel like I may be in the minority on this site, but I absolutely despise working from home. I feel like I have no work-life balance and no way to separate my work from the rest of my life. As someone who lives alone, it’s been terrible for my mental health to never see anyone in-person, and I don’t feel like I’ve really developed close relationships with my coworkers or a support network the way I have in previous jobs since I don’t ever see them in -person. And as someone who doesn’t make enough to afford more than a 200-foot studio, I don’t have adequate space to do my job. It requires a lot of large equipment, and I’m mostly working on the floor.

    My workplace is going permanently remote. There will be an option to come into the office if you want, but there likely won’t be many other people there, and there will be a mask and social distancing requirement (which I don’t understand why we need, since everyone in the office will be required to be vaccinated). All of our senior staff have opted to stay remote as have a large portion of other employees. My plan is to see if this continues through the summer, and if the office is still empty in the fall I will probably start looking for other jobs.

    1. Bow Ties Are Cool*

      Yeah, I love working from home, but even as a fairly hardcore introvert I would feel like a rat in a shoebox if I were doing it entirely alone from a small apartment. Having an entire house, pets, and a partner does make a big difference. I don’t know what you do, but I can tell you that the financial industry in general has been slow to adopt work from home policies and mostly won’t be shutting down whole offices anytime soon even where they’ve become more flexible about where people’s butts are day to day. Hope you can find an in-office role you like.

    2. De Minimis*

      I am right there with you. I like not having a commute, but my apartment is so small that I always feel like I’m at the office, even on weekends. And I agree it is hard when you live alone. It’s also really hard to start a new job as a remote employee, especially when the job has never been set up for remote work in the past.

      We had a vaccination clinic located offsite and that was the first time I met a couple of my coworkers, over six months after I started. I’ve been here over a year now and have still never met many of my team members in person.

  262. anon e mouse*

    I had one foot out the door anyway, but my employer’s garbage approach to post-pandemic telework and extremely offensive rollout of their new policy definitely gave the search additional urgency. Fortunately I have an offer letter open as I type this from an organization that is doing 40% remote work indefinitely, which is about the minimum I’ll accept in terms of telework at this point.

  263. Ashley*

    I work in the insurance industry in Canada, and before Covid my company allowed WFH up to 3 days a week. After we are back in the office, that same flexibility will be there (possibly even more). Most of the companies in my industry and in my part of the country are allowing some sort of WFH flexibility because frankly it’s expected by employees going forwards. I will be fine going back into the office part time, but I would absolutely not work for a company that did not allow it at least part of the time. It would be seen as totally out of touch if a company did not offer flexibility to WFH.

  264. Z*

    My firm only went remote for some of us for about six weeks, so we’ve been back since May 2020.

    I liked working from home, although if it were to be permanent, I’d need to get a more ergonomic set up.

    For my next job, I wouldn’t require remote work, but I would want to know that the ability to work remotely — the actual logistics — is already there. Having these logistics in place with our firm has already been helpful! We weren’t dead in the water during a blizzard with impassable roads or a water main break.

  265. This is not my first time.*

    I have been working remotely since 2018 in very senior roles. In Feb 2020 I started a job where I was going to be in person two to three days a week and that was a major consideration for accepting the job (no one was remote at the time). The goal was to work from home even more once I got familiar with the team. Then five weeks later we were all 100% remote. That company was a casualty of the pandemic, but my current job is also fully remote. I don’t ever want to go back to fully in-person work, and I’m glad that the world seems to be shifting that way for more people.

  266. Bloopmaster*

    Even pre-pandemic, my company permitted telework 2 or 3 times a week, so I seriously doubt that they’d allow less than this as their “new normal.” But after a year+ being on full time telework (and able to do all of my job entirely remotely), the old flexibility isn’t enough—I don’t want to ever “go back.” If my job won’t continue to let me work remote 90% of the time (1 office day roughly every two weeks seems more than sufficient), I’m beginning the job hunt. I get more sleep because I’m teleworking. I get more done because people aren’t stopping by my desk to chat and interrupting my flow. I don’t miss socializing at work (huge introvert), and I much prefer yoga pants to dress pants. But the most significant improvement is that telework give me more time with my toddler. Without a commute or the need to get dressed up nice, I get to spend that extra 2 hours with him!

    1. Bloopmaster*

      One thing I will give my office credit for is that they promised that there would be at least a month’s notice before any permanent decisions went into effect. So, if need be, I’ll have 30 days head start on the job hunt.

  267. CJM*

    My daughter just quit a job she loved because of management’s plans to discontinue work-from-home and require everyone back in the office. She thrived last year working from home: lost 30 pounds, ate better, and exercised regularly. Her well-being expanded without a commute and the chaos of an open office. So when a recruiter approached her about a similar job with permanent work-from-home AND higher pay, she jumped at it. She’s very happy in her new position.

    By the way, her old employer had initially okayed permanent work-from-home but reversed course. My daughter’s disappointment and distrust were factors in her decision to leave.

  268. Generic Name*

    My company has always allowed permanent work from home and flexible schedules (as in folks are truly in control of their schedule- we don’t have core hours or anything, and one employee works from another continent). Because of family obligations, sometimes I need to work remotely, or take an hour or two off in the middle of the work day to attend to personal matters that cannot be scheduled during evenings or weekends (stuff like doctor appointments). I wouldn’t even apply to a job that had a “butt in seat” mentality. I also would never apply to a job that had an open office concept or “hot-desking”. I need an assigned spot with at least a modicum of privacy. My current workplace has shared offices. We also allow dogs in the office. There’s a reason why my company has a reputation that people stay forever. I’ve been here 10 years, and I have coworkers not much older than me who’ve been here for 20+ years.

    1. Generic Name*

      Oh, and something else I’ve noticed is we’ve had several employees leave the region to go “back east” (I’m in the mountain west). I think the pandemic has made folks realize they want to be closer to family, and one coworker said they were moving because they were having a hard time buying a house (the real estate market in my area is CRAZY). Some of my coworkers are still with the company working remotely, but some folk’s jobs were fieldwork-based and we couldn’t accommodate them working remotely.

  269. GarlicBreadAficianado*

    Will I quit? No, because for my industry I have it really good in general.

    But there’s been some changes that I (and my whole unit) really dislike. In the “before times” my unit was the weirdo red headed stepchild. No one knew what to do with us, so we kinda just did our own thing. We were on the road daily as a part of our job function and we generally made our own hours… if a person asked for a 7 AM home visit because that’s what worked for them, we simply started our day at 7 AM and quit at 3 or left a bit early on Friday. We all worked more than our mandated 37.5. Some of us have younger kids and they need to get to activities afterschool and we’d work 8-4 so that we could get them to sports/art class/piano/ CCD etc. We went into the main office once a month generally arriving for the day’s meetings and bailing right after because the commute to get home for some of us was nearly 2 hours. And we’d go to our regional office once a month for additional meetings, and we’d pop in if we needed a paperwork day/printing/scanning/faxing and maybe a little bit of socializing

    Now, the head of our agency is trying to create a uniform policy. One in which everyone is required on 2 days assigned a week to come into the office from 8-5. Now on the face of it that doesn’t sound bad. And is probably fine for the lionshare of other dept’s. But for us, requiring that we be in 2 days a week, plus 3 days for meetings is effectively halving the amount of time we are able to do our ACTUAL job. I need to do home visits for 24 people, some mandated (quarterlies and annuals) and some more spur of the moment (the something has gone terribly wrong) visits. Plus go to 35 nursing facilities a month. Starting next month, out of 21 working days, I’ll only be able to be on the road 10 of them. Supervisors have said they “don’t plan on really enforcing anything” but who knows how long that will last? Other departments have always been frustrated that we’ve gotten better perks than them and I can fully see them narc-ing us out to mgmt and a crackdown happening in September

  270. Paris Geller*

    I’m not really in a field where WFH makes sense (public library. . . there are definitely a lot of things that CAN be done from home, as we found out in the early days of the pandemic, but if the building is open for regular service a full-time WFH schedule doesn’t really make sense since where open for the public). I’ve WFH maybe a total of 4 weeks over the past year due to quarantining and the bad Texas winter storm this past February, and I hated it. I live in a small one bedroom apartment. I hate staring at the same four walls each day. I loved being around my cats and having access to my own kitchen, but the benefits didn’t outweigh the negatives for me. I think in the future I was job-searching and wanted to get out of public libraries, I wouldn’t mind a hybrid schedule, but I definitely would hate a full-time remote job unless I was in a bigger space and could have a dedicated office area.

  271. IT But I Can't Fix Your Printer*

    My job can be done fully remote, as evidenced by the fact that I’ve been doing it for 15 months now. Previously we had one optional WFH day a week, limited to Mondays or Fridays.

    At this point I’m going to stick where I am because we’re expecting to go back only two days a week (my preference would be zero) and otherwise my job is pretty great. If that changes to requiring full-time, I would at least start looking around periodically to see what else is out there and be open to offers from recruiters. If I moved on for other reasons, I would not consider a full-time in-office job, even if it meant sacrificing a little on compensation. As an anxious introvert, having a quiet, private workspace that I can completely control is amazing for my mental health and my productivity. The extra time I get with my family (because I’m not commuting and I can do chores on my lunch break) is priceless.

  272. TinyLibrarian*

    I almost did quit after my employer, a university system in a southern state, recalled everyone with a health exemption and refused to allow any more wfh arrangements. My director, who is completely fine with wfh, was cut out of the decision process entirely, and all decisions such as this are now handled on the provost level.
    I was able to negotiate a flex-time arrangement, however, and that is working for me. For now.
    But yes, I was 100% prepared to leave over this, and even gave my director a resignation date. For the record, I am a tenure-track academic librarian, exempt employee.

  273. Campfire Raccoon*

    I’ve quit jobs because they moved offices that – while not far – were hard to get to because there was freeway access, had no restaurants nearby, no trees to sit under or nearby parks to go during break, no gyms within reasonable driving distance. I’ve also taken a job because it was across the street from a pickle factory. So yes, I would quit my job if they forced an in-person return when my work could be done remotely.

      1. Campfire Raccoon*

        The construction company was across the street from a giant-well-established pickle factory. They made regular ol’ dill pickles, but they specialized in the spicy pickles. Spicy pickled cauliflower, carrots, all the things. It smelled great. From my desk I could could watch them move pickles from one giant vat to to another. They’d make this fantastic plopplopplop sound and sometimes the pickles would fall off and bounce away. Weirdly soothing.

        I made nice-nice with the pickle factory owner. On new-batch days he’d have them load my truck with cauliflower/carrot waste for my livestock and compost.

  274. BethRA*

    I know most of this is aimed at “would you quit if you couldn’t work remote” but when my organization started contemplating a shift to “mostly remote” to reduce our office footprint and expenses it made me think about leaving. I’m one of those people who really doesn’t enjoy working from home and one of the things I love about this job is interacting with my colleagues.

    They seemed to have dropped that idea, so I don’t know what I would have wound up doing if we had gone all- or mostly-remote, but it did cross my mind.

  275. hodie-hi*

    I am fortunate that most of my working life has been in a profession and industry where working from home went from possible to unremarkable. I started a fully-remote job last October. (Many if not most of the US employees had been fully remote for years. During the pandemic, the US mentored employees elsewhere in how to succeed working remotely. Now the non-US employees are working in a hybrid model while the US employees remain as they were, mostly remote.)

    I had permanent work-from-home jobs before this one, and I’ve also had years of long, torturous commutes that affected me socially, physically, and emotionally. The die is cast for me. I will never commute again. Any future work I do will not require commuting. If an employer requires commuting, I am not interested. I have a dedicated office space in my home, and will require any future home to have the same.

    A year before I took this job, I interviewed with a company that wanted a specific set of skills. When they made it clear that butt-in-seat was required, I made it clear that I would not consider working for them. My interviewer agreed with me that for this specific position, being in the office every day was not necessary, and moreover, would severely restrict their pool of candidates to the point of not being able to fill the position, but the owner/founder was immovable. I’ve often wondered if they changed their stance as a result of the pandemic.

  276. maggie98765*

    I would 100% start looking for a new job if I couldn’t be fully remote. I left my last job because after we had been remote for six years they decided to bring people back, Yahoo!-style. Because they weren’t really prepared, my new office was more than an hour away in traffic and I would be hot-desking. That was a hard nope. In recent years I won’t even interview for a job that isn’t remote. My work is heavily dependent on client deadlines, late nights are not uncommon, and I have taken my last 10pm subway ride. Now if you want me working that late I better be in my pajamas.

  277. Hazel*

    I don’t love working from home, but by now it’s much better than at the beginning of the pandemic. I’m an extrovert, and my mental health suffers if I’m alone for hours a day, and I prefer to be physically around my coworkers, so I’d have to really think hard about what I’d do if we were required to continue working from home going forward. I’m pretty sure I’d come down on the side of keeping my job because I love the job and my coworkers and the company. I’d have to figure out other ways to keep feeling sane – probably working outside or at cafes or coffee shops for part of the day.

    Fortunately, my company is allowing us to do what we want. Currently they are discouraging us from coming in to the office – probably until the Fall – but if we want to go in, we can. I think most people on my team will do a hybrid schedule, which is what I prefer. I’ll probably go to the office 3 days/week and see how that goes. I was hired during the pandemic, so I don’t yet know what that will be like.

  278. Oranges*

    I just turned 25 and am definitely part of the wave of younger adults who have come into the workforce already disillusioned with the way work is treated in the US. Before the pandemic, I had a full-time office job with a 12-minute commute and yet every day was a nightmare. I felt chained to my desk. I spent most of the time scrolling through my phone in secret and still managed to impress my boss will how quick my project turnaround time was.

    Right at the start of the pandemic, I went full remote at a new job and while it can be kind of dull being home at all times, I would never, ever, ever in a million years EVER go back to a full-time office job. I’m open to going in 1-2 days/week but not more than that. I honestly don’t know how anyone’s been able to survive a 40-hour-per-week job in a cubicle all this time.

  279. Bostonian*

    I’m less concerned with the actual categorization (100% in the office, hybrid, completely remote) and more concerned with how that plays out in terms of overall flexibility.

    100% in the office: Not OK if that means 9-5 M-F no exceptions. But I’d be cool with being in the office 5 days/week if I could:
    -flex my hours 7-3:30 to avoid traffic some days
    -OR work 8-12 in the office, and then work 1-5 at home on some days
    -AND work completely remotely for a day on occasion when I have appointments or deliveries/repair techs showing up

    Hybrid: Not OK if my employer sets exactly what days I have to come in with no regard to my workflow.

    100% remote: Probably not OK if I’m never able to visit on-site and don’t see coworkers in person roughly once/quarter for team building/workshops/celebration events

    Working environment also plays into this. I may be less inclined to work in an on-site environment (even a flexible one!) if it was a really disorganized hot-desking situation. I’d be less inclined to work fully remotely if my employer refused to pay for necessities like office supplies.

  280. Kiitemso*

    I might not quit but a flexible policy would definitely make me more committed to the job. For some reason I feel like my industry is old school and there are a lot of higher ups who love seeing faces around the place. Before the pandemic, nobody wanted to provide laptops for people in finance to work from home, even after a lot of lobbying from the head of finance, who is a well-respected figure within the org, and even she couldn’t get it done!

    I have also heard that in other departments, there is some scuttlebutt that those working from home haven’t been more efficient and focused, but have instead been half-assing some stuff and not really committing to certain goals that were set out. This department has now provided flexibility on WFH but because there are some urgent matters for clients that can only be done in person, one or two staff have to been on-site at all times to deal with those clients. I don’t know the reality of the situation, it’s just gossip after all, but if stuff like this is going around then once vaccinations reach 70-80% here, things might just return to normal and the flexibility vanishes.

  281. ReMote ReLiable ReCeptionist*

    Currently working 100% remotely, expect to be back to mostly in person in a few months with occasional remote flexibility. I like working from home, but wouldn’t quit if they wanted me back 100% in person as long as it wasn’t unsafe. However, I WOULD quit if my employer suddenly started monitoring remote work aggressively the way I’ve heard of other employers doing. I have a fair amount of “engaged to wait” time– because of the way THEY have structured my job responsibilities!– and if I had to physically sit at my desk and “look busy” electronically for 8hrs/day *in my own home* I would lose it. At the office, I can clean/organize/water the plants and that counts as working, as long as I’m available when needed. Not being allowed to do the same while WFH would make me not want to do it, and probably make me question the employer’s priorities enough to start looking elsewhere.

  282. Neptune*

    I wouldn’t take a 100% remote job if I had any choice in the matter at all. I’m not rich, I don’t have a fancy house with a home office and a garden to work out in on a long lunch! I have roommates and a wonky desk! I don’t want to spend all my time trapped in my apartment and have my employer offload all the heating and electricity and internet bills onto me, or wander around searching for a table in a coffee shop or whatever! A coworking space might work but otherwise, nope. When people get evangelical about full time WFH, all I can think is “oh, cool, so you have a nice house”.

    1. RebelwithMouseyHair*

      Then when you see that some firms are rolling out plans to pay WFH staff LESS… I wonder how you ever can afford to WFH.
      Of course, the poorest paid workers are often those who can’t WFH (retail, cleaning staff)

  283. Alton Brown's Evil Twin*

    I’ve had 1-hour commutes, by car and train. I’ve done 5 days a week travel for months at a time. I’ve had 20-minute commutes, and 2-minute commutes, and I’ve even lived in the office for a while (expat in Russia in the early 90s). And now I’ve been full-time work from home for 15 months; I’ve been to the office exactly 7 times, and 3 of them were this month.

    I think the particulars of the situation matter so much for me that I can’t generalize. There are some elements of office work that technology still hasn’t duplicated well (whiteboards during technical brain-storming sessions, for example). I would probably turn down employer who didn’t recognize that for many office jobs, WFH is a possibility that doesn’t necessarily affect productivity, and at least offer some level of flexibility (and some home IT and desk resources). But if the pay, benefits, environment, etc. were good enough, I’d be fine with 100% in the office again.

  284. Lab Boss*

    I’m a weird case- I work in a laboratory so we CAN’T be 100% remote, but how remote you can be varies with the work load. Some weeks you’re at a workbench for 40 full hours, some you’re spending most or all of your time working on reports and spreadsheets that can be easily done from home. With some pushing, the company allowed teams like ours to be hybrid and spend as much time as needed on-site and the rest remote (early on it was “only be here as much as necessary,” as restrictions have eased it’s more accepted for someone to stay in for more of the day if they prefer it).

    The company is making noises about eliminating all the WFH arrangements (except for upper management who are presumably more trustworthy, or something). I wouldn’t personally quit over it- I’m a manager who is nearly 100% on site anyway between the work I’m doing myself and supervising my technicians. But I fully believe I’ll lose people, and that the company will lose a LOT of people. We’re getting numbers showing that productivity has stayed constant and many people are reporting less anxiety and stress than they felt BEFORE the pandemic, because they have more control over their day. The stated logic is that “some” people/departments don’t work from home well so it’s not “fair” to let anybody do it if everybody can’t do it- I’ll burn manager capital to fight that, as it’s pointlessly kneecapping my team’s morale just for old-school management to see a full parking lot. They never look in the lab anyway, so it’s not like they’re seeing butts in seats.

    1. RebelwithMouseyHair*

      Your last sentence is very telling: you’re working in the lab not the office, and management never come to see you. You’re the people actually doing the work that brings in the money, is that it?
      Like when I worked as a translator at a translation agency: we had annual meetings with brainstorming sessions for the sales staff, and for the project managers, but never for the translators, who were just lumped in with the project managers…
      Like when I worked at a school and the boss produced an organisation chart where he forgot to mention the teachers…
      I reckon it’ll be OK, they’ll let you let your staff decide on what’s best for themselves, because they’re just not that interested in you. It’s a rotten reason, but you might as well get what mileage you can out of it.

      1. Lab Boss*

        Thanks for the empathy :) Some of the reasons we don’t get attention from upper management are unreasonable, some are less so (physically not in the same location, safety issues about coming into the lab). YOUR last paragraph is spot on! I’ve got a string of leadership up to a single VP (company structure means he’s not the one making WFH choices) who absolutely support the “do what you want, nobody’s paying that close of attention” mindset. If I’m in a pessimistic mood it makes me feel unseen and unappreciated. Mostly, though, I’m 100% OK with getting to run my team in a way that works for us.

  285. CheezeWhizzard*

    I am looking to leave my company and I am filtering out any position that isn’t 100% remote. I’m a tech worker in high demand right now, so I get to call the shots for once. I have some requirements including company provided tech equipment, a home office supply credit, and management that understands that having employees work remotely doesn’t mean they’re available for 24 hours a day.

  286. Anon for this*

    I do personally enjoy having the ability to work from home at least part time, and I would search for it in the future. The nature of my job (negotiating contracts) is such that I can do my job 100% remotely, and more efficiently. But it is also nice to put on clothes and interact with others, so a split schedule works well for me.

    At this time in my life, if I lost the ability to work remotely entirely, that would prompt me to search for another opportunity. I have young children so I like being home with the nanny and seeing them during breaks. Once they are in school I would consider working in-office full time if the job was a great fit.

  287. A little flexibility would be nice...*

    My company *REALLY* wants all butts back in office seats as soon as possible. So far, they’re not pushing back on continued WFH on medical grounds, but I don’t think that’s far off. I miss seeing my coworkers, and getting out of the house, but I really don’t miss the commute (1+ hour each way), and I really love not having to take half a day off for a quick doctor appointment. (My docs are generally on the side of town where I live, so doing a doctor’s appointment typically requires scheduling either first thing in the AM and then going to work, or scheduling last thing in the afternoon and leaving early. While I’ve been WFH, I’ve just been able to run to the appointment whenever and make up time as needed.) I’m hoping the higher-ups will be convinced to allow some flexibility going forward, but I don’t actually think it will happen. I think I’ll be back to using whatever sick time I’ve banked since the last appointment (and vacation for whatever that doesn’t cover) as soon as I am back in the office.

  288. turquoisecow*

    I work part-time from home and if they wanted me to come to the office more regularly I would absolutely quit.

    I was hired as a temp by an old boss of mine to replace someone on maternity leave. When she declined to return, my boss asked if I would stay on permanently. I declined because I didn’t want the hour plus commute each way but agreed to stay until they found a replacement. They hired a replacement but found something else for me to do part time. I basically told them that if I couldn’t be remote I didn’t want the job, and they decided they wanted me in that position enough to make it work. My new boss is fine with it, although I think he’d prefer if I was full-time, but people higher up than him don’t want to pay me for that.

    Pre-pandemic I would go in maybe once a month for a meeting. I’d sometimes work from the office for an hour or two after the meeting, but I don’t have an assigned desk, so it was always awkward. And often the meetings were kind of a waste anyway and I could easily have called in, and often did. They switched to every other week in office during the pandemic, to allow for more spacing between workers, but I was not required to come in because I don’t have an assigned desk. Now they’re going to go back into the office full time next week, but still limiting the number of people allowed in conference rooms, so they’ll probably still have mostly virtual meetings. I also know that not everyone is vaccinated, and they’re not requiring masks, so if I did go in I would probably wear a mask and be uncomfortable.

    Since I started the job, I had a kid, and I don’t want to put her in daycare, so the part time from home works for me right now. If I have to go into the office at some point in the future, I can make arrangements for my husband or my parents or in-laws to watch her for that short period. But full-time, in-office doesn’t work for my lifestyle right now. Thankfully, my husband is the breadwinner and my job isn’t totally financially necessary for us – and my bosses know this – so they’re not going to push me too hard because they know I’ll walk away.

  289. JustMe*

    I think the pushback and bad feelings about returning to the office are often symptoms, not causes. Employers who are prioritizing old-school butts-in-seats rules are more likely to have issues involving compensation, ability to effectively manage, evaluating productivity, a certain level of dysfunction, and respect for employees.

    1. quill*

      Yeah. Aside from other issues (commutes, families, health) everything I see written about when it comes to a company’s decision about WFH is that bad companies have bad policies about flexibility whether they allow WFH or not.

  290. RebelwithMouseyHair*

    I already have quit a job because of being made to WFH. Or rather, I got the boss to make me redundant, so that I got unemployment benefit.

    The head office was in another town, two hours minimum from door-to-door for me. The Paris office was a gorgeous commute away (I rode past Notre Dame and along the river, it was heavenly, people save up for years to come and see these views, it was my commute:) in a lovely area of Paris, and my colleagues were wonderful. We worked in total silence (even messaging each other to not disturb the others) then had great fun at lunch and also happy hours after work.

    Then the boss decided to close the Paris office and make us WFH. I didn’t want to sacrifice my commute and fun with colleagues, but I thought if I could go swimming every lunchtime it might be OK. One colleague asked if she could move her hours from 9-5 to 8.30-4.30 so that she wouldn’t have to put her kids in after-school care, they said no. So I assumed I wouldn’t be able to take a 2hr lunch break to go swimming either.
    We were already working “remote” in that our only work interactions (apart from “let’s stop for lunch” or “what’s wrong with the photocopier?” or “we’re out of loo paper” or “who microwaved fish?”) were with people at head office, so it’s not like the boss wasn’t already trusting us to get our work done.
    I realised that WFH as an employee would actually have all the disadvantages of WFH (not getting out of the house, not seeing other people) but none of the advantages of freelancing from home (more money, freedom to organise my work as I wanted), so I told the boss I would neither WFH nor work at head office.
    Normally they would have made me redundant at that point, but the boss tried another tack: he said he would find another office just for me, since the others had all accepted WFH. So he found an office that was an hour and a half away from my home, that I couldn’t ride my bike to. I’d be working on my own, but wasting three hours a day on public transport.
    My claustrophobia kicked in, I kept getting panic attacks at the thought of having to take the metro and underground suburban train, so I went to get a doctor’s note to say I couldn’t work there. I was on medical leave for several months while I convinced the psychiatrist that all would be well if only she would write that note.
    The note had to go to the vocational health doctor, who agreed that I couldn’t take public transport. (I’d had to take public transport to go to her office, and arrived at her office in mid panic attack) She had to talk with my boss to get his side of the story, and was so horrified at the tense atmosphere in the office, she decided to not only say I should not be expected to work there any more, but to conduct a health audit on all the employees. I’m not sure exactly what happened about that, but I was pleased my former colleagues would get to tell someone in a position of power about the abuse and toxicity there.

  291. KatAlyst*

    For me it was the the “eventual” end of WFH & full-time in-office requirement that _already_ pushed a job change.
    I was a 90-m8n-at-best multi-step-mass-transit commute into NYC for 4 years, had 51 weeks of WFH, and now the new job has a 25 minute driving commute with 1/week WFH that I haven’t even used once in my first 4 months. (Do have a few expected in July, so that flexibility is great.)
    The last place was only grudgingly WFH in the beginning, and has had at least 10 adjustments to the return-to-office, which was incredibly stressful at every point, and even if they do eventually bow to pressure and continue to allow “some/occasional” options I’m positive they’ll lose people at every stage.
    How positive? I’m still getting recruiter contacts & have been asked to push that info to 3 different former coworkers, out of a group of 10, and I doubt they’ll be the only ones in a company of 75–down 7 during the pandemic that I knew of.

  292. Admin of Sys*

    If they compelled us to return full time to the hoteling system they’ve set up, I’d seriously consider quitting. I liked my old office, and would be fine returning there – but that’s apparently not going to be an option. The new location is great for about half the available spaces, but if we had to fight over the better cubicals long term, I would get very frustrated very quickly.

    On the other hand, I have been struggling with entirely remote work as well. It’s been very hard to deal with both the isolation and the lack of work – home delineation. Checking work email at 10pm has become the norm, and I would have to make some serious accommodations if I am going to be setup in my ‘home office’ forever.

    I probably wouldn’t quit immediately, but hoteling would most likely kick off a job search, and for the new job, where I’m working from would be part of the consideration, just like office location was before wfh was as much an option.

  293. Pretzelgirl*

    No I would not quit. I have an essential job with many functions that cannot be done at home. I actually worked in the office for the entire pandemic. I honestly cannot imagine working from home all of the time. I have an hour commute and that is basically my only “me” time ever. With 3 small kids at home and a demanding job I use the hour to decompress.

    I do like it on occasion, when the weather is bad, or if I have a cold or something.

  294. QuinleyThorne*

    I’m in a state gov’t agency as an administrative assistant, and while about half of my job duties can be done from home, the other half (and the ones I do with regularity) I need to be physically in the office for. I stayed in the office during the pandemic by choice–offices were closed to the public, I live very close, and my apartment at the time was too small to accommodate both me and my husband working from home. That, and the pandemic slashed our budgets, restricted our travel, and moved all meetings to Teams, so all of the duties I had that could’ve been done from home I wasn’t able to actually do–the handful of times I did work from home, I was miserably bored.

    The agency kept setting dates for people to return to work, but the dates would come and go with no significant change (this happened about 4 times in 6 months). Last week however, an agency-wide email survey went out to employees about teleworking. The body of the email described the survey as a way for the agency to evaluate what “our new normal operations” should be post COVID, so from what it sounds like hybrid telework is likely going to be how the agency operates going forward. My answer was that I’d personally prefer situational telework, and outlined my reasons why, but I did take the time to advocate for a flexible telework model for my coworkers for whom coming in every day presents a challenge.

    While I do believe there’s a big part of this initiative that is responding to employee feedback, the agency had taken some steps earlier in the year to indicate that this change was probably actually a long time coming:
    -rural offices are still fully remote, and their furniture has been returned to the warehouse.
    -Aside from the large copiers, all printers and scanners have been returned to HQ
    -All desktop computers have been exchanged for SurfacePros
    -Nearly all of out public-facing processes are transitioning to a completely online system starting in the new fiscal year

  295. Mannheim Steamroller*

    Morgan Stanley (the investment bank) has been in the news lately for announcing that only vaccinated employees will be allowed into its New York offices.

    Does anybody else find that ripe for abuse? Employees who don’t want to return will either avoid getting vaccinated or falsely deny having gotten vaccinated. (“Sorry, boss. I never got the vaccine, so you have to let me work from home.”

    1. quill*

      It’s one of the cases where I find the benefit to the people otherwise endangered outweighs the certainty that there will be at least one person who abuses the policy. Much like sick leave, and food stamps…

  296. Love My Home Office*

    I am a litigation paralegal that long desired to WFH but could never find a position where that was available outside of a special, short-term situation. Lawyers/law firms like having someone there and were (mostly) strangely attached to paper. About 2 weeks before the pandemic shutdown, I started work in the legal department of an insurance company that was already paperless and have worked from home ever since. They tried to bring people back last June but that’s when a new surge started here in FL. In November, they started bringing certain employees back 1 week in/1 week out. Mid June they required everyone to come back into the office. No vaccinations would be required or discussed and masks inside the office were optional. I had already negotiated to stay home permanently but if I had been required to return under those circumstances, I would be interviewing for a new job. In fact, if I hadn’t negotiated to stay home FT (and there are ALOT of people very pissed off about it), I would already have a new job for other reasons. In other words, I am staying put because I can WFH FT. My commute was 45-60 minutes each way before, but wasn’t really why I wanted to stay home. I LOVE working from home, I am so much more efficient, I love not having to be around all those people, not getting sick all winter for the first time I can remember (thanks to those who come into the office sick because they don’t want to use their PTO), being able to run to a doctor, do errands, etc. I am never going back to an office FT if I can avoid it. I would, however, be open to going in 1-2 days per week if it wasn’t for the pandemic and my company’s cavalier attitude about it.

  297. No more crappy coffee for me.*

    I already have quit my job for a new, WFH job with a progressive, hybrid work model company, as well as a 36% raise.

    My old job was by far taking advantage of me, but I was also allowing it, like many of us do – The prospect of job searching seemed exhausting, the anxiety of a new workplace, the fear of change…. It just seemed fine to coast along with what I was already comfortable with, not believing I really deserved to make more.

    Then they said we had to come back to the office – My job could be done fully remotely. I was more productive the last year than anyone else had been previously in the role. In addition, the team I supported was 85% remote and spread out around the US – But no, I still had to come back in. My boss wasn’t happy about it either, but it came from higher up. In addition, during COVID we had been acquired by a new company, and they started making infantile office rules – No jackets at your desk, no more than 2 cups, no personal items, you don’t need to wear your mask at your (tiny, close together, no cube walls) desk. No flex time, butts in seats 8-5. No thanks.

    I started searching, pumped my self-confidence up, reviewed salaries for my role, and started interviewing – got an offer for a remote role for about 10k more – declined it because I knew I could do better. Two weeks later I had a job offer for 36% more than I was previously making, fully remote, better health insurance, better mission, better everything.

    I still get recruiters emailing me about remote roles *all* the time (Both offers I got came from recruiter leads as well). I’m pretty sure I’ll be remote the rest of my life, and I don’t mind that one bit.

  298. TeacherLady*

    Not quite a return to office tale, but:

    I’m a teacher, and have been back in schools since September, and throughout our 2nd and 3rd waves.

    I am actively trying to leave to profession by the end of the summer. There are many reasons for this, but the complete lack of consideration for our safety in sending us back so soon (and without ANY safety plan that took itinerant staff like me into consideration); and the terrible communication on the part of both the government (who sent out their return to school guidelines the Thursday before the first day of classes) and my school district (which contacted me exactly 2 times during the entire lockdown, once to ask for money) has been a kick in the butt to finally make this happen.

    Nothing like a strong shot of anger to inspire action :p

    I have a 2nd interview on Tuesday for a job that would be perfect for me – wish me luck!

    1. quill*

      They’re asking TEACHERS for money? The district of all people should know that you don’t have any…

      1. TeacherLady*

        Haha yep – to be fair, I did owe them, since I pay for health benefits and those payments typically come out of my paycheques, and during lockdown I wasn’t getting any paycheques so…

        1. joss*

          “during lockdown I wasn’t getting any paycheques so…”

          I beg your pardon? Was this just because you used to get paper cheques or did you not get paid? This world truly has gone crazy.

          And then I read an opinion piece this morning how keeping schools close in this state was “child abuse” and the state was still imposing masks on kids after they get back to school in the fall. That ranting father really threw everything out there as to how his (3 and 7yo ) were suffering because they could not go to a golf tournament, professional games had been off limits, restaurants were closed and on, and on. Entitled i***t…

          I really from the bottom of my heart wish you good luck with your interview. You, and all other teachers, deserve so much better than this

    2. TeacherLady*

      Forgot to mention: the new job would be entirely remote which is a huge perk for me, since the cost of living in my city is astronomical and I’d like to by a house one day!

  299. quill*

    Different from the majority here in that I’ve always been partially dependent on location, since most of my jobs have had laboratory components. I would, however, be VERY hesitant to ever take an in-office job with more than a twenty minute commute ever again, or one where it wouldn’t theoretically be possible for me to take a few WFH days in an emergency.

  300. Curiouser and Curiouser*

    I definitely wouldn’t quit my job if WFH became a permanent requirement. I like my job, and WFH is a minor annoyance at the moment. However, I do think at some point we’re going to have a bit of a reckoning about what WFH actually means rather than “WFH during a pandemic”. I know some companies are already doing this (my mom is on one of these committees and just called me about our policies haha), but remote work requires remote work policies for both the company and the employee. If my company decided WFH was permanent but refused to put the necessary policies in place in a post-pandemic world (allowing employees to expense faster internet or office supplies, requiring child care, creating defined expectations for communication and working hours) I would likely start looking elsewhere.

  301. funkynote*

    I’m in the process of job hunting because my boss has made me come back into the office 5 days a week because “we’re busy” (spoiler: we’re not). That was the entirety of his explanation. I am now only looking for fully remote roles. I was ok with coming in 2 days a week, but then all of a sudden he changed his mind with no real reason and I feel insulted by it frankly. He’s basically implying that I can’t be busy working from home even though everything I do can be done from home. It’s not like this is some out of touch older person, he’s a millenial, only 3 years older than me.

    On top of that he recently hired a new person behind everyone’s back and then fired the person who they were replacing, but only after they had hired someone. I also recently told them that I’m pregnant (it’s still early but wanted to let them know incase I’m feeling sick or need to go to the doctor) and his first reaction was to ask me “was this planned?” (none of his business). Three hours later I got an email saying our PTO policy had changed, but I was the only one to receive this email. So I feel the beginning of discrimination/being pushed out due to my pregnancy. I am just over this place. Am I crazy or is changing the PTO policy just for me discrimination??

  302. ManBearPig*

    I told my boss that a return to 5 days a week in the office wouldn’t necessarily be the thing that made me get a different job, but it would inspire me to keep my eyes and ears open.

  303. Mayor of Llamatown*

    I was hired on a telecommute arrangement, so I have been working from home for the last four years. There were threats at one point that the company was going to start recalling people back to the office, and I definitely would have quit over it. Working from home has been a lifesaver for me, in so many ways, and going into an office I’ve never worked from would mean either a 3-hour total commute, or a significant move to a more expensive area. Luckily that never happened.

    Some things that impact that, though: my entire team is remote, so I have never felt like I was missing out on things happening in an office, and our work doesn’t need to be done in an office at all. If those things were different, I might feel differently.

    I also know that my desire to work from home means that not every job is going to work for me, or that I’ll have to make some concessions in the future if I leave my company. Fortunately, I love who I work for, so I don’t have to make that call yet.

  304. Bossy Magoo*

    I left an employer I had been with for 20 years in part because of this. There were obviously other issues that had been bothering me for years, but it was our CEO’s announcement that we were going to be making plans to come back to the office that pushed me to seriously start looking. I reached out to several members of the leadership team to ask what this would look like, was there any room for exceptions if it made sense, etc and all they would say is “you know how [CEO] is, he/she is old-fashioned like that”. My entire team is in a different location so even if I were to return to the office, I would still be communicating with them over Zoom, email, Slack and phone; so it didn’t make sense to me that I would have to spend the time and money on commuting when I had proven to be more productive (and happier) at home. And yet, no one was willing to talk to me about an exception for me – a productive, valued (I thought), long-tenured employee.

    So I started looking and within 3 weeks found a job – more money, 100% remote, and a step up career-wise. I gave my notice and suddenly they were in panic mode – making me grand counter-offers (you can work remote! we’ll give you a raise!) but I had already mentally moved on. I think they didn’t think anyone actually cared enough about it to leave. And/or the powers-that-be wanted to come back so they didn’t really even consider what the employees wanted.

  305. Anonymous Pygmy Possum*

    My company has been pretty flexible with work from home, even though there’s a definite preference that people are in office at least 2-3 days a week, and new hires/interns are especially needed to be in office for at least a month at the start. In my industry, that seems pretty common. That being said, I don’t think I could do a fully remote position. I usually work from home one day per week at my current job, and I’d like that flexibility in the next job I take, but I need to have the separation from home and work to focus.

  306. Jedi Sentinel Bird*

    If my current employer forced me to work in an office, I would be job searching for a different position.

    At my previous job before the pandemic,

    – it took me almost a hour to get to work and to leave work
    -had to sit in an uncomfortable desk chair in a half cubicle
    -had to fill out my time sheet for every 5-10 mins to account for everything I did(took me about 30mins to do that. Ridiculous)
    -had let them know when I used the restroom
    -had to deal with passive aggressive co workers
    -forced to hear HR lady curse like a sailor and bs with her friends very loudly on a daily basis while we were at our cubes answering the phones. That was terrible.
    -manager only spoke to me verbally 3 times while I was there I think in a span of 6 months. He mostly emailed if he did say anything.
    -was underpaid for my position
    -one coworker would swear and belittle the install techs over the phone while her desk cube was right next to manager who could hear everything . He never did anything.

    I realized how how much time was wasted once that job was forced to switch to WFH during the pandemic. It was nice to not have deal with traffic and annoying rude people. But that toxic company furloughed and then later on terminated me because of pandemic.

    And you can’t get back time. Why would I want to spend all this time on a job in which it’s just a job?

    I feel like if you can do the job at home, you should have that choice. I think it’s about control with “butt in seat” mentality. I could go on and on, but I want focus on myself and enjoy my time and be comfortable while I work .

  307. Just an autistic redhead*

    In 2019 I had been wfh Fridays/as needed only. But then I had a pain issue that started up in September, that set me wfh full time temporarily. I was nervous about returning because of the possibility of flaring back up, but then Covid. It seems my company is trying to see if it can accommodate wfh preferences as broadly as possible. So it doesn’t seem that I’ll really ever again have to go in more than once per week, and it doesn’t seem that often is even likely either. (I vastly prefer wfh, especially because post flare-up I’ve been permanently more sensitive.) For those reasons, I don’t need to consider leaving my job. But I had long since determined that if I ever left this job it would be for a remote-only-no-travel-ever job, and that’s still true.

  308. Aunt Meg*

    I actually left my job about a year ago, once everyone realized we would be working remotely for the foreseeable future instead of the 2-3 weeks we thought it would be when we first got sent home. 3 months of working remotely was more than enough for me and when I got an offer for a non-remote working job I jumped at it. I absolutely would not have been able to work remotely for this long.

  309. Queen_of_Comms*

    My company is continuing to offer hybrid schedules for the majority of office workers. I’m thrilled with the set-up: 2-3 days in the office, the remainder at home. It allows me to take care of my mental health and social needs. Plus, I find that I’m more productive when my work environment shifts periodically.

    Unfortunately, my boss recently declared that he had no reason to work from home and was needed in the office. Since then, many in the department have followed his lead and are parroting the idea that “I’m too important to work from home.” I’ve been holding onto my hybrid work schedule, but now, when I go into the office, I feel slightly out of touch with the dynamics and discussions going on around me. It’s resulting in a sense of FOMO that I hadn’t anticipated. I’ve been contemplating leaving, although I’m not quite at that point.

    It’s important for upper management to take advantage of the unique WFH setups that their companies offer if they want to see the perks succeed long-term. It’s the same reason that unlimited vacation policies often result in no one taking vacation at all.

  310. CaseyKay*

    We’re switching to a hybrid model, but even then I’m one of the many millennials who are chronically underpaid yet asked to live in extremely expensive cities for our jobs and the travel to and from work will destroy any savings I’ve made. I’ve been going into the red every year since I took this position and finally once took WFH started with COVID, I was able to experience being in the green.

    So yes, even with a hybrid model this isn’t going to work for me. I will be quitting as soon as I can line something else up. With WFH becoming more of an option at larger organizations, maybe that’s a possibility sooner rather than later.

    1. Beka Cooper*

      I feel like I’m on a flip-flopped version of that–I live in a smaller, not as expensive city, but because I chose to stay here, my job options have been limited and thus I’ve never been able to save. I am looking at remote positions so I can continue to live here and actually make enough to save! It’s nice to have hope and feel like I have options.

      1. Mayor of Llamatown*

        I live in a rural area just outside of a big metropolitan area where my company is located. Because I can telecommute, I make a salary equivalent with the big metro area, but have the lower cost of living, and no horrendous commute. It’s a huge incentive to stay with my company.

  311. Lizard Breath*

    I’m a physician and switched jobs this year, which has been a giant pain for many reasons. I work in a specialty where I could do mostly telemedicine but doing a good physical exam periodically is very helpful and gives you a lot of information you can’t get otherwise. I’m actually thinking about leaving my job due to the amount of telework it involves–as it turns out, I HATE doing telemedicine and I feel very uncomfortable trying to diagnose and treat patients I don’t know well yet over the phone (our population skews elderly and a lot of them can’t seem to manage video visits). I would really like to move to doing more in-person visits but the other people I work with seem to be really happy with all the telemedicine and a lot of the patients I would most like to see in person live in rural areas where it’s admittedly very inconvenient for them to come in.

    I don’t work from home for multiple reasons (kids underfoot, patient privacy, software and hardware issues, and blurred work-life boundaries) so it doesn’t even save me time or inconvenience.

  312. Spotted Kitty*

    My office has floated the idea of moving to a new space and hot desking, which would make me start up a job search. I HATE not having my own dedicated space.

    1. code red*

      This would be more my make-or-break. If you expect me to come into work every day you darn well better assign me a cube or office or something to call my own.

      Although if they only want me in office like one day a week I might not care so much.

    3. Paris Geller*

      Yeah, that is a make-it-or-break it thing for me. I hot desked once and hated it. I much prefer office to WFH, but I gotta have my own space (preferably not in an open layout–I don’t need an office, but I like a cubicle.)

  313. Beka Cooper*

    My overall university system has issued guidance on allowing flexible WFH, but the message from our bosses is that we have to wait and see “how it applies” to our unit, and that we should plan to be coming back full time in August. So I thought it was a little weird to receive a nice email with links to a detailed website and pretty PDFs explaining all the variations of flexible work, schedules, and WFH the university was recommending, but then get the message “yeah, no.” They kind of did the same thing when our university went remote for COVID–waffling about if they could get us declared to be essential. So I’m a little annoyed by that aspect of how it has been handled. My direct supervisor is more on board with some days WFH, so it might shake out okay. However, due to other changes in my work as a result of pandemic staff changes and retirements, the mixed messaging on WFH is just another thing nudging me toward a job search. I also just need a salary increase.

  314. Esmeralda*

    I can’t afford to quit (or retire), but I would want to if we are required to be asses-in-seats M-F 8-5 as in the Before Times. I would like a flexible (hours “present”, days, time of day) hybrid model. There’s no reason we couldn’t do this for the work we do. And especially since as a state employee working at in the state u system, our pay kind of sucks. If you’re not going to pay us, make our working conditions better, allow us to improve work/personal life “balance”, and trust us to be the professionals we’ve so impressively demonstrated we are over the past 15 months.

    This past year has given the lie to all the arguments against flexible hours/days, WFH, position sharing etc. we’ve been making for decades (literally). It’s discouraging, to say the least, when TPTB start trotting them out again in a rush to return to the way it was.

  315. rc*

    If I had the bona fides to leave my company for somewhere that would let me work remotely, I would absolutely do so. It’ll take a couple years for me to demonstrate the technical skills I’d need to be able to do so, and I’ll likely be looking to leave at that time. (I’ve also been at my current company for >6 years starting just before I turned 25, so I’m feeling the need to go somewhere else so I don’t get “stuck” here.)

  316. Ms Over It*

    I am in the process of leaving my job over this as we speak. I have a few coals in the fire and should have a good offer soon. Really, forcing us to come back to the office is the last straw for me. They were telling us for months and months we would be remote forever and not to worry about it. Then a sudden flip 2 weeks ago. On top of crap pay and little to no maternity leave (my partner and I are looking to grow our family) I’m over it. I do the work of two people and am not okay with going back to the office. My boss and grand boss are trying to get a hybrid plan approved, but I sincerely doubt it will be approved considering the people who need to sign off on it are the people insisting we need to be face to face with our colleagues at all times. And the final detail is they are not requiring vaccines or masks and I know there are several people in my department that WILL NOT get the vaccine. I’m immunocompromised and CAN’T get the vaccine so no, I will not be staying in this position any longer than is strictly necessary.

  317. Mary Richards*

    I think I’m at a point where any job that doesn’t have a flexible enough WFH policy to allow me to work from home while sick (or to allow others to work from home while sick, thus preventing the spread of viruses in the office) probably isn’t going to cut it. I say this because I have always been the type to stay home when sick, except in truly dire situations, but plenty of people don’t. I think the main thing we’ve learned this last year is that it’s a lot easier to stop any virus from spreading by staying home. And I would want to work with people who feel the same.

  318. Dasein9*

    My company was looking to move before Covid and during the pandemic, closed the local office. They gave us the desk chairs and furniture we wanted and repurposed the desktop computers. They’re giving us a small wfh stipend for equipment and pay part of our internet bill.

    Sure, they may open a new office, but seem to be in no rush. My attitude may change a bit depending on where the new office is and what the commute is like, but mostly they’re going to have a hard time getting me back into an uncomfortable cubicle with people being loud around me. We already had a lot of remote employees and the work can be done remotely just fine. (We constantly collaborate with offices on other continents.)

  319. MyLamaPeggyHill*

    My employer set up a COVID testing site on our floor, separated by a curtain, that is to remain after we return. We’ve been told we still have to return, and I’ve told them that I will not be. I guess we’ll see what happens when it comes to a head. I don’t have a medical condition other than ‘human susceptible to COVID that has to work on the same floor as people being tested for said virus.’ I don’t owe my employer my health or the health of my family.
    Please don’t quote me–I’m still not sure what’s going to happen and I’m scared enough as it is.

  320. radfordblue*

    My current job has always been work from home for a few days a week, expanded to full time work from home during the pandemic. It’s a very valuable perk, and I’d have to be offered a pretty substantial pay increase (like, 20% or more) to consider moving to a job that didn’t have at least a couple of work from home days per week.

  321. nnn*

    I’ve only considered quitting my job twice in my 20-year career: once in the immediate aftermath of a concussion when everything was impossible and my judgement was severely affected, and once because they were talking about making me come into the office a lot more.

    I’ve been primarily remote since long before the pandemic. I’m required to come into the workplace for certain types of work, which usually ends up being about 3 times a year.

    I was assigned to a new project where the client wanted me to go into their office regularly. And their office was a significant distance from my home.

    Nothing about my job has ever stressed me out more than this prospect! I eventually worked up the nerve to go to my boss and say outright “I’m happy to do the work, but I literally cannot handle going into this office with any regularity.”

    Luckily, we have very few people who can do this type of work, so my boss arranged things so I could do the work from home.

    (Ironically, the pandemic came down shortly afterwards and the client closed their offices, so I wouldn’t have needed to use up so much social capital to get out of it.)

    In general, I would not take any job that cannot be done from home unless I was truly desperate. My profession is conducive to freelancing. My temperament is not conducive to freelancing, but I would still try to scrape together a living working from home as a freelancer before I’d even consider even a much higher-paying job that requires going into the workplace regularly.

  322. Picard*

    We were never allowed to WFH even though there were a number of positions including my own that could have easily done so (as an essential manufacturer, we stayed open) I personally like having a “work” space to go to but I also WFH as a consultant for over 20 years so I’m very familiar with that type of environment as well.

    I didnt quit 18 months ago so I’m not going to quit now but we DID lose a number of employees so… shrug.

    I think you have to do whats right for you and your situation.

  323. Pool Lounger*

    My husband worked for a giant multinational company that started talking a lot about “office culture” and bringing people back in to thier home offices. But many of the workers found this silly: most people work on teams with people from both coasts and with people who live in different continents. There was no office culture, at least not if you were in any office besides the main hub, located in a very expensive city. My husband figured he’d leave if the wfh policies didn’t change. And apparently workers were already starting to quit for fully wfh jobs with other companies. So the company changed their minds. It’s now much easier to be fully wfh, with some jobs having travel to a main office once a month or maybe less. Workers are Very happy about the change. A big part of the happiness is the expense of living in expensive cities, and people seeing the quality of life they can have in less expensive areas. I’m hoping that important aspect won’t be ignored going forward. Just yesterday a NYT article about how in-person work isn’t necessarily any better or more creative than telework came out. Many people I know in tech, jobs that could tranfer to freelance, and jobs where you can easily move to another large company that is open to wfh are applying to new wfh jobs or are actively trying to get their current companies to see reason.

  324. Pigeon*

    My employer performed a number of surveys about this topic over the course of last year, and to their credit, have made a plan that aligns with the results of those surveys (which for my company was majority flex-work and the ability to accommodate the small percentage of people who wanted a different model). Since I was also in the flex-work bucket I’m pretty happy. (I should also note that I’m in a well-compensated industry and a low COL area, so the vast majority of people here are comfortable working from home, aside from pandemic-related childcare issues. And there have been a handful of people who just couldn’t WFH for whatever reason, and the company accommodated them even during the pandemic by having a few floors of the building open and appropriately sanitized.)

    That said, I am concerned about the lack of face time… video conferencing never really made up the gap for the work we perform. There was a lot of underappreciated “floating” communication from running into people, chatting at the end of a meeting, and whatnot. So I hope that the commitment to flex-work is a true commitment and my coworkers will be willing to come in from time to time to have that in-person communication.

    I’m also concerned because the production segment of the company has not been and will never be WFH, for obvious reasons. Long-term, it’s possible this could lead to a significant cultural schism that could be detrimental to the work. Mostly there has been little resentment so that’s not the issue (again I give a lot of credit to how my employer handled things); but different norms, ways of working, processes, etc. seem likely to develop over time.

    It’s an experiment. And experiments are good! We don’t grow as a workplace or a society without being willing to try new things. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any concerns or potential downsides.

  325. Fluffernutter*

    The head of my department recently said he is moving us to 100% WFH except for all-staff meetings and he would be recommending it to our company president to implement company-wide. Everyone I’ve spoken to is really in favor of it, just as I am. However, I am currently job searching because I need to grow and I am open to taking a job at a non-remote company. At entry-level, I don’t have companies clamoring for me so I am going to take what I can. It is a big plus if I had to choose between a remote and non-remote company but I’m prioritizing growth over that.

  326. SLR*

    So far my employer has been vague about the future of work from home. They told us they are going to start bringing people back into the office this fall. I work in a customer service call center type of role that is perfectly suited to working remotely. We use Microsoft teams and we have weekly meetings and everything is seamless. The management team can monitor all of our stats remotely using typical call Center Software. I’ve made it very clear to my boss that I would like to move to a lower cost of living area. I currently live in Metro Boston Massachusetts and would like to either relocate to New Hampshire or the northern part of Massachusetts where it’s a bit more affordable, quiet and rural. I told them I would have no problem coming into the office once or twice a month for important in-person meetings and trainings, but I would much prefer to work remotely permanently. My quality of life has improved so much! I’m putting Less wear-and-tear & mileage on my vehicle, am spending less on gas every week, I’m actually eating healthier because I’m at home and able to prepare real meals as opposed to eating fast food in the car on the go, my sleep patterns have improved because I’m able to unwind a lot quicker and I just have a better work-life balance overall. I can’t imagine going back to the office 5 days a week. If they told me it was required to work 5 days in the office again, yes, I would absolutely job search which is really sad and disappointing because I actually truly love working for the company that I work for. But I’m a single person living on one income, and I was very open and transparent with my boss that my relocating would purely be out of financial necessity to be in a lower cost of living area. My productivity and metrics are all where they need to be and at my most recent performance review I was told that I’m exceeding expectations. I find myself to be much more productive working alone here in my own private space as opposed to working in an office with all the hustle and bustle and distractions. I am much more productive and I gladly work overtime when they ask me to. I’m working in comfortable tees & camis, sweat pants/leggings and I can go sit in the backyard to take a break, overall my quality of life is just so much better. I really truly hope they let me work from home permanently, I don’t even want a hybrid option. I want to be permanently remote. I think that anyone who is in a role that is truly well-suited to remote work, and as long as they are meeting or exceeding their productivity goals and metrics, they should be given the option to work remotely permanently.

  327. Temperance*

    I definitely value flexibility, and would love to have a more hybrid in-office/home setup once our office officially reopens.

    I’m honestly struggling more with trying to figure out what we’re going to ask for/expect from our pro bono clients going forward. They’ve been pushing and pushing for in-person meetings throughout the entire pandemic, which I’ve been able to shut down because it’s simply not allowed. Many of these folks are in groups likely to be “vaccine hesitant”, and I don’t want to put myself, my husband, or our baby at risk. He and I are both vaccinated, and theoretically the baby will get my immunity, but I don’t want to risk my kid’s health because some people are misinformed and/or selfish. That might actually color my future work moreso than WFH.

    1. Temperance*

      ETA: Alison, no issues from my end if you want to include me, but if you could redact “pro bono clients” to “clients, that would be wonderful, just because there are ~350 people in my professional org across the US and it’s probably not that hard for them to ID me. Thanks!

  328. Antiracist Career Mom*

    Abs0lutely. I was actively job searching and had two competitive offers, and I ultimately went with the organization that had a fully remote arrangement (as opposed to 50% remote). I do not miss the 3+ hours I spent daily commuting, and I’ve been able to spend so much time with my young children – something that I never thought would have been possible pre-pandemic. Remote work has also enabled me to sustain a better quality of life: living closer to family, being able to maintain my home during the workday, having adequate time to take care of my physical and mental health.

    Remote workforce is such an equalizer for so many marginalized groups. It’s also disappointing because the past year and a half proved that businesses can continue to operate with a remote workforce.

    1. Antiracist Career Mom*

      To clarify my last sentence: “It’s also disappointing to see the push from employers to “go back” to a non-remote/non-flexible work arrangement because the past year and a half proved that businesses can continue to operate with a remote workforce.”

  329. Queen of the File*

    I’m not sure I would actually LEAVE (I’ve worked here for a really long time and am not sure what I’d get this close to retirement) but it would be tempting.

    I was 80% remote before the pandemic thanks to an understanding manager. However, it was always tense as it was seen as a “special rule” for a few people and there were lots of issues with remote employees being shut out of opportunities, both for promotion/work and team-building (accidentally or on purpose).

    Since everyone has gone remote, I feel so included and my ability to shine at work has improved tenfold. Our productivity as a team has skyrocketed. I’m so worried we’re going to go back to a world where everyone else is forced to go back into the office and they’ll resent remote workers even more than they used to, making life worse for all of us! I just want everyone to have the choice about the balance that works best for them.

  330. Prof Pain*

    I’m a college professor. Remote teaching and learning has been so awful that I nearly quit multiple times in the last year. Everything about my job takes at least twice as much effort as it does in person, and student learning outcomes are quite obviously worse, despite my and my colleagues’ efforts to be understanding, accommodating, kind, etc. I am tech-proficient and committed to regularly adapting my teaching to be accessible (students told me they appreciated how engaging my video lectures were, for example), but the idea of leading another class meeting on Zoom makes me physically ill. The academic job market is notoriously bad, but I would rather give up my career as a professor than continue to work remotely. In fact, this is one reason I started reading AAM this year!

    We are scheduled to return to in-person teaching in the fall, but I am keeping the insights I’ve gained from AAM in mind, just in case.

  331. Public Sector Manager*

    I’m a managing attorney in a state agency and if my agency doesn’t allow remote work, I will definitely transfer or demote to be able to go to another agency that does have robust work from home.

    Right now my agency is looking to do 3 days a week remote, but they might go down to 2 days a week. I’ve been pushing my boss for a “bucket of hours” approach, so rather than do 2-3 days per week, allow 16-24 hours per week to use as I see fit. It’s really a free perk that my employer can offer me that would make a huge difference in my quality of life. Doing a set number of days away from the office changes nothing.

    Ideally, I want to be able to take my son to school, get into the office around 8:30 am, leave work around 1:45 pm to be able to pick my son up from school, and do the rest of the day at home. This allows me to be more engaged with my son. I get to avoid commute traffic in the afternoon. My spouse isn’t limited to part-time jobs because I’ll be the to/from school transportation. I’ll be happy and more engaged. And while I’m on salary, I’m definitely going to be more eager to do after hours work if my employer is giving me time to spend more time with my family and see my family’s finances improve.

    If I only get 2-3 days a week, my spouse is still stuck with part-time jobs because I’m not available to get our son every day. I’m still stuck in the afternoon commute from hell 2-3 days a week.

    Give me the flexibility I need so I can integrate my personal and professional lives more seamlessly.

  332. JMR*

    I’m a scientist at a biotech company, running a medium-sized team. I’m at the point where I am not at the bench much anymore, but the scientists on my team are. That means that I have the potential to work from home full-time, but the scientists I manage don’t. I’m interested to see how my employer will handle it, because I know they are interested in allowing remote options for employees whose jobs would not be impacted (say, the finance people, or the regulatory operations people), but I could see there being a perceived bias if some of the scientists are allowed to work from home and some aren’t.

    I hate working from home, and I’m excited to return on-site. However, if the company allows people to work from home part of the time, and enough people take them up on it, the reasons I want to return on-site will be moot (i.e., I find small team meetings to be more productive when we can bounce ideas off each other in person rather than over Zoom, but if I go back into work, I still won’t be able to do that if all the other people stay home). So I don’t know. I wouldn’t quit over it, but when the time comes for me to look for my next position, I do think a culture where most people were on-site would be a selling point for me.

  333. Llama face!*

    I basically did that, although it was more complicated than just wanting wfh. Last year in the early part of the pandemic the place where I live had a partial lockdown and all workplaces that could have people work from home were required to do so. I worked in an essential service job in a government office that couldn’t shut down. The majority of our office was able to work from home with just a skeleton staff doing in-person work. After working out some of the new-situation bugs, I thrived in the wfh setting and was significantly more productive than in office (although there were some duties- mostly minor- that were rearranged because of the situation so I wasn’t doing 100% of the same work) . We worked from home for about 3 months with a few people rotating the in-office work. Then the order was given for an ‘en masse’ return to work. I warned my employer that they needed to make quite a few changes to make our very cramped close-quarters workspace safe for a full return but they disregarded most of it. When cases started rising quickly by early fall, most of us thought for sure they’d go back to wfh since we couldn’t operate safely in the current conditions and we’d proved wfh could work as a temporary measure. But no. Since there was no government order, my employer refused to allow work from home even as a medical accomodation at doctor’s recommendation for people who were extremely high risk with the virus. They claimed it was not possible for us to work from home and our union refused to support us. Their blatant refusal to provide safe working conditions or to consider wfh for the most vulnerable was a big motivator in my subsequent job search. I’ve now found a position that is a hybrid wfh/in-office model and where the employer has a great track record of supporting the safety and wellbeing of their employees. From what I hear, my old job has lost around a third of their employees so far and will likely keep losing more.

  334. Casual Librarian*

    I don’t think I’d quit my current job because of WFH policies, but going forward, I am going to need flexibility from my workplace–whether that’s working from home or letting me flex my hours into the evenings or weekends when necessary. My children both have therapy several times a week, and it’s been an absolute game-changer to not have to burn all of my sick leave and vacation to take them to therapy.

  335. Anonymous and Free*

    I did quit over this. I am fortunate to have enough savings to coast for a few years if I need to without impacting my quality of life, and even longer if I tighten my belt. I do not intend to ever again work in an office or somewhere that requires a commute. I have the luxury of some amount of time and resources to pick and choose opportunities available to me, and I will fully leverage that.

    When my employer switched to full-time WFH last spring, my life got significantly better in that regard. I will not give that up.

  336. Sara*

    After losing my job due to the pandemic, I found a new job with the same company and I was pretty sure they’d let me continue to stay 100% remote… I’d be the only one from my team in my city. Turns out I was right and will be staying remote. While I wouldn’t have quit over it (my commute is only 40 minutes round trip), there are so many benefits of WFH. I love working out (or taking an occasional nap) on my lunch. I’m not expected to turn my camera on for most meetings and when I do have to, I’m not expected to be dressed up (though I make sure they can’t see my pajama pants). My hair is healthier because I wash it less frequently. I save money on food and gas. Not only do I save time on the commute, but also in getting ready.

    I sometimes miss being in an office/seeing people, but I also don’t miss the drama of regularly interacting with people. This is perhaps a much underrated benefit of working from home for me – much easier to not worry what everybody else is doing when I can’t see everybody else.

  337. OwlEditor*

    It’s hard. My office has us all working remotely. It’s been that way since March 2020 and I hate it. I get distracted because I sit by a window. I miss talking with colleagues and my team members. I also live five minutes away from the office. But others on my team have made it clear they love working from home. So right now it’s hard. My office announced that starting in July, we can come into the office voluntarily. However, my situation is complicated because our team/department is changing. We have a new manager and we’ll be moving floors and apparently, my old floor is being used for storage. I no longer have a desk. So, if I want to go back in office, they have no place to put me. Right now the policy is that if you work 1 or 2 days a week in the office, you will “float” desks. If you work 3+ days in office, you’ll be assigned a desk until your permanent assignment?
    So I’ve accepted that most of team will not ever come back in office, unless forced. With all the other changes, I have no idea what I’m going back to and it’s hard.

    2. Sans Serif*

      That’s exactly what my company will be doing. 3 days or more in the office – you get a permanent desk. Any less, you sign up online for a desk for the days you come in. They are having all of us go in over the summer and clean out our desks. Then they are going to totally redesign the layout to accommodate permanent offices / day by day offices. I went in yesterday (for the first time since March 2020). I threw away nine years of junk that I realized I hadn’t missed at all since last March. It was very weird, I felt like I was retiring.

  338. Matt*

    I would strongly consider it if I had to return to full-time in office. My company started allowing most us to work remotely full time in 2019 so they were ahead of the curve by the time the pandemic became a serious issue and haven’t announced any plans to ask people to return. That said, part of me wouldn’t object to going back in occasionally as I do miss the camaraderie of being in-office and being able to communicate with people face to face rather than over Zoom all the time, but yes, full-time return would probably be a dealbreaker for me.

  339. Junior Dev*

    I am concerned with the passing off of office space expenses to employees. I work from home, I got a job at a startup that has never had an office, and it’s one thing I dislike about this job, that there will be no office to return to.

    I am fortunate enough to make enough money that I can afford to spend half of my income on rent in order to have a two-bedroom apartment to myself and use one room as the office. Before I did this I had a roommate in the other room and spending a year together where I was working from my bedroom and they were just constantly around the house playing video games wore on me, as did having my desk less than 5 feet from my bed. I would often get depressed and go lie down. My roommate was also struggling with mental health after months of unemployment. A big source of difficulty there was that they were isolated and wanted to talk to me, but didn’t really understand that I wasn’t available to chat during work hours and would distract me. (I don’t think either of us were in the wrong; it wasn’t a situation either of us could have foreseen. They decided to move out because they found somewhere cheaper.)

    I know many people who are living in situations where they don’t even have their own private space and are having to do things like sit on the couch in the living room taking calls all day in a house with multiple roommates, or sit on their bed to work. It’s leading to problems with mental health, roommate/spouse/family relationships, and physical health due to lack of ergonomic setups. (I got my desk set up early on because I have a history of health problems from poor ergonomics; I’ve spent maybe $1500 total to do this, and about half of it has been reimbursed through some work program or in one case, through my former boss just sending me money out of his own pocket because he felt bad for me. I know a lot of people who sit on the couch all day to work and it’s starting to catch up with them health-wise.)

    Basically how it used to work for office workers was this: you paid for your own living expenses, and maybe a few specific items you wanted at work, and the cost of commuting. (I own an ergonomic chair I bought for myself years ago and would leave at the office.) The company paid for the physical space you worked in, the internet, the electric and water bills there, the desk and chair you worked at, usually your computer, often coffee or tea, and depending where you worked, sometimes perks like food or a gym or commuter reimbursement.

    Now how it works: you pay for all of that, with the exception of commuting and mayyybe the computer and some (never all) of the other office equipment. You pay the rent on the space where you work. If the number of rooms in your apartment or house isn’t enough to have a dedicated work space, you either pay more in rent or you suck it up and work in the living room/bedroom/kitchen and suck it up if that gives you carpal tunnel from hunching over a tiny laptop keyboard or annoys your roommates.

    I don’t know. I’m personally doing ok, but I’m frankly overpaid for the difficulty of the work I do (tech). A lot of people are making half what I make and are doing work that’s just as hard and are going to be facing repetitive strain injuries or their mental health is going to suffer from not having a clearly delineated work vs. home space. And for whatever reason a lot of people can’t conceive of working from home as involving any real hardship, so I really feel for anyone in this circumstance who is struggling and may not find the people in their lives to be sympathetic or accommodating.

  340. TotesMaGoats*

    I work in higher ed on the staff side of the house. Telework was not something we did for most roles. Sure, I’d take a day and do report writing or catalog edits from home where I could focus but that was one-of. What we’ve proved is that we don’t need to be physically on campus to meet student needs for advising and other services. We still don’t have a firm return plan for staff but anticipating some hybrid in Fall and “normal” in spring. On the upside, staff who need to be home for HVAC repair or stuff like that don’t need to take a day off anymore, if they don’t want to. We can approve on the fly telework. It just won’t be the norm. What burns is that faculty are not in the same boat. I would make an educated guess that this is true at other places who are not going back to Fall 2019 scheduling patterns. I have faculty who moved across the country. They get to teach remotely. It does not appear that faculty who could do on campus office hours will be required to do them. Zoom office hours will probably be the norm. I only have a handful of faculty even teaching on campus at all. (Limited sections mostly for international students that require it for visas.) There is always the staff/faculty divide in higher ed. The roles are very different but the lack of transparency along with reasonable expectations of all employees is frustrating. I don’t really want to go to work 5 days a week ever again. I can be effective from home. More effective because my life has some balance now. I see my kid more. I can log off at 5pm and be in my kayak at 5:20 and enjoying family time and nature. Add in a 45 minute commute and that pushes the evening way out. Once fall comes there is homework to add to the mix and a reasonable bedtime for all of us. I love the people I work with. I miss seeing them. I just wish there was a better give and take in this whole situation.

    1. Coffeebean*

      I hear you. Also a fellow higher ed staff here, the staff/faculty divide is all the more apparent these days. I don’t want to work on site 5 days/week again either for many of the same reasons you explained. Having an option for a hybrid model or extending more flexibility to us staff who want it would be so nice and help us maintain that work-life balance.

    2. J.B.*

      Oh in our department they want to move us out of our offices into cubes so that faculty Clcan have those offices and have them empty most of the time

  341. A Simple Narwhal*

    It’s crossed my mind briefly as an option to consider in the future, but not an immediate action to take. I’ve been loving working 100% remote, it’s made my life infinitely better. Overall I’m happier, healthier, and less stressed. So the idea of giving that up and going back into the office is not a pleasant one. A big factor in this is that we moved during the pandemic – my old commute was 45 minutes from door to desk, and now it’s looking like my new commute will be roughly 1.5 hours door to desk. I realize this is my own issue, and normally commutes aren’t a company’s problem to solve, but knowing that I can do my job perfectly well 100% remote (and my manager has explicitly stated this) makes the idea of adding 3 hours of commuting to my workday very unattractive.

    Right now the edict is that they want everyone in the office at least 3 days a week come September, so at least it won’t be every day, plus my manager mentioned only two days in might be possible (without any further details annoyingly), which would be even better. This is also just what they’ve said so far, there’s a chance it changes over the summer, so I’ve got some hope there. My manager is also very understanding that trains are limited in my area, so the days I do have to go in would be longer for me overall, but shorter in the time actually spent in the office. I have an hour on a train with wifi, so I’ve also proposed the option to leave work an hour earlier but use my commute to keep working, which would be nice. We’ll see!

    Overall while things would definitely be worse for me to go back in, it’s not so terrible that I would quit over it immediately – it’s worth giving it a try and seeing how things go.

  342. Faithful Reader*

    My employer’s leadership is of the old school, “butts in seats” mentality and as soon as it was possible to start bringing people back, our leader went for it. He even tried to force people back into the office last summer, when cases were surging in our area. All remote work agreements were nullified in May and now everyone’s expected to be back in the office. My team, in particular can work just as effectively from home as they can in person. My personal preference would be for some sort of hybrid model because I do think there are important things that get lost when you’re 100% remote, but there should be no reason why folks can’t have a 2-3 days remote each week. I did that years ago with a prior employer (worked remotely MF and in office on TWTh) and it was great.

    I fully expect I’ll see some folks on my team resigning over this and I wish I was empowered to offer them a little more flexibility. It’s been such a gross, toxic situation — my wonderful grandboss was actually forced out because she tried to advocate with Big Boss for more flexibility for our teams. I’m to the point where I’m casually looking at new opportunities, but I’d need to either stay in my town (where there’s a shortage of jobs that can match my current salary) or take a remote position. (I just bought a house that I love and my husband has family here — we want to stay here if we can.)

  343. Rachel*

    I have a looooooong commute and pre-pandemic was in the office 3 days a week and WFH 2 days and that was not set in stone as long as there was notice given for more days at home. Was WFH completely for 14 months during pandemic and now back to original plan. I found I missed my co-workers and the ease if communication and am actually glad to be back.
    If I were to look for a new position, the only thing I would change would be commute. I would prefer the hybrid approach, but that would not be a deal breaker if the new office was a few miles away and I was making the same salary.

  344. college staff*

    I’m holding my breath waiting for an actual WFH policy (supposedly coming next month, we didn’t have a policy at all before the pandemic!) — we’re supposed to start going into the office starting Aug 30, and the last employee newsletter had some stuff about “what if you want to go back early?” and like WHAT IF I DIDN’T?

    I know in higher ed there’s a lot of staff who need to be on campus, but I know I don’t, I know I work better from home, and I don’t want to go back to be in the office full time. I’m in a weird position with some personal stuff where right now I can’t really look for a new job, but when I can, if I can’t work mostly from home, I will absolutely be looking because of that.

  345. Nonny Moose*

    I would seriously consider quitting if we were forced back 5 days a week. We’re a tech company where everyone has been able to work remote for over a year and have been posting record profits, so the “collaboration” excuse falls flat in my eyes. As it stands now we are losing some great talent because they want fully remote positions.

  346. library worker*

    “There’s a narrative building in the media that we’re in a moment of reckoning and the power balance has shifted toward employees in a way we haven’t seen before, that people are reconsidering what they want from their jobs, and that work-from-home is poised to become a make-or-break issue for people.”

    Meanwhile, the dress code at one of my jobs still won’t let me wear jeans to work during the week. Maybe I’m exquisitely unlucky in my workplaces, but both my full-time and part-time institutions have been as committed as possible to “normal” since August 2020. I doubt this is uncommon to the educational fields broadly (higher ed, public schools, public libraries, or otherwise–colleges in particular seem ready to hard-shift back to the same old standards, if they haven’t already).

    That said, I would not have sought remote work prior to the pandemic and I’m not seeking it now; I just wish the limited flexibility my workplaces offered this year was being kept for those who need and/ordesire it.

  347. Sans Serif*

    The pandemic has laid bare the lies companies tell us (and themselves) about the necessity of in-office work. Yes, there are pros to it, but when WFH was forced upon us – literally overnight – everything went well. Very well. I have four years till retirement. I’d like to spend them in yoga pants. I won’t mind going in occassionally for specific reasons, but I’m done with regular in-office work. And my company is giving us that option. I’m not sure what’s going to happen to all the commercial real estate – a year or two from now, as leases come due for renewal, I think we’re going to see a lot of upheaval.

    But the question – would I quit if my company said come back to work, 5 days a week, in the office? I’m not sure if I want to start looking for a new job this close to retirement. I’m paid well and have good benefits. If I was younger, I definitely would start looking around.

    1. EleanorsMom*

      I really do wonder about the long term feasibility of a hybrid model. I am super confused how an office can function if people are in and out of the office at will. I suppose that if it is a set schedule, that might work. But looking around at the teams I work with, it would be complete chaos if some people where in the office sometimes but not other times and everyday was a mystery as to who would be in office and who wouldn’t be. I think the last year has shown that WFH can work when expectations are adjusted. But what happens when regular life resumes and grace runs out?

  348. Chocolate Muffin*

    I have been 100% WFH since 2012 and I wouldn’t take a job that requires being in an office full-time or even one that required a certain number of days per week. I don’t want to have to buy a new wardrobe, to have more stress in the mornings because I need to get myself ready in addition to the kids, to start wearing makeup again, to lose time to a commute, to be unable to take care of random things throughout the day, and more. The company wins with me being home too, because I’m available for many more hours than I used to be.

  349. soccercat*

    It will definitely be a factor for me going forward. I’d be happy with hybrid (3-4 days/week in-office) or with full-time on-site – but I deeply desire to never be full-time WFH again. I’m just not productive in that environment, and I hate being in one place all day. Also, I like living in cities, and have absolutely no desire to pay for the extra space (and utilities/equipment) I would need for long-term WFH.

  350. Suzanne Brown*

    I like having some ability to work from home. I also like to have an office to go to because there are some things that just need to be done on high end office equipment like copying and scanning large documents and having a regular scheduled courier pickup. Not driving in is definitely nicer especially if there’s bad weather or traffic conditions. In summary I enjoy having flexibility to determine which option works best for my workload.

  351. Nora*

    I’m ambivalent about WFH. I don’t necessarily feel that the benefits outweigh the malaise, lack of work/life balance, etc. I work in a semi-call center environment and haaaaaaaate being tethered to my computer/phone. At work I have many more excuses to get up and move around. Here, it’s like, oh crud, better make up a reason to walk the dog again or I won’t move for another six hours and the phone won’t stop ringing the whole time.

    My office is opening slowly, with everyone going in once a week (in small teams), next month. To tell the truth I’m looking forward to having time away from my upstairs neighbors and their demon child who never, ever stops making noise no matter how many times we ask them to stop.

  352. Em*

    I’m 100% remote. I have been since 2019, and I don’t plan to return to an office ever. I work best in quiet spaces, and I’ve really come to love working from home. Taking a mid-morning break to throw a ball for my dog for 10 minutes, or being able to eat garlic and onion loaded salads are some highlights of my day!

    I’m at the point where I honestly couldn’t imagine relocating for a job. All my work is online, speaking with clients all over the world via video calls, communicating via email, etc. Why would I need to move myself and my family to another city or state simply to sit at a desk in a new location to do these things?

    And I’m excited to see how this affects people and their opportunities long term. With remote work, people will no longer need to choose between their job in one city, and their partner’s job in another.

    But, not all work can be done remotely, not everyone thrives in solitude, and having enough space for a quiet, dedicated home office is a luxury. I would love to see even more co-working locations, with the cost paid by the employer, to help tackle some of these issues.

  353. Nora*

    I hate teleworking with every fiber of my being, and I am very bad at it. If my department requires people to telework more than one day a week, or if I end up being the only person who goes into the office on a regular basis, I will look for a new job.

  354. Hybrid or Bust*

    My company has said they are going full remote and been very vocal about but they have also said they aren’t closing all the offices so we may be able to come in occasionally. I am waiting to see what happens but I plan on leaving if they stay full remote. We were WFH 1-2 days a week before and I will really do better in a hybrid environment. Even if it is just in the office once a week. I am high performer so I think it is taking longer for people to notice but I would say I am only doing about 70% of what I could be doing with some face to face contact. For some of the harder, more tedious, complicated tasks, I could get them done more quickly with in person collaboration or with that energy of the building buzzing to keep me along. When I am at home I just watch reruns and avoid the task instead.

  355. Sans Serif*

    That’s exactly what my company will be doing. 3 days or more in the office – you get a permanent desk. Any less, you sign up online for a desk for the days you come in. They are having all of us go in over the summer and clean out our desks. Then they are going to totally redesign the layout to accommodate permanent offices / day by day offices. I went in yesterday (for the first time since March 2020). I threw away nine years of junk that I realized I hadn’t missed at all since last March. It was very weird, I felt like I was retiring.

  356. Kyrielle*

    My current job, no. But it will inform future job searches. I actually prefer working in an office, but only if the commute is not long, so what I look for will depend on where the company is located. That said, I’m happy where I am, so hopefully I won’t end up looking for a long time if ever.

  357. WFH4ever*

    I have been work-from-home (out of state) since 2009 and I’ve lost all in-personing skills. The commute, the wardrobe requirements, the herding away from the daylight from windows and into claustrophobic cubicles/shared desks, the smell of burnt coffee, having to grab a keycard to go to a public bathroom and making eye contact and smiling at everyone as I walk in that direction even though it’s aggressively polite but to not feels rude… bleah. On my once/annual visits to headquarters, I’ve become super-aware that after all this time at home, it’s just so exhausting to me. Unless a new job opportunity is a major step up in career advancement or personal satisfaction, I really don’t think I can ever go back to office life.

  358. New Senior Mgr*

    I prefer working from home. I have a social life outside of work. If we were required to return to the office, I’d take other aspects into consideration (like culture, do I like my coworkers, do I like job duties, other perks, etc.) and ask to work a hybrid, at minimum. But because I work so exceptionally well, if not better, from home, I’m sure the WFH bug would have set in and I’d be keeping my eye open for similar remote positions whether inside or outside the company.

  359. Boop*

    Under normal circumstances I’m not sure I would quit if we are suddenly required to be 100% in person again with no option for remote work, but I am currently considering a rage-quit (along with most of my department), so that could be the straw that breaks my back!

    1. RussianInTexas*

      Do you work for my company? Although WFH is not a factor here, just all other issues.

      1. Boop*

        It seems to be an issue in many places! We’re struggling with our normal workload (increased for loss of staff and trying to figure out how everything we used to do in person could be done remotely), increased COVID-related workload and projects/initiatives, plus new initiatives and a major change in scheduling. That’s on top of the fact that we’ve all had difficult years on the personal front, with several employees losing family members and other upsetting events, and new bosses. That’s just a quick overview!

  360. Heather*

    Absolutely. I’ve been struggling with in office work my whole life. Flickery neon lights and unmuffled warehouse space full of high heels and sales calls while I’m supposed to be productive are my idea of hell and I am very experienced at that hell. I. Am. Done. I’m definitely not neurotypical but I mask well and I’m so tired of extroverts insisting things that make me cry are FUN but mandatory fun!

    I also spent 5 years changing careers to a technical one so I would be given more leeway to be an eccentric even before the pandemic. And my mom worked from home my entire life. This isn’t a new idea but I’m glad it’s gaining traction now!

    My new job only requires one day in the office a week, once it’s safe to do so, and I will quit if that goes up. I can manage one day, especially if I stack all my meetings on that day and don’t have to do any proper thinking work while I’m in the office. But my while job is quiet thinking work and I cannot do that in a deskshare in a shared space. Unless I get my own damn office, I can’t imagine taking on the emotional toll of an office again. I used to be full of dread every morning and now I’m at a solid, meh. Which, for capitalism, is a wild success!

  361. Peter*

    Yes, I would (and plan to leave.) Our company is requiring that we return to the office 3 days a week. Does not seem worth the hassle, and there are plenty of companies hiring remote positions.

    I have final interviews at two companies next week. If neither of those pan out, I will just quit instead of returning to the office and figure it out from there.

  362. Napster*

    I’ve worked primarily from home for 15 years, as an employee and as an independent consultant. It’s long been a must-have for me, and I will sacrifice financial compensation (to a point) for the intangible benefits of WFH.

  363. Sans Serif*

    Another thing I’ve seen happening is people moving out of high-expense areas once they realize they will be permanently remote. I know someone in their first job out of college (low pay) yet they had to live near a higher expense city where their company was located. Now that their company has decided to stay remote, they moved three hours away to a small town. Less expense, nicer place. I know not everyone will want to do that, but at least more people will have that option.

  364. Benefits consultant*

    It’s not really about working at the office or working at home dilemma.

    For me, it’s about autonomy and space to do the best work while being the best version of myself. Sometimes that means I need to be in the office and sometimes it means I need to be at home and sometimes it means I need to be working remote from Hawaii. It’s not about how and where I work, it’s about the results I deliver for my organization. Some goals require in office presence, so I’ll be in the office for as long as needed to achieve my goal. Other times, I need the space and time to focus on my home office with a cat in my lap.

    If my employer started to micromanage where and how I work, that would absolutely be a dealbreaker for me and I would look for another job. I expect to have the freedom to use my best judgement.

  365. Oreo*

    Honestly, I would love employers to embrace flexibility. I think because more companies are moving to a more remote work environment, I think other competing companies may eventually just not have a choice because even before the pandemic, people wanted more flexibility from their jobs and are hopping over to those remote or hybrid companies if they can. I personally would like a hybrid schedule so I can go to my classes and doctor’s appointments which are closer to my home than my work and not have to waste so much travel time going back and forth. There’s just so many pros to remote work and allowing your employees some flexibility. I’d like to see the focus on that versus ‘one size fits all’ mentality.

    1. Hybrid or Bust*

      This! I feel like the in-office wasn’t great for everyone and neither is the WFH. Why not give people both options. Either way, all or nothing is going to leave a lot of people unhappy.

  366. WantonSeedStitch*

    My workplace is taking a very flexible approach to remote vs. on-site work, and I’m glad. They also recognize that we really have no clue what things are going to end up looking like when we all are ABLE to go back to the office again, so we will likely do an iterative process of adjustment as we find out what works. I love my job and my workplace, and it would take a lot for me to quit. A LOT. I would first try whatever was being required of me, but if it made me miserable and I was unable to find a way to negotiate changes, I would have to start looking for something that would allow me an arrangement that WOULD work. But I don’t see that as being something that’s likely to happen, fortunately!

  367. Mim*

    If I need to be fired or resign so that I can do what’s best and safest for my child when it comes to childcare, so be it. It will really suck in a lot of different ways, but I feel lucky that I am able to consider it an option, vs. having to risk my kid’s future so we can pay for housing and food. (tl;dr mental and emotional health concerns that were definitely exacerbated by the past year+, but without the legal protections/accommodations we might have with official diagnoses because even in normal times it can take a ridiculously long time to access diagnostic assessments for children.)

    I think I will be okay, though there is a chance I will be in the frustrating place of spending “political capital” at work on asking for special treatment with WFH extensions. Unfortunately, my employer’s communications about changes to WFH options have been hazy at best, so I don’t know what to expect or when to expect it.

    I have vaguely poked around at what else might be out there for remote work, but unfortunately I just don’t have the skillset for most stuff. And I like my employer, even though I find myself bracing for the worst case scenario. If something happens with my current job, I am likely to become another datapoint in the group of mostly women whose careers and financial futures have been obliterated because of familial obligations during a pandemic. At least I’d be in good company?

  368. Elle Woods*

    I work in communications & marketing and have begun actively looking for jobs in the past few weeks. A company’s WFH policy has played a role in my decision to apply (or not) to a job. I want the flexibility to WFH when wanted or needed. Fully remote jobs don’t scare me off but jobs that require me to be on site full-time permanently? No thanks.

  369. RussianInTexas*

    No. I’ve never worked WFH until last year, and while I like it, it’s not a deal breaker to me, of course distance and traffic depending.
    I am looking for a new job in general, but WFH is just one of the factors, and not a biggest one by far.

  370. Lynn*

    I have worked from home, with travel to client sites as needed, since 2015 (I think). Prior to that, I worked at client offices 100% of the time. I have never worked in my company’s home office for more than a week at a time. So my case is different than many who are asking themselves that question now. If they pulled back work from home and tried to make me come work in the office, I would have no choice but to have them lay me off/fire me (my husband’s is a teacher and his job isn’t portable). That won’t happen, most likely. My company is working to sell our building and move into a smaller space to accommodate a few people working in the office on occasion rather than full in person work, even for the folks located near the home office. I might still get laid off in the next year or so (I’ve been saying that for several years, so my prognostication may be off), but that is a result of being involved in a declining industry rather than WFH vs in person work policies.

    DH and I are within 5 years of our planned (early) retirement anyway, so this would just mean starting to pay for my health insurance earlier than planned. I might try to look for something to cover that, but am in a position to be picky and would only take a job if WFH was possible.

  371. Anime Lesbian*

    Obviously going forward, any job that was easily able to be WFH during the pandemic should allow the option for all of its employees, especially for immunocompromised and disabled people, but also for everyone! For some people there are plenty of benefits and it’s only fair.

    Because of my very specific situation, I am anxious to get back to the office. If I haven’t spent this whole pandemic working from my bedroom because I share a small living space with my mother, I might feel very differently, but right now I am clawing at the walls to get back outside, with coworkers, and be in a space where I don’t sleep and my mother can knock my door at any time, but we still haven’t been given a timeline for return.

    I like my job very much but to be honest, if they said my position would be WFH going forward I would immediately start looking elsewhere, especially because I have recently asked for a raise and new title with the hope that I can move out to my own place with the additional money. If they didn’t give me that and said I wasn’t going back to the office then I’ll find someplace else to take my work.

  372. Casey*

    I work in an industry (engineering) that requires lots of in-person work, but my specific job (analyst) can be done entirely from home. I’ve heard some companies in our field plan to bring back the majority of staff, but set up some sort of hybrid situation where analysts are hot-desking or remote. Luckily that’s not the plan for my current job, because I would absolutely quit over that. 1) working from home is awful for my mental health, I live in a studio and already struggle to leave work behind when I get home. 2) Lots of people might disagree here, but I found remote work to be significantly less productive. Without casual in-person chats, issues took 10x as long to resolve, and miscommunications happened because tone is so much harder to interpret in writing. The lowered oversight also seemed to create room for low performers to fly under the radar, so the ball got dropped on several projects until the high performers picked it up.

  373. June*

    I would like to but there are other things that make my job very pleasant that I’m not sure I would get somewhere else. So it would be a dilemma but I’m going to say no.

  374. MissBaudelaire*

    I would quit my current job if I was required to go back person, yes. But I had a forty five minute commute each way, and that was on a good day. In the winter it was nothing for it to take me two hours to get home. My husband found work and if it was taking that long for me to get home, there’d be no one to pick up my child from care, not without pulling a lot of intense strings. I can’t give up that much time anymore just driving back and forth to work.

    But I don’t think WFH is my make it or break it for another job. I do still see a lot of listings for jobs requiring butts in seats that can easily (and happily) be done at home. A lot of employers in my area are digging in their heels about the idea that they don’t know if we’re working if they can’t see us.

    I don’t mind working in person. I think it does a lot for my own mental health. That doesn’t mean I want the pendulum to swing the other way again and suddenly all my time is eaten up by work and commute.

  375. Pumpkin215*

    Not only would I quit over this, I did. My previous employer was very anti work from home. They abhorred I as it goes against their archaic way of thinking and policy of “this is the way we have always done things”. A company afraid of change with the attitude of “go work somewhere else” does not fare well after a global pandemic because that is what a lot of people are doing.

    It was a well-known joke of how old-fashioned the organization is. It took them 40 years to get rid of ties from the formal dress code. During my exit interview, I pointed out that they have two types of people working there: the “been here 20+ years group” and the “been here 2+ years group and looking to get out”. Once all their old heads die or retire, they are going to have a real problem recruiting and retaining employees if they refuse to accept change.

    The number one complaint I heard is the lack of flexibility and a WFH policy, and that was pre-pandemic. When things started to get bad in 2020, all my friends worked for a company that recognized what was happening. Their employers sent out communication, which was based on whatever information they had at the time. My former employer didn’t even acknowledge there was a pandemic until a few days before the state shutdown. This many not be so embarrassing if they weren’t a hospital provider. Begrudgingly, they had no choice but to acknowledge it and “allow” people to WFH.

    Enter mass confusion. On a Friday a company wide email went out stating we had to come into the office either Saturday or Sunday for a “check out process” so that everyone was set up to work from home. This was for hundreds of people and all of them had to be shuffled into a mass auditorium over a period of two days. If they had a WFH policy in the first place, or had taken any preemptive measures, that wouldn’t have been necessary.

    Three times during the pandemic they tried to bring us back to the office. Each time, multiple people contracted COVID and they had to shut down again. They were desperate to have everyone back to their cells and it was obvious.

    I made the switch and found a new employer with a flexible WFH policy. I no longer have anxiety about my employer trying to bring us all back. The new place had WFH before the pandemic and they have only expanded it since. When I gave my notice, half a dozen coworkers asked me if my new job was hiring. I anticipate more people leaving that place and I do not blame them one bit.

    Prior to me being hired, the new company sent out a survey asking their employees what their preference was. They opened the lines of communication and responded to the mass majority that said they wanted to be home. That is how it should work. Companies that continue to ignore their employees on such a large scale will eventually find that they have no employees to ignore.

  376. JokeyJules*

    as soon as my last job told us we had to go back to the office i started looking. the commute and distraction is one thing, but mainly because my job required video call appts for the majority of the day, along with most of my colleagues. in a cubicle farm. I voiced my concern about the noise coming through on my audio (it came through strong) for my clients, but also just the general disruption of 15 people holding video calls at the same time all day.
    all of the perimeter exec offices (half of them unassigned to anyone) were not to be used at all for any reason.
    i was told it was more important and professional to be in the office with the noise, than in my home office with a white background wall (or even company logo wall)

  377. raven_smiles*

    I’ve been in various traveling roles for the past 10 years. Early into the job the mindset was “come into the office if you’re not at a customer, but if you had a late night flight home we understand that you won’t be joining us the next day.” That mindset was specific to my department, though, and a similar department with slightly different team structure was expected to be in the office 8 – 5, no exceptions. In my current role (sales) pre-pandemic, I traveled every week and would go to the office periodically, although most of the people I worked with live in completely separate states. During the pandemic I switched to 100% WFH and would find it hard to go back to semi-office, semi-WFH.

    Our offices are slowly opening and those that are vaccinated and wish to come back can do so. Eventually they will want all in-house staff back, and it will be interesting to see how the staff required to be back in the office take it.

    If I start job hunting, I will ask questions about WFH policy. I think being in the office at a new job can help get in face time, but really the need for face time is dictated by the organization. Some make it very easy for people to WFH full time and still be integrated with the team; others not so much.

  378. Another Disgruntled Employee*

    I’m already polishing my resume and job searching. We’ve been WFH since March 2019, and while our director has consistently been pleased with how we’ve maintained our productivity, the corporate office is being wishy-washy about what’s going to happen but starting to make vague remarks like “when we’re all back in the office later this summer”.

    So yes, I like WFH, and will leave. I mean, how can they not get it? I converted the den into a really nice home office (all at my own expense) – painted/decorated how I want it, got a really nice adjustable standing desk, have a large window with a gorgeous view. Meanwhile, the new floor plan has me in a call-center style slot (not even a cubicle at the least), in a huge open floor plan. Why on earth would I want to go in office for that when I have a great setup at home?

    Not to mention, they’re being totally vague and wishy-washy about safety concerns. The corporate office has gone back 100% with no masks, which leads me to think they’ll have no requirements for our location either. They’re acting like the pandemic is over when it’s not.

    So yep, I’ll be outta there if these things don’t work out.

  379. Heather*

    Yes, I would totally leave my job if they suddenly required us to work entirely from the office.

    As is, they are entirely supportive of us working remotely and open to all of us moving out of city/state (we live in a high cost city that it is hard to buy a house or even condo property). They are also actively hiring people in other areas of the US, who ever is a best fit regardless of location. We’re working on benefits now so health care is better reflective of a remote work force.

    I am honestly ONLY staying with my job due to them embracing remote work. My job does not pay well, but I do enjoy my work and get to work independently without any micromanagement. So, that works for me even if I still pick up a second job to make all the ends meet. But, the big thing: I’ve found after a year and half working from home, I work better this way AND I just don’t know how to function productively in an office any more. I’m constantly dragged into other projects, the “admin” of being in the office.

    We recently had part of our team in the office for visiting clients. We order lunch, and it becomes who is going to meet the driver, set out the food, gather plates, etc. I normally end up doing it with another “helpful” woman coworker, the few times we have been in the office, and we made the purposeful choice not to do that this last time as we both have high level, detailed jobs. Why am I setting out plates?? If we want someone to handle those things, we need to think about expanding so we have an operations admin to handle that and pay them right. I sat out, didn’t “handle” things like I usually do and my CEO came by and asked why wasn’t I doing this?? I looked up from what I was working on, very confused and asked “why would I?”. He was very startled, then went and did it himself. The next day, he called me and apologized, said that really made him think why he was assuming I would do these things just because I was very responsible and I gave him a lot of positive things to think about. I appreciated that!

    But that’s a HUGE part of my push to be WFH. I just do my job and help out coworkers on projects that I should be helping on, not the female coded work that is “expected” of me. As a woman that DID used to be an admin, it is a big deal for me to say NO and steer firmly into my lane of work and career, which I was not allowed to do before the pandemic.

    It really is a massive change for the work force, but not just about work from home.

  380. Remote and loving it*

    Both my husband and I got new jobs over the past year that are fully remote, and we couldn’t be happier with that development. Our former employer (we used to work for the same company) has been remote since March 2020 but is talking about transitioning back the office, though likely in a hybrid capacity as some of the office facilities have been downsized. I think in the future it would take exactly the right job (i.e., dream job, dream salary, etc.) for me to go back to a traditional in-office role, and I would still hesitate. The benefits of WFH, at least for me, outweigh so many other factors. I get to be with my dog all day, have windows with natural light near my desk, can take walks outside, cook my own meals, etc., etc. I am looking forward to meeting my colleagues in person at some point, and I’m fine with occasional visits to an office for meetings and such, but at least for the type of work I do, there’s little benefit to being there on a daily basis.

  381. Wry*

    I love my job enough that I wouldn’t consider leaving even if they go back to the pre-pandemic default of being expected to be in the office unless you have an occasional, specific reason to WFH. (I think this is unlikely, based on the noises they’ve made so far, but we don’t have a clear decision yet.) But what I’m hoping for is some kind of hybrid model. I do miss certain things about being in the office—seeing my coworkers, having a dedicated workspace that isn’t my dining room table—but I’ve enjoyed WFH as well. I’m also one of the many people who got a dog during the pandemic, and even though we made that decision under the assumption that I’d be going back to the office full-time, and we’d be able to make it work with some combination of dog walkers, doggie day care, and my partner’s comparatively flexible schedule as a student, the longer this goes on, the more attached I’ve gotten to the idea of having the flexibility to work at home and stay with the pup at least some days of the week, or go into the office for half the day, or whatever. I definitely wouldn’t leave my current job over this, but it’s something I’d weigh in the future next time I’m looking for a new job.

  382. whistle*

    I left my long-term position in April to start a business, and one major factor for me was the shift to remote work. Every position I was applying to was remote only, and I hate the idea working from home as an employee. During the pandemic, my employer allowed me to use an office in an empty building they had since I did not want to work from home, which I was very grateful for. Unfortunately this company is also highly dysfunctional in numerous ways, so I was pretty steadily job hunting while I was there even though I had the ideal workstation.

    WFH feels like such a boundary violation to me. I don’t have a lot of space, and I don’t want any of my private space being co-opted by my employer. As long as I have a reasonable commute, I want to leave my house each day and use my employers’ resources if I am expected to be “on the clock” for them 40 hours a week. I also want that clear separation between work and home.

    So, now I’m working from home, which is what I wanted to avoid, but it’s totally different as a business owner. Everything life and work gets entangled anyway when you’re self-employed. I am primarily doing sales right now, which gets me out of the house. Once I have more revenue coming in, I will likely rent a coworking space.

  383. NW Mossy*

    Right now, no, but I can see a scenario where I would if the company fails to live up to its promises.

    My org has announced that in the future, your options depend on your role. Roles can be designated as fully in-office, hybrid (some on-site presence required to do the job), or fully remote (the vast majority). You have the option to work more in-office than your role designation if you prefer. They anticipate that we’ll be dominantly hybrid/full-remote.

    In light of this, the company has said that they’re committed to ensuring that your work location doesn’t impact your career development. However, pulling that off is going to be SO HARD. “Out of sight, out of mind” is a cliché for a reason, and companies will have to put forth a lot of conscious effort to overcome the natural tendency to favor those you see face-to-face for plum projects, promotions, and such. If they don’t do that and put accountability on leaders to make it happen, the downsides can be severe.

    Many people (myself included) favor WFH for reasons that tie to protected class (like family status or disability), so undermanaging a more remote workforce is likely to reinforce existing inequities. Discounting those who WFH also shrinks the size of the candidate pool for internal hiring and makes it harder to retain staff when they can jump to competitors willing and able to support remote work more effectively. That all sounds horrible, but it’s easy to miss that this is happening when there’s always a more urgent/important fire to put out. I know my organization is one with a tendency to miss the forest for the trees, so I worry about this being a forest we miss.

    1. Sigh*

      This:
      “Many people (myself included) favor WFH for reasons that tie to protected class (like family status or disability)”
      I don’t miss listening to coworker’s thoughts/biases towards people like me (gay man) or their opinions on my relationship type (same-sex marriage). It’s been wonderful just working at home, not being distracted by overhearing hateful and ignorant BS. Ultimately it would be great to work somewhere where that isn’t a concern, but sadly in my line of work in the year 2021, many of my colleagues are not as evolved as others. And yes, that might hinder my career advancement, but at my middle-aged point in life, I’m happy with the salary I’m making now, and have no need to climb the ladder further. But it is sad though, to think that means members of marginalized communities who are more driven than me will continue to be passed over for career advancement opportunities…

  384. Machiamellie*

    I just find it so interesting. As a disabled employee, when I’ve done job searches, I’ve always asked up-front if remote work was possible as a reasonable accommodation. Many many companies told me no, including biggies like the book of faces.

    Companies say they’re always willing to hire the disabled, but the disabled have had to go to the companies historically. As if any disabled person wants to up and move away from their support system and home in order to find work.

    Now companies are acting like remote is the Next Big Thing and hopefully that will translate to disabled candidates finding it easier to find remote positions.

    I think as management and c-suite people become younger than the 60 or so, we’ll see remote being more acceptable. My company embraces remote work and we have younger management. When I worked for a company owned by people in their 60’s, it was all “they’d be stealing from me by wasting time if they worked remote.” I think it’s an age/generational mindset. Of course there’s folks in younger and older demographics that feel the opposite as with anything.

  385. Lord Puddleglum*

    My situation is a bit different, as about fifty percent of my work has to be done on location and there’s no getting around it. But pre-pandemic I used to split the other 25% as WFH, and 25% going in for various meetings. Now all of that is done over zoom, and its so incredibly nice that I can just have a fifteen meeting minute that really needs to happen, but everyone doesn’t have to drive in for an hour for it. I can actually take on more work because if I have two meetings for different companies in the same day, I can just do them back to back and not have to spend three hours driving around to different offices and back. I’m not going to career change over it, but logistically its so much simpler to pop in for a zoom meeting. I’m truly curious to see if we go back to butts in seats, everyone sits around a giant table with catering and spends 20 minutes chit chatting as the stragglers show up meetings, or we keep it to zoom which is a little less fun and friendly but so much more time efficient.

  386. Nessun*

    My employer has handled the pandemic very well – we started WFH in March of 2020 and I haven’t been back since. We have opened the office in certain cases where needed, but there was never a requirement to go in for most roles, and those who did have to go in had conversations around their role prior to being told to do so. I much prefer WFH to being in the office, and my team is spread across the country so I don’t have the considerations of in-person face time the way others do. For me, WFH has been an excellent choice – my team has been highly productive and we’re poised for a great year in 2021 following a good year in 2020. If I were forced to return to the office, I would do so, because management has been transparent about what they’re doing and what they’re considering, which I appreciate immensely; however it’s not likely an issue because their considerations have been inclusive of what will work for everyone, so there’s a great chance that we’ll have a hybrid work model that includes many options on where to meet, how to interact, and ultimately where to work from, in the future.

  387. May Flowers*

    This question hits home for both me and my husband. A few years ago, we moved out of a large, urban city to a smaller town 1 hour away, so that he could commute by mass transit for work. Then my husband was laid off and decided to take a local job (he’s an IT project manager). The local job was half-and-half in-person and remote (3 days WFH/2 days in office). It was a large paycut from what he was earning at the job in the urban city, but he took the job to get the WFH benefit.

    A few months ago, when everyone started doing WFH, he started looking for a new job. A month ago he found a new job that is fully remote. Its headquarters are based in the urban city, so his salary matches what he had been making, but now he gets to work fully remote (no 2-hour daily roundtrip). With the increase in companies allowing WFH, he was able to find a job that didn’t have the tradeoff of reduced salary in exchange for WFH, something that was rare before COVID. He would no longer be willing to commute daily to the urban city. He’s social and does miss the interaction of in-person sometimes, but that is significantly outweighed by the life we are able to live with the 2 extra hours he has in his schedule each day. He would no longer even interview for a role unless it was at least 80% remote.

    As for me, I have worked full-time remote jobs since long before it was fashionable. I’ve worked remotely for almost 15 years, so the mass transition to WFH for the nation didn’t really impact me. However, my FT gig began to become intolerably stressful for me during COVID, between having to furlough nearly everyone on my team (yet keep the same deadlines) and other disruptions to our work both as a result of COVID and as a result of issues with senior management infighting. Their non-response to BLM pushed me over the edge and I resigned last fall. Note: Everyone in the industry definitely SHOULD have had a response to BLM! I took a few months off to recover from the emotional stress and have landed with doing freelance work rather than returning to a full-time role. All freelance gigs I accept are solely WFH. We are fortunate that my husband’s new salary allows for this pivot in my own career. So, now we are a double WFH family and wouldn’t have it any other way.

  388. Bazinga*

    I would consider leaving my current job if I were required to go into work. I used to have one WFH day a week, with the option for more as work allowed.
    I’ve been home since March 2020 and I love it. I manage a handful of workers who are also WFH.
    I will have to go in some but much less than pre Covid.
    I like my job but I love WFH. Thankfully my boss appreciates my work and is fine with me being home.

  389. AJ*

    All other things being equal, I’d prefer to be working from home–but I would never leave a job I truly enjoy simply because I’m being called back to the office. The job itself and the work that I’m doing are more important to me than where I’m doing the work. Several years ago while at my last job, the company switched from full time in the office to WFH three days per week–but I HATED what I was doing in that job, and while it was nice to get a little extra sleep, not deal with a commute, etc, being able to spend 24 hours of my week at home instead of at the office didn’t make me any less miserable slogging through those 24 hours of work. When I took my current position (in 2017, pre-Covid), it was back to the office full time, but I adjusted within a few weeks, and, more important, I’m now much happier with what I’m doing. If it were a question of deciding between one mediocre job or another, the ability to work from home could tip the scales, but on balance I’m happier doing work I actually like, regardless of location.

  390. Another Remote Worker*

    I already did! My office brought everyone back in person in August 2020 (!) while cases were still skyrocketing. Multiple people got COVID. Our jobs could be done 100% remote and we’d already showed increased productivity during wfh, but apparently none of that mattered. I had other reasons to leave too (shocking that an office that acted so cavalierly about our health and safety would have other dysfunctions too!), but in my job search I only considered permanently remote positions. I’m well settled now in a great, 100% remote position and couldn’t be happier!

  391. saffie_girl*

    I was fully remote for about a year, then we had to come back to the office 2-3 days a week for 2021, with the long term decision still up in the air. Of course there is a lot of speculation on that the long term plan is. If the decision is made to go back to the office full time next year, without a clear business purpose behind it, I will definitely start looking to see what else is out there. I have been at my org a while, but had planned on staying a couple more years as the role has a lot of growth & stretch potential and I really like my boss. Ultimately, some WFH time is important enough to me to pursue leaving my job where prior to WFH I was not considering it.

  392. Pink Geek*

    I have been incredibly lucky with my current job. New hires are given two options: 1) WFH with $ to set up a home office and an open invitation to hotel desk in any of the global offices 2) office based with the option to work from anywhere when ever. Because the entire company operates this way, even if you are in an office chances are low you are working with a team member. All meetings are video calls and no one cares where you call in from.

    I was office based until the pandemic. I got social contact and met people from around the company. I liked having the separation between work and home. My walking commute forced me to exercise every day and I often bought groceries on the way home. I would WFH about 2 mornings a week and from other cities about 6 weeks out of the year. It was basically perfect for me. I really enjoyed the option to WFH at my own discretion and working from anywhere allowed me to spend time with family and friends in way I could not have using vacation time alone.

    Pandemic budget cuts closed the local office. My partner has always been WFH and we did not have the space for two home offices.

    Faced with find a new job or move, we chose to move and now pay substantially more in rent. So, I guess the answer is: I would not quit over going fully remote!

    If/when I job hunt again I will prioritize jobs with the amazing set up I had when I was hired. I know I could not go back to a 9-5 office job. I will probably have to make compromises but my standards are much higher now.

  393. Metadata minion*

    Yes, I would leave if we had to be fully-remote permanently. It wouldn’t be a “I must apply for literally anything else” sort of situation, but I currently really like my job (except for the emergency working-from-home bit) and have no plans to leave, and this would put me into serious job hunting mode.

  394. crookedfinger*

    No, I wouldn’t quit if they didn’t let me work remotely. As much as I’ve enjoyed not commuting for the last year or so, I don’t enjoy working from home enough to quit over it. I really like my coworkers, the work is fairly engaging, the pay is decent, and I like the office location.

  395. Aerin*

    In the Before Times, my office frowned on WFH (even though our teams are mostly spread out across the country and we have many permanent remote folks). Initially you could only WFH 2 days per month. Then they upped it to 4 days, but they couldn’t be the same day on consecutive weeks (so you couldn’t make Monday your regular telecommute day or something like that). Now they’ve indicated that they’ll be more flexible but we haven’t heard specifics yet.

    I’m fine with both WFH and in the office. What I really want is to be able to decide to WFH on the fly, if I oversleep or if the weather looks crappy or if something breaks and I have to wait for the repair, without needing to have it approved. I also want to be able to work from anywhere. My current job is great about that for domestic travel, but not for international. (A couple of years ago I asked to work 4 days from Vancouver, a.k.a. North Seattle, while my spouse was there for his job. That got shot down hard.) The ability to go full digital nomad is not something that I would leave my current job for, but it’s something that will definitely be a factor if/when I consider new jobs.

  396. Voodoo Priestess*

    Yes, in fact, my geographical office was returning much earlier than other locations and I enjoyed WFH so much that I transferred to a different (out of state) office but stayed with my company. This allows me to be permanent WFH. My company so far is refusing any hybrid options and I was able to take a position that is 100% remote instead of being 100% in the office. My new office on the East coast has no problems with remote work but the Midwest office where I live required everyone back, 100% of the time, this spring.

    In the future, I would love the option of 2 days remote and 3 days in the office, flexible as needed. My company isn’t willing to do that, but that is definitely something I would ask for in a future job. The increase in my quality of life is huge. I have kids, so eliminating my commute even just a few days a week gives me back hours of my time. I’m closer to their school for appointments, school plays, and meetings. I can do telehealth appointments without worrying about privacy. It’s easier to work overtime while also not missing dinner with my family. I’m in an industry that doesn’t need in-person work everyday. We didn’t see productivity loss during the pandemic. The resistance to a hybrid schedule is a little frustrating since there doesn’t seem to be a good reason other than wanting to go “back to normal.”

    I think the companies that attract and retain the best talent in the future will also have the most flexible work arrangements.

  397. Midwest Manager*

    My employer (public higher ed) recently revamped its telecommuting policy. The message we have received from above indicates that it is our responsibility as department/unit management to convince our employees to return to the physical office. We are to demonstrate a business need for them to return – otherwise they will be allowed to continue remotely.

    My team of 12 has different views on returning, and as the person responsible for ensuring our department is available to provide the services we do – I’m at a loss. Some positions could be remote or hybrid, while others really ought to be onsite. Unfortunately, the people in those positions are almost universally requesting the exact opposite of what I believe the business need is (e.g. a building manager/maintenance liaison wants 100% remote – but the job requires they are on site to address concerns as they arise; a complete behind the scenes payroll processor wants 100% onsite and their job can be done fully remote; a financial admin wants 100% remote and could do it, but they live somewhere that has poor internet connectivity so I must require they come to the office).

    The lack of guidance on how to navigate this from above is enough to make me lose sleep and consider changing jobs.

  398. Bookworm*

    Yes and no: It would have been the last straw for me if I hadn’t already quit. It wasn’t just the WFH policy, which management had always opposed, even years before I started. Overall the org ended up being shown for what they are during the pandemic. The pandemic and other events weren’t a help, but I came to realize that I had strong middle management to advocate for me and they peeled off from the org every few months.

    Talking to management myself about various issues (including the turnover) was an utterly futile exercise and it was sad to see that in retrospect, they were always like this but my immediate supervisors made it work and stuck themselves between the higher ups and the rank and file.

    How management is handling the office return (they chose to ignore the multiple expressions of concern over the work/life balance, concerns about the variants, etc for telling us they wanted us back for collaboration and team building) is really a symptom of how they operate. If this had been the only red flag I might have been willing to stick it out but I had been at the end of my rope with them for awhile and it would have sealed the deal if I hadn’t already given notice. This is very much a case of bad management + need to control that some have pointed to as a reason for the office return.

    I’m in a new position now and am trying to adjust/settle and wonder if I leapt into the wrong thing but I still don’t regret leaving. If I had no offer I might have stuck it out until at least the actual return to the office. Will be curious to see if we start seeing a mass resignation when say schools start opening again.

  399. Regina Phalange*

    My office is forcing us to come back in person in some capacity in the fall. A number of my colleagues have left our (very high cost city) during Covid and therefore will be pushed out in the next few months. A couple of other folks are choosing to leave because of the forced return. It’s really frustrating because we’re losing a lot of really stellar people over this, and there’s no real reason for a lot of them to be in-person. Some of them even said they’d travel back to town as needed, but we’ve been told that we need to be available to come in in-person 5 days a week even though that may not be the schedule we eventually land on. (We’re piloting some different scenarios this fall and may ultimately only be in the office a couple days a week.) Even those of us who are staying on are disappointed in how it’s been handled and I think a lot of us are brushing up our resumes.

  400. LizardQueen*

    I don’t know that I’d quit, or not take, a job if it insisted on 100% in-office work but I’d consider it a very strong plus if a job had a flexible work from home set up.

    I’m very fortunate to work in a place at the moment that has one. Book a hot desk or meeting room on the days you want to be in the office, and just work from home the rest of the time. Plus generous support for wfh such as additional monitors, keyboards, mouse and even standing desks (or the little stands that raise your laptop to standing height).

    There’re a lot of other great things about the culture here, but the trust and focus on productivity not clocking-in is a real bonus for me.

  401. citygirl*

    Yes, I would 100% quit my job if they required me back full-time. They’ve assured us we can work from home through the end of 2021 and that alone has kept me on board when other factors made me consider quitting. WFH has improved my quality of life immeasurably, I am healthier, I am happier, I have better work life balance. My industry is very WFH friendly and there are massive numbers of people quitting over this right now. Smaller startups know they’ll have huge leverage over big corporations when attracting talent they wouldn’t normally be able to get – just offer 100% remote and people will leave their big name brand company right away.

    Honestly a lot of this discussion is depressing because it just highlights how little labor organization there is in this country. The unique circumstance is that everyone is experiencing this at the same time which means their actions are coordinated even unintentionally. Why, look at that – individuals can’t get results unless they leave, but collective groups of employees have real negotiating power! Go figure! I know people who want to maintain the ability to WFH feel like there is a window of opportunity that is closing and they’re right – it’s the window of mass action. If white collar workers were unionized we may have had the flexibility to have the job conditions we wanted a lot earlier without needing a freaking pandemic to get them.

  402. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

    Alison: please feel free to quote me, from any post. I’d consider it a compliment that I’ve said something useful enough to quote.

    I am a programmer.

    If my employer discontinued remote work, I would have no choice but to resign and find another remote position. I live more than a day’s drive from the office and am in no position to relocate. (Lack of) remote work is likewise a deal-breaker when I discuss a new position.

    Even if everything fell into place so I could pull off relocation to be close enough to an office to work onsite, I believe I’m thoroughly broken as an in-office worker after a decade remote. I can pull it off for a week or so if I start completely current on my responsibilities, but I struggle to concentrate or stay in the “the zone” onsite the way I can when working remotely (part isolation, part customization/comfort of my remote workstation, part freedom to talk to myself through challenges, and part je ne sais quois). I’d also struggle to go back to fixed start, end, break and lunch times/windows. I’d have a hard time leaving honesty at home every morning to praise the Emperor’s new clothes and clothier. I do better with work-life integration than (arbitrary) work-life balance, which is out of vogue and seems to go smoother when I’m out of sight and out of mind.

    I think I’d have to change careers entirely to go back to an on-site job. It’s something I’d considered in the past.

  403. redguscat*

    I work part time across three education roles at present. One (teaching for a distance learning institution) has always been online, one can only effectively be done in person (school teaching), continued with at least some F2F throughout lockdown and was among the first to go back – and the third is a job that I started during lockdown (working for an national education organisation). The latter would normally have been desk based in a major city 2+ hours away and I wouldn’t have applied… we will be permanently remote with occasional in-person meetings, conferences etc and I’m delighted. Not only that, but my employers realise that there is a much wider talent pool for roles that can be done remotely and that need specialist skills. We are moving to a more remote location (nearer to my school job) and I’m delighted with my mixture.

  404. twocents*

    During the pandemic, I changed jobs. In my former role, I supported a team of about 60 people who were all at the same site I worked in. If I was still in that job, it would make sense for me to go back into the office, though I’d probably try to negotiate a gradual increase to reduce stress on my dog.

    In my current role, I support teams all over the country. Only one person under my manager works/lives in the same city I am, but I honestly have no idea what they do all day, as our work has zero overlap. In this situation, I absolutely would look for another job if my boss required that I spend an hour+ each day commuting, just to log onto a computer and host virtual meetings all day anyway. There’s no business case that I’m better in an office when literally none of the other people in my giant org at this site would have any bearing on my day-to-day job, and I would really resent the disrespect for my time in requiring these commutes for no good reason. I’ve also made the argument to my manager that, because I don’t go into an office, I’m more flexible. If I have to go in, I can’t agree to a last-minute 5:00 p.m. meeting; that would require my dog be kenneled for 14+ hours, and no way. But working from home? I can still walk my dog, grab some dinner, read up on notes, and be able to join that late call.

    TL;DR: Yes, I wouldn’t quit on the spot if I was forced to come into the office, but I would immediately begin looking for a new job.

    1. twocents*

      Just thought to add:

      I’ve had this discussion with friends from the old team I supported. There was a time a couple weeks ago where I woke up and had 20+ pages of work dumped on me, due to present in two hours. If this happened while I was in the office, there is no way I would have pulled that work off. People would have popped over to say good morning, have a chit-chat, grabbing coffee takes longer (my house is not a mansion :) ), etc. But working from home? Got it done in an hour and a half, and had time to help someone else with another problem.

      I’m way more efficient and productive working from home.

  405. DrSalty*

    I might consider it. I want a hybrid model and if I couldn’t have that at my current job (in either direction) I’d start looking at other options. For some context, my skills are pretty in-demand so I don’t anticipate a job search being really onerous.

  406. KatAlyst*

    Flip-side: I do better in-person, and changed jobs to get _that_ back, but without the public-transit commute. (Environmental-impact-caveat, I have an electric car & charge only once weekly.) Personally I do better with work-hours, response-expectations, eating at meal-time, and boundaries in general–so that put me in the camp actively looking FOR in-office-work. I did wait to get the official offer before putting in notice, but WOULD have been willing to quit (the mass-transit+3hrs-daily-commute was my actual dealbreaker).

    So I did change jobs during the pandemic and the timing was strongly influenced/accelerated by the prior place having zero long-term-WFH expectations, but realistically it was a job I was leaving anyway–my former coworkers, though, have gone from a core group of 60% expecting to retire from that job, to at least 33% actively asking me for references/recruiters.
    (By the end of 5 years, the commute was only one of multiple issues requiring my job-change. But the _forcing_ people back, after 12 RTW plans in 15 months, with commute/safety issues disregarded, will be the dealbreaker for a significant loss of established talent.)

  407. Come On Eileen*

    I am SO LONELY working from home right now. Before COVID we were allowed to work from home one day a week and I loved it! I got a load of laundry done, maybe baked brownies, and got all my regular work done. But now, over a year into COVID, I am done with working out of my bedroom. I live alone and it’s just too much alone time. I do love the flexibility that this time has afforded me, so I think my ideal schedule would be a few days a week in the office and a few days at home. My company hasn’t really told us much about what to expect — I do know we won’t be expected to be in the office five days a week, I just hope we won’t be expected to be home five days a week. Somewhere in between the two would be my sweet spot.

    1. Come On Eileen*

      PS: I wrote this comment from a coffee shop, where I’ve started working from a morning or two a week. It’s great to be around the energy of other people again and in some sort of regular fashion.

      1. I've Escaped Cubicle Land*

        When WFH started after the shut down a few coworkers made comments about the isolation (or even just boredom) they felt. I made a point to let them know that they could always IM chat or video chat with me when they needed contact. One girl took forever to try the new IM system out but now she will converse pretty frequently with it and I noticed more coworkers adding Not Work Related stuff to their emails and replys. Things like asking about your weekend or telling me about their garden/kids, pets. So its like that line in Jurassic Park. “Life finds a way”

  408. SeattleSue*

    I would not quit my job over this. I was not working from home when I was hired so it was never part of the deal. We have been told we will likely have a hybrid schedule going forward, but if they made us come back to the office FT, it would be okay. My job is great and has excellent pay and benefits. It is worth keeping.

  409. Blackbird*

    In my current role, working from home isn’t nearly as effective, because what we do is very dynamic and not timing-predictable. We are also heavily client-facing. In a role I anticipate taking soon, with the same company, I would welcome a higher percentage of WFH, as there’s less collaboration/client interaction required, but there would be a few caveats: 1) I would probably have to move because I don’t currently have a great WFH space, because my spouse has the home office for his job with a high WFH component 2) I would greatly prefer to be provided a workstation rather than be required to provide my own, though it is financially feasible to provide my own.

    In terms of hunting for a new job, flexibility to WFH would be a priority. My spouse, who is in academia and is likely to go on sabbatical in the next few years, has asked if I can work remotely in order for our son and I to accompany him abroad, should he choose to do so- the unfortunate truth is that not everyone can WFH out of state due to labor laws, and apparently not necessarily internationally due to IT security issues, so if I were to look for a new job, I would prioritize the flexibility to work VERY remotely for 4-6 months in order for him to be able to take any sabbatical opportunities afforded to him

  410. Thin Mints didn't make me thin*

    I have been working from home since 2010. I’m productive and happy, and my life and home are set up to prioritize doing great work. HELL NO to going to any office anywhere, even if it was next door and George Clooney was serving ice cream.

  411. Anonymous K12*

    It’s not quite that simple for me, but WFH definitely factors into it. The pandemic has made me decide to quit teaching and I’m now actively looking for jobs outside the classroom. I teach public K-12 in Washington state, where we received a decent raise state-wide a few years ago and even that is not enough to retain me after dealing with life as a teacher this year. The WFH is a tiny kernel in the middle, but the anti-teacher vitriol, lack of safety support, and many other factors are why I’m leaving.

    But that said, remote work options are absolutely one of the top 2 or 3 things I’m looking for when evaluating the new jobs I’m applying for. So for me, I’d say it’s not so much that a lack of it will make me quit – but rather that it IS enough to lure me somewhere else.

  412. Anhaga*

    I worked entirely remote for about 10 years and I hated it. That was in large part due to an employer that gave *no* support–no equipment, no internet service reimbursement–and that for some bizarre reason required remote employees who had no office to work in even if they wanted to come in to the main company site to undergo all the same types of in-person office safety training that the onsite employees had to go through. So while I wouldn’t necessarily cut a potential job simply because it was all remote, I would withdraw my application if it turned out that the company did not give any remote worker support such as equipment or internet service reimbursement.

    As it is now, my company has a flexible policy for experienced employees, requires new employees to work in the office, and generally encourages everyone to be here in the office. We have a remarkably supportive and non-toxic group of employees and a really supportive boss, though, so it’s honestly *nice* to be around everyone. Our work is definitely better when we can cut an unproductive Slack exchange short with, “Can I drop by your office so you can show me what you mean?”

  413. Brett*

    I have seen a lot of people comment about higher productivity from people working from home. I have certainly seen this for my team, but something to watch out for is that much of that higher productivity definitely occurring because people are simply working more hours.

    Meetings go from the top of the hour to the top of the hour with no downtime in between. Lunch breaks and afternoon breaks are gone, with nearly all employees now eating lunch at their computers. While before people used to ask permission before scheduling outside normal work hours, now it is a common thing. (I just checked my own calendar, and I have 8 different hour long meetings scheduled before work hours this week). And end of the day meetings routinely go 30-60 minutes over time, whereas before they ended on time so people could get home. But now everyone is already home, so why end on time!

    And to add to all of this, since everyone has remote collaboration systems now, it is far easier to call in someone during off hours. Whereas working overnight used to be uncommon for us and either scheduled well in advanced or for major emergencies, now working as late as midnight to 2 am (after a 9-5 day) has become a 4-8 times a month thing. Put all these together, and employees are dramatically more productive, but I think at a significant cost to themselves beyond offset of no more daily commute.

  414. YetAnotherNerd42*

    I’m not quite sure when we’re going back, but it looks like we’re going to be at a 3-2 “hybrid” model where we’re in the office 2 days a week. I asked for 100% WFH but didn’t get it. :( That’s not enough to make me go job-searching, but if there were a bunch of other petty things going on at work that might lead me to look for another job anyway, this would be one more thing in the “minus” column.

    I would really like to move farther away from the large, expensive, stressful Northeastern city I have to live near due to the need to have proximity to work.

    1. llamaswithouthats*

      This is a thing I’ve been thinking about. I’m not a city person, and while it’s not something I’m looking to act on short term, I wonder if there will ever be an opportunity to work a job in my career and move away from the city.

  415. Blomma*

    Pre-pandemic I was WFH one day a week due to my chronic pain issues. (Especially the pain in my right ankle/foot when I drive. I broke my ankle in our work parking lot, the recovery took forever, and it’s permanently messed up. Fun times.) Most of us are all still WFH until a date tbd. I am hoping to increase my days at home to 2-3 days a week because it’s been much easier to manage my chronic pain and I am more productive without office interruptions. I would likely be pushed to job search if WFH went away completely because it really is better for my health. I will be annoyed if I can’t increase my days at home but probably wouldn’t job search over it it because my employer is very flexible in other ways.

    1. Blomma*

      (If I’m quoted at all, please leave the broken ankle out of it. It’s ok to say that wfh is much better for managing my chronic pain though.)

  416. llamaswithouthats*

    I’m spoiled because both jobs I’ve worked/work always had a hybrid model which I like. They’re common in my industry. So yeah, if it got revoked I would leave.

  417. Claire*

    I have loved working from home, but my company is going back full time very soon. Mostly I have enjoyed the lack of commute (up to 2 hours each way, on 3 different trains) and the amount of money I have been able to save. However, since we are pretty much all now expected to be full time in the office, I had to think about what is important to me. I decided to keep the job, but am moving to live much closer to the office. This is partly from a COVID fear – I am not yet fully vaccinated and one of the trains I take leads from London directly to an airport – but also I have decided that the time factor is very important to. This does mean I will not be saving as much money, and will be living in much smaller rooms, but as someone near the start of my career, I feel this is a sacrifice I can make. I came pretty close to leaving, though.

  418. new gov employee*

    A few years ago, I did leave a job partly because they were running out of space and forcing people to work from home 2 or 3 days a week with no notice. I was making a lot less money and living in a big house with 4 roommates in a room too small for a desk. I told my boss I was not able to work from home, and he helped delay it as long as possible.

    I’m very torn about if I would do it again now that I live alone and make more money. I started my new job in a new role (transitioning from government contractor to government). Remote working has been great, but I think I would prefer an office at least a few times a week.

    On one hand, the transition was a little harder without being able to observe other people and ask informal questions randomly. But some things (phone calls, chat software, group projects) have made forming bonds and eventually getting advice easier than I expected. There’s also the flexibility of being home that is nice.

    On the other hand, I’m about 10 years out of college and have had time to learn/observe other colleagues and professional norms (although I’m still learning). I imagine this would be so much more difficult for newer graduates or other people switching industries/environments. That being said, if all the more senior employees decide to work from home, this learning would no longer be a benefit of coming to the office.

    We are being called back in the fall. I’m not sure if I will work a hybrid schedule or not. Previously, I would work from home if no one else was coming in. Most Fridays, the office was 5 of us and the boss, so it was actually the BEST time to have extended team conversations, informal talks with the boss, and other great face-time interactions.

    I think our office will have “core days” like our core hours, where everyone is expected to be in the office but otherwise you can work around them as much as you like as long as your work gets done.

  419. Kitty*

    I would love to just quit because of the lack of work from home options but I really want to know what are people doing for income when they don’t work. I know a lot of people are finding it better but I am wondering what options are available. I’m a paralegal and would love a work from home job with flexibility.

  420. SufjanFan*

    I was with my job for 3 years. It’s located in Medium City which is about two hours from where I grew up in Big City. During the pandemic, I realized how important it was to me to be closer to family. So, while everyone was working from home anyway, I “temporarily” moved back to Big City. At the beginning of this year and as conversations of return to office started, I asked my boss if I could permanently do work from home, offering to come to the office as needed (like for big meetings or photo shoots). They said no. (FWIW: My job is 99.9% doable from anywhere on Earth.)

    Well, I just started my new job two weeks ago at a company that’s letting me do half & half and the office is only 30 minutes away from my house. I don’t work in an industry where it’s difficult to find work elsewhere or jump from job to job, so, for me, I was able to prioritize my happiness and my wants over my employer’s.

  421. Ann O'Nemity*

    I would quit if my job stayed fully remote. Working from home gradually makes me feel isolated, lonely, and unhappy. This has been true during the pandemic and the same thing happened to me in a previous WFH job. I prefer to be in the office with coworkers, preferably a collaborative environment that encourages a lot of team work. I’ve always been a natural extrovert and in-person social interaction energizes me. I haven’t been able to get the same feeling from zoom meetings or telephone calls.

    Note, I have a family at home and am active socially. So I’m not expecting work to be my only source of social interaction.

  422. Chris*

    I was laid off late last year and during my job hunt, being able to start remote and avoid moving during the peak of the COVID pandemic was important enough that I turned down several job offers that would have required me to move immediately. Eventually, I got an offer that was a great fit for me and almost the first thing out of their mouth was “We’re entirely remote, that won’t change until summer at the earliest, and there’s no need for you to move until it does.” I snapped up the opportunity very quickly. Since then I’ve made a couple of trips to the office (about a 3 hour drive) but other than that I’m still remote. Right now it looks like I won’t be making the move until September.

    Going forward, I’m looking for a hybrid approach. I’d like to be able to go into the office and see my coworkers some of the time, but I’m not real enthusiastic about being there 9-5 every day. I’m planning to start by splitting my time between working at the office and working at home in a way that works for me and seeing if I get any pushback.

  423. Little Window Seat*

    “Are you reconsidering what you want from a job? Would you quit over the way your employer handles work-from-home? Would you make it a key factor in future job searches?”

    Short answer: Yes to all.

    I’m extremely grateful for the way my company has been handling everything since all this began. Our RTO plan is an optional 3/2, where you can WFH 3 days a week, 2 in office and they have a set day during the week to schedule in person meetings/collaboration type things. That way you shouldn’t have to do so much schedule wrangling when you need an in person meeting (hopefully).

    I’m so grateful, WFH has always been what I wanted and now that I’ve had it I made sure I was perfectly clear with my manager, I would not be giving it up. I would quit–not immediately, but I would be job searching and go. WFH will be a key feature in any job searching I may do in the future and a 3/2 work week would be the most I’d ever be willing to go back into an office setting again. The only thing that could make my current job even better is if they would allow 100% remote, live where you want. Being a larger company, we have offices in all the states so I wouldn’t think any HR/Payroll things be an issue, but I don’t know.

    What I’m seeing in my division is that those of us who want more remote work tend to be the more task oriented people and the ones beating down the doors to go back into the office are the relationship oriented people. Again, that’s just what I’m seeing in my particular division.

  424. Roja*

    I have essentially a hybrid model as a part-time teacher anyway; I lesson plan from home and teach in person. I think that’s the best of both worlds, since I get quiet to do my planning but all the school resources to actually teach. My school shut down for two months and I taught from home. I hated every minute of it and seriously considered finding another job for a year because I wasn’t willing to teach from home anymore. Luckily I didn’t have to make that choice, because I love teaching.

    A lot of jobs can do WFH just fine, but teaching dance is not one of those things. I missed the ability to read the class, to connect with students, and just to actually do my job–I can’t have students flying across the floor doing large jumps when they’re in tiny spaces with uneven floors. I can’t correct them when I can hardly see them on camera. It’s hard to break things down and help when they can’t see me in 3D and when I can’t physically come alongside them and help. They hated it and I hated it.

    Now, I do appreciate the ability to have students join via zoom when they are, say, out of town or not feeling well–I don’t mind teaching hybrid when I and most students in the classroom. But fully online? No, never again.

  425. A*

    I work for a local government with no regular work from home option. The pandemic was terrible because we were left on our own to get home computers (I had to buy one as my husband was also WFH on our laptop) and there was never seamless connectivity to files or systems. I often felt like one of my hands was cut off, because I couldn’t easily access files or had to do large analysis projects with one small laptop screen.

    I ended up biking to and from my empty office for most of the pandemic. I could work as I normally did without the frustration of WFH. I would hate to have to work from home. I don’t have the space or interest to recreate my work set up at home.

  426. Allonge*

    Most likely, yes I would quit (not without having found something new though).

    I like having some flexibility to WFH but the last year and half was quite enough of having to do it. I know I am lucky that I could, we managed to have a good system setup for WFH. I even moved to a new place in 2020 (plans were made several years before) so I could set up my apartment with WFH in mind – this was as good as it got for the pandemic.

    But it’s just… getting too much. If I am in meetings all day I want to actually see people live and have the adjacent small chats that come with a normal meeting. I want to be able to have coffee with someone (I don’t even drink coffee that much, just the principle) instead of scheduling a Zoom meeting. We are a highly collaborative team and workplace; I do need to hear what’s going on – this has been like pulling teeth lately. And I really really want to have a better separation between work and not-work.

    So, yes, if this is the job and I would have to do it from home all the time, then I would try and go back to my original profession (librarian) in a place where in-office is the norm (odds are, it is).

  427. Ann O'Nemity*

    I would quit if my job stayed fully remote. Working from home gradually makes me feel isolated, lonely, and unhappy. This has been true during the pandemic and the same thing happened to me in a previous WFH job. I prefer to be in the office with coworkers in a collaborative environment. I’ve always been a natural extrovert and in-person social interaction energizes me. I haven’t been able to get the same feeling from zoom meetings or telephone calls.

  428. Kathryn*

    I absolutely would quit my job over my company’s work from home policies. In fact, I did in November 2020 and I started a new position with a different company in December. My new position is fully remote and, while the company is now requiring all employees to return to the office, I requested continued permission to work remotely as a disability accommodation and my request was granted immediately. If that changes in the future, I’ll start searching for a new position again.

    I initially didn’t like working from home and sometimes I still don’t, but my condition is so much easier to manage at home, I think it would be best for me to continue working from home indefinitely.

    1. AnonMo0se*

      Much the same, except instead of ‘I would leave my job” it’s more, I would be forced to quit my job.

      I had a dramatic change in disability during the pandemic that left me housebound, so work from home is the only option left to me if I want to remain employed.

  429. Concerned Academic Librarian*

    Quit, no. But it’s tanking my morale and has lowered my trust in my university and my department. As an academic librarian, I am fortunate because there’s a hard-core philosophy here that faculty should be able to work from wherever and because there’s a union. Our university wants everyone back 5 days a week starting in August and it sounds like there is going to be quite a lot of push back.

    Every single argument that has been levied against remote work seems like so much garbage to me. My productivity is higher than it ever has been. I am available throughout the work week via multiple modes of communication. I have multiple places where I need to report what I am doing. We have made this work for over 15 months. We have proved this can be done.

    My university is planning on moving the team I am on into substandard office space that is so grim it looks like multiple murders were committed there. We may not even have offices. They’re talking about open plan again. What about that would induce me to want to come back into a physical location full time?

    We’ve got micromanagers who are worried that if people are not physically present they won’t be working, but it’s not like we didn’t have people goofing off who were physically in offices before the pandemic. We also have people who hate working remotely who are convinced that because they hate it, everyone hates it. I feel that they should be able to offer us options that allow flexibility for everyone. If people’s jobs allow for it, and they want to work in the office, remotely, or in combination, that should be allowed.

    Frankly, I’ve been disgusted with how my university has handled most of this pandemic. This dictate just infuriates me.

  430. Carrotstick 21*

    I did already. I had a two hour commute each way pre-pandemic, in order to sit at an open-plan desk trying to hide confidential info in the midst of a constantly coughing coworker and another with a sick mother whose phone rang every 2-3 minutes. When we were forced to go remote, I found that my concentration and effectiveness increased. I was able to be with my sick cat every day until she died. I can go see my husband during breaks, and frankly, I like him more than I liked my coworkers. I am not forced to make small talk or go hide when I make a dr. appt to avoid nosy coworkers. The pandemic was horrible, but working from home was not. I found a new job with a company that understands that remote work can increase diversity and allows for finding the best talent regardless of geographic location. I make better money, work entirely remote, and don’t have the expenses of commuting and eating in the city any more. It’s bliss.

  431. EH*

    I’ve been thinking about this a lot because my partner is jobhunting – we both work remotely from home, him full time, me part time until the pandemic when I went full time. At this point, I would definitely consider leaving if my job suddenly decided we all had to be in the office full time.

    I hope to stay at my current gig for the foreseeable future, but if/when I’m jobhunting again, the work from home policy would definitely be a big deal to me. I don’t think I’d accept a gig that was full time in the office again. I do better work when I work from home and feel better in general.

    Working from home has a trio of major benefits for me:
    * No commute – we only have one car, and public transit is really slow in my city, so commute logistics are a pain.
    * Peace and quiet – almost every company in my field is open-office-plan these days and I find it really difficult to focus in that environment. At home it’s just my partner and me, and we’re both pretty quiet.
    * Much less exposure to disease – my coworkers are great, but many of them have multiple kids and catch whatever bug is going around the schools frequently. I have chronic illness and even before COVID I was careful around the office on the days I went in. Nowadays… just, no.

  432. ToddlerMom*

    I did. It wasn’t the only factor, but I left my job last month when they announced their return to office policy that was completely not workable for parents in a two career household. They assigned what dates you would be in office and they changed weekly, starting in August. We live in a major urban area where commutes are typically an hour or more, and my husband’s office was implementing similar rules. When parents protested, they said “you’re supposed to be available during work hours”. A really fast turnaround from “my kid’s daycare is only open 8-4 due to state regulations, is it OK to sign off at 4 and finish up later?” “Sure, we’re flexible for whatever parents need in these difficult times!” Just as predicted, employer tolerance ran out long before life returned to normal for parents. My current employer is allowing the flexibility I need and getting more work hours from me because of it. We still have had to hire a sitter to cover 4-6 pm while I onboard and increased our childcare costs 50%, but hopefully it’s temporary.

  433. Elmyra Duff*

    I’m job hunting right now and I’ve been VERY up front with companies I’ve interviewed with that I am absolutely not interested in ever going into an office again. Some are fine with it. Some are like, okay, we’re done here. And that’s fine.

  434. Flor*

    I wouldn’t quit on the spot or anything, but I would seriously think about looking for a new job if my employer made me go back to the office full-time.

    I’m autistic, and I find being in the office, with people click-clacking on their keyboards, the heating turned up far too high (it’s been known to be over 27C in the middle of winter!), the hum of conversation, and the constant tensing of my shoulders as people walk behind me to make coffee all tremendously distracting and draining. I’m on edge for 8 hours a day in the office, I’m physically uncomfortable in the space, and I honestly didn’t realise how exhausting I found it until it stopped. I can focus so much better at home because I’m not being interrupted by the noises that tug my mind away from my work, or hyperfocussing on the sticky feeling of sweat on my skin and the heat in my cheeks because the office is too warm.

    Not having to go into the office and act like A Normal Person (TM) also helps me with being able to focus. For instance, I’ve always struggled in meetings. I have difficulty paying attention when people are relaying information to me aurally, especially if I don’t have good context for what’s being discussed and how it relates to my work (like if my manager asks me to be on a call with a client to answer questions about teapot development, but most of the call is about teapot design). At home, I’ve taken to sewing while on calls with my video off, and it’s so much easier to pay attention when I have something in my hands and I end up absorbing and understand much more of the conversation if I’m basting a couple of pieces of fabric together than if I’m just sitting at my computer or in a meeting room and trying to take notes. And when my anxiety and depression are acting up and I just can’t cope with being A Normal Person, I can put on a pair of holey sweatpants and braid my greasy hair back from my face and not waste precious energy on being presentable.

    I would be okay with a 50/50 or 60/40 split, but if I was told that I’d have to go back to being in the office full-time (aside from occasional WFH days with a cold or waiting on a repairperson, which is what we had pre-COVID) I’d definitely take a look at what remote jobs are out there.

  435. Oat Mylk*

    We worked most of 2020 from home, but were called back into the office for a few months until cases surged in our area, and were sent home again. We were officially called back into the office full-time with no exceptions for people without doctors notes in January 2021. I absolutely loved working remotely full time, and have been searching for new remote only jobs part-time for the past 3 months. My job can easily be done working from home or anywhere for that matter. Looking for a new remote job right now has been pretty… discouraging. I’ve applied to over 50 jobs, had a few interviews, even made it to the last round once, but no offer. Trying to keep my chin up.

    There is a world-renowned local company hiring for my role and I don’t even want to apply for it because I know from friends who work there that they don’t have a remote policy set up for when they bring folks back into the office. In the past I would’ve jumped at that opportunity swiftly. Having remote work and schedule flexibility is imperative for me at this point. I want to have an awesome stable job, with the ability to move after my partner graduates school if we choose to, and the option to travel around for fun throughout the year while still working. Is that so much to ask for?! :)

  436. Kali*

    My work is almost impossible to do at home long-term. We temporarily split into two teams with a week-on/week-off for being at home – those of us who were in the office that week had to do what we couldn’t. There were some really stressful moments, both when I was at home and unable to fix office issues and when I was in the office with only half my team (or less, thanks to people getting quarantined) available to me.

    Overall, I really did enjoy working at home though. I’m an introvert, and I didn’t miss in-person interactions with coworkers (mostly because I work and live in an extremely conservative industry and state, while I am not, so conversations in the office during COVID and the US election were causing a whole separate mess of anxiety/angry feelings).

    I’ve always wanted to do pursue my creative aspirations. The pandemic sapped me of energy, but now that my area is largely vaccinated, I’m really going to try to put those plans into motion. If I succeed (a big ‘if’!), I will be working from home, and this whole experience has taught me that I will be much happier!

  437. The Real Persephone Mongoose*

    My company came up with a hybrid work solution for when we return to the office. If my request to WFH 80% of the week isn’t approved, I will be looking for a new job that is primarily WFH. My daily commute is hellish (3.5-4 hours per day) and I’d been considering leaving before COVID happened and pushed us all to WFH. If I hadn’t been WFH the last six months, I wouldn’t have been able to do my job. I’m leveraging the fact that most of the people I work with are not in the same location as I am so even before COVID, I basically spent 20 hours per week commuting so that I could sit alone in my office with the door closed (office is on a high traffic, loud hallway so very disruptive) and I’d be having meeting after meeting with coworkers in other buildings and other countries. My mental health has greatly improved over the last 18 months. I think my manager is a better manager when we are remote. I find myself able to talk to him on the phone much better than I can in person. I can’t imagine going back to the office more than the 1 day. It just makes no sense.

  438. Liz*

    I would 100% quit (and was prepared to) if I was forced to come back to the office. Luckily, my boss’s threats to do that proved empty and now we are allowed to WFH permanently. I have a high-risk condition that may not respond to the COVID vaccine and I’m not taking chances, especially not when my position and industry are 100% WFH-friendly.

  439. Irish girl*

    My company told us last summer reopening would be 3 phases starting in July 2020 for essential workers and anyone who really needed to be in the office due to not having the ability to WFH or who could no longer stand it. We could request to go in an they would set you up to make sure you were socially distanced at your desk. In April i started going in 2 days a week. Last week the company started phase 2 which asked upper management to start coming in a few days a week to show people that we are open. They are allowing people to have a work set up at home and in the office which make going in more desirable for people and anyone can start coming in. They are currently doing focus groups and trying to gauge peoples willingness to come in and what our work environment will look like. Hopefully we hear what phase 3 will be soon and what they are expecting. They did say they were going to review all jobs to make a company position on what can be fully remote, what can be hybrid and what has to be in person. My job can be fully remote as i have 2 wo-workers doing my job in other states and were hired as fully remote people who will never be in a office unless they fly across the country. Half my team is out of state. I personally dont want to be home every day but i have a 10 min commute. I had the flexibility prior to WFH when needed and the company was open to 100% remote work. I think more people will be hybrid going forward at least the ones that live within the area.

    Now my husband’s company will likely lose some higher up as they let them all WFH during Covid and some of them moved across the country. Now they are saying they all have to go back to the main office as they dont have satellite offices. There might be some quitting if no agreement can happen. He is a ship captain so no remote work for him. Cant drive a ship from home.

  440. Chronic Lurker*

    I worked remotely at one of my first jobs out of college for three years, and it was great….for the first two years. And then one day I woke up and I just hated it. It was like a switch flipped. Suddenly things I had liked like getting to hang out in my apartment all day or start work just after rolling out of bed felt miserable, and things that had irritated me, like the sometimes inevitable ambiguity of communicating with your manager via GChat, were awful. I felt like I couldn’t focus and couldn’t feel engage with the work at all. I started looking for a new job after six months when I realized this change wasn’t a phase.

    I’ve been working remotely during the pandemic, and it’s been fine, I guess? Mostly because I took steps from the beginning to mitigate some of the issues I had last time. But I still miss my office and even my commute! It was only 30 minutes and it was a nice chance to read on public transit and mentally transition to and away from work.

    I also have a lot of colleagues who love working from home and want to do it all the time — and I think most of my colleagues fall somewhere in between.

    My take is that there is no single approach that will appeal to all employees, or even that will appeal for everyone indefinitely. People’s opinions of work from home will change as their circumstances change — or even with no change in circumstance at all. Successful employers in the long term will, in my opinion, offer people a lot of options for how/when to work remotely and will also give people the option to change their personal arrangement over time.

    I know that is sometimes tricky for employers, but I think over time, it will become just another normal part of management as people get more used to it and better at working out the kinks.

  441. Sleeping Late Every Day*

    Just reading the comments makes me so glad I’m retired. The amount of privilege that comes through in a lot of the comments is just staggering. It looks like the divide between front-line service workers and the rest of the world will get much wider as those who can, will work from home, while the others will still have commuting costs, commuting hours, inflexible hours, inflexible childcare, and on and on. And as the WFH group becomes invisible, the minimum-wage in-person workers won’t know about those kinds of jobs because they won’t see them and have their curiosity (and aspirations) piqued.

    1. Anoni*

      That is…not true. There is a ton of advocacy for front line workers and the divide between them and other industries is not due to the people working in them, but purely due to a capitalist nation that puts productivity and money over human lives. If you want to advocate for front line service workers, your focus should be on the people at the top who have created and maintain this divide; not on the people who have to function within it.

      1. Anoni*

        Also…this whole “won’t know about these kinds of jobs” is a really weird take. People who work on the front line in service industries read, they watch television, they see the news. They have friends and siblings who work other kinds of jobs. They have kids who know kids whose parents work different kinds of jobs. I’m not sure you thought this through.

    2. Nom*

      I’m unclear on the point of this comment. Yes service workers have to work in person. Why does that mean people who are able to continue to work from home can’t? Why is that evidence of privilege?

    3. Jennifer Strange*

      This is an odd comment. So because some jobs are not able to be done from home, no job should be done from home? How will forcing others to not work from home help the in-person workforce with commuting costs/hours, inflexible hours, and childcare? I think the better idea is to advocate for those things on behalf of that workforce (which I do when I vote for candidates who I think will try to improve those working conditions).

      Also, how will WFH jobs become invisible? Job openings will still be posted on jobs site where other workers can search for them. You seem to have a solution in search of a problem.

    4. doreen*

      I think I understand what you are talking about- but I think you are wrong. Most jobs that can be done from home would be just as “invisible” to minimum wage workers if those jobs were done from the office. The claims reps at my insurance company are equally visible/invisible regardless of whether they are at home or in an office when they are answering my phone call or email.

      1. Sleeping Late Every Day*

        When I was one of those front-line service workers years ago, I interacted with a wide variety of people every day. Since it was a place where I saw those same people daily, some got to be fairly friendly. One of the things they’d talk about was their work. I even got invitations to apply for jobs at some of those places. If people work from home, those levels of interactions will not happen.

        1. Jennifer Strange*

          Why? Unless the front-line workers specifically serve an organization, the employees will still see them, just maybe no on the same basis. WFH employees still need to go to the grocery store, grab a bite from a restaurant, buy new clothes.

  442. Linda Evangelista*

    I’m full remote now. I was 3 days remote/ 2 days in office prior to the pandemic. Thankfully my employer isn’t making me come to the office ever if I don’t want to, but if I was forced, I’d quit. WFH is a godsend for me.

  443. Happy Camper*

    I’ve been one of the extremely lucky workers. My company was looking at workplace flexibility even before the world came to a screeching halt last year. This past year, they stepped up what they were doing and have since some out with a range of work profiles, anywhere from full time in office to virtual worker. They’ve provided detailed guidance along the way about the schedule for going back to the office and what the expectations/requirements would be. I was assigned a WFH profile (with the exception of needing to go in occasionally for training, client meetings, or other things like that), which I am very happy about. If I ever considered leaving this employer, I’d give remote work much more weight in considering a job change than I previously would have. I don’t know that I’d go to the point of saying it’s a dealbreaker, but it’s really close.

  444. Robin Ellacott*

    I worked from the office throughout the pandemic, and preferred to do so as I have a large private office, a short walk to work, and had a smallish apartment so it would have been very isolating to be there throughout the pandemic. I’d have worked from home if needed but I’m glad it wasn’t.

    If I had been asked to STAY working from home under these conditions I might have considered leaving, as I didn’t want work encroaching in my small space and home time/mindspace.

    I moved to a larger condo this month and have two spare rooms, so if I had to work from home and make one an office now I would no longer leave over it. I still have a pretty short walk to work, so commute is no factor for me. My preference still is to go to the office, but I have pretty optimal work conditions in the office AND at home, which is a big factor.

  445. International Super Spy*

    It was incredibly frustrating to hear our CEO repeatedly say in all-employee meetings over the past year that we need to “get back to work” when none of us were furloughed. I woke up the day we were told to stay home and worked like I would have from the office. I know not everyone was able to make such a smooth transition; I’m aware that some people prefer to work in the office; and I’m aware that many people in my industry and with my company have had to continue to go to their normal locations due to the nature of their positions. But having our CEO act as if all of us who worked from home were on a year-long vacation has been demoralizing.

    My company has been very wishy-washy on whether they’ll put a WFH policy in place. The reasoning is goofy and it’s honestly pretty clear that they aren’t planning on doing it. What’s interesting, though, is I don’t think those at the top realize that bigger exodus than usual is likely going to occur right after bonus time.

    The emphasis lately has been that none of our peers have implemented a WFH policy (which isn’t even true since at least one of them allowed telecommuting for some positions BEFORE COVID). I think those who’ve been in the industry a long time are used to employees being stuck in the industry. That may be true of certain industry-specific positions, but data analysts, IT personnel, HR…we can all go just about anywhere.

    I’m not actively looking for a job at the moment, but if I decide to, telecommuting options will be a huge factor for me.

  446. Jennifer*

    Being able to work from home has greatly improved my quality of life, not to mention my finances. I wouldn’t consider working for a company that didn’t at least offer a hybrid schedule, but I’d prefer to be fully remote and only having to come in for special events. Yes, I would start job hunting if I was required to work in the office every day. I don’t have the funds to just quit on the spot, but I don’t think I’d have a very hard time finding another job.

  447. Anoni*

    Working from home was actually more stressful for me, but not for the reasons that you would think. I work for a government contractor and the large federal department they answer to required everyone who was working from home to keep track of what they were doing every half an hour. I had to have something written down for every 30 minutes of my work day. It was causing me a massive amount of stress.

    Has anyone else had this experience with a contractor administering a federal program? It was and is asinine.

    1. Robin Ellacott*

      I work for a contractor to the provincial government (Canada) and nothing like this! That is insane. Plus mine would pretty much say “email” and “meeting/discussion” for every half hour anyway, which helps nobody.

  448. Sherman*

    Yes, absolutely! I’d been saying since 2019 when I left from lovey job with the stressful commute that I believed things would start changing over the next decade and WFH would become more embraced by a younger generation; COVID just fastforwarded the timeframe I saw. I left a job I loved in 2019 for a job much closer to my house with a somewhat embraced WFH policy. It served them well, as we were in a good position to pivot everyone to WFH about a week before everything shut down. We’re beginning to bring people back to 2-3 days a week starting in Sept., but honestly, I’m loathe to go back more than twice a week. I’m a legal admin and I do now feel emboldened to ask in future interviews what exactly I’d be doing in the office that I couldn’t or wouldn’t already be doing from my home office. There needs to be specific, concrete examples of what NEEDS to be done in the office. The company I work for now actually has one legal team for all of their 15 North American based companies, so even before COVID I only physically met with 1/15th of the people I work with anyway. I’ll likely never meet most of the people at some of our companies, so why should I sit at an office cubicle just to send emails and join video conferences with people already hundreds to thousands of miles away from me? If my current company tries to push for 3 or more days in the office a week, I will absolutely look for other jobs that require only 1 or 2 days, or less.

  449. LaVonn*

    I work for a charter school network, so much of the staff at my job (teachers and anyone else that works in the school building) can’t work from home, but other staff (think tech, data, etc.) can. I’ve asked my boss several times when we will be expected to return to the office, and he keeps reassuring me that there is no plan to come back anytime soon (It’s clear that he thinks that I enjoy working from home but I don’t). Over the past few months, I’ve had casual conversations with 2 – 3 of the top people at my network and it’s now clear that THEY don’t want to go back to the office at all. If this is the case, then I will have to start looking for a new job. I just can’t get as much work done at home as I do when I’m in the office (hats off to the people who can do it). I’m also just so lonely working from home every day. The thing is, I could go back into the office now but there is no one there. I don’t see the point in commuting for 45 minutes to sit by myself in another building.

    I’d like to mention, I have a husband, an active social life, and a number of hobbies. It’s not that work is my only chance for social interaction, but so much of almost every day is spent working that I now feel isolated.

  450. Majnoona*

    I will be retiring at the end of the year. I am still working from home (I was unusual in getting permission) but after that would have to go back to the office. There were other factors but the biggest one was in the middle of the pandemic people who could work from home being pushed back to the office and, after lying, administration’s open indifference (after being caught lying) over our safety – no social distancing, relaxed masking rules, etc., all in a state with a 30% now flat vaccination rate.

  451. Maggie Moo*

    Graduating into a pandemic is no joke. I’ve been job hunting for the last two years, because my field has long lead times in hiring. I landed interviews in January and that became a job offer at the end of April. Currently my company is WFH as default, though the office is open for anyone who needs/wants to be there. The company says they will have a plan about “return to the office” by the end of summer, and I know all of the supervisors on my team are looking forward to returning. However, all of the support staff (myself included) are a little less enthused. First of all, half our team is on the East Coast, and half on the West Coast, so virtual meetings and document collaboration were already common. Second of all, about a third of the supporting members of our team were hired during the pandemic, so we have no attachment, emotional or otherwise, to the physical office. The lack of commute is great: for time, money, and wear/tear on my car reasons. The lack of options on where to have my workstation is less great (I’m in the middle of the living room and I live with my parents, who are retired) and we live far enough from the office (like, 3 hours) that going into the office regularly would necessitate renting my own place that’s closer. I don’t WANT to live with my parents for longer than I have to, but WFH from here is (probably??) a step up from WFH in the tiny little apartment I’d be able to afford. And that’s not even getting into my anxiety over covid, my hatred of “work appropriate shoes”, and my concern that I don’t know how to act in an office setting.

    All this to say, the WFH vs. “work in office” conversations that I’m seeing often feel like they’re completely missing the point, which is that individual situations (both at the office-leadership level AND at the worker level) are SO variable that there IS no one-size-fits-most answer. I don’t want to have to make a decision about which I prefer, because it feels like all my options are lose/lose, and that includes the option of “work mandates return to office and I no longer have a choice”.

    So to answer your actual question, I don’t think I have the luxury of being able to quit over whatever decision gets made, because I need a job, this one pays well, and getting a new one would take months.

  452. Nom*

    I don’t like working from home, and I plan to return to the office full time (ish) when I can. However, if my company told me they were not allowing a hybrid schedule, it would really annoy me! We have worked from home for more than a year at employee’s own expense, and functioned fine. Although it wouldn’t affect me personally, I think a lack of flexibility (when we were all willing to be flexible with the employer by doing things like upgrading our home internet at our expense) would be evidence of selfish/out-of-touch management.

  453. Hotdog not dog*

    I could go either way on this. I love WFH when I have a task that requires uninterrupted time, (assuming none of my family is home!) and I’m happy to avoid my hour plus commute. That alone adds 2 hours that I can use for myself or catching up on home or work tasks every day. However, I find that for many other things. I function better in the office. I’m less likely to work late or snack on unhealthy food in the office, and I can get some good exercise on the stairs (6th floor). In my perfect world, I’d want a 3/2 split to reach my best performance both at work and in my personal life.
    In the actual world, I work at a butts in seats company, so even though my work product is 100% virtual (I’m not client-facing, and can go weeks in the office without anyone seeing me) I’m already back in the office.
    Now, can we talk about the dress code? I REALLY don’t see why I need to dress up to sit behind a computer screen, but apparently there is a need to have the butts in the seats “dress professionally”. (I’m considering a petition, even though I’m not an intern! :) )

  454. Gingerbread*

    My office is going to start bringing people back in September, but has not communicated yet if everyone is coming back, if it will be staggered, if we will be doing rotating schedules or what. If we go back to full time working in the office (prior to the pandemic, WFH was only for bad weather, days when you had doctor’s appointments or maintenance people coming to your house, etc.) I will look for other jobs with my employer that are remote. I work for an extremely large global organization, and WFH options depend on what team/department you work in. I will actively start seeking a change if they don’t allow generous WFH flexibility upon our return to the office. I have almost a 3-hour round trip commute and some autoimmune issues – I have enjoyed not being sick at all the last 18 months and I’m 20 lbs lighter thanks to being able to use my commute time for exercise and meal prep. It has made a huge difference in the quality of my life.

  455. Nope, not today*

    I’ve been happy in my job forever, and hadn’t considered leaving for any reason in the foreseeable future. We are not going back into the office for two more months, and they are going to run a trial period of three days in office, two WFH/in office as you prefer. I was hoping for a hybrid model but honestly I wanted only one or two days a week in person. This three days….. I hadn’t thought I’d feel so strongly about it but when it was announced I felt sick to my stomach and was upset all day. My main concern is that they are doing it for a test period – I can live with three days in office if I have to. But after three months if they take it away I really don’t know what I’ll do. I feel like it would be silly to leave when my commute isnt bad and I love everything else about my job and have no other complains. But the idea of going back even three days hit me way harder than I expected, so now I don’t know what I’ll do if we convert back to full time in office.

  456. World's Most Common Initials*

    I actually did leave my last employer because of new and poorly implemented WFH policies. In combination with going to full WFH forever, they were discouraging managers from holding employees accountable for issues like failing to return calls or emails. On top of that, organization leadership wanted lowest level employees to aggressively push for permanent remote accommodations with lowest level stakeholder representatives instead of being willing to have those changes be top-down. I think the head was just afraid to actually have that conversation with their counterpart and be told no. The whole thing was a disaster.

  457. Jennifer C.*

    I would definitely find a new job if I were required to work from home. (The job market in my field & city is strong enough that I feel confident I could find another job easily.)

    The office is my work place. My home is my happy place. Having to work in my happy place has made my depression & anxiety much worse since last March, even though I like my job and my depression isn’t related to anything at work. I just really need for work life and personal life to be separate, and I really like to be able to get away from my family for a bit each day. I’m the only person in my department who goes into the office every day now that we’ve been given permission to do that.

    Luckily, I work for a government agency and the government owns our office building, so they can’t save money by cancelling a lease and closing our office space or anything like that, so I don’t think I have anything to worry about.

    1. Former Retail Manager*

      Also a govt employee, and I feel the same as you about everything….100%. Home is where I relax, hang with the cats, watch TV, read, etc. While a few days a week are nice to WFH, there are some weeks where I want to be in the office every day and I’m more productive there as well.

    2. Jennifer C.*

      Also I want to add that everyone in the office (except me) has been super productive and happy working from home, AND management has recognized that and embraced WFH without micromanagement. Our IT department is making lots of upgrades that make it easier for people to work from home securely, so there will definitely be a lot more of it in the future. I’m happy for everyone else in the office that enjoys WFH and gets to keep doing it.

  458. Panda Bear*

    In my current role, we’ve always had flexible schedules and the option to work from home two or three days a week. So, a return to that state of ‘normal’, which has slowly been occurring, is not a problem for me. If my company suddenly demanded we all start going to the office five days a week, it wouldn’t be enough on its own to make me quit, but I’d be annoyed.

    And going forward, I would prioritize the flexibility to work from home at least a couple of days per week in any new job search. But if everything else about a job was ideal, going into the office would not necessarily be a deal breaker.

  459. ampersand*

    Yes, I’m looking for other jobs now because my office is about to go back to two days in the office and three days WFH after being remote since last March (and after being told we’d be remote through at least the end of the year). We’ve been told there’s no *reason* we have to be in the office, our VP just wants us to be there. To mitigate some of the COVID-related concerns–since we share offices, it’s difficult to maintain distance from other people, masks aren’t mandated, and we’re not allowed to ask about anyone’s vaccination status–we’re having to stagger the days we work so that we’re not in the office the same day as our office mates. There’s literally no benefit to this: we’re not customer-facing, all but one person on our staff of 60 wants to stay remote, and we won’t even all be in the office on the same days in order to have meetings. Safety concerns aside, I could see a benefit if we were all required to be there on a particular day for meetings, but we’re not! Our VP just doesn’t want us to work from home and (this is the only conclusion that makes sense) doesn’t care about what the staff wants.

  460. lilsheba*

    My last job said work from home could never be done, even though the pandemic proved otherwise. I was planning on looking for another job that would let me work from home when I ended up on a 5 month leave due to being in a compromised category. While on that leave I ended up being offered a new job that is wfh permanently. So if that ever changed I would probably have to quit even though I don’t want to, since it would mean moving to another state.

  461. Pikachu*

    I like working from home, and I wouldn’t mind going back to an office full time or in a hybrid scenario. Both take a toll on my mental health in different ways, so it’s a matter of picking the lesser of two evils until I win the lottery.

    Work-related travel, however… not a chance.

  462. SukiBella*

    Pre-Covid I pushed for WFH for years, and finally got into a pilot project that allowed WFH two days a week. After a year, I tried pushing for three days a week, and was getting stonewalled for months by upper management (my boss had no problems with it). Then the whole firm went WFH last March. I LOVE it!

    I had already been talking about taking early retirement (in 2022), but have come to realize it is the commute I hate, not the work (it’s a 65-minute train ride to downtown, not including getting to and from the station at either end). I fully intended to retire on the spot if they made me come back to the office, and received verbal confirmation that I could continue WFH even after everyone goes back to the office. It took a job offer from my awesome boss, who left a few weeks ago, that moved them to put it in writing … however, tomorrow is my last day, and I start the new, fully WFH job on Monday.

      1. SukiBella*

        Thanks :). It was totally unexpected. I had my 15-year anniversary at the firm on a Saturday, and got a job offer the following Monday.

  463. Van Wilder*

    Absolutely. My office is reopening in the fall. The MOST I want to do is to go back 1-2 days a month, take meetings, take a team out to lunch… If I’m required to go in even as much as 1-2 days/week, I will definitely start looking for another job. My work lends itself very well to working remotely.

    1. Lyra*

      Yup! Found a new job that’s permanently remote because my current company was being very evasive about the return to office plan. I’m in a satellite office but the main office got about 2 weeks notice of needing to return (3 days a week for 30 days, 5 days required after that). The company refuses to share a return plan, or even an estimate on when it might happen, or whether we’d ever be allowed to wfh again. I got sick of waiting so I found a new job that allows me to be remote and even pays more.

  464. AlabamaAnonymous*

    My job pre-pandemic was all in-the-office; however we transitioned to WFH in March of last year (just like so many other places). There were some adjustments, but, overall, I really liked working from home. It was easier to take care of regular-life things, and I felt like I was more productive in many ways. I know Zoom meetings can get hold, but it is so much easier to schedule them when you don’t have to leave time for people to get from one building to another.

    We started transitioning back to the office in April with a couple in-office days each month for our department, but everyone at my organization is back to full on, in the office, all the time. I’m not quite ready to completely quit my job, but I have started looking. If I could something remote/WFH/flexible scheduling at a comparable salary, I would jump at the chance.

    I did get myself on the benefits committee at my org to try to advocate for long-term change, but upper management has made it very clear that they want everyone back in the office. I don’t hold out my hope for more flexibility unless there is a seismic leadership change.

  465. Katrine Fonsmark*

    I started my job in January 2020, so was in the office 7 weeks and have been remote (as has the rest of the office) ever since. I have essentially only ever done this job remote and it is working out perfectly. My husband and I have been staying with my mom in my hometown (4 hours away from the city where our offices are) for over a year, and I’m not sure I can ever go back. I hadn’t realized how much I missed living near my family in a place with a lower cost of living and lots of wide open spaces. If we are both allowed to be perm remote (very likely for me, less likely for him) we would sell our condo and buy a house here. We could easily go to HQ city several times a year or even once a month, but living here day-to-day has become very important to both of us. This feels like home now, and the city doesn’t. I like my job, but probably not enough to stay if they don’t offer the flexibility I’m looking for.

  466. Lizy*

    I’m perhaps in an odd situation about it… I love being able to work-from-home, and did so with some frequency as OldJob (pre-COVID). However, I allowed that job to bleed into my personal life a bit much. Part of me still wonders if I should have pushed more to be a fully remote worker. I loved a lot of things about it, and part of me definitely misses it! I had initially said “I’m resigning because I’m moving” and then tried to change it, when I should have said “I’m moving – how can we see about me becoming remote?”

    At CurrentJob, I don’t have the ability to WFH, but others do. On the one hand, I’d like to be able to WFH, but on the other, I definitely like the stronger boundaries I have between work and home. I like being able to put work away after I’m done – both mentally and physically.

    I think if I stay at this job long enough, and am eventually promoted (something I’m not at all interested in right now), I’d probably push more for WFH for myself. Would I leave over it? I think there’s too many unknowns for me to tell definitively. I’m also in a really rural area, and a job that checks all my boxes is rare. My personal situation has changed, too, so while I would have maybe not left OldJob due to different WFH policies, I definitely would have looked around. Now, it’s not as much of a deal-breaker for me. It’ll be interesting to see how my feelings about it change as I “grow up”. (I’m mid-30’s, so ya know… still got a lot of growing lol)

  467. Rainbow Brite*

    I moved from full-time work to freelancing at the start of the pandemic. While I would have preferred to start working from home in a world when “from home” included bars, coffee shops, or even the local park rather than exclusively my tiny one-bedroom flat, it suits me so much better than my old commute (an hour plus each way on public transport).

    Freelancing was only intended to be temporary while I was on extended furlough, but I’m not going back if I can help it. I’d happily consider full-time remote work, *maybe* part-time on-site for the right position. I am thinking about being available to my former job one day a week for a bit of extra cash, but only once I’m fully vaccinated* — having tried to return late last year, it felt massively unsafe and I’m not keen to try again before then.

    *Not in the U.S., (im)patiently waiting my turn according to local rollout

  468. Cass*

    Definitely. I’ve been working full-time remote since December of 2018. I’ve withdrawn from a couple of interviews because the job didn’t offer any flexibility to work remotely at least a couple of days per week. My job does not require me to be in an office and after more than two years it’s a perk I’m not willing to give up. I’ve forgone higher salary and likely less toxic work environments because of how much I value not having a commute.

  469. HS Teacher*

    I am a teacher and much prefer teaching in person. However, if I ever moved to an administrative position, I would only look at ones with a WFH option. One of the few things that was great for me last year was that I got to spend more time in my home and also be more efficient. I would teach my lessons online, and then dismiss the students to work independently, freeing up a lot of time that I would normally just spend waiting around. In that respect, it was wonderful.

  470. Former Retail Manager*

    I’m definitely in the minority in that I do not like working from home on a full-time basis. I’m not set up for it (no dedicated office) and I am sick of sitting at my dining room table, day in, day out. I’d prefer hybrid and that’s what has been allowed for at least the last decade at my employer. While I don’t think that my employer (govt) will make it permanent immediately, I do think it’s trending that way and may eventually get there in a few years for many positions, especially with the enormous cost savings. All that said, if my position were made remote permanently, I would not quit over it, but I would find and rent office space, on my own dime, to have someplace to go where I can work more productively and have that separation of work & personal.

  471. not that kind of Doctor*

    We had a couple of people quit pre-covid because management was so strongly opposed to WFH. Fortunately they were converted over the last year & will be much more flexible going forward. We do manufacturing so many people were never able to work from home; of those that did, some teams want to stay home full time, while others can’t wait to get back in the office. Mine is in favor of some hybrid model. Company policy is still a work in progress, but I expect people will generally get what they want.

    Personally I don’t know that I’d quit over one policy or another, but I suspect any company that was going to be that rigid would be a problem in other areas. The whole picture might be enough to have me looking.

  472. Cera*

    I have been remote for 4 years. All the coworkers I actually work with are in other states. My company announced that they will require some pre-covid remote employees to return to the office on a hybrid schedule. My grand boss made it clear to her manager that she would lose her entire team if she did that.

    I did hybrid for years; I am not interested. I like being remote and would immediately start looking for other work. Frankly since none of my team or managment is on site it is pointless. It is commuting in order to work remote from an office.

  473. DC Nonprofit*

    We had an incredibly productive year during Covid, so we proved that not only can we work remotely, but we are more productive doing do. Our boss is talking about going back to the office 3-4 days a week, and if he does, there are 4 of us (the 4 core employees) who have agreed that this is a dealbreaker for us. 1 would actively look for a new job, 2 of us would probably look for a new job or definitely take one if offered and it was more flexible, and 1 would take a new job if offered and it was flexible. We all agree that 2 days a week in the office is the most we can stomach, and ONLY because we know we have to compromise some, none of us think we actually need to be in the office for 2 days each week. It’s going to be a make or break moment for our organization if the current thinking by management isn’t changed.

  474. J*

    I’m not looking at the moment, but 100% to this question: “Would you make it a key factor in future job searches?”

    I have done my best work over the last 17 months, working entirely from home. And I am lucky that I have a dedicated office and no child care issues to consider, and would hope to continue in this mode indefinitely as it serves my work style, lifestyle, and the work of my position and organization. Still waiting to hear what our return to the physical office will be, but anything that requires presence for the “butts in seats” reason rubs me the wrong way and would tip me towards accepting communications from recruiters.

  475. Zulema K.*

    I’ve been working from home since March 2020, and to be honest, I’m not a fan. I feel less connected to the people I work with and the mission of the organization, as I used to be on-site around twice a week in our educational centers and in the office the other days, meeting with coworkers face to face, observing lessons and coaching educators, and getting that small-talk camaraderie you just don’t get via Zoom. It made it easier to work with people because we also knew and appreciated one another on a more personal level. I’m currently slated to continue remotely through at least the end of the year as I work in a developing country without adequate vaccine supply, so we are limiting our education centers to essential in-person staff only.

    Would I leave this job? No, not for the time being- but if it seems like we will never be in person again, then I may go looking for another opportunity where I can get the connection and energy I’m lacking from purely online work.

  476. Christine*

    I am disabled so pre covid I was working full time to pay my bills but struggled to balance health and a disability and not entitled to financial assistance. With the freedom of working from home I can balance health needs and take several breaks a day and manage my day much better and have been more productive and less burnt out (I work a 35 hour week). I have spent the past so many years since being diagnosed constantly burnt out worried i won’t be able to keep this up much longer, and have dropped my hours from 42 per week to 35. I have worked for my employer for 8 years and am happy there since I feel I am “allowed” to be disabled since I’ve proven I’m a competent worker, yet if I was required to go back to the office to work with remote homeworking not being an option I’d have to consider what I really want in a job, and its very likely I’d be looking for a new remote job. I can finally work around my disability, instead of clocking into an office 8 hours a day trying to function enough to do my job. Also I’ve barely taken any pain meds this last year. There are huge benefits to allowing disabled workers the option of homeworking.

  477. glitter writer*

    I hadn’t thought about it until the last week or two, but I absolutely would not take a job in the future that required 100% on-site work.

    My job is mostly performed online and I have been working from home at my own discretion (1-2 days a week) or full-time, depending on my position, since 2011. I have advanced far enough in my career I can afford to be somewhat picky (entry-level employees have less clout than senior-level workers, I know) but this is absolutely something I will be picky about for the rest of my working life. There is no workload reason for me to commute five days per week in my field and I don’t think I plan to ever again.

    (Happily, my current employer is planning to require employees to come in 2-3 days a week starting this fall, and embracing the potential for continued remote work by and large.)

  478. KB*

    If my office mandated 5 days a week in office, then yes I would look elsewhere. My job can be done 100% remotely and being in the office actually delays productivity for me. If it’s required to go in 1 or 2 days a week I am okay with that for now. The thing that bothers me most is not getting a reason from the company on why they need me in office.

  479. learnedthehardway*

    I left a good paying job to strike out on my own, 13+ years ago, and have worked from home since. I even moved out of the city, knowing that it would limit my options if I ever wanted to go back to an in-office role.

    While I’ve toyed with the idea of going back for stability and career growth, the reality is that I don’t think anyone could really make it worth it for me. And I’m really liking that a lot of companies have realized that working remotely is completely legitimate and doesn’t affect work performance. It’s been a long time coming. And I hope that it sticks, post COVID. For some of my clients, they’re going virtual and not going back, because their employees are more productive, happier, and they’re saving a bundle on office space.

    1. learnedthehardway*

      ETA – I’ve had a few clients ask me if I would consider joining them, and the only ones I’d seriously look at are ones that would allow at least 3 days of work-from-home per week. There’s just no reason why it has to be any more than that, in my field.

  480. Anonymousssssss*

    Yes, I’m going to quit if I’m not able to work remotely. I moved during the pandemic to be closer to family. Even though my office is discussing employees coming in only 2-3 days per week, I could not commute to the office every week. I’m going to ask if I can come in 1 week per month, but even that will be financially difficult for me, so I’ll likely quit if I can’t be full-time remote.

    If I do need to start looking for a job close to my new home, WFH flexibility will be a requirement for me. Coming in 1-2 days a week would be ideal for me.

  481. Here we go again*

    Even though I don’t work from home and I work in a field where I really can’t. I’d quit a job that required it because my home is too small for a work from home space, and I love where I live and can’t afford to buy a bigger house in my market. Especially with two dogs and rural internet connection. I currently only have a 20 minute commute and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. But working in my sleep space sucks.

  482. EngineerMom*

    Yes.

    My company has been 50% remote since August. They’re planning to return to 100% in July. There’s always been a fairly robust work-from-home policy, so switching to remote work was pretty painless for most people.

    However, we don’t have childcare for the rest of the summer – we were counting on continuing 50% remote work, with my husband and I swapping weeks (we work at the same large corporation).

    If either of our managers were to insist we be 100% on-site before school starts in the fall (unlikely – they’re reasonable people!), we’ve already decided I would quit or take a leave of absence until September, as we have one child who is still too young to be vaccinated, and both are too young to be home alone all day.

    (We’ve both been stay-at-home parents in the past, and we know it works better for our family if I’m the one at home).

  483. AnotherLibrarian*

    My University library is so short staffed that we have no backup coverage when people work from home. If the library administration allows permanent work from home, I literally don’t see how we could stay open. Despite my coworkers wanting to stay remote, all I see is how short handed and awkward it is for those of us who are trying to serve our patrons and manage the physical collections with no backup. I would leave if they don’t bring people back to the office, because it would demonstrate that they don’t recognize the negative impact work from home is having on us.

  484. MissDisplaced*

    Would you leave your job over its work-from-home policies?

    I quit my job in 2017 over a lack of WFH policy after my company moved into offices in an expensive downtown city. I tried to compromise with an offer to come in 2-3 days a week and it was flatly denied (building a culture was the lame excuse). Soon thereafter (like 1 week later) I quit.
    I would do so again.

    I think today companies who don’t continue some form of WFH will lose top talent to companies who do. Question is, are they willing to take that risk?

  485. CatPrincessDi*

    I do have a question for those that want to work from home so they can move to a lower cost of living area. Isn’t part of the pay scale at most companies, not all, structured to reflect cost of living in that area? Would you be comfortable with companies offering a decreased wage to enable you to work from home in a lower cost of living area? I have no judgement on either side of this, just curious. I had seen an article recently that the President of Morgan Stanley said if you expect a NYC wage you better live in NYC in response to this very question.

    1. MissDisplaced*

      I think that is reasonable to some extent.
      Obviously, places like NYC or San Francisco likely have higher pay scales than say, Topeka or Toledo.

      But companies also shouldn’t be allowed to cut an employee’s EXISTING salary so much it becomes a ridiculous deterrent (like a 50% reduction). Because companies WILL abuse this.

    2. HelloHello*

      As someone who has been remote for years now, and has done a few job searches looking only for 100% remote roles, I really only factor relative cost of living into my searches in what salary range I find acceptable. I used to live in a very high cost of living city and now live in a medium-high cost of living city, so the jobs I apply for do tend to be headquartered in high cost of living cities, but if I moved to a less expensive area and a job tried to offer me less than what I’ve made previously because of it I wouldn’t take the role.

      1. HelloHello*

        (And if my current job tried to cut my wage because of a move I would be out the door as soon as possible. That’s perhaps a different scenario than someone moving from in office to remote, but as someone who is currently remote, if my work is worth X amount to you now, it’s still worth X to you even if I move to a cheaper location.)

  486. However comma*

    Yes, I’m already looking due to several Covid-related issues at my company, only one of which is the requirement to come to the office at least one day a week. Our team’s day is Wednesday, which is ridiculous – having to haul stuff back and forth in the middle of the week. Monday would have been ideal – we could just get it over with and go back to less stress the remainder of the week. That alone is enough to make me leave.
    However, a bigger concern is that they claim to be all rah-rah health and employee well-being, but won’t be checking temperatures, won’t require proof of vaccination, aren’t putting up partitions between workers, etc. They’re going to have hand sanitizer available and spray a little disinfectant at night and call it done. Even wearing an N-95 all day won’t make me comfortable, because many of our people travel globally, especially to countries where the variants are surging. If they don’t care about me, I no longer care about them. I’m going to be gone.
    And the hypocrisy kills me. “We’re so concerned about climate change!” Yet they’re going to put their employees back on the road belching filth into the sky in the name of company culture and collaboration.
    Gag me with a bulldozer!

  487. Just Another Squirrel*

    As a general rule I feel like flexibility should be the way forward for all the job sectors that proved WFH was totally possible during the pandemic. Not just for immunocompromised and disabled people, obviously, but a full choice for everyone!

    Due to my specific circumstances, I am clawing at the walls to get back to the office. Maybe I’d feel differently in other living circumstances, but I have spent the whole pandemic working from my bedroom due to the small living area that I share with my mother. I want to badly to see my coworkers again, and be able to do my work in a place that I don’t share with my bed and where my mother can knock on the door at any moment. Yet my work hasn’t given the slightest details or plan as to how/when staff will return to the office.

    I like a lot of things about my job but honestly if they said my position was going to be entirely WFH from now on (as opposed to a reasonable hybrid) then I would immediately start looking for another job. I’ve also recently asked for an expanded title and a promotion in the hopes that with more money I can move into my own place, where I’d probably be happier with the WFH lifestyle. But if that doesn’t end up happening here and I’m not brought back to the office before the end of the year, I will start seeking greener pastures, and I’m not usually one to make big changes for the hell of it.

    1. Just Another Squirrel*

      Overall in general, this whole experience has taught me that sharing a small living space with a family member is a much different experience when it’s a 24/7 deal, and I’m tired of hearing how great WFH is from co-workers who are paid much higher salaries than me, Zooming in from their big home offices.

  488. DB*

    Absolutely would quit if my company went totally remote for everyone. My home is not setup for remote work (which has not been easy), it’s bad for my back/neck/hips, bad for my fitness, reduces my efficiency, leaves me feeling totally disconnected from all my coworkers and frustrated, bored, and unwilling and unable to put in the effort to get work done. With remote work, there is no company culture, because company culture is created in the non-work moments – talking in the hallways, going to find lunch with random coworkers, celebrating someone’s birthday.

    1. MissDisplaced*

      What if its WFH when/if you want?
      I don’t see a need for this to be 100% either / or going forward.

      1. DB*

        As long as they’re not prioritizing remote work and discouraging in-office work, that’s fine. It can be a bit frustrating to be the only person in the office, but being stuck at home all the time is much worse.

  489. Not always right( but this time I was)*

    I absolutely would quit my job over this issue. As a matter of fact, I have. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’d do it again in a heartbeat

  490. RD*

    I am starting to look for new jobs after my company announced our new WFH policy. My group has been in the office every other week since May 2020, and others are already on a 3/2 schedule. Some departments are fully remote. The new policy, starting mid-Sept. is “up to 20% of your time can be remote” but not on a regular schedule/only for extenuating circumstances. I’m very frustrated and I think ready to leave, though it’s basically the one Big Reason!

  492. madge*

    Absolutely, it’s a deal-breaker. I’m in academia and WFH wasn’t allowed prior to the pandemic. We went full remote and the positive changes to my physical and mental health, and my engagement in my job, were so extreme that it was shocking. We were told we could continue remotely post-pandemic as productivity for many of us had improved during WFH then in May 2021 we were given eight days’ notice to return to the office, no exceptions.

    It’s a shame; I’ve enjoyed my work and colleagues for nearly 15 years but after experiencing what it’s like to be happy, I won’t stay where we are so very obviously undervalued (pay is also an issue). Our 19-person team is down to nine people and several of us remaining, including me, are now looking.

    1. Anonforthisoneplz*

      That is heartbreaking. I am also in academia and there was some brief talk about a remote or hybrid work option, but it seemed to have quickly died. The whole focus now is building back up to 5 days a week in the office. I hate it.

      I said upthread that I imagine the same thing will happen for my institution. It is exactly what you said: we found out what makes us happy, and losing it for an arbitrary reason just sucks. I don’t want to go back to losing sleep and spending most of the available leisure hours of my day on public transit. The only way to move closer to the office is to put myself in financial danger.

      I had imagined myself in this institution until the end of my working days, but if we don’t get some flexibility, I will only be here as long as it takes for me to pivot into something that provides me with more flexibility.

  493. lisah*

    The company I’ve worked for for the past 5 years has always had a very flexible work-from-home policy and I only went into the office once a twice a week before the pandemic. (The office is a 2-hour each way commute so I wouldn’t have taken the job if this wans’t the case.) We’re being offered full- or part-time remote options starting in August and I’ll be choosing the full-time remote option if I’m still at the company. I’m actually in the process of looking for a new job and I will only consider options where I can be remote full time or where the work from office or home schedule is VERY flexible.

  494. Mackenzie*

    This is currently happening to me. I’m remote in one state, my employer is a 3.5hr train ride away. My immediate supervisor is on site, but her supervisor (and the rest of our extended team) is all remote and has been since before the pandemic, as they were all either hired for remote or contractors. I’ve been told not to worry, but if I have to go back into the office, I probably won’t quit, just because this is my dream job and I broke into a difficult industry with several strokes of luck.

  495. Ed*

    Yup. I did prior to covid so would again. that job wanted me to go full time WFH back in 2018 and I left and got a better job because I didn’t want to do that. I’m fully aware of the irony now that I’ve been WFH full time for over 1 year and will be until at least next January, but it was out of everyone’s control. I’ll be going back to a hybrid model and I think that’s the best possible outcome for me now.

  496. We lost 600,000*

    Absolutely. I’m 24 and my fiancée comes from a culture where multigenerational living is the norm, so our backup plans have backup plans. I’ve already been facing a lot of creep on work-life balance issues, which I’ve been pushing back on more and more. I know that I can easily make this kind of money elsewhere (I’m at a non-unionized nonprofit); if this work isn’t in line with my lifestyle I know I can land on my feet, and I don’t feel that my work brings me any fulfillment I can’t find elsewhere (and have been more and more during this pandemic). Living through a global pandemic has allowed me to see that the only way my employer can show me I matter is by compensating me fairly.

  497. Anon5183*

    I work in an industry that was remote friendly for many employers before the pandemic, but it was nothing I ever had any interest in. I work in a field where mid-level, experienced professionals were in a shortage before and will be for the foreseeable future, that generally weren’t terribly affected financially by Covid. The only companies struggling were ones that were struggling before. I got furloughed in March for 2 months as a reaction, and then laid off in October by one of those struggling companies, but had three offers within two weeks. The one I accepted, was with the understanding that I would work in office in a satellite office. Well, after two weeks of training they told me to work from home because they needed more office space for us, which hasn’t materialized yet so I’m still working from home. I started struggling with my health in December and was recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Given my health, I have decided I won’t go back into the office full time once they ask. Given the shortage of professionals who do what I do, the ball will be in their court as I’m not worried at all about finding another job if necessary, but given that we had full time WFH staff pre-pandemic, I’m not concerned. IF it became necessary, I would absolutely look elsewhere. Starting during the pandemic has made me feel less engaged with my job and work than I’ve ever felt so I’m not really invested in this employer, but I’m ok with that because it allows me to focus on a bunch of really stressful family/health/personal issues that will likely not abate any time soon.

  498. Ozzie*

    So far, my job had been very obtuse about any policy. They have simply kept us updated with how open our office is (and why people should spend time there), and mask policies at different locations (indoor and outdoor). No one has said anything about what a return to work will look like, which has left many confused.

    My direct supervisors and my director are willing to offer flexibility to me (as we moved my former-primary-work-location an additional 30-40min away from me, for a total one way commute of 2.5 hours on a good day), but no one knows what that will look like, or what the company as a whole plans to do. Said director is concerned with the optics of me not making that commute, as others also have long commutes (tho I think most drive now, but do not have the same tolls as I would, and I am also not willing to drive… Nor would it be faster most likely, and definitely not cheaper), but acknowledges that there is no part of my job the necessitates my physical presence in that location.

    We do have the office, which is much closer (about 35min), that I have expressed that I am more than happy to work from, but also greatly appreciate the work from home option as well.

    All of this said, I have not ruled out leaving depending what comes of it. With the proposal of making me open to receive phone calls while others commute (often 2+ hours before my day begins), or 5 hours of commuting a day, even sometimes, as proposed options, I’m concerned that there won’t be a satisfactory-for-all-parties solution. I don’t think it will be bad enough that I would quit on the spot, but it has the potential to start a job hunt.

  499. J.B.*

    I have always been someone who worked better in the office and was surprised at being able to adjust my mindset to work well from home. Now I am quite glad to have a hybrid option, it is especially easier to train people from in the office.

    1. J.B.*

      Oh I meant to add that this is the first job where I have been able to manage my time as a professional and not record my 40 hours a week on a timesheet. I feel like I can manage my time as I see fit.

  500. OtterB*

    My organization has always been flexible. Many of the staff – myself included – were in the office most days, but took the option to wfh as needed to make it easier to meet a plumber, go to a doc appointment, give a kid a ride. Other staff were at home more often than not. Didn’t matter. We went all-remote slightly before the pandemic started because of a planned office renovation. Unfortunately, that was renovating from mostly-private offices to cubes/pods – staff was increasing but space wasn’t going to any time soon. People now drop in occasionally, but are mostly still remote. We don’t know how it’s going to work out yet. Some form of hybrid. Other than occasional meetings, I don’t expect there will be any requirement to be back at the office anyway.

    If we got less flexibility, I would quite likely leave, but I don’t think it’s likely.

  501. Elizabeth West*

    Hmm, tricky.

    I don’t need a WFH accommodation and I kind of like going into an office, but I really appreciate the flexibility to be at home when the weather is bad, I’m feeling a little less than stellar, or I have maintenance workers coming. If management did an about-face for no good reason on remote work, I’d probably take that as a sign to start looking.

    My last job was very flexible on this so I know for a fact it can work. Employers need to keep in mind that 2020 was not a normal situation.

  502. Hate Working From Home*

    I would have quit my job if I had been forced to work from home for any longer than we did (15 months).

  503. Overeducated*

    We moved and my spouse got an in person job 50 miles away (2 hour commute in traffic or train), so if I have to go back more than 2 days a week, I’ll be searching. It will feel a little like career suicide so I’d like to be able to negotiate, but if I can’t, I guess that’s that. I can’t go back most of the time after we’ve seen how unnecessary it is.

  504. 2 Cents*

    Yes, I would. I was hired as a contract-to-hire in 2019 and hired full time in 2021. My contract stipulated I would be in the office two days a week and work from home three days a week. This was done for my benefit (my commute is 90+ minutes each way, plus I had health issues that meant working from home took less of a toll on my body), but also for theirs. My department is running out of physical space to house everyone. There are about 150 people in the department, but only about 100 desks/spaces that can house people. They were starting to dabble with more flexible work options when I was hired. COVID forced everyone home, and people on my team love it, to the point where we’d like to home most days (4+ days a week), with occasional in-office days as makes sense for meetings and brainstorming sessions. Because our team does work that’s better suited for quiet, uninterrupted time, we wore headphones and tried our best to drown out other people while we were in the office. If they were to change this, I would be looking for something 95%-100% remote immediately.

  505. Sarra N. Dipity*

    The fact that our parent holding company has decreed that permanent WFH is not going to be an option had definitely been a factor in my starting a job search (along with a lot of other reasons – the laundry list is a bit long to share here). I know for sure that two of my coworkers left for other positions directly as a result of this – WFH has been fantastic for them, and they don’t want to give it up.

  506. Perfectly Cromulent Name*

    Yes and yes. My job literally is not and never has been client facing and is done 100% on a computer. I was annoyed pre-pandemic that we were not allowed to work from home EVER at my current job- past jobs usually let you work at least a 1-2 from home. I did not get too upset about it because my job is very close to my home and it made it okay. I was home very quickly after work, and I could pop home at lunch if I wanted to. Going fully remote was my dream.

    If I were going back to my old office, I’d miss remote but probably suck it up. However, during the pandemic they let me know I would be returning to another campus that will be doubling my commute time and is in a location that makes it impossible to avoid heavy, stressful traffic. Leadership wants us all back in the office full time next week. We can request wfh arrangements, but they said that we are a f2f office and that they want us to be in office. *If* they approve an alternate schedule, they want us in the office at least 4 of the 5 work days. We have to submit our requests next week, but they will not make their decision until September. My field has a lot of wfh jobs, but those have generally been contract jobs….until now. Lots of full time jobs are being advertised as fully remote, and you bet that I’m applying to those. Why would I stay with a place where I *may* get 1 day of wfh a week and will have a stressful commute that I did not sign up for when I could work fully remotely? I like my job, but will absolutely bounce if I can find a fully remote, full time position.

    Other than, you know, the horrible pandemic, this year has been incredible. My work life balance has been amazing, I spent SO MUCH less money (commuting, clothes, lunches out, dog walker, etc) and I got so much more work done. I’ve eaten healthier, have had time to exercise, my house has been cleaner… I was never thrilled to be in an office even prior to this, but it’s going to be a dealbreaker from here on out. If I do leave my current job, it will be for a fully (or at least mostly) remote position.

  507. CommanderBanana*

    I’ve decided today to start looking. My boss made us come in for a meeting during our absolute busiest time of the year. I sat in traffic for almost 2 hours for a meeting that was entirely unsubstantive (think one of those ‘team building’ exercises) when I’ve been working nights and weekends for the last two months.

    I’m done.

    1. mf*

      This is when it gets frustrating: when you realize that your employer wants you in the office for no real, good reason so they’re just waisting your time!

  508. introverted af*

    I wasn’t going to leave over just the WFH policy, because it’s been very poorly executed here, but I was planning my exit strategy in the next year or 2 and how to get to almost full time WFH. However, when I found out last week I was getting the bottom of the barrel raise after nothing last year in the pandemic and after busting my butt and taking on additional responsibilities this year, I started applying. It’s accelerating things for me, but not that much.

    I had a conversation with the vice president for my area after an all-staff meeting. I said WFH was important to me, and moving forward I wouldn’t work anywhere that didn’t support it for at least half my time. He…didn’t respond well to that, and that was the beginning of the end for me.

  509. nonprofiteer*

    I am so thrilled to be back in the office, with flexibility to do 2-3 days per week at home as I want. Likely I will not, as I have a lovely office and walking commute.

    But I would absolutely be looking if we went permanently remote – I could earn more doing the same remote job for a bigger org.

  510. Sitting on the Patio*

    For me, it’s a tipping point issue. I love the work I do and have a boss I like. If the work became more of a grind or I got a new boss I didn’t connect with or some other negative factor emerged, then my satisfaction with the teleworking policy would impact my decision on whether to start looking elsewhere. (“ugh, new boss is a total jerk but at least I get to work from home 4 days a week” Vs “new boss is a total jerk and I can’t even avoid him since we’re all here 4 days a week. Time to bail.”)

  511. J.E.*

    I go back and forth because while I enjoyed working from home, I started to feel bored and antsy stuck at my desk all day, but I felt that way at the office too. I can be stuck at a computer all day at an office or at home, so my issue may be the type of work I do in addition to where I do it.

  512. Ima Pseudonym*

    I’m conflicted. My position (DoD environmental contractor at an army base) was moved to 100% contractor in MAR-20, and I was thankful that our agency found a way to keep us onboard to support our mission. I greatly enjoyed not having a commute, being able to hang out with my cats/dog while working, grabbing lunch out of the fridge, and all the other perks of working from home.

    We were required to return to the office 100% this week; I had requested a hybrid schedule (60%/40% office/telework), but it was turned down because some of our staff didn’t perform well while teleworking (I’ve been told I personally performed admirably, and that my productivity even increased while teleworking).

    So, while I’m thankful that my agency and company went through the steps required to allow me to telework through the worst of the pandemic, I’m also a little frustrated that I’m being forced to return to the office with no possibility of telework due to the low performance of other staff members even though I personally performed well.

    I’m not ready to quit over that one issue, especially since I enjoy what I do, appreciate many of my team members, and enjoy the work environment. However, the lack of flexibility (combined with lower-than-industry pay) on the part of my agency/company has made me rethink my dedication to my position. This in turn makes me feel somewhat disloyal…after all, they did bend over backward to keep things operating closer to normal, which allowed me to continue to earn a paycheck during a rough time.

    So, yeah…I’m conflicted.

  513. Chidi Has a Stomach Ache*

    I’m in private secondary education, so I know WFH isn’t possible for me, but I did appreciate a certain amount of flexibility that I had this year with hybrid learning (the only silver lining in an awful cloud). I was in higher ed faculty before this, which allowed me to work from home 1-2 days a week — something I pushed for because I had a really long commute. My commute to my new work is shorter and more manageable, but I’ve never had a 5-days-a-week, 8hrs-a-day setup and that’s what I’m looking at next year as school returns to “normal” hours. So I’m curious to see if it will feel more contained (leaving work at work) or if it will be more exhausting.

    It makes me think that I might want to shift back to higher ed (administration, not faculty) in a couple of years to get that flexibility again. If so, then a change in rules could definitely become something I quit over. I do some freelancing on the side, as well, and I’ve thought about whether that could grow into something close to full-time and remote. That’s not the direction I want my career to go in right now, but I’m thinking about it in a way I wouldn’t have pre-pandemic.

    So, in my current place in my career and community, I don’t think I’d want to work 100% remotely, but down the line I could see the benefits to it. My husband’s industry pays a lot better than mine, and but his best options are not always in areas with local higher ed or sufficient private secondary education options. If we ever moved for him to pursue one of those opportunities, I think I might seek remote work or go the freelance direction. But it’s a lot of ifs!

    1. Chidi Has a Stomach Ache*

      I can also say that my husband hates working from home. He’d definitely quit a job that went 100% remote without an office option.

  514. Archaeopteryx*

    I’m hybrid now and I’m never going back to full time in-office if I can help it. It’s been a huge factor in giving me more time to live my life and breathe. I’ll be looking for hybrid WFH on all future job searches.

  515. Laura H.*

    I’m in retail right now so this is a purely what if scenario/ when I need a different job thing.

    I’d want a possible hybrid model, but more leaning toward my choice rather than a company mandate. Or one where it’s completely ok if I’m in the office more than I WFH, but WFH as needed (or used rarely) wouldn’t be looked at funny.

    I’ve always sort of needed that separation- I had trouble doing homework at home or papers in my college dorm. (And my home environment is very good and I could make my room into an office if I so chose- I’ve got desks and shelving (my room was the prior owner’s home office if I recall) that I could rearrange the contents of.)

    It’s not a social thing. While I know I wasn’t the only one to use a certain cozy space in the student activities building during college, I was often alone when I used that room- the simple change in space helped me get into “producing mode”- I can’t remember whether I was popping out papers or fun writing more often, but I don’t think I could work from my living space 100% without a place to retreat to, and it’s purely a headspace thing for me.

  516. Grilledcheeser*

    Yes, I would quit if my company went 100% in office. Some days my commute (a totally reasonable set up, this is not an impossible situation – I am in a normal distance suburb to Seattle downtown) took 3 hours to go 20 miles round trip because of a lack of mass transit. NEVER AGAIN. Never ever. What a waste of my time, fuel, my energy, etc. And added more pollution to the world. Ugh! Even 2 days a week in office feels too much. Maybe 1 day/wk in office regularly, and then more days as needed for special reasons.

    And yes, truly quit. This past year has shown me how much that commute was destroying me mentally & physically.

    1. 2 Cents*

      I’m with you. Google says I’m 25 miles from my office. That’s 90 minutes each way by car or 2.5 hours minimum by public transit + cab. Pre-pandemic, I had to go in twice a week, which I didn’t mind, but on days when I literally only talked to the same people on messenger or via email that I did while I’m at home, I felt the wastefulness of getting to the office even more.

    2. AutolycusinExile*

      This probably won’t make you feel better, but I can commiserate from the other side of the coin. I live four miles away from work and pre-Covid my commute via mass transit was an hour and a half, one way. And that’s in a city with pretty decent public transportation – from American standards, anyway, ugh.

      Commutes are the worst.

  517. The Cocosette*

    I’ve never liked WFH and can’t continue doing it after it’s no longer necessary for safety. Although I’ve gotten used to it and enjoy some of the flexibilities that come with working at home (midday shower or a quick load of laundry) the knowledge that it’s just temporary has been what’s been getting me through this last year. I’m more open than I was before to WFH 1 or 2 days a week in the future but I still need and want to go back.

    If my company decided to switch to fully remote with no office to go into, I’d absolutely look for another job. Even if they opted for mostly remote with 75%+ of people going into the office only 1ish days a week I’d probably start looking for a new job because I need an office to go but I also need my coworkers there too.

    My home is not conducive to working full time comfortably – my desk is squished in my guest bedroom which gets almost no natural light. I live in a smallish condo in the middle of a large city and don’t have access to any personal or shared outdoor space. I also live alone so working from home means that I might go days without seeing another human if I don’t make myself go out for a walk. As an ambivert, this has been incredibly isolating and has impacted my mental health and how well I’ve cared for myself overall for the last 15 months.

    All that aside, I’m not as productive or proactive at home. I’ve found myself easily distracted by everything and nothing (may also be a function of a global pandemic and/or some specific work issues) and generally lacking the motivation to get anything done. I used to accomplish the same amount of work in two days at the office last January as I do in a week at home now. It’s also been hard to feel like I’m doing my job effectively as an HR person because I’m missing out on all kinds of feedback and information that I used to get from casual conversations in the office. My company culture doesn’t tend towards lots of online/virtual conversations so I never hear from most employees unless they need something from me.

    As a software company, we’ve always been very flexible with about 50% of the office choosing to work remotely about 50% of the time so I’m really hoping that continues when the office reopens next month.

    1. Margali*

      I should have nested my comment under yours, since so much of what I have to say is identical!

  518. BigBodyBill*

    I am definitely not considering quitting my job over WFH policies. I was WFH 2 days per week prior to the pandemic. With that said, I strongly want to be allowed to WFT FT and get to choose when to come to the office, and I am going to fight like hell for it by focusing on the pros of cost savings, W/L balance, increased productivity, continuous improvement, etc. That way if they want to make me come into the office, it will put them in the position of justifying how the cons outweigh those benefits based on the fact that our mission is to keep costs as low as possible and because we are non profit. If coming back to the office does end up being mandatory, I will not quit or even look for something else as I am well paid, have “golden handcuff” benefits, very flexible hours, a company vehicle and, TBH, I love the job which is why I have been doing it for 13 years!

  519. Margali*

    I would definitely start looking for other work if I were forced to work from home 100%. I don’t have a good setup and I don’t like it. Right now I’m back in the office 2 days a week, and often find that the thing I need is on my other computer. (Confidential stuff that I don’t want to put on the network). I could live with WFH one day a week — I do like the added flexibility most of the time — but I will be happy to completely return to the office when the time comes.

  520. Beth Jacobs*

    To offer a different viewpoint than the majority: I wouldn’t. We’ve been working remotely for most of the past year and are now required back in the office fulltime. I’m not joyous about it, I liked WFH, but I really like my job in most other aspects. Although I liked WFH it’s not a dealbreaker for me the way salary is – maybe something on the level of free yoga classes.

  521. doreen*

    My daughter did. She worked in a hospital but not for the hospital – she worked in admissions for a medical school program. In March of 2020, they were told that they would be expected in the office every day since the nurses and housekeepers couldn’t work form home. That ended within a day or two, and she ended up working from home. In August 2020, she was told to return to the office once a week. She did for a couple of weeks , although there was no part of her job that she could do in the office but not at home. ( she wasn’t traveling or having in-person meetings with students even when she was in the office ). When they decided that she would have to be in the office two or three days a week, she put in her notice.

  522. WonderWoman*

    Years ago, I had a 100% remote job at a company with a lot of dysfunction. I know that dysfunction exists in offices as well, but it nevertheless put me off fully remote jobs. Ideally, I’d like to go into the office a couple days a week.

    However, since we had a baby, my husband has become firmly committed to working from home 100% of the time. He is currently job searching and will only take a new job if it is fully remote.

  523. Persephone Mongoose*

    My office is 10 minutes away but I mostly work remotely, going in about once or twice a week to take care of on-site stuff. It’s a wonderful balance, but I think I’d stick it out if we ended up going 100% either way.

  524. AutolycusinExile*

    Oh, yes, I’d leave instantly if asked to come back to the office in person. I was ready to quit my job over this way back in March of 2020. My reasons for feeling that way have changed now that I’m vaccinated, but I would still quit in a heartbeat if they asked to come back in person!

    I’m at a call center position, essentially, so there is literally no reason to work in person. There’s no collaboration between coworkers at all, so that’s moot. The office doesn’t provide any great work resources in person either (we don’t even have a word processing software on the computers in the office, lol, though to be fair I’ve ‘only’ ever needed it a couple times over the last few years). If they want to monitor our work they’re welcome to look at our call stats or listen to our calls. And, biggest of all, I no longer have to commute three hours a day, which has been literally life changing – I’ve finally been able to start working on health issues that have been present and running amok for seven years. I’d love some better WFH policies – they provided a monitor and a router but no computer, headset, or internet – and I’m working from my bedroom and am looking forward to the day I can work outside my tiny apartment, but none of those are dealbreakers for me since the cost to me is minimal compared to the quality of life improvement.

    I’m also in a position where my youth plays to my advantage here – no dependents, no mortgage, my only debt is from pretty manageable student loans, and I’m still beginning my career and therefore have a lot of flexibility re: industry (it’s all entry-level anyway) and it’s pretty easy to match my mediocre wage. Combine that with the savings I’ve put away from living quite frugally for the last five years and a safety net of living with my parents being a feasible option if necessary, and I’m in a position where I could comfortably quit on the spot, which I’m grateful for.

    I think it’s interesting that so many people interpret this question as “would you quit on the spot” when what it’s really asking is “would it cause you to leave”. I see a lot of people saying no, of course I wouldn’t leave, I can’t afford it, but I wonder if you might be slightly left of the intention of the question – you don’t have to quit immediately, or with nothing lined up! Even if it takes you three years to find a new job and finally leave you’d still be leaving because of the changes in WFH policy being made now, whatever they may be.

  525. CRM*

    My office has offered to let me work remotely full-time, but the majority of my coworkers will be onsite at least part-time, and I’m a little concerned about feeling left out of the loop and missing out on big opportunities. Most of my team is back onsite now and I can already start to feel the rift forming. I think I’m going to do a hybrid approach for now, but eventually I’ll want to go full-time remote, and at that point I’ll probably leave. I think the key will be to find another job that has a remote working culture so that I won’t be the odd worker out.

    1. Ozzie*

      This is so relatable. I’m the only person in my department who is fully WFH at the moment, and I really feel it sometimes. My coworkers understand why I have not come in at all (we moved warehouses, so my 1h45min-2h15min commute went to 2h30min – 3h), but our newly-hired director is concerned about optics in the long-term. Still no firm negotiations on schedule tho, as the company at large has made no moves to even hint at a possible order to return (or a more flexible schedule).

      Not sure what to do about the rift unfortunately. When a workplace isn’t set up to collaborate remotely, even hybrid isn’t a perfect solution.

  526. A Poster Has No Name*

    This is a tough one to answer because my company decided pretty early on that any return to work would be hybrid so I’m going back two days a week starting next month. I’m pretty sure if I had health concerns or other reasons why I really didn’t want to go back in at all (except maybe for certain meetings or whatever), my boss would be fine with that. They’ve also made clear that hybrid is the way they expect work to be going forward, not just as a transitional thing.

    People are welcome to come back to the office full time if they want, but the PTB are assuming most people will work 2-3 days per week in the office (usually some combo of T-Th).

    Even if they required full time back in the office I don’t think I’d quit over it, but I enjoy my job and my coworkers generally, get paid well, etc. so it wouldn’t be a deal-breaker for me. At least I don’t think so, but I haven’t been back in yet. It could be that I’ll miss the very comfortable setup I’ve built up at home and will find the office untenable. I guess I’ll find out in a couple weeks!

  527. Feel free to quote me AG*

    I live in the Bay Area where traffic is really terrible. Before the pandemic, I was spending 1.5-2 hours commuting to work each day even though the actual distance is only about 12 miles. It was the worst part of my day, and I was pretty exhausted by the time I would finally get home.
    I also had a baby during the pandemic, and as our return to the office date is drawing closer, I’m really dreading losing out on the time I have with my family at the start and end of every day. I’m also not looking forward to spending 1.5-2 hours of my precious non-work time commuting.
    I’m going back to the office with an open mind, but if my quality of life downgrades too much once I’m back into the commuter life I will likely start looking for a job closer to home, even if I have to take a pay cut. My priorities have changed over the past 15-16 months and I’ve seen how much happier I’ve been with more family time and less driving time that I’m more open to job searching even though I really like my job and coworkers.

  528. Banana Anna*

    I 100% intend to leave. Pre-covid they were very against any sort of WFH even though it was starting to become common our industry. There were a couple of exceptions, including my own team lead, but they were seen as very special cases. The entire company went fully remote for the pandemic and we’ve had a record breaking year as far as productivity/revenue goes. Despite all that, they’ve come out pretty strongly in favor of getting us back to the office as soon as possible and are only vaguely talking about doing a hybrid schedule for some teams. It doesn’t really make sense to me as my team in particular has gotten nothing but praise about how responsive we’ve all been (even more than before!), how incredible our numbers have been, etc, etc.

    It really comes across as though the only reason they want us back into the office is because the executives want it. I wish they would communicate on why they felt so strongly about it. Preserving the company culture? Security issues? Something at least.

    But in all honestly, it’s been a bit demoralizing to have worked through a pandemic, told we’re all doing great work, and yet no one even bothered to send out a survey (even if they were going to ignore it) to see how we felt about going back. So I’ve been sending out applications, mostly to remote jobs, and hope to be gone soon.

  529. Ele4phant*

    Yes, I would quit my job (or decline an offer from another company) if they made the decision to be 100% remote OR 100% back to the office.

    For what I do, I can be plenty productive from home. It’s nice to wake up late and wear sweats when I want.

    However, I’m also an extrovert and sometimes have a hard time demarcating my home time from work time, so on occasion I’d like to get out of the house.

    Most of all, I want to be treated like an adult that has control over my work schedule and where I am when (within reason to client demands).

    I want the flexibility to work from home when I want or go in on days I’m sick of my four walls.

  530. Weyrwoman*

    My workplace announced back in Jan that we would be going permanently WFH for the office I’m with, since it’s a satellite office. I’ve absolutely loathed working from home – my productivity has definitely suffered, and I find it a lot harder to separate work-brain from home-brain. I’m sure some of the productivity loss is Covid related, but still. If I weren’t already moving long-distance and looking for positions in my new city, I would absolutely be engaging in a serious job search for a job that has office space for me. Something about walking out my door, driving/transiting to work, and being in a completely separate space for the sole purpose of doing work; well, I do a lot better with that kind of separation.

  531. Libretta*

    I love working from home and if they want us to start commuting daily, I will definitely start looking. I have maybe 2-3 meetings per week and the rest of my time is independent work.

    My boss is talking about having our team all come in on the same day once a week or every other week in the fall so we can interact in person. I don’t have any reason to speak to the other people on my team, my work does not overlap with theirs, so I dread the idea of riding the bus 40 minutes, and then sitting quietly in a corner all day so that we can ask about each other’s weekends. I might stay if it is just once a week, and keep track of how much I actually speak to other people, to either convince myself it is necessary or to make the case to my boss that it is not. I can’t imagine it will be useful.

    But I will be honest here – this time at home has convinced me that the old way was madness. I have no desire to go back – my job is not my life, and I don’t want to spend more of my time with my employer or commuting. Being able to have lunch with my children and spend my commute time taking a walk or handling a household chore rather than being anxious about picking the kids up on time, running home, serving dinner out of the crock pot the minute we get home, bathing them and immediately putting them to bed – I am missing so much when commuting! I am far enough in my career that I can put up resistance to a regular commute, and I will.

    1. Libretta*

      To add – my whole team has said that they want to stay remote, and for our work we truly do not need to be in the office every day. I feel like my boss could have written yesterday’s letter, who prefers the office but the team she manages does not. I like my job and my boss, but I can sense how perplexed and disappointed she is that no one wants to come back. She has her own office and has been commuting regularly the whole time.

  532. Ellexandra*

    I would 100% quit my job if they made us come back to the office full time. Not even a question. My quality of life is so much better working from home- I eat better, I sleep more and I actually get more work done. I work in tech, so I can easily find another company with a work from home policy. My company is smart enough to realize that it’s hard enough to retain engineers and product managers, so they will likely make us come in a day or two a week at most. Anyone who wants to retain tech talent without remote work is delusional, unless you are paying way more than your competitors.

  533. Forestfairy*

    I’m currently job searching and only applying to jobs that are fully remote. Partially because I live in a rural county and the pay here is low but the cost of living is not. I love where I live and I don’t want to move. Another factor though is that I just can’t handle the 8-5 schedule. It has never worked for me and now I am seeing the consequences it is having on my health. In a remote job I’m looking for a flexible schedule, or at least one with work that is not based on the 8-5 workday. My current job is objectively good, but the pay is minimal and they are stuck in the “everyone must be in the office during the same hours” mentality even when it doesn’t matter.

  534. I've Escaped Cubicle Land*

    When my state department started to reopen (May/Juneish 2020) we were asked if we wanted to come back with social distancing and wearing masks or Work from Home. I told my direct supervisor that i would choose WFH IF and ONLY if it would end up being a long term/permanent thing. Was assured unless it end up a big mess it would be. I did not have internet at home prior to WFH. I signed up for high speed internet ONLY so I could work from home. WFH is going incredibly well for my state department and specifically for my team. (reduced paper waste, more streamline processes, higher collections) Only 1 team member chose in office.(and she likes it better now that there is fewer people) Most of us only have to visit the office once or twice a month for a few hours. After nearly a year of WFH I had the opportunity to move to a rural area about an hour away from the city I worked in previously. Checked in with my boss again. WFH was going great. Upper level big wigs all supported work from home and wanted to keep it. A few months after I moved (and signed a 2 year deal for very EXPENSIVE rural fiber only 1 place available internet) the states department started getting called back. As of now my state department is the only 1 not totally in office. The big wigs are really going to bat trying to convince State Government Powers That Be to keep us WFH. They literally got rid of one of our parking lots and the buildings can not maintain 6 feet social distance in the cubicles. Oh and a lot of the empty positions in the last year or so got filled by people in other cites as WFH became the standard. So there will probably be a mass exodus if they recall us. The future could go either way. But if we get called back I will quit. I will also present them with the bill for the 2 year contract of the internet I only have because of them. I have not been sick once since the pandemic started. (and I stopped taking my allergy meds in early 2020!) We were constantly sick in Old Cubicle Building due to inadequate HVAC and coworkers working sick. Everyone who WFH noted the better health. Cubicle Land was a grey, lifeless toxic place and everything I hated about that job went bye bye when I started WFH. I don’t mind going in when needed. I’d even be willing to do once a week for a few hours if necessary. But if they try to make me return to office I will barricade my door and leave their computer on the front porch for them.

  535. 2winners*

    It feels like the WFHers and the RTOers are in conflict, but it’s really that management is still trying to go with one size fits all, when all workers really want is choice.

    My organization has been work from home since mid-March 2020 and there is STILL no date of return. Staff haven’t even been allowed to go to the office at assigned times to get items we need. I told my boss that if working from home didn’t get an end date soon that I would seek other employment. I have a great relationship with my boss but I don’t think she grasped that there were multiple ways in which uncertainty contributed to the psychic load of the pandemic. Now lots of us have the vaccine, but that we can’t even know when we can stop working from home full time is really pushing some of us to our breaking points.

    Why do I want to go back? Some of it is because I do prefer to interact with people during the day (I went from interacting with 40-60 people by name per day to… 6? on a good day, and one of them is a baby). But it’s mostly because I live in Manhattan in a fake two bedroom apartment with a roommate. I cannot spend 18 hours a day trapped within the walls of my apartment. Some people just don’t have the set ups to work from home full time nor can they necessarily afford them! And the tools that have allowed us to work from home (Zoom, Teams) aren’t things you can do in a coffee shop or library.

    Every time I’ve asked about the timeline of the return to the office, it’s been, “There are still a lot of questions about how a return to the office would work that need to be figured out” and “We’ve been so effective working from home this year, and we don’t want to lose those gains.” But 1, other places have figured out how to make going to the office work and have for months, and 2, management has always had the tools and ability to work from home, and they’re the ones who would need to create the culture where lower level staff can work from home from time to time as well. So my feelings are (at least partially) colored by some failures of management to see beyond their preferences.

  536. PinkShirt*

    It’s not so much about WFH vs In office for me. Work is just work, and either option has pros/cons. However, I do think the way management handles this says tons about the company as a whole. I started job searching when they told us that there have been literally no complaints about our work since we’ve been remote but that there was no intention of allowing any sort of WFH when the pandemic was over. That kind of rigidity is a huge red flag for me.

    1. mf*

      “there have been literally no complaints about our work since we’ve been remote but that there was no intention of allowing any sort of WFH when the pandemic was over. That kind of rigidity is a huge red flag for me.”

      This 1000%. I see this happening at my company and I’m starting to job hunt because of it. The rigidity tells me that my employer is more interested in control than employee satisfaction. I’m not interested in working in a culture like that.

  537. Koamom*

    I am a WFH employee regardless but the thing that has impacted me is the no travel policies. Pre-pandemic my job was 50% travel. I am now allowed to travel within driving distance but have no idea when my company will let us fly again, and they haven’t given any indication it’s coming soon. If this continues long term I would absolutely consider looking for something else as I loved the travel aspect of this role.

  538. Erin*

    I love WFH, but I would not mind going in 2-3 days per week. My role was transitioned to permanent WFH last summer, sooooo.

    I don’t want to go back in everyday. The commute kind of sucks the life out of me, and I’m just as productive at home. If I had to go back to the office 100%, I would most likely start job hunting.

  539. Autumnheart*

    I wouldn’t quit outright. This is actually not the first time my employer had a WFH police and then took it away to be on-site, although we still had flexibility when it came to things like sick kids, appointments, surprise blizzards, etc.

    At the time, I asked myself, “Do I still like my job even without this benefit?” and the answer was yes. I’ve mentioned before that I actually enjoy being IN the office, it’s the commute that’s murder. So the same still applies this time around, although allegedly we’ll be moving to a hybrid model, where the majority of (corporate) employees WFH a couple days a week, which I will be happy with.

    If my job was only a 5 out of 10 (1 being “AAM Worst Boss” material, 10 being “get paid six figures to take naps”, I dunno) and management was like “Well, we *could* keep WFH, but we don’t want our workers to feel like we value them as human beings” then yeah. I’d probably be looking.

    1. Autumnheart*

      *WFH policy up there! Not “police”….although seems like a lot of companies have decided “WFH police” should be a thing.

  540. HereKittyKitty*

    I don’t know if you want a new hire/job search perspective but here it goes:

    I leaned into WFH forever. I’m mildly agoraphobic and medicated and though I can work in an office, it can sometimes be distressing for me and unpleasant. And the forced connectiveness can make me feel anxious as well as countless team lunches and whatnot. However, I did end up accepting a new job that will be going back to the office in September. What did it come down to for me? Money. This new job offered me a 54% increase in salary and with that boost, I’m willing to commute and go back. If it wasn’t for the money, I don’t think I would have been willing. If they had offered me even 10% more, it still wouldn’t have been enough. I greatly prefer working from home, but with a 54% increase, yeah I’m willing to make it work. I’ve obviously spent my career in an office so despite the agoraphobia, I can make it work fine enough. In addition though, the culture at my new job is a little bit more “business-y” and “reserved” and I find that culture a better fit for me overall, as there won’t be a ton of pressure to socialize, dress up for Halloween, plan get togethers and all that other stuff that made me ill (and I mean that literally, it makes me so anxious!)

    So tldr, yeah I was willing to go back to the office but I wouldn’t go for much less than what I’m making now at my current job.

    1. HereKittyKitty*

      I will say there’s a bit of a buzz that things could go a little more hybrid as they start allowing teams to go back, and for me, this would be even better.

  541. help*

    As a young employee (intern, still in school), working from home has been difficult for me. I’ve been at my internship for 6 months now and I still feel disconnected from the office culture, partially because I’m so junior and temporary but partially because I can’t easily see or get to know people outside of my small project teams. My field is one in which everyone learns a lot from each person’s individual expertise, and so it is definitely limiting when you don’t see or interact with 80% of the office outside of all-team Zoom meetings. On top of that, my ability to focus and stay on task is completely shot, and though I try my best to stay productive and get all my work done, the lack of eyes on me really enables my attention issues (I’m not failing to get my work done by any means, but I know I could do better in another environment). I hate taking Zoom calls from my bedroom and having zero distance between work and life. Despite having no commute, I feel tired and worn out all the time, and it’s depressing to move from my desk straight to my couch at 6:00. I’d be happy to have a flexible option where WFH was optional or part-time, but I could not take a position that is fully remote for my full time career, at least not in this field.

  542. TPS Reporter*

    I would quit if my company was too rigid with policy- i.e. no one can work from home- and if we all went fully remote. First, my management style hinges on flexibility. I like to be able to make independent decisions for each team member based on the circumstances of their role and their performance. If someone clearly shows they are not able to be productive from home, I want to be able to mandate an in person schedule. If someone performs very well at home I want to be able to give them as many days at home as they need, even approving them to move out of state. Roles on the team vary and I want to be able to tailor the schedule per responsibilities and per abilities.
    On the flip side, I don’t like working 100% remotely. If my department as a whole did not plan to come in 1-2 days a week (the current possible schedule) I would look for something else. That might change over time but in my current role I feel like I need more face to face time as much of my responsibilities involve communicating complex concepts and having in depth working meetings with colleagues.

  543. periwinkle*

    I’m not leaving anytime soon. My husband, and more than a few of his colleagues, are polishing up their resumes. A tale of two employers…

    My husband’s employer is VERY GRUDGINGLY allowing a hybrid model in which people can work from home one day a week, if it doesn’t conflict with team meetings or projects or the CEO’s astrology chart or whatever other barriers they can dream up. Despite the teams working successfully and productively from home for over a year, the CEO still believes that it’s impossible to work if you’re not surrounded by ugly gray cubicle walls. This company got in a lot of trouble at the start of the pandemic for not allowing their corporate staff to WFH despite state orders. And after a year, the CEO apparently hasn’t changed his opinion.

    My employer is gradually bringing teams back and is allowing everyone who is capable of WFH to register for a hybrid – anywhere from 1 to 4 days virtual, and even 100% virtual if your manager allows it. My team has been instructed to pick a hybrid combination that will protect our footprint in various buildings. My manager doesn’t care if we actually go into the office or not, as long as it’s official that we will and thus the company won’t take away our desks. My company and manager are both being very sensible and accommodating, and have been so throughout this whole situation. (the company has a lot of other problems, but they’ve handled the pandemic pretty well)

  544. Lcsa99*

    I would not be willing to quit over having to come back to the office but I have always been nervous about working from home – I thought I would procrastinate or just get lazy – and I find that I do just as well from home as from the office so I will definitely be looking for remote work in my next job. I love the lack of a commute and the ability to fit things in that need to get done at home when things at work are slow. It makes 24 hours much more productive.

  545. Wolfie*

    My employer is closing my local office because they can save A TON of money not renting that space. Thus, it’s back to working from home for me, which I have hated.
    I am very close to looking for a new job, and I don’t want it to be remote.

  546. LouisianaAnn*

    My work experience did not change even a bit with COVID-19 – I have been working from home for three different companies since 2006. I used to travel in to the office occasionally early on, but that quieted down a lot after about 2014 and ended almost entirely with the new gig, which I started in 2019. I love working from home – we have a great space in our house in a lowish-COL area. I probably lost some opportunities by not being in the office, but the trade-offs, from not needing day care for the school age kid to the fabulous commute from the kitchen table to the spare bedroom/office, have been worth it in every way. The job I am working now is by far the best of the three companies – a small consulting firm with a former co-worker.

  547. I hate commuting*

    My organization’s director decided to make us permanently remote back in July 2020, so this is a hypothetical for me. I had a really long commute from a quiet small town to downtown in the big city. I don’t mind working in an office per se, what I really hated was my 1 hour door to door commute on public transit. My anxiety levels have really gone down since working from home. I didn’t realize how much things like crowds and the potential of encountering crazy people on my commute really affected me. My office was half a mile from the station, and the neighborhood I had to walk through to get to work just isn’t safe. I was always worried about my personal safety, especially during the winter when my commute was in the dark. I’ve known multiple co-workers who have been attacked, and I think this factored into our management’s decision to go fully remote. If they made us return to the office, I would absolutely look for another job, but I would be absolutely open to something in the office, but located closer to home.

  548. Whirlybird*

    I’m going to see how my employer handles it. I won’t immediately quit if they don’t allow me to continue to work remotely part-time, but I’ll get my resume ready and will be more willing to apply elsewhere. It will definitely be a criteria for future job searches. I’m in a major metropolitan area, so the commute time and cost savings have been huge, I love having all that time back in my week to see my family and actually take care of myself (exercise! What a thought!), and I’m able to focus better without the distractions of the office. I’d like to go in part-time, just not all the time. It’s going to crush morale if they require us all to come back.

    1. Whirlybird*

      Also, I like the flexibility of being able to log back on from home after my kid is in bed, if that’s what I need to do to get a project done. It doesn’t need to happen often but it’s so much easier to get things done when I have that option.

  549. Mrs. Hawiggins*

    I actually want to return. My office and my office building are nice places to be. I can be flexible on start and end times for my ‘shift’ even though it’s not shift work, and my commute is not horrible. WFH became an isolating situation for me, and with a laptop or a tablet in almost every room, I feel like if I’m not looking at one, I’m not working, and therefore not doing my job, and therefore people will know I’m not working – it got weird in my head.
    Work is everywhere in the house, or so it seems. I’ve never worked from home before so this was new for me, but at least when I left the parking lot, I felt like it switched off. I don’t mind going back. Truly, I don’t. If it works for some at home, great, if it works for those of us who need a separate place to go, great. My company wants us back and a lot of bosses aren’t keen to the idea of working from home on a permanent basis. Some people have said, “No way I’m not coming back,” and I fear that that won’t ultimately be their decision in a minute.

  550. Czhorat*

    Covid isn’t the only issue here, of course. I live in the suburbs of a large city. My commute is one and a half ours each way, with a monthly cost of over three hundred sixty dollars. Parking is maybe another hundred a year. All told, the commute would be about a $4000/year pay cut.

    I also usually am the one to cook meals in my house, so commuting means that everyone eats later.

    Would I quit over this? I’d at least be open to options that allow more flexibility. It is a major lifestyle change.

  551. Meg*

    I definitely would have. Our company listened to us all and is employing hybrid, where they expect employees to be required for in office meetings up to 3 days per month, and we have the option of working from home or working in the office however we are most comfortable otherwise. There would have been a mass exodus even from senior management if they hadn’t done this. It feels right.

  552. FieldsofGold*

    I wouldn’t leave over the policy itself, but I would leave based on how it is communicated, whether there is any inclusion of staff perspectives or simply a directive, and whether any of my direct reports leave due to the policy or the previously mentioned items.

    Basically, the way such a policy is developed and communicated to leadership and line staff is a big window into the culture. If there’s no trust, no discussion, no willingness to make exceptions – I’ll consider leaving. If a direct report or two express willingness to leave over it and management is willing to lose terrific employees due to lack of flexibility – I’ll fight for my employees and absolutely being willing to walk out.

  553. Damn, Gina*

    My current job won’t ever really work with a consistent hybrid schedule (I work at a school), but my cousin sent me an article about why Black employees might be reluctant to return to the office (and the accompanying microaggressions, burnout, etc.), and I could definitely relate. I think I’ll be looking to move out of school sites and towards something that allows for hybrid or WFH in the future.

  554. lockhart*

    I managed to get permanent work from home just prior to the pandemic. Our main office was a new open office and the thin carpets and exposed concrete made it impossible for me to focus with all the noise bouncing around. I once heard both sides of a phone call halfway around the office! I wore headphones for 8 hours a day, and was miserable. Once everything changed for COVID, I realized there was no reason I’d ever go back to an office job. If my company forced me to go back (which is incredibly unlikely, they’ve been really good) I’d probably spend time at my job in the office actively job searching.
    I hate hard pants! I get to put my kids to bed every night. I get to have dinner with my wife. I can put a game on in the background. I don’t commute for an hour each day. There’s practically zero benefit for me to be there — my job involves 7 different locations in my state and we have good Slack/email culture. I miss being able to grab people and chat, but all I ever chatted about was not directly work related or was kind of sort of work related. Plus — I work nights, and my manager works days, so we’d never even be in the building together unless I had to drive in early (yuck.)

  555. KayDeeAye*

    I am one of those who has flourished as a WFHer, and so far, it looks as though my employer is going to allow a hybrid schedule for any of its employees that want it. Which is HUGE since prior to the pandemic, it was not a WFH-friendly place. They really have come a long way.

    But if for some reason this changed and I had to start coming into the office every day, while I would not be happy, I probably wouldn’t quit…but a big part of the reason why is that ::fingers crossed:: I am only a few years away from retirement. So honestly (though I’m not going to tell my employer this :-)), I’m probably going hang in there no matter what happens, so long as it doesn’t affect my health or anything like that.

    If I were earlier in my career, it would be a different story. Because I really, really, really like working from home and would miss it so much if it were yanked away from me now.

  556. MidwestIsBest*

    I am contemplating looking for a fully remote position. My job requires on-site work anywhere from 5-35 hours per week (event management). While I love my job and it has many great perks, we really want to travel, or live somewhere different for a period of time and my current job wouldn’t allow for that. Hoping I can get a promotion that would allow me to work remotely full time, but I’m just going to see how things play out over the next few years before I make a decision.

  557. I miss my walking commute*

    I’m already looking (for additional reasons besides the possible return to the office), even though I negotiated my current contract to come in the office only two days a week last summer when I started this position. My company is still remote with no plans that I know of to return anytime soon, but an hour of commuting each way is not doable with everything else in my life, especially if very few people I work directly with are in my office.

    I’m not limiting myself to remote work, though. I had a walking commute to my pre-pandemic job and loved it, especially since I didn’t have to think about exercise the rest of the time. I would be happy with a similar walking commute if it meant not dealing with people on trains. Since I live in the middle of a large city, this is theoretically doable.

  558. Heather*

    We have a really great chance for the first time since the labor movement to really change things for workers.
    Compared to the rest of the world the United States has a lot of underpaid and overworked employees. The question isn’t really about whether I would leave work if I can’t work from home but about how we can hold on to the growth in company flexibility as well as give opportunities to people who had a hard time getting a foot in the door so to speak.
    Wouldn’t it be incredible if we didn’t have to pack up our families and sell our homes just to get a job doing the very same thing we do for a company that we happened to live near? Wouldn’t it be amazing if companies had to compete nationally and not just in a local market for talent? Wouldn’t it be great if working from home and schedule flexibility were made available to disabled people who’ve been trying to get accommodations and get in the door of businesses for decades?
    It’s really time for Big picture thinking on not just the rights of employees but people and employee orienting businesses in all markets.

  559. Clover*

    Heck yeah! In fact I’m job-hunting right now. Lockdown showed me how awful my coworkers really were and how the long commutes really affected my mental health. I’m so much healthier now. Remote work is awesome! If I can’t find a 100% remote position, I’d settle for a place where I only need to show up a couple days a week.

  560. introverted old accountant*

    I work in accounting for a state agency, and I have been 100% work-from-home since March 18, 2020.

    And it has been glorious. GLORIOUS!

    I listen to classical music, pet cats, eat my lunch without worrying that someone in another cube will be put off by a smell or a sound they dislike, and I have been more productive at a higher level of accuracy than ever before in my career. My lonely, needy coworker who likes to sit down in my cubicle and babble about irrelevancies for hours on end is working from her home in a different city, and just that alone has given me an extra six to eight hours of productive time in a typical week. I have taken on significant additional workloads that I could never have handled working in the office, and I am happier with myself and my work than I ever remember being.

    I would love for this 100% remote work to continue, but starting next month, we are required to spend at least 40% of our worktime in person at the office. And indisputably, if I was a decade or more earlier in my career than I am at this moment, that would push me to look for something that would allow 100% remote work, even though I hate job-hunting, because it makes that much of a difference to my quality of life.

    As it is, I am very close to retirement age, and in fact could retire in less than a year if I decide to, so I don’t plan to start looking for another job. However, I may very well alter my planned timeline for retirement, and instead of continuing on for another two to four years as I had thought I might, just pull the plug as soon as I turn 65.

    Because even just 40% of my workweek in the office is too much for me. Yes, I like my colleagues, even the needy one, but I don’t like having to put in extra time to make up for the fact that I am less productive in the office than I am working remote. And I never would have realized how much I hated that if I had not had the opportunity to work from home for the past fifteen months.

    1. KayDeeAye*

      I said something very similar a few posts above yours, Introverted Old Accountant – and for the same reason. I too am pretty close to retirement ::knock on wood::, and I don’t think I can allow my desire to continue working from home – and I really do want to continue working from home, at least part of the time – imperil that.

      For me the big thing is losing that damn commute! It’s not outlandishly long, but 1.5 hours/day really adds up.

  561. Oh so anon*

    I would absolutely quit if I had to go back to the office. Pre-covid, I was working from home three days per week. My manager who inherited me and my schedule was opposed to working from home on principle, and made things very unpleasant for those of us who did so. I transferred to another department, and am now completely remote, as is most of the department. Due to the nature of my work (research), I can’t see a reason to be in person for more than the occasional (e.g., maaaaybe once per month) meeting. My team and I are all more efficient and effective working from home, and the miserable commute, constant interruptions, and background noise are all eliminated. I can’t see a downside to permanent remote work.

  562. Antigone*

    In the short term, I won’t quit if required to go part time back to the office. (I was hybrid before the pandemic, so a full return to the office 100% of the time is very unlikely.) But before I would have said nothing shy of life changing money could lure me away from this job I enjoy with coworkers I enjoy. Now, I would be a lot more willing to trade some of my job culture satisfaction for a fully remote guarantee. So I’m reading job openings that cross my path that I wouldn’t have looked at before, and if the right fully-remote one hits my desk, I would apply and maybe end up leaving down the road.

  563. SP*

    I’ve spent 7 years in public accounting and I thought there was no way we could do this job 100% from home. I was wrong. I was as productive, had great client relationships, and mentioned and trained staff and seniors below me. When the office announced that they expected a hybrid, I applied for 100% remote jobs, found one, and left in April.

  564. Gerry*

    My employee quit and stated one of the main reasons was requiring everyone to be back in the office.

  565. Sarah*

    I don’t think I’d make any demands to stay WFH full or partial time for my current job – I was hired to be on campus 100% and so I plan to honor that agreement should my workplace choose to require that once again (though thankfully my university appears to be looking at a flexible WFH policy moving forward that seems agreeable to my preferences). However, in future job searches, this absolutely will be a major factor for me. A job that’s fully or partially WFH will be a fairly strong priority for me, over 100% on campus positions.

  566. TakeMeBackToTheOffice*

    I would 100% quit if my job remained remote permanently. We have made it work this past year but it is nearly impossible for us to be successful in a fully virtual environment. Not to mention the lack of separation of work and home space that makes it feel like you’re always at home and always at work. It’s hard to take a full lunch break when that pile of laundry is staring at you and it’s equally difficult to wind down and relax at home when your work laptop is staring at you and you really could just get a head start on that report while you’re watching TV. I have true and strong disdain for the work from home life and could never make this permanent.

  567. BBB*

    absolutely! I think most people/employers are willing to strike a compromise of a hybrid model so few people will be pushed to such extremes though. I’d love to be fully remote but my office is going to be in person twice a month which is totally doable and not something I’m going to complain about. however, it would absolutely be a deal breaker for me if they tried to enforce 100% in person after a year and a half of successfully working remotely. I’m not in a role that has any need or benefit from being in person so I would definitely consider moving onto something different if it meant maintaining my newfound quality of life.

  568. Not that kind of doctor*

    Certainly when screening for a new job, I’d put a lot of weight on how flexible they are with scheduling and when I come to the office. This mattered to me pre-pandemic, too – I’m a responsible adult and want to be trusted to get my work done however works best for me. But now I especially feel that anyone insisting on butts in seats on a set schedule (for work that can be done anywhere) is signaling that they’re overly rigid, and I’d be worried about what that meant for the culture overall.

  569. Lobsterp0t*

    This is so important to me. The main thing I really care about is autonomy to choose my environment based on what I need to get done.

    I am lucky. My employer gives us this in spades. I hope I can stay for another several years because I have never worked somewhere this good before.

  570. One of the Rare Ones*

    I work in contracting and it’s 100% impacting on the jobs I apply for. I don’t want to be 100% remote. I would quit a job that was only going to have people back 1-2 days a week. Also due to the nature of my work I change often and it’s not a big deal to quit or leave at the end of the fixed term.

  571. iglwif*

    I honestly don’t know. I was already remote pre-pandemic, and I like it enough that I think I would at least push back hard against a requirement to work in an office.
    What’s actually happened is that my employer’s only office in my city is closing because everybody said they’d rather keep working from home, so I don’t have to decide.
    But at some point we will go back to having on-site meetings at my team’s main office (NOT in my city), and I’m kind of looking forward to that, actually. I don’t want to go back to full-time in-the-office, but I enjoy seeing my colleagues in person *sometimes*.

  572. CatMintCat*

    If work from home became compulsory in my job, I would retire.

    We did it for six weeks and I hated it. I feel for teachers in the US who did a whole year of it, because I would have had to be locked up for my own safety and sanity.

  573. A moment of reckoning/power balance shifted*

    Employers can save large sums by shifting infrastructure costs (broadband access, furniture, computer equipment etc.) to employees.

    No way are they going to fund an office, with parking, for me if I only come on-site once or twice a month.

    Personally, I’m fine with this, but not everybody is in my situation.

    1. OlympiasEpiriot*

      If my firm went completely WFH, I would need, despite having received a big boost by taking this new job, more money so I could buy a bigger home where I could have a dedicated Home Office and I would need a far better internet connection.

      At a minimum.

      In the bigger picture, I really, really hate video conferencing.

      I like travelling for work. I like meeting new people and seeing old colleagues and friends again. I like spontaneity. None of these things work the same *in a job context* with WFH/work-from-someplace-remote-indefinitely.

      I’m in my 50s. I would give serious thought to seeing if I could manage retiring.

  574. weird of hermiston*

    Yes, this is a major reason why I am currently looking for other work. We have been back in the office full time for over a month and it’s so draining. My boss in particular is big on face time and traditional appearances even if they aren’t necessary. Management gives us the same old reasons why they can’t allow it (like it’s not fair to people with jobs that have to be on-sit- I get that, I’ve been in those positions but that’s what comes with the job), so I’m done. One of the most important parts of any jobs I apply to will be remote work at least 50% of the time, if not 100%.

  575. Gina*

    I’m looking for a new job and will jump at anything I’m relatively interested in that will let me work from home at least 2-3 days a week. We’re returning to the office in October. Let me rephrase. I will be returning to the office in October. The people who make the decision about have always worked from home even before the pandemic. The other couple of people who will also need to go back in are junior like me. But I only work with directors! So it’ll be me sitting in an office 24/7 just so leadership can pat themselves on the back and say they have a good office culture. I don’t want to go to your office lunch. I don’t want to be friends with my coworkers. I don’t want to work from the office at all when my colleagues aren’t there. I don’t want to spend an hour straightening my hair every morning. I’ll be one of THREE in a group of 100 going in every day when my job doesn’t require it and I get excellent reviews. And by the way, don’t pretend it’s not 70 percent people of color that will be returning because shocker–most of leadership is white.

  576. ecnaseener*

    It would certainly be a consideration for me — I’d start job searching if I was told I would be remote forever, but it would be a “let’s see what else is out there” job search, not a “get me the hell out of here” job search. After all, I’ve survived remote work for this long!

    My preference would be hybrid, not that I’ve gotten to actually try hybrid work yet. I’d be fine with fully in-person too, but I’d certainly expect more flexibility on the occasional WFH day than I expected in the Before Times.

  577. OlympiasEpiriot*

    Repost to un-nest.

    Sorry.

    If my firm went completely WFH, I would need, despite having received a big boost by taking this new job, more money so I could buy a bigger home where I could have a dedicated Home Office and I would need a far better internet connection.

    At a minimum.

    In the bigger picture, I really, really hate video conferencing.

    I like travelling for work. I like meeting new people and seeing old colleagues and friends again. I like spontaneity. None of these things work the same *in a job context* with WFH/work-from-someplace-remote-indefinitely.

    I’m in my 50s. I would give serious thought to seeing if I could manage retiring.

  578. Fashion Show at Lunch!*

    This is one of the main reasons I left my last job (way before the pandemic). When our office moved to a new state, I was offered the chance to stay and be fully remote. But the new state happened to be the one we were looking to move to anyway, so I said I wanted to move, thinking I could retain the regular WFH day(s) I had in the old location—only to be told after the move by my boss’s boss that no, I needed to be in the office every day. When I pressed him on why, he insisted that it’s because “the work is here.” Really? How can that be, if half of the team is remote and, in fact, you were willing to let me be fully remote as long as I lived in a different state? He finally admitted that he just personally hated WFH and didn’t want other local employees asking to do it. Honestly, the hypocrisy of management’s attitude toward WFH (“we know you can do your job just as well from home; we just don’t want you to”) was a bigger deal-breaker for me than losing the perk.

  579. Pobody’s Nerfect*

    Before March 2020 I felt unsafe and constantly on guard in my office environment due to some unresolved and unaddressed-by-Mgmt employee behavioral problems, which was of course incredibly distracting and stressful. It wasn’t just because of the pandemic that I felt safer than ever working from home. Employees who are confronted with workplace violence and volatile coworkers have never felt so safe if they were allowed to WFH. So yes, that factor plus an awful stressful commute plus micromanaging supervisors means I’m hoping that WFH is here to stay forever.

  580. julie*

    Working from home has greatly improved my quality of life.

    Pre-pandemic, I was commuting an hour (or more) each way and working longer hours to meet all my deadlines. Oddly enough, now that I’m working from home, I actually feel like I have MORE separation between my work and home life: my commute is a 10-second walk to my desk, and I don’t have to work long hours because I’m much more productive now that I’m not trying to focus in an open concept office. (I actually have the data to back that up; it’s not just wishful thinking on my part!)

    Thankfully, my workplace has opted to stay remote-first even after the pandemic is over, allowing us to decide when and how often we go in to the office. Now that I’ve seen how much better I do working from home (and now that they’ve set the expectation that we can stay remote if we choose), I’d definitely start job hunting if they changed course and wanted us all to come in to the office a certain number of days per week.

  581. CCinC*

    I’ve been working a hybrid schedule, which is what I want. I would absolutely quit if I had to be in 5 days a week. I work at a college, so there is a definite need to be there most of the time, we don’t need the whole department in every day. Many of our classes were hybrid already, and many students have really liked being able to do appointments remotely. It would just feel like an upper management power trip, and I’d be so angry it would be unhealthy. I’d have to go.

  582. RRR*

    I would like not to be quoted, please.

    I am absolutely planning on leaving because my employer won’t let me work from home. This reason scratches the surface of why I want to leave, but the whole situation is representative of the problems there.

    I requested accommodations to work from home and was refused. I asked for accommodations at the office and was refused in a very hostile manner. I asked questions about safety and was screamed at and insulted. I believe I could push this with a lawyer, and it is still something that I am going to consider doing, but the reality for me is that until I find another job, I need this one. I also hope that getting a job will be easier since I have a job.

    I have been back in the office a little bit now and it is clear to me that they are not following basic safety procedures. I tried to address this and was met with more screaming and lies. My boss has decided that the pandemic is over and that is the end of the story -for everyone. I would like to post some of his more telling comments, but they would be too easily identifiable. He lacks both logic and has a complete lack of concern for the health of his employees.

    He seems to focus on the idea that I should be grateful that I have a job and that he did SO MUCH to keep the business open. It his business, and while I’m happy enough to be employed, I would have been eligible for the increased unemployment if they had decided I couldn’t work from home before now. I bent over backwards when I was working remotely. I even did unpaid work. I should have know better.

    My boss also seems to believe that everyone should be just as invested as he is in his business, despite the fact that (almost) all of us are hourly employees with lousy benefits. He also feels like he is in charge, not just of the business, but of everything to do with anybody that has to do with him. So he’s entitled to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Lord of the manor, right? Employees should act like it is THEIR business, but not expect anything in return besides their paycheck.

    There were some valid reasons for me to come back, but a lot of the reasons just have to do with the fact that he knows that I cover for people who can’t be bothered to do their work or do it properly. But I’m exhausted by this, and I don’t want to do it any more, particularly since I know my coworkers pushed my boss for me to return. So essentially they all wanted me to return despite my health concerns, and refused to make any changes that would make it safer for me to be there. Yes, I know in some offices, people working from home made things harder for the people at the office, and in some instances I’m sure my being home made things harder too. But I picked up a lot of my coworkers’ work that in the office I wouldn’t have. Which, of course, now I’m expected to do as a matter of course. So as far as I can tell, this was just so they could screw around more while I work. I’m a big believer in the idea that you don’t really know what else your coworkers are doing all the time, so you don’t know how busy they are. But sometimes is is really obvious, and it is now.

    I can’t imagine staying there any longer than I absolutely have to. I have a lot of anger over him insisting I come back against medical advice, and then proceeding to lie and misrepresent what safety measures were being taken – even right in front of me. My office had an outbreak because of his not following these measures, including legal requirements, so I guess I don’t know why I should be surprised, but between one thing and another, I don’t trust him or anybody else who I work with and I don’t want to be there any longer.

    1. username-needed*

      I am so very sorry that this has happened to you.

      Definitely consider consulting a lawyer who specialises in this area of law.

    2. TIRED*

      I’m so sorry you are dealing with this. On top of all the horrible-ness, not following covid safety measures is really unforgiveable. I hope you are able to leave as soon as possible. Stay as safe as you can.

  583. Permanent WTF Lines*

    I left my previous job due to their WFH policy. They allowed me and my coworker (same position, both top performers)to WFH for three months at the beginning of the pandemic, but decided to bring us back to the office in June of 2021 (who knows why). Upper management was extremely tone deaf and there were a lot of little issues, but the straw that broke the camels back was them allowing my coworker to return to permanent WFH status after she received a remote job offer from another institution. The crazy thing is that my job was already remote. Every client I worked with was out of state, but they still required me to come into the office to do my work. I decided to start applying for remote positions and I actually ended up being recruited doing the same job with another employer in a different state that came with a completely remote schedule and a nice raise. And I love it! Had my previous employer let me WFH, I probably would have retired there. I gave them several opportunities to retain me, but they would not budge. Oh well, their loss!

  584. Mj*

    I recently quit my job and the changing WFH allowances was part of it. Our small company changed leadership — our previous CEO had closed the office completely and we’ve all been WFH since late 2019. In that time we’ve had our best year ever and started turning a solid profit (small startup largely funded by venture capital until this point). A lot of the employees, and most of my team, live in other states/countries so being in the office now isn’t really required. New CEO decided the week he started everyone local should start coming in to the office immediately. With a kid at home doing remote school, I was told if I wanted to “advance” in the company (at this point I was part of the senior management team, mostly be default since my direct manager left and her position wasn’t backfilled) I would have to come in to the office. Since this was March, with a couple months and a summer of having my kiddo at home, this just wasn’t going to work. Especially considering most of my team is geographicly remote, so I’d be doing virtual meetings anyway, I just didn’t see any value rearranging my life to be back in the office. So I gave my notice and left, without anything lined up immediately. I am fortunate to have enough savings and a high earning spouse I was able to just walk away from the job. And I’m 41, so I don’t think it’s an “old” vs “young” thing. I just couldn’t adjust that quickly to what I viewed as arbitrary demands to be back in the office and being told I would be professionally penalized if I couldn’t comply.

  585. Infosecretariat*

    If my employer doesn’t pivot from the official ‘return to office’ plan, I will probably wind up in a position where I have to choose between my job & my marriage.

    My spouse’s job is embracing remote work and is also allowing them to apply for office space in any of their company’s buildings. My job is requiring us to be in-office at least 3 days/week but have also made it clear that this could change to pre-pandemic norms at any time.

    Spouse desperately wants to move about an hour further away, where we could have a bigger house/yard and many QOL improvements. Unfortunately, my current commute is 2 hrs/roundtrip. I cannot handle increasing it, even if it’s only 3 days/week. I’m concerned my spouse will grow resentful that my career is the blocker, and will stat lobbying for my to quit and find a job that allows full time remote work.

    The kicker is that my job truly can be done remotely, and when I’m in the physical office I spend my entire day engaged in solitary/confidential work OR dialed into meetings where every single other participant is also dialed in because none of us are in the same location. But our senior leadership still wants us present in the name of “collaboration.”

  587. TheseBootsAreMadeForBoundaries*

    Yep! Had to wait to post this but we moved from mostly WFH to mostly in office. Going to a hot, dirty, crammed workspace an hour plus away from home has tarnished my view of my job.

    I realized that WFH has improved my quality of life and mental health significantly. I love being able to get full nights of sleep, and not have to be “on” all day at work. (Pretty sure I’m neuro-diverse and trying to find out what flavor). I am actively looking for a WFH role where I can feel like myself again.

    WFH/in office isn’t the only factor, but it piles on top of my org not taking safety very seriously this year. They’ve been pushing in person team building hard the whole time, have mislead safety protocols that will be used in office, and didn’t follow their own policies when staff tested positive.

    I’m tired of not only having to protect myself and my family, but also to defend having boundaries over and over again. I am the only person wearing a mask in this sauna.

    I will happily swap with an extrovert who loves summer weather. I appreciate that so many people write in here with different perspectives than me because it really helps to look at things from different angles!

  588. Ben1227*

    Absolutely — and I did! When the pandemic began, I was working in fundraising for local branches of the YMCA. All of our facilities closed and all staff either worked from home or were furloughed during the initial “lockdown” in our county, which lasted about 2 months. I worked from home effectively during that time, and was told I could continue to work remotely for the time being, but I was totally shocked and disappointed with how management & my colleagues handled it.

    Despite cases rising at a scary rate in our area, most of my coworkers (including those whose work, like mine, did not require they be in the office) were desperate to be back in-person. I was frequently the only staff member on Zoom during our regular team meetings, and my bosses pushed me to come into the office to do silly, unnecessary tasks (like “I really want to sign that card you’re sending to that donor, can you come in tomorrow so I can sign it?”). Mask wearing was not enforced (despite a mandate in our county) and social distancing was not a thing. We even had several cases of COVID transmission in our facilities during this time, including among staff!

    The final straw came last August when they asked me to start coming back to the office and to resume planning in-person fundraising events. I immediately started searching for fully WFH jobs. I started my new role in January, completely remote and so much happier.

  589. Gan Ainm*

    I am a returnee to my company, one of the reasons I previously left was actually lack of flexibility to wfh. There was a cultural discrepancy between a Corp office that encouraged wfh in theory but management that prohibited it (even for top performers with extenuating circumstances) in practice. The company has done a huge culture shift and is now allowing/ nearly mandating us to permanently WFH and it will be a major factor in retaining me long term.

  590. Late Night City Hawk*

    I’m one of the few people in my office who has voiced a dislike for WFH, that I didn’t intend to use any flexibility outside what was already available to me before the pandemic. And yet, funnily enough, yes I’m considering leaving because of my employer’s new, overly rigid WFH policies.
    While I may hate working from home, my staff loves it, and their performance has increased significantly during the pandemic. Enough so for me to comment on it and ask what about working from home worked so well for them, and what we could do to maintain their current level of performance. Obviously, they requested for the arrangement to be made permanent, and how could I argue? They were consistently meeting, exceeding!, my expectations, the work was getting done, they were more engaged, participated more in our meetings, they were taking more initiative… Clearly this is the best situation for them. I was on board. My boss was on board. THEIR boss was on board. But then HR released the new WFH policies and they are so rigid and conservative it’s laughable. A permanently remote situation would only be granted in “extraordinary” circumstances, and would require like 3 layers of approval above what we already have. I’m still waiting to see if we’re extraordinary enough. I know my team will walk if the answer is no.
    My inability to provide my team with what they need to perform at their best is immensely frustrating, especially since the solution seems so simple. But this has also caused me to reflect on my own experience here, and the MANY times my employer has refused to provide me with the basic resources and support I’ve needed to be successful in my role. It hit like a punch in the gut.
    I’m perfectly content to come into the office, but I’d never be able to shake the resentment of once again being set up to fail. I won’t be sticking around for long.

    1. username-needed*

      You sound like a wonderful manager who goes above and beyond to advocate for their team. I am really sorry that your employer is being pointlessly difficult. It is so disappointing.

  591. The dude*

    We were very anti work from home before the pandemic. My employer was promising to implement a remote work policy before we came back. The timeline for that policy has since been pushed back to next summer.

    My commute is over 30 minutes, so working remotely a few days a week would be incredible. The funny thing: my boss, boss’s boss, and boss’s boss’s boss thinks that delaying a remote work policy is absolutely bonkers. They think that we will all quit over the lack of policy. My boss has asked us multiple times whether the lack of wfh policy would cause us to look elsewhere, and if so, please share so that so they could share that feedback upward. I got a 6% raise out of the blue, which I didn’t ask for, and I suspect it’s because they’re afraid we’re all going to quit.

    It’s funny: I wasn’t thinking about quitting over the wfh policy, but my bosses having their hair on fire makes me think I should!

  592. MyySharona*

    I started at a new company the day they went remote for COVID last year and we haven’t returned yet. Some physical branches have shut down (taking advantage of ending leases, but people in those areas are still with the company) and MANY people have moved from the more expensive areas around office locations to entirely new, cheaper states. No reopening plan has been announced yet, but I’m gathering that if/when they open remaining office space, they won’t be forcing anyone to be present at the office if they don’t want to.
    At this point, I would have to give up the job if they change that stance. My wife and I are planning on selling our house before the end of the year to move to a spot with lower cost of living; if it was required for me to go to the office, I would need a substantial raise to remain in this city.
    Also, most of the people I work with daily are scattered throughout the US, with a few in London. My number of Zoom calls doesn’t change a bit; being in an office would just mean I’m always hunting for a spot to join those calls (it’s an open-plan office from the glimpse I got of it during my interview).

  593. Both In and out*

    My ideal is a hybrid. My role requires a lot of engagement and facilitation with leaders and peers from other departments. And I hate talking on the phone. Zoom is barely better – it drains me where an in person gathering will not. When I do reports or other independent work, home is ideal. In my current role of 8 months (i.e. post COVID) if I didn’t peek on LinkedIn, I still wouldn’t know what my work team looks like because everyone was tired of webcams before I got there. It is a good role, but the isolation was terrible for my mental health, so I quit, gave lots of notice and am training my replacement. Then taking the summer off and I have something lined up for September. I’m not in education so this is a lovely luxury to not have to job hunt while I’m taking the time I need. I’m used to remote work. I will not work rigid full time office hours nor full time remote ever again. Flexibility is key. My skills are in demand so it will be easier for me than for others.

  594. Dunder Mifflin Is A Step Up!*

    I am looking and will quit if something suitable comes along. My tech company is international, and my office is an anomaly compared to where my peers, management and team work. No windows. Bugs. Fights over who can have water from the “we paid for this” water dispenser. An enormous building that is NOT multistory. Essentially, my office sucked before COVID and now that I’ve been home and on calls with peers, managers, team and others all day who are in other offices, the fact that they’re making us come back by assigning us a “work model” without our input is…interesting. Not to mention, when we come in, we no longer have our own space but WE are also…required to clean that space before we leave for the day. Just. No. Oh…and they’ve measure productivity over the last year. We well exceeded it…

  595. Fred*

    I a 20+ yr employee at a usually wonderful company and I have great pay for the job I have currently due to that long term employment timeline along with excellent retirement benefits. I’m not quitting over going back 50%, (thought about it) but as my job is back office, e-work 100% and across town, I’m quite frustrated that when they recently completed a formal WFH plan that 100% WFH for positions that could accommodate it like mine, would not be an option and that in office attendance for our area was going to be 50% when it could have been say 10-20% if any. We have people who prefer to be in the office vs WFH so it’s not a staffing issue and its all e-work anyway. I am so motivated to WFH full time I offered to cut my salary by almost 1/3 to have that option available to me. Maybe they thought I was joking (it was in writing) but while I didn’t expect a yes I thought I’d at least get a no and an “it’s not fair to everyone else who can’t afford to cut their salary.” I’m bummed and annoyed about going into the office for no reason other than “we say so”.

  596. Sam Foster*

    I would absolutely quit my job over Work From Home policy. The pandemic has proven most people can perform quality work remotely. Companies need to recognize this and shit to a model where in person/in office events are kept to a minimum and rely on the judgement of the parties involved. Trust me to do my job including coming to in person appointments and bugger off with these prescriptive policies.

  597. nozenfordaddy*

    My company did a couple surveys over the course of all of us being WFH and has decided to implement WFH opportunities moving forward because so many people liked it. Its great to have that flexibility, some people are staying 100% remote, some are going to be 50-50, some will be in the office full time – mostly based on personal preference. It’s great and I look forward to the flexibility as we reopen offices 100% over the next month or so.

    But even if the company hadn’t decided to do this, I wouldn’t quit over it. My job offered decent flexibility on schedule, start/end times and time off already, my commute doesn’t suck (usually), my boss isn’t a micromanager so…. being back in the office full time wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me.

    Don’t get me wrong I am 100% down with still being able to work in my sweatpants and no bra a couple days a week – but it isn’t something I’m quitting over.

  598. TimeTravlR*

    Nearly 1,000 responses already so this will probably get buried. And perhaps it’s already been said, but if you read this far, thanks!
    Our agency (govt) is looking at hybrid models which are more employee-centric. Where, when and how does the employee want to work? To the extent possible (and with offices across the country that extent should be broad), we will be able to flex our schedules, work from home, work from another location, or work in the office, or a mix of those. I am amazed at how hard they are working to develop a plan that really allows employees to make work work for them. I honestly believe it will result in far less turnover and far more productivity.
    Should be interesting!!

  599. HarrietVane*

    I work for a large tech company and I would seriously consider quitting if I had to be in the office 5 days/week. Before COVID my division was already distributed across at least eight states, and my team across four. Fighting every day for meeting rooms, dealing with other teams’ loud conversations in open-plan offices (my work requires a lot of concentration time), and a long commute were NOT offset by free lunch and an onsite gym.

    Now I spend what would have been my commute time doing yoga, I’m a good-enough cook that I don’t miss the free food, and I am lucky in that I have dedicated office space that I never have to fight for. I’m way more productive! Current plan is to go full-time WFH (and move to a cheaper area!) and visit the (fun) cities where my co-workers are based once a quarter or so.

    I do feel for my younger co-workers who have smaller living spaces, louder roommates, and who miss the camaraderie of the office. I’m hoping to try to help out by doing more spontaneous, quick-chat calls. We also all keep running lists of our work that can be seen by anyone, so I definitely reach out when I see something that I think I could give input on. “Oh hey, I see you’re doing project X — I worked on something similar back when I was with Other Company — want to grab fifteen minutes and I can tell you a couple horror stories?”

  600. Caro*

    My job has been made significantly harder by WFH and I feel like the only reason it is even half-working right now is the pre-existing relationships and goodwill from before and each time one of the old guard moves on dealing with their replacement increases the difficulty. On top of that I haven’t seen the benefits of WFH that a lot of people do. I set up my life to work well when working from the office – my doctor, my kids daycare etc are all closer to the office than to home, and WFH has just turned all the prior convenience of that into inconvenience.

    So I am looking for a new job because of WFH, but I have also accepted that high levels of WFH are the new normal, so I am looking for a job that will fit the WFH life. I even just applied for a 100% remote job. I am looking at moving from people and project management to individual contributor, and at moving to doctors and daycare closer to home. I would be perfectly happy to snap my fingers and make everything go back to the way it was before, but since that isn’t going to happen I need to move on to setting myself up for professional and personal success in the new normal.

  601. CommanderBanana*

    Also, I think as workplaces start opening up, we’re going to see more horror stories like the one out of Florida. A county building had a COVID outbreak, and in the IT department, everyone except one person (who was vaccinated, no one else was) was hospitalized and 2 people died.

    I’m fortunate to live in an area that has a pretty high vaccination rate, but a few of my coworkers are refusing to get it. I don’t want to go through something like that.

  602. Jonquil*

    I wouldn’t quit over it, because I’m my family’s main breadwinner, and stability matters more to me, but I am low-key looking around and also advocating strongly at my current workplace for more flexibility. To be fair, they haven’t been terrible, but I am finding the 3 days a week we are now mandated to be in the office is quite hard work, especially since I had a baby just before the pandemic and am now trying to manage daycare pickups/dropoffs and a general lack of time to get myself ready for a day in the office.

  603. dontmakemegoback*

    My work is supposed to give an update to long term WFH/flexibility options this summer. The outcome of those policies will determine if I leave or not. We are in a hybrid right now and I hate anytime I have to go into the office.

  604. JustaClarifier*

    It looks like you have a great deal of comments already, but to add my voice: I am currently interviewing to leave my employer for this very reason. I was sticking out the very low pay, but the loss of flexibility and finally feeling like I was able to live my life while doubling my productivity, versus living to work and being exhausted constantly between commuting and the office culture, was the final straw, particularly since it was against the company’s own data. Not to mention I’ve had several documented medical issues completely go away since not having to work in the office, which is wild to me. So I’m done! Leaving for a possibly lesser title, but hopefully more pay and more flexibility.

  605. Ellie*

    I love working from home, and it will definitely factor into any decisions I make about where I want to work next. But I have over an hours commute either way, so if my workplace was closer, it wouldn’t be such a deal breaker for me.

    My biggest issue is that I manage a team where half the people love working from home and never want to go back, and the other half hate it and want everyone back in the office full time. So far I’ve been encouraging people to go back in one or two days a week if they can, with the justification being that part of a senior engineer’s job is to provide advice and help to the more junior engineers (every engineer who wants to come back is under 30. Every engineer who wants to permanently work from home is over 30. With management though, it is almost the reverse.). But its a problem that doesn’t seem to have a perfect solution.

    I am firmly in the ‘work from home permanently’ camp but we can’t afford to lose anyone right now, so I’ve been going in once or twice a week to support those that are there. I’m hoping the end result is a compromise of some sort.

  606. togiyedl*

    I would quit if my employer insisted on butts in seats. By not having to commute, I am so much less stressed. I have time during the week to duck out & get groceries. In the before times, I would be so exhausted by the time I got home, I couldn’t summon the energy to get to the store & we’d end up ordering pizza because there was simply no food in the house.

    Also, because we’re less stressed, my husband & I are getting along better than ever. I truly had no idea how much own stress was contributing to low-level frustrations with day to day stuff. I find I laugh more, I’m more relaxed, I’m enjoying every day more. Because I’ve been commuting to an office for so long, I really had no idea what that was doing to me, what it was costing me.

  607. Anonymous4321*

    I did, for a job that will let me work remotely full time unless there is a specific project that requires my presence in the office. I’m a more effective, efficient and devoted employee when I’m working from home. My last day at my employer of 20 years is next week.

  608. An Orb*

    My husband just quit his job that was requiring everyone to come back to the office at all times in favor of a job at a company that’s staying all remote indefinitely. It’s not even just for comfort and flexibility reasons– though we both prefer working from home purely for comfort reasons, he wouldn’t have switched just for that as he’d been with his last employer for over a decade and had been perfectly happy there before.

    It is just entirely unsafe to have a whole workplace packed with people again already, and they have been pressuring people to come back in since last fall so our trust that they’re handling any of this in a reasonable way has been thoroughly shot through. He tried to work out a remote or even just mixed hybrid schedule with them, specifically bringing up the fact that I’m immunocompromised. Many if not all of the higher ups were getting to stay remote, but they wanted the individual contributors to all pack back in like sardines into their open floorplan office, naturally. They were not even a tiny bit receptive to his request and started trying to scare him into thinking he’d be fired if he didn’t immediately return in person, so he said ok and left for somewhere that is letting everyone be remote lol. Had the new job set up in less than a week.

    I do not understand how employers think people won’t call their bluffs on things like this, especially long-tenured people with highly in-demand skills. He had really loved this employer before and was very, very disappointed that the first time he asked for flexibility in all his many years there, he was met with hostility. Being disabled I knew that’s what would happen, because it’s the most typical reaction to mild requests for anything (they hit him with the same playbook of pressure that I always get when I arrange accommodations at a new job) and based on how they had reacted to the pandemic from day one they were telegraphing that they were going to be jerks about it at every turn.

    A lot of abled folks are learning in this pandemic what the other half has known about business pettiness for a long time! All the thinkpieces about how all work was changing forever were so funny to me last year because this turn has been so predictable. At least my experiences allowed me to prepare him for the nonsense before it happened.

    1. Both In and out*

      This is really interesting how you’ve drawn a parallel between WFH policy and accommodations “playbook of pressure” you’ve dealt with for years. You’re right, it’s not obvious to abled people, or at least to me, so I thank you for sharing your insights. And glad your husband found another job. His old employer sounds like they had better learn quickly or lose more talent.

    2. Working Hypothesis*

      “I do not understand how employers think people won’t call their bluffs on things like this, especially long-tenured people with highly in-demand skills.”

      I think most of the type of manager who does this to their employees doesn’t *really believe that the employees will ever have any other options. After all, *they* don’t value their employees, why would it occur to them that anyone else might do so?

      This may also have something to do with why this type of boss gets so mad at any employee who departs for a better job. It’s never occurred to them that anyone might want their employees enough to treat those employees markedly better than they do; so when they discover that anyone ‘poached’ their employees by the simple expedient of treating them well and offering them jobs, it feels like those companies did something unfair.

  609. KMD*

    I am actually giving my notice tomorrow, leaving a job I’ve been at 13 years for one that will be 100% remote.

  610. WFH Queen*

    I work in a global role, and while my company has a regional office in my town, my job does not require me to interact with anyone in that office. I WFH full time before covid, maybe going in once a week or every two weeks for social aspects.

    They have reopened the office and are allowing people to return organically. If for some reason the company decided to no longer allow anyone to work remotely I’d be very upset. I spend all day sitting in video and conference calls. Why would I need to do that from an office?? On top of it my work life balance, and possibly even my health (for reasons I won’t go into here), would be impacted.

    Would I quit? No. I love my career and I’ve become fairly successful over the last 23 years. We have great benefits.

    If anything I see my company moving the other direction – being more open and willing to allow a wider WFH staff base.

  611. Koakm*

    While I enjoy the office, commutes are a terrible waste of time. I have kids, need to cook dinner, would like to go on a jog, should probably clean a bit, and that’s a whole lot to squeeze into a day shared with work. A job has a good defense wanting to indicate where your work is done; but they are on shakey ground forcing you to use non-work hours to get there. The day the commute is part of the 8 hours is the day I concede.

  612. WFH FTW*

    Would you leave your job over its work-from-home policies?

    Yes. I would try and line up a new role prior to leaving if I could, but I have high-risk household members and I refuse to put them at risk. I live in a place where vaccinations levels are low due to government incompetence, and we are experiencing new outbreaks and lockdowns.

    But even if the pandemic disappeared tomorrow, I still do not want to go back into the office, ever again. If I were in a financial position to quit over work-from-home policies without having another job lined up, I would.

    I work in the legal sector, and there is about 1-2% of my job that cannot be done remotely, but at least half of that 1-2% are actually admin tasks that are not actually part of my job that I only do so someone else doesn’t have to do it.

    If you’ve been remote, would you consider leaving if your office required you to return?

    Absolutely, 100%.

    My boss and I are both on the same page with this, as are all our direct reports. We have two grandbosses: one is absolutely dedicated to WHF, and the other oscillates wildly between wanting to drag everyone back into the office (pointlessly, I might add), and leaving everyone at home. The latter grandboss is well aware he will lose basically all his staff if he forces the issue.

  613. BEE*

    In late 2019, I was promoted into an operational/service role in the government department I’d been working in for the last year. I was doing challenging work in the disability sector that aligned with my skill set and degree. I adored the people I worked with, and my boss was amazing. The problem was that I had a 2+ hour commute every day and a young child, and I was burning out. As per employment law in my country, I requested flexible working options, which were almost immediately declined by my boss’s boss without any reason outside of “it doesn’t meet business needs”, despite the fact that my role could easily be done from home, and I’d demonstrated that I could do it remotely on past occasions where I needed to stay home when my child was ill.

    I quit, and took a role 5 minutes from my home. I was very sad to leave my team and worried that I’d left prematurely, especially since three months later COVID happened and the entire department had no choice but to work remotely. By now, most of the employees working there are working a blend of remote and in the office days, but there is a big push by the state manager to have everyone return to the office full time and for remote working to end. Of course, this announcement was met with a lot of disgruntlement considering that all of the higher level managers and executives continue to work from home most of the time, and there are inconsistent messages and rules around who can work from home and when.

    Last fortnight, I attended a Zoom interview for an opening in my old team. The interview panel asked me why I had originally left the department and I explained the lack of work life balance and my long commute, and talked about how I understood there was more flexibility post-COVID on remote working for the department. The panel (who were all obviously working from home) explained that while that was true through 2020, the state manager was pushing for full return to the office and they weren’t sure how much longer flexible work policies would continue, although they did point out that individual agreements could be negotiated in alignment with national employment law. I refrained from pointing out that this did not happen the last time I worked for the department!

    Currently, I’m working in a WFH role and one of the main reasons I wanted this job was because it is WFH! My boss trusts me to be productive and manage my time, like any reasonable working adult should be able to. It definitely makes me feel valued and that my work/life balance is important and respected.

    1. WFH FTW*

      Your old job sounds exactly like my husband’s job in a very similar industry sector in Australia. That said, the company he works for is part of a loose network, so to speak, of government-funded entities, and all the other companies in the network are disgusted by the attitude being displayed by the one C-suite moron at my husband’s work who is pushing for everyone to be pointlessly forced to come back to the office.

      Absolutely stupid way to run a business. Why piss off your employees with power-flex refusals of perfectly reasonable requests? (If your ex-employer is in Australia and that was the reason for their refusal, they have likely not actually met their legal obligations under the National Employment Standards.)

      1. Bee*

        No, they didn’t! They didn’t give me a rejection reason listed as reasonable under the Fair Work Act. I was aware of this at the time, but I figured there was no point going to HR and kicking up a fuss about it since all that would likely achieve would be getting me blacklisted from any future promotion. It was easier to quit and get a new job closer to home.

  614. Eva Inocente*

    Ability to work from home was one of the core priorities for a relative recently job-hunting. It was a sticking point for their old company before they were laid off, and it was a requirement for jobs they applied for (and got one that allowed it 100%!)

    Where I live (not US), WFH has been a pipe-dream for freelancers and unconventional industries, but we were all forced home at least part-time in the pandemic. Now some big companies claim they will be entirely WFH going forward, and many are promising a hybrid system of some kind, and using it as an enticement on job descriptions. I sense a big change coming but everyone is fuzzy on the details–most companies reimburse transportation here, so how will that work, etc. Even slow-to-change areas are being pushed to adapt!

    I would not immediately quit my job over being forced to/unable to WFH, but it would definitely factor into my long-term career plans and might lead me to leave my current company sooner than planned. I would expect not only to be able to choose where I work, but also to be managed well regardless–not forgotten if I’m WFH, not spending all my in-office time doing grunt work for WFH people. I have been almost entirely WFH for over a year and a half with great results, even getting a promotion during this time, so I assume I am a valued worker–I say this to illustrate that this will be an important issue for companies wanting to attract and retain talent.

  615. Melissa*

    I work in state government and traditionally we have been required to live within commutable distance of our state office HQ. Prior to the pandemic we were (v. slowly) starting to expand telework and were allowed to work remotely less than 50% of our workweek. So those on a 5-day schedule could work from home 2 days/week whereas those on a 4-day could work from home 1 day/week. We went full remote with the pandemic with a handful of exceptions and starting mid-Sep we’re required to work in the office 1 day/week. We’re told upper levels of our agency and statewide HR are considering allowing full remote work to continue and to stop requiring people to be within commuting distance of their office. Maybe even allowing people to fully work out of state, but that’s more of a moonshot.

    For now it’s not a deal breaker for me, but I’ll continue to advocate for at least full remote work within the state. I think it’s starting to affect our recruiting and I personally would prefer to move away from this area. It’s MCOL verging on HCOL and I’d prefer the flexibility to find somewhere I might be able to afford buying a house on a public employee’s salary…

  616. Blazer205*

    I work for a large university who has been considered a leader in how they’ve handled Covid safety. With that said, I have transferred departments over this very issue. My previous department wouldn’t allow the option to work from home, even though most every other department on campus allows that option. My thoughts are: We were forced into remote work for nearly a year and made the necessary changes to our work styles so that business could continue. Then after we acclimated to this “new normal,” we were forced back to the office with no adjustment period. We have the infrastructure in place to work remotely, it should be an option now… an added job perk for those wishing to utilize it. Now as a result of their policy, that department is experiencing massive turnover.

  617. DinoGirl*

    I recently had to make this decision and it was very difficult. I had a remote job, likely at most to be hybrid, but I disliked the work.
    I was offered a rare public sector job, which has other benefits (public service loan forgiveness…), and work I prefer. But public sector isn’t on board with remote. I accepted the job.
    I’m still torn. I have moments where I feel like I should’ve stuck with the extreme flexibility I had. I read desire for remote outweighs job.
    I’m in HR, and probably 98% of separating employees were leaving for at least hybrid remote, or full remote, so I did notice this trending over the last few months.

  618. HelloHello*

    I went to full-time remote six years ago, when I went to my manager and said (more politely, but functionally) “I need to work remote full time or I am going to quit.” They allowed the switch, and I continued working remotely for them for several years, and it’s had a noticable positive impact on my mental health and quality of life. I left that job and started a new job mid-pandemic this year, which is also 100% remote. If they tried to switch it to non-remote I’d immediately start looking for a new job. (Mostly because remote work is so important to me, partly because their physical offices are in a different state and I’m not willing to move.)

  619. Wintermute*

    Working in IT with 3/4ths of my team located in another state and 1/4th of it permenently remote for years after their location was shut down, I would absolutely leave if I’m not full WFH. If I do I would not consider a position with more than 20min commute unless it was at least 3/4ths work from home or any position that wasn’t at least 1/4th WFH. It’s not hard in my line of work and literally nothing changes about my daily routine because I’m already mostly working with people not onsite, at this job. When I was in the office I was behind a secured data center access door that only four or five people had keys to from the rest of the site so it’s not like a lot of “collaboration” was happening anyway.

    In short, I’m not considering jobs that don’t offer any WFH in the future, and if they want me on site at all they’d better be prepared to pay a premium for it, because it’s become more and more normal.

  620. Goeettthhhe*

    I actually HAVE just quit over the issue of remote work. Next week I start a new job that is permanently hybrid WFH, with one in-office team day a week and one in-office company day a month. I’m very happy about the move, even though it’s a pay cut, because my old company had zero flexibility about any wfh days at all as a regular thing.

    To be fair though, they were always up front about wanting it to be on-site – even if I disagree with the assessment that it’s 100% necessary – and I moved during lockdown which increased my commute. So it’s definitely a mix of factors and it’s completely Old Job’s right to decide the parametres of the role, but I’m SO RELIEVED. I’m not even that worried to take the pay cut, as this move will allow me to freelance and consult as well.

  621. vho842*

    Has anyone read the recent article from the NYT? I think, that was an essay by a former higher up at BuzzFeed, and it was all about the masculine ego and getting that feeding of their social hierarchy and networking (bleh) that came with the masculine-presenting privilege. Really interesting insight as to the managers that seem like they have no reason to have people come back to the office. Will link if permitted. :)

  622. Renee*

    I would absolutely resign if my company’s policy changed. I’ve been working remotely for almost 5 years in 2 jobs. Last year I convinced my partner to move from a major city to a smaller town, and when she asked if it would hurt my job prospects, I said, there are so many quality of life benefits to not going into an office that I am not sure anyone could pay me enough money for me to give up remote work.

  623. Cass*

    I’m very extroverted, so while a day home every now and again is a nice perk for me, I’m not married to it.

  624. Hunnybee*

    I’ve noticed that my company has been hyping up the “come back to the office” speech over the past weeks and they have been planning some onsite gatherings which, while they sound fun, aren’t enough to justify a full on fly-in trip to the office (like happy hours and picnics). I get the sense that they’re all amping up for a return to normal office life, which means that eventually they’ll require those of us they hired during COVID to move to their city/state, or else they will keep us remotely but there will be implicit pressure to move.

    I was hired as a 100% remote worker and supposedly my insurance benefits were meant to work wherever we live in the U.S. But my remote insurance benefits have never worked– I’ve always been considered out of network, so I had to purchase my own individual insurance to supplement the employer insurance (side note: people aren’t talking much about insurance benefits for those of us working remotely).

    I feel a little bit like the remote jobs have been a bit of bait and switch, or a convenient way of getting workers during a challenging time, but now companies want to return to the mainstream dominant office culture. It angers me.

  625. Invisionable*

    So in my recent job search I actually avoided companies that would be 100% remote or require me to work with the team that’s based in another office.

    100% WFH doesn’t work for me but a hybrid model is fine. Of course there are many benefits from working from home including the quieter space, reduced commute, more flexible hours etc.

    But there are so many challenges. First work 40 to 60 hours a week and I find that having a separate space to do this improves my work life balance.

    Also my job is about half doing project management and the other half doing creative work. The routine “weekly process” related stuff is easy to do online but it’s been so hard to do creative collaboration and build relationships with my stakeholders via the screen. Because everything has to be scheduled, we lose out on all that creative energy we spent hanging out in each other’s cubes or talking over lunch. I also have a much harder time roping everyone together when we need to troubleshoot something in a project or there is an time sensitive situation.

    My last issue is that I’m visually impaired. The truth is a lot of the collaboration out there like Slack or Miro just doesn’t work well for people with bad vision. Many of these apps don’t work with a screen reader at all, and those that do require a lot of visual context or the ability to scan up and down the document quickly in order to understand what’s being said. It was much easier to collaborate in the office when people were either using properly threaded emails, meetings or in person communication rather than these apps which I find pretty “half-baked” from an accessibility perspective.

    I felt the question of accessibility was really missing from the work from home conversation when Covid first hit, and I really hope that could be baked in to our processes and policies as we return to work now.

  626. louvella*

    Knowing that I was going to have to return to the office 4 days a week in July encouraged me to start looking, and I’m glad it did because now I’ve got a job lined up where I only have to go in once a week and I’m making 37% more.

  627. Auntie Kay*

    I’ve been searching for WFH opportunities for about 10 years and the best I could find was self employment “gigs” because the few WFH opportunities that did exist were few and far between. Personally, the expanded opportunities are what I’ve most looked forward to when the pandemic started. That will be a definite deal breaker for me moving forward!

  628. TIRED*

    Office worker here, able to do 95% of my work remotely, with proper equipment (decent laptop, proper server and software setup). Yes I am reconsidering what I want from a job. Prior to covid I would say that the social aspect of work was important to me and that I could not imagine working remotely more than maybe 1 day a week. Now I see that companies for jobs in my field (and lots of office STEM fields) can make it work, because that had to with covid. After dealing with a boundary-breaking boss and reflecting on anxiety I felt dealing with ignorant coworkers, I see another positive to WFH is avoiding lots of racist and sexist bullshit. (I work in STEM and all my workplaces ever have been majority white men. I am not a white man.) I encourage everyone to try to separate your social life from your workplace. Don’t have it be your only source of socialization.

    I’m noticing that lots of managers that are pushing for “butts in the seats” are the same ones that use favoritism to promote people. Pre-covid: Josh laughs at all the boss’s jokes and is always in for post-work happy hours, and then Josh gets promoted when his work is mediocre. Can Josh and boss repeat this when people are 100% WFH? Eh, not really.

    There is also the whole personal-safety-from-covid aspect to this. I asked in an interview about their approach to vaccines, knowing they were returning to the office soon. When they repeated almost word-for-word false GOP talking points about the vaccine, I knew this would not be a safe working environment. That for sure there would be anti-vaxxers.

    Open office layouts are not great for focusing on work, add covid to it and that’s a definite deal-breaker for me. If companies think that allowing WFH 1-2 days a week is radical, they are in for a rude awakening. Myself and several friends are thinking more along the lines of going into the office 1-2 times a month. And we are in our 30s and 40s.

    There are downsides to working 90%+ remote. It will be easier with a company that provides proper equipment. It will also be easier when we aren’t in full isolation mode and can go out to a park / library / coffee shop / coworking space when we want a change of space. Smaller apartments are tough (I’m in one right now) but I will try to find a way to make it work. The downsides don’t outweigh the positives for me, especially gaining back all that commute time.

    So yes it already is a key factor in my job search. Ideally I want a job where the majority of workers are remote, so that the remoters aren’t second-class. My current field is stupidly rigid, and it seems like most companies are going to push for a full return summer / fall with very limited WFH. I’ll keep exploring but I’m also thinking of changing fields so that I can be remote in my next job. I have friends in software who were mostly remote pre-covid and their job setup now sounds ideal.

  629. Software Engineer*

    I am working overseas but ready to go back home, and moving to the city where not family is instead of where my company HQ is (which was where I lived before the international move). I was able to secure the ability to work remotely for my same team because they value me, but otherwise I was left with the choice to change teams (for one in the small office in my destination) or leave the company.

    It’s not so much that I want to work remotely for the sake of being remote but that I want to move for personal reasons, which I think many have done or are doing, and that’s the only way to do my current job

  630. Anony-Mouse*

    If I had to go back to the office full-time or even four days a week, yes, I’d start job-hunting. Even at three days in person, I’d be exploring other opportunities. I really want full-time remote or one day a week at most. I could stomach two days but wouldn’t be too happy about it. The location of the job’s office has also changed due to covid and my commute has increased, so that’s something I need to be mindful of as well.

  631. JustAThought*

    While not directly on topic, I worry about the new desire for folks to work from home coupled with hedge funds/investment properties buying up chunks of available housing in suburbs, etc., to make them part of a rental pool. There’s a loose connection in the trends & neither seems favorable to the worker/renter/formerly potential homeowner. I’m not smart enough to fully project this out, but it does raise concerns that I can’t fully calm. Almost feels like there are going to be future “company towns” but where the company is the investment company owner of the properties, but weirdly I feel like WFH is going to play into this trend. Who knows. It’s late, I’m rambling.

  632. Someone has to man the desk!*

    I completely understand folks who would considering leaving their job if the company was requiring 100% in office time (if the work can be at least partially remote).

    I think my biggest struggle as a manager navigating these conversations is that the majority of concerns are based on commute length. We live in an expensive metropolitan area but work in academic medicine, so there is a lot of required “in office” time when not in pandemic times. Our guidance from leadership has bee 3 days in office/2 days WFH post Labor Day, but I’m getting lots of concerns from individuals that live farther out about commute length (everyone was required 100% in office pre-pandemic times). I want everyone to have a sustainable work/life balance, but I can’t give people who have the same work different WFH expectations because they live farther away.

    To be clear, I’m more than happy to accommodate medical/disability reasoning, but I can’t foster resentment in a team by making those who live closer by come in to work and let those who live farther away telecommute 100% (especially when that means in office work will be sloughed onto the “close by-ers”). I’m worried about losing really solid staff because of this, but also can’t see a way to meet leadership expectations, accommodate the medical/disability needs of some, the needs of our business, equity amongst staff, and commuting preferences! Any ideas are welcome!!

  633. Steph*

    I am a government employee in an office job where we have clients that we only deal with over the phone – no in person contact. The government isn’t the most flexible or very likely to consider employees’ wishes… we’re all replaceable. I was just required to return to the office this week after 15 months of WFH. We’ve already lost some employees and several more are looking for jobs that will allow WFH. I haven’t made my mind up yet, as I’m close to a milestone anniversary with my employment that I don’t want to give up, so I said I’d give returning to the office a chance, but if I hate it and it derails all the extra time I’ve gotten used to in my personal life with not having to commute (not to mention dealing with office drama, in-office- specific micromanagement, a ridiculous dress code, and especially annoying coworkers), I will definitely consider looking elsewhere, with a goal of staying within the government to retain my benefits.
    (feel free to quote this anonymously)

  634. Ina Lummick*

    With my current job, I work 2 days on site and then 3 days remote.

    I think if I had to go back 100% on site, and my remote working paperwork was rejected, I would be looking for another job.

    My commute is 2 hours round trip on a good day. When I had to work remotely full time it made me realise how much of a timesink my commute is (and money wise…I spent around £100 a month on fuel before covid) and when I started going back on site I forgot how exhausted it made me.

  635. Castaspella*

    I’ve been interviewing recently and had a meeting with one hiring manager about four weeks ago, who proudly announced all staff were already back in the offices full time with no more wfh, because you just can’t do the job remotely (spoiler alert, you can, I’ve been doing it for 16 months). I’ve just found out that one of their regional offices has had to close after a covid outbreak there affecting several people, with at least one staff member now quite seriously ill from it. I wonder if he’s still so proud..?
    While I don’t expect to be working from home full time forever, I think employers need to consider a hybrid at the very least and not expect they can magic it away because it’s no longer convenient, or doesn’t fit their outdated narrative that staff can’t possibly be working when they’re not in an office.

  636. Nic*

    I don’t think I’d be interested in continuing my job if it remained fully remote, as it’s been since last March. By “fully remote” I mean no regular in-person contact at all – I don’t want to go back to the office five days a week.

    I’ve found that the things I don’t particularly enjoy about my job (stakeholder management, a lot of the softer skill bits of line management) have been even less enjoyable remotely.
    While some of the bits I do enjoy that really rely on human interaction (strategic planning, creative development) have also suffered.

    Really, I want to be able to use the location that works for the activity I’m doing, not necessarily split into “days”. Remote for focussed work or information exchange meetings, in-person for basically everything else.

    But yeah – remote all the time doesn’t work for me and I would find another job if that was going to be the case.

  637. chloe_ehj*

    I really enjoy my current role, but I think I would be forced to quit if we went fully remote. As a social person who thinks best by talking with others, I’ve felt understimulated and struggled to motivate myself throughout WFH; I’ve also found it has taken a lot longer for my junior employees to develop without the learning-by-osmosis that comes from being around others working, and I’ve found it much, much harder to coach them. I’m fairly junior (mid 20s) myself, and have felt the loss of the ability to swivel my chair around and chat through a problem. As much as I’m grateful for the flexibility to do a couple days a week from home, I just wouldn’t be happy doing it long-term.

  638. Teapot Wrangler*

    I would like to work from home mainly and go into the office one or two days a week. In previous roles, I’d have been looking for another job if that wasn’t forthcoming. My current job is a bit of a unicorn – I’ve never seen something like it advertised – so it wouldn’t be the case for me at the moment but lots of people in my industry are talking about moving firms if they can’t work from home a significant amount and lots of firms are announcing new policies to support that

  639. Slug Dev*

    It’s definitely a make-or-break issue for me! Work spaces in my industry (I’m in tech) tend to be open, or have short cubicles or dividers that don’t provide enough of a visual barrier to focus. Even before COVID, part of my process of vetting a potential job was that they either had tall cubicles or allowed WFH. At this point, I wouldn’t take a job that didn’t allow me to work from home full-time. COVID has added a new dimension to all this, too. My current company’s official position is that they follow CDC guidelines, but they are very relaxed about it in ways that I’m uncomfortable with.

  640. LondonLady*

    I was going to leave a job until they offered the opportunity to work from home. This was back in c2008.
    My job was working as a client consultant within a company – think teapot care advice for teapot company customers – based in the HQ with a manageable daily commute. After several years, the firm merged with another and decided to relocate to the other company’s larger nicer offices, which unfortunately were nearly 2 hours away from my home. I submitted my resignation. They said “would you stay on if you could work from home?” and we made it work, they supplied a computer & phone and paid for my internet. I would go into the office a couple of days a month for meetings or training.
    It was a win-win, the company & clients retained my experience, I retained a job I loved and it gave me valuable experience of homeworking before it became the norm.
    I was lucky that this was a very progressive company that truly believed its staff was its greatest asset: a colleague and I had previously proposed a temporary job share arrangement (she was returning from maternity leave, I had a major project outside work) which they had readily accepted.
    Sadly a few years later the firm relocated again, closed certain teams, and I accepted redundancy, but they were a great employer and I still think of them as a model of best practice.

  641. DontKnowWhatImDoing*

    No, but mostly because I work in a sector of non-profit that highly benefits from the workers be in-office to assist our clients. We were deemed essential because of what we do (think ancillary services to health care) and it was surprising we were allowed to work at home at all. Especially since sone programs are HIPAA protected.

  642. Schmitt*

    Before the pandemic, I would not have considered 100% remote work.

    Turns out, all my gastrointestinal symptoms were stress-related and disappeared when I work from home.

    I changed jobs to a remote-first company which is committed to making it work and I am SO impressed with how they’ve handled it.

  643. Prison Educator*

    For me the issue with Working from Home is simple. For a lot of people it works, it saves commuting time which saves time, money and the environment. Technology has proved itself to work. Basically it’s been a win win situation.
    What it has impacted is the poor managers, the old-fashioned ones who can’t cope if they are not standing over you telling you what to do, the suspicious ones, the nosy ones, the bossy ones, the ones with the inferiority complex. In short all the ones who are “Bosses” not Leaders.
    They hate WFH because they think it lessens their power, they can’t handle the fact that most people are competent workers who will do their jobs well without them, as it shows they were not really needed in the first place.
    I’m not talking about workers who like going into the office, they are not the ones trying to enforce no WFH. It’s a certain breed of manager who is doing it.
    So yes, WFH is the way forward, most people should have the chance. I’m an exception, as a prison educator I can’t WFH but I support everyone who can.

  644. moss*

    I’ve been working from home for probably seven years or so. After lockdown started my manager told me he had new (!) respect for those who work from home. He’s back at the office now as are some of my coworkers. Other coworkers have elected to WFH full time going forward.

    I will never go into an office again. I would absolutely look for another job if office work were suddenly required of me. As a statistician for a CRO, I am accustomed to an industry-wide culture of working from home. I am also accustomed to being constantly recruited (most recently a former coworker offering me a job 2 titles higher than my current title) so it’s an employee market in my industry. Because of the high demand for people in my position I am used to being able to set the terms of my employment and WFH is fundamentally a requirement for me.

    My industry emphasizes collaboration with widespread teams so the culture of online meetings is already well-established. There’s not really a need to go into an office to work on projects with people who are in a different company and location and time zone anyway.

    So that’s the baseline and WFH is the norm in my CRO experience. The extra consideration for me is that I do have a young child at home and even though my husband is also WFH the bulk of the childcare falls to me. (“Just make your husband–” No.) I’m up for a promotion right now so I’ve made it work but having the childcare requirement (which includes complicating factors) has been a different level of stress. Having to go into an office… I can’t imagine it. Actually one perk of WFH is that I can work and cry at the same time and I’ve been doing a lot of that recently.

    The additional consideration for me is that as a woman in an office I’ve been subjected to unwelcome attentions and WFH absolutely frees me from that. I don’t miss dealing with the gross guy(s) every day and figuring out how to dodge uncomfortable interactions etc. Being judged on my appearance etc. Obviously I’m a dinosaur and maybe office culture has changed since I was last in one and we’re all civilized now but my reluctance to go into an office is partly informed by my past experiences.

    WFH allows me to be safer and richer and in today’s market I can continue to demand that. And I will.

  645. Becks*

    If I could afford it I would absolutely quit and begin exploring other opportunities. I feel like I was more successful in my role while WFH but my boss is forcing us back into the office because he’s in some sort of power battle with another employee and he’s too lazy to look for an alternative office space. I’m also thinking about starting a family soon and if I switch jobs I may not qualify for some paid family leave right away so I’m factoring that in along with the fact that I currently work for a non-profit and am working towards PSLF. Honestly, my boss not advocating for a hybrid schedule to our board has now broken my trust. I thought he would have our backs but now I rethinking everything and I’m realizing he’s a worse manager than I thought and I’m reckoning with that as well.

  646. Lorax*

    My position was work from home before the pandemic started, so luckily COVID didn’t disrupt too much for my company. However, what did change is that I had initially planned on renting a coworking space after moving to a new city so that I’d at least have the chance of meeting new people. I’m very introverted, but even still, it’s been lonely not having that possibly for community. And it’s a little tedious staring at the same four walls day in and day out.

    Unfortunately none of the coworking spaces near me survived the pandemic. I’m hoping new ones will open up, but if not, I’m not sure what I’ll do. One the one hand, I absolutely love the freedom of working from home. I feel more productive, and because my husband’s job has nonnegotiable in-person working conditions and long hours, having the flexibility to get things done during the day has DRASTICALLY improved our quality of life. I’m not sure I’d want to give that up. On the other, seeing people occasionally is really energizing. I’d like to find a good middle ground.

    All that said, right now, I *do* feel empowered to quit my job. Not because of work from home arrangements, but just generally because there are so many job openings. I’ve been randomly offered jobs by strangers in stores! I feel like I’m in a place where maybe I don’t need to just keep grinding away in order to survive — maybe I could actually pursue a dream. For the first time ever.

  647. Bbbbb*

    My husband has started a new job during the pandemic. It’s remote for now, but they will want him in the office 3 days a week from September, so we’re moving to the city where the job is based. My job is fully remote with quarterly face-to-face meetings. I’ll be close enough to go back for those meetings, but if they start needing me in the office again any more frequently, I won’t have a choice about needing to quit!

  648. BlackCatOwner*

    I’m very late to this comment thread, but flexibility to work from home will be a key factor in future job searches. I accepted a new job recently that is 8am – 5pm, no work from home ever, with ungenerous PTO policies. I work in an accounting – I can go all day without having a work related conversation with a co-worker (especially since many of them are out in the field, so they don’t work from the office!) The job is currently filling a critical experience gap on my resume, which made the work environment worth it, but I hate it, and I plan to move on in a year – but only to a job with more flexible hours / WFH policy! If my employer were to change their policy, I’d probably stay for years, because there’s a lot to like about my job. I wish they’d see that there’s value in giving flexibility to employees in order to retain them.

  649. Librarian45*

    I am a manager in a library. My staff have very different duties, some very specialized. Some HAVE to be in person, but others could be 100% remote (technical services). The problem we run into is the “fairness” of some people being allowed to work from home while others have to return to the building based on their job duties. The best solution our director has is to return everyone to the building (as it was pre-COVID) with no individual special treatment. Of course there is outcry- those whose jobs could remain remote want to have that option. My own job could be flexible (remote and on site) if these options were given.
    All that to say, I do think there are a few who might quit/retire now that they’re all being forced to come back. I won’t quit, because although I’ve enjoyed the increased work/life balance, I also took this job understanding that I work in a service industry and that generally requires me to be in the same building as our customers.

    1. Librarian45*

      And I’m going to add- as a manager, I WANT people to quit and find another job if they desire to work from home. You shouldn’t work in a library and expect your job to be made permanently remote… we found work to keep employees paid during the pandemic but it’s not sustainable to pay service employees to watch webinars all day forever. If a person works a job that needs to be in person but they want to work remotely, quit and find a job that allows that flexibility.

    2. Jake*

      Fair doesn’t mean equal. It isn’t inherently unfair to allow employees who can work remote to work remote while not allowing those that can’t. That being said, you are correct, if it is a deal breaker, they are free to find work elsewhere that does offer that flexibility, and the job market is going to make it incredibly difficult to replace them.

  650. Jake*

    I’m lucky that my partial wfh is still being allowed, but if it wasn’t, there is no way I’d quit over it. My current job is awesome, and I work with great people. After bouncing around my industry for 7 years, I finally found what I need to stay long term.

    The more interesting dilemma would be to put myself in my old shoes with my old jobs and employers and ask the same question. Its a tough one because none of those jobs could possibly be done remotely, but if we made the assumption that they could be done remotely, I’d probably have to have a really long and serious conversation with my boss about it. Its not something on its own that would make me quit, but if I was already on the fence, it may push me over the edge, I think.

    1. No_woman_an_island*

      Same. I’d have quit my old job in a minute over WFH being taken away. My current job, not so much. WFH definitely has its benefits, but I like my current job enough to roll with whatever is necessary.

  651. Untrusted*

    Desperate to find a new job where I can work from home. My productivity, mental health, work-life balance and finances were all better when I worked from home. Now I’m back to a commute, wearing a suit, making and eating cold packed lunches, and basically, sitting alone in an unmanned office for no apparent reason. At least at home I had my dog for company, could heat up my lunch, and didn’t waste two hours a day in the car.

  652. Not Quite Notable*

    I wish this was a poll! I’d love to see a tally of responses!

    As for me, I would definitely begin a job search if we don’t retain a minimum of 3 days/week remote work. I say that as someone who loves 90% their job, too. Remote work has improved my work and personal life in so many ways that giving it up all together is just not an option at this point.

  653. No_woman_an_island*

    I like the flexibility of WFH on some days, but I like to get out and get to the office some days. I wish there were more hybrid versions. My supervisor touted a lot of flexibility when I was hired, but we’re finding that managers are stuck being more rigid because they’re afraid they might permanently lose some space allocated to them if butts aren’t in the seats full time. It’s unfortunate, but I understand the issue some people face in that regard. But, it also seems profligate to keep space in case you need space when you rarely actually need said space.

  654. Alex*

    This might be moot, because I’m already job searching for a number of reasons not relating to working from home, but one big thing with my job is that it is a low paying field in a VERY expensive city, and a lot of people have used this opportunity to move someplace cheaper. I suspect that requiring either a grueling, expensive commute from someplace affordable (which get fewer and fewer every year), or living in some ****hole apartment with ten other people, all while living paycheck to paycheck, will no longer fly when it is clear now that that is not necessary.

  655. ImagineANameHere*

    I understand why working from home is a perk for lots of people, but for me its a huge drawback.
    I fully agree working from home should be possible and the discussion around it is needed, but please please please make it an option, not a requirement.

    Two reasons I absolutely despise working from home:
    1. The nature of my work means working independently and working from home just means working utterly alone. There wasn’t much social interaction/cohesion at my workplace before COVID (and that definitely didn’t help during WOH, there was no Slack chat options etc), but I could at least have lunch or even just a short chat with others in the department.
    2. I struggle a lot getting any work done at home (even though I don’t have kids, dependents etc) and my productivity plummeted. The sheer amount of stress I have to put myself under to get any work done at home is horrible. Going to the office means I can focus on work while I’m there and then leave work at the office when I go home. Working from home means I spend the entire day and night and weekend being worried about work, while still not getting much work done.

    Weirdly, after leaving my lonely job in north America a few months back, I ran into “the other extreme” while looking for a new job in my home country: I avoided fully remote positions, but pretty much all vacancies I found (and I looked in a number of different fields/job types) still had work from home requirements, as in requiring employees to work from home at least 1-2 days per week. I unfortunately did not have the luxury of not applying/declining those jobs and am starting a job where I’ll be forced to work from home at least one day a week. This job will allow me to settle back in, but working from home long-term, even part-time, is enough of a negative point for me that I will keep looking for jobs without forced WOH.

  656. NobodyYouKnowProlly*

    Remote work has been terrible, and an unrelating nightmare of stress, trauma, bickering, whining, and catastrophe, but I don’t want to stop.

    The combination of being married to a stay-at-home dad/husband who seems to think that his role is non-management (and thus he has no responsibility for things like potty-training, getting on a schedule, nutrition, laundry, cleaning, thinking or reading about developmental activities) and limited to keeping our daughter entertained and alive for a maximum of 6.5 hours a day (with breaks for showers, coffee, pooping, and ‘quick errands’) and having a job where the expectation is 2,100 annual hours of intense focus, high stakes, and accountability (I should just admit that I’m a lawyer), has me running at a level of stress and isolation that has me near a breakdown, every day.

    But for eight months I was able to run in the mornings instead of fighting traffic (then I broke my foot kicking an inanimate object in frustration, still healing up). I get to wear my own clothes. Sometimes I get to take a dance break with my daughter. It’s nice.

    So with either a nanny or a different job, it would be nice to continue.

  657. Randomly Generated Character*

    My work is pulling us back into the office for the majority of the week. I’ve been working from home 100% since March 2020. I’ve been the most productive I’ve ever been since that change because I don’t get interrupted by coworkers talking about non-work-related things (such as their bathroom habits). As someone who is neurodivergent, being in the office can be highly draining, especially when you have to drown out all the conversations going on around you that have nothing to do with you. I realize that all the C-suite folks wish to “preserve company culture”, but when the majority of work-related conversations you have are via phone to people who are miles away (sometimes in other states), there’s no company culture to preserve. I’m literally a dude waiting at the other end of the phone line.

  658. Bee*

    I’ve been lucky to work from home for years and I was willing to accept lower pay for it. The perks are too great for me to pass up. I’ve worked at the same place for 7 years now and if I ever considered leaving, I wouldn’t take a job that doesn’t allow for full remote work.

    I just work better in solitude.

  659. Merida*

    Yes. Absolutely I would.

    100% of my job can be done remotely. I’m happy to call into the office once every couple of months. I would absolutely quit if my boss wanted to pull my back into the office for no good reason.

  660. Not Willing to Compromise*

    Late getting to this and my answer is slightly different in that I’m not leaving my current job but turning down a really good job offer because it doesn’t allow remote work. I’m prioritizing work life balance over a good salary and job title…and I’m in the fortunate position to not be desperate…but I have still struggled with whether this is the right thing to do. In the end though I have decided not to compromise. I will be sending the search committee an email to that effect shortly. Wish me luck :)

    1. Not Willing to Compromise*

      Update! I emailed and (very nicely in my opinion) explained why working partially remotely would be a good fit for that position and that WFH is so important to me that I could not accept their offer unless they considered allowing it – and very quickly got a curt and dismissive reply that actually affirmed that I dodged a bullet. Happy I didn’t compromise although a big bummed to still be job searching sigh.

  661. ELK*

    Short answer: yes, I would probably quit if required to return to the office. I do have a good backup plan, though – I’m at retirement age and am already collecting Social Security, saving up like a demented squirrel in case that day actually does come where I have to put my money where my mouth is. I have been as productive working from home as from the office; my manager agrees completely and intends to say so when the time comes. My employer is a very large, multinational company and so far they have been willing to be very flexible about WFH, so I have high hopes that they will make the right decisions about this. I do not miss the office environment, and videoconferencing has met my workplace social needs pretty well. I believe we will be able to continue to WFH but if not, I’ll retire.

  662. Tired of Telework*

    I’ll be the odd duck. I’m very afraid my office will switch to permanent, or majority telework; I’m starting a job search now.

    Many reasons: I, and to be honest, others, do better with personal interaction. Work quality has been allowed to slide, all around, because lower expectations just seemingly are accepted by everyone. I’m called upon less for the roles I really enjoy, as people have grown less interactive and more insular. In the meantime, other work, not in my area, that I do not enjoy, has come to me increasingly from other individuals who frankly have vanished in the fog and simply aren’t performing, with no consequences. Coworkers are becoming strangers on a screen, not peers I have any real or meaningful connection with.

    I hate working out of my home. Work is for the workplace; home is a refuge, a sanctuary from work. now my home is just where work stress lives, always a few feet away, with an unsteady schedule, and sub par inferior IT resources. My commute was never long, 20 minutes, free reserved parking, in building cafeteria. I have to fight increasingly with family members to respect my work area and schedule, and they seem to increasingly be forgetting I’m not just at home on vacation and available to do whatever in the middle of the workday. I cannot be a pet sitter, errand runner, or break to watch a show, mow the lawn, or work on some house project for hours in the middle of the day. I face increasing interruptions, noise, and disruption in my work area, pushing more of my work hours in the evening, and taking away from time I’d prefer to actually be able to spend with family and friends.

    For the past week and a half, I’ve been going in and working full days at the office without permission. Technically, were allowed to go in as needed, for as short a period as possible for essential functions. I’ve decided essential is whenever I can get away and not be noticed. Hardly any one else ever comes in, and I know in advance when they will, so I have no real worries about it. What are they going to do, fire me for being more productive? There policy is vague, has no enforcement, would be easily challenged by the union if they tried to do something about it. At most I can get an instruction to just stay and work from home, at which point, I might just go fade into the fog like others, not caring about the quality of work, checking my email one a day and only really moving to act to put out fires and drawing the same paycheck and getting the same performance awards and bonuses like everyone else.

    in the long term, I see this harmful to job security. Empire builders in the central office will, if telework becomes permanent and the norm, seek to centralize positions like mine, to make them more “efficient’. in other words, transfer them to their local office, build their little empire up, and eliminate positions in the regional offices.

    I’m wondering how harmful it will be to note on my resume that I have no interest in teleworking, because that is exactly what I plan on doing. I dont see it helpful to lie and say I will happily do it.

    1. TIRED*

      I’m sorry your current setup is not working well. Wanted to point out that “unsteady schedule, and sub par inferior IT resources” are signs that your workplace isn’t putting the resources into making this work. Another company could do a better job at this and make your work a lot better. Especially the unsteady schedule, I had that and it was terrible.

  663. Verde*

    By the nature of what I do, I want/need to be in the office at least a couple of times a week. But since around 2010, I have always had at least one, if not more, wfh days during the week due to open office environments and just needing a break from the hourly barrage of questions when I’m on site. I would never consider working someplace that didn’t allow for at least that kind of flexibility.

    Pro tip: Get a Google Voice number and use that for you work mobile number. Makes a world of difference.

  664. Blake*

    I seem to fall on the opposite side of the last few comments…

    I’ve been spending 16 hours a day in my bedroom for the past year and a half, because there isn’t any other space in the house that I can work in, and I’m really, really tired of it. I honestly wouldn’t accept a job at a company that didn’t have an office in my city, or one where I couldn’t get a desk of my own, because I need to get out of the house, and have another space to do my work.

    Maybe if I had an extra couple of million dollars[*], I could afford a house with a separate room to be my office, but even then, I’d far prefer to go somewhere and have the chance to hang out with my co-workers in person.

    [*] Literally. Toronto real estate prices are unsustainably high.

  665. chewingle*

    I absolutely would.

    But what I’m more curious about after this conversation is: how many companies are going take the “If only you had come to us and told us this was an issue for you” stance to employees who do quit, after a year of the whole world screaming, “It’s an issue.”

  666. Jess*

    I’ve been remote for the last 16 years through employment at 3 different companies. It’s a requirement for me. I won’t accept a job that doesn’t permit remote work at this point in my career because I don’t have to. The companies who want me to work for them have been excellent about offering that as an option. I would leave a job that wanted me to be in-office instead.

  667. Jostlingggg*

    My company already had plans to move offices going into 2020, as our existing lease was up in September. We were sent home in March with the option of going into our old office a couple of days a week, which I took advantage of. We moved to a new office in September, but the space did not suit our needs – it was a fairly tight open layout space in an old warehouse (brick and metal walls, hugely echo-ey). The President and VP of Sales, who had “private” offices with sliding barn doors that didn’t actually close, were on the phone most of the day, most days, and their conversations were very disruptive. Most people never went in to the new office; I made it about 2 months of going in 4 days/week before I gave up and just worked from home. (I was on the phone with a client when the VP of Sales emerged to shush me because he was trying to participate in a webinar.) Given how few people were going into the new office, we terminated our lease after 6 months and are fully work from home now and for the foreseeable future. The company is currently financially dependent on eliminating office space as a budget line item.

    I am an extrovert, and I feel so isolated working from home. It is also very difficult for me to work diligently throughout the day without the external structure of “going into the office.” Although I’ve only received positive feedback in the last year (largely because I have successfully completed some very challenging projects), I feel like my productivity is way down. My role is also highly collaborative, and many of my colleagues are natural introverts. Working alongside other people in the office was important for us to be able to collaborate effectively – now, we have to track people down via chat and email, and there is no “natural” collaboration or socialization. I recognize that some of this is due to company culture rather than the lack of office space, but I think that the fact that we are not actively pursuing office space will continue to be detrimental to an already-suffering company culture.

    I am actively looking to leave this role, both for the culture disconnect and because I do not want to work remotely any longer. I have marked on LinkedIn that I am not interested in remote positions, though unfortunately the recruiters who have reached out to me so far only have remote roles for me. I wouldn’t have accepted a remote-only role when I joined my current company over 2 years ago, and I won’t accept a new job now if it is 100% remote, so why should I tolerate my current company going 100% remote?

  668. It's Me*

    I can’t afford to quit outright, but I’d be having an immediate and very frank discussion with my manager about why the company feels such a heavyhanded order is necessary. For context, my company has been fully remote since the start of the pandemic and we’ve had an incredibly strong year, both in terms of productivity and financial gain. While I understand different parts of the company have different needs (teams like, say, production and design do work better with access to our physical space; while teams like accounting and digital marketing have easily transitioned to remote), my team is definitely more on the latter end of the spectrum. We have been ridiculously productive even while mildly to severely understaffed for the entire pandemic.

    From what I can tell, all of my coworkers, no matter where they land on the home vs. office spectrum, all want the same thing—to be given the OPTION to do either as suits the needs of the day. You have a doctor’s appointment near work that day, or construction in your building, or you just miss people? Cool, come in! The weather’s awful or you have a delivery scheduled to arrive or you just don’t feel like devoting 2+ hour to appearance and commute? Cool, stay home.

    So if my company decided to mandate a return to work, first I’d talk to my manager about an exemption, given how well we did over the pandemic and how important the flexibility is to me. And if the company still insisted, yes, I’d start looking for another job and, frankly, would scale back my productivity in the office in the interim.

  669. Alice*

    Bit of a late answer since I am on holiday but — I would, and I did. I’ve commented about this in the past but as a data point, this was one of the two big reasons for quitting. One was that our project was in hot waters and about to be cancelled. But the main reason was that they asked us to come back in August 2020, citing low productivity, which was nonsense because our metrics were better than ever. I felt that management were being arses and equating working from home with slacking off, while actually many people in management spent the day smoking or chatting at the coffee machines. They were also horrible at enforcing mask-wearing, to the point it gave me a panic attack. I’m very happy I left. My new company is almost 100% remote, with no plans for going back to the office yet, and I like it this way.

  670. Jojo Potatoe*

    GenX introvert here. Having worked fully remotely for three+ years and >=50% remotely for eight (without ever once turning on my camera), I’d need a seven-figure salary to even consider returning to an office.

  671. Karkello*

    I started a new job during COVID that, if required to be in office, would have a 90-minute commute. It was a requirement that I set out that WFH or flexibility would continue once COVID restrictions lift. While I would not out and out quit (at least initially) – I would ask for a re-assignment to a remote team or closer location (if that were even possible.)

    Anecdotally, my husband’s company works closely with a lot of government organizations who are supposedly having incredible difficulty hiring talent because they want everyone back butt-in-seat 40hr/week and people are refusing or resigning.

  672. I GOTS TO KNOW!*

    Though there were several reasons I left my previous company (left them and started with an awesome new company the beginning of this month), their archaic and outdated ideas around work were some of the biggest. Employees that were able were at first ordered to WFH (about half the company was warehouse / factory so they didn’t have the WFH option, plus a few office employees as well – the company is essential so there was no time at home for those employees). As the time of the pandemic dragged on, some employees were ordered back to the office because they weren’t performing. Some did a few days in the office because they wanted to. Most remained 100% remote, with only a very occasional day in the office. I was in the last group. We SMASHED records, productivity, etc. The company very clearly did not suffer, on the whole, with a significant portion of the employees working from home.

    An email went out a few months ago that all employees in the company had to be in the office for 2 weeks straight at the end of the summer (before kids are back in school). No real explanation for that was given. Some general platitudes about team spirit and reuniting and all that, but no firm “this is why we want to do this, this is what we see the benefits as being, etc.” It was also stated in that email that WFH would only be 1-2 days a week after that, only at managers discretion, and COULD NOT be on Monday or Friday. Just very much read as “we don’t trust you, even though you are adults who have been doing this for over a year, to continue doing it and if we let you work from home on Monday and Friday you’ll just take a long weekend rather than work.” It just put a very bad taste in my mouth. It all felt very arbitrary and based on imaginary possibilities and no actual evidence.

    I am not opposed to hybrid – in fact, I think that is the best solution. The company I ended up at is fully remote right now but will be hybrid come Fall – with only 2 days in the office. When I was job searching, I didn’t apply for any companies that were 100% in office. I never will again.

    So what my old company did absolutely played a role in my leaving and hybrid is what I will be looking for in future job searches as well.

  673. anonanonanonshhhhh*

    I’m in this exact position at the moment- I was promoted twice over the course of the pandemic, the most recent of which I accepted primarily because my understanding from the conversation I had with my grandboss was that this could remain at least a partial WFH position indefinitely. Unfortunately, despite support from my immediate boss, it seems like that’s no longer an option. I’m going to fight for it, but, fundamentally, if I’m required to be in-office full time, I’m going to immediately start looking.

  674. Michael*

    Our office wants to continue to offer flexibility, broadly, for folks to work from home on a basis of “I will be more effective on this project, report, etc.”, I have a sick kid, I have home repairs/ a delivery – but on a limited scale that recognizes that there are times where we need to be together – and times when its fine to be apart. We do NOT want a formal entitlement of ‘you get this many days at home’ since our workplace is often jumping from one project (or fire) to another, and our needs constantly shift. There are also roles here in the office that are not compatible for working from home. I would think that professional staff should be able to recognize that – but my experience is that if someone ‘wants something’ that others have, but they can’t; that they get hostile and complain-y; even if the reasons for different privileges is obvious. If you work at reception – you can’t do your job from home, sorry. Operations? Gotta be on site.

    Its also our most mediocre of performers that demand equity and a formal policy, despite not demonstrating high value and output.

    For team members that CAN do their jobs from home, and that have a performance record and requisite team relationships to do so – I think they should be given broad latitude to do their jobs in the space that they see fit; so long as they aren’t shirking collective duties and stagnating in home silos, and make themselves available when we need them. Nearly none of the roles at our workplace can continue to be fully effective without building and managing relationships, and keeping up with the issues or crisis du jour – which is infinitely easier to do with normative in-person human interactions.

    We have worked hard to build an environment and workspace that is professional, friendly, and that facilitates group collaboration to pull off some awesome initiatives. Some pieces can be done at home – but we have dropped the ball several times by not having the same amount of connectivity during the pandemic. Most staff only can reflect on their OWN performance (and perhaps their immediate team) and are NOT aware of the misses, mistakes, and other problems that have occurred with WFH last year in other areas of the company. We are worried that those same categories of problems are bound to occur on other teams as well, just given the nature of WFH.

  675. Emily*

    My move to remote work coincidentally happened during COVID, not as a result of it. All of my past office jobs have quickly resulted in exhaustion and burnout—even the part-time ones. I think this is because I have high social anxiety, which is frequently triggered by office interactions, and never have a place to retreat and decompress when in the office.

    I hated being in the office so much that I decided to try full-time freelancing a few months before COVID hit. I freelanced with some success for a year, and then a fully remote company I was freelancing for made me a full-time offer.

    Fully remote work is THE single biggest feature of my job that I like. My general anxiety is so much lower, and even on bad days at my new job, I still feel it’s the best job I’ve ever had. I would NEVER go back to an office unless I absolutely had to, and for that reason, I’m very invested in staying with my company for a long time.

  676. Maria Henao*

    My job is almost impossible to complete while working from home. We bought a house a few years ago that is less than 10 minutes from my office. I already have flex hours. I worked from home for two weeks during the initial pandemic surge, and then went back to the office full time. It was the only way I could function. My 40ish hours don’t exactly line up with the 40ish hours worked by the majority of people in my office (I prefer late nights, while they’d rather leave by 2:30), but we do all of our collaboration between 11 and 2 and it’s working great.

  677. MCMonkeybean*

    I would, though I know I am in a very privileged position to say that.

    For me, the dealbreaker would be the hybrid situation my employer is moving toward. I have enjoyed working from home and would like to continue that indefinitely, though I could adapt to going back to the office if I had to. (The wakeup time is the biggest issue for me there, I have gotten very used to waking up like 5-10 minutes before I need to be online and working).

    But my office is switching to a hybrid situation where they want most people to be at home 2-3 days a week and in an office the other days. That’s not great on its own, because the inconsistency would just really throw me off. But the big dealbreaker is that they are switching to “hoteling” where you don’t have an actual desk and you just find a spot every day. Having a space that is “mine” is very important to me and was a major driver behind some of my early career decisions. I am in a field where many paths start off with a lot of travel and this hoteling setup is fairly normal, but I specifically skipped that part of the career path even though I knew that choice would likely cost me money in the long run.

    Their goal seems to be minimizing how many people are in the office at a time so I am pitching to be classified as full-time work from home. My manager has said that should be fine but I’m not sure if I can get officially reclassified in the system, so I’m hoping there won’t be any pushback if I just… keep staying home.

    1. tex*

      I disliked the idea of “hoteling” desks in the before-times, but doing it now just seems unwise. I would much prefer to have assigned shared desks, depending on who is in which day.

  678. DrRat*

    Since I wrote this: https://www.askamanager.org/2021/01/can-we-all-just-keep-working-from-home-forever-now.html, it’s probably going to be clear to everyone, but yes, WFH is a hill I would be willing to die on. Fortunately, my company was already moving a lot more to a WFH model even before pandemic, so I don’t see it stopping now.

    I think WFH works for my particular job/company for several reasons. First, we constantly need to recruit good entry level talent, and if you don’t offer WFH these days, that can be very difficult. Second, almost all our positions, up to and including the VP level, have multiple observable metrics that need to be met. It’s very clear who is diligent in WFH and who the slackers are. Third, our company has saved a very significant amount of money by closing some physical branches completely and drastically downsizing the offices in other areas.

    Will we ever close down our main corporate headquarters? Doubtful, but even at that location, many people WFH completely or on a hybrid model.

    As for me – I would have to move to a completely different state if my company eliminated WFH and I wanted to stay with them. Our local physical office was shuttered several years ago, and we ALL went to WFH.

  679. Imposter Analyst*

    I’m not going to quit my current job over the fact that they are forcing us to go back into the office by July (after being WFH since March 2020), but I definitely won’t consider sticking around if a fully remote position becomes available elsewhere. I’ve started job searching since the announcement this morning, putting out feelers to see what’s available (and, sadly, most positions I’m seeing are advertising heavily with “we can work in-office again, yay!” which is not a selling point IMO).

    Everything my department (and a fair amount of the company) does can be completed remotely — there is no reason to demand we go back to the office (that was over-capacity per the fire department anyway, and there was no parking for the number of employees they packed into the building). Unfortunately, leadership has decided that the business runs best when everyone is in the office (never mind that we are crushing our goals remotely with the flexibility WFH offers).

    If someone wants to be working in the office — great! They can do that! But it’s been nice WFH where I don’t have to share a desk (they doubled up people at desks EXCEPT for managers to hire more people to work in the office before March 2020), can listen to my music as I work, and can go on walks/stretch to alleviate the strain of sitting all day. I like the flexibility and not having to commute over an hour every day. I can get more done at home than at the office. This old-school mentality of “you must be in the office or you’re not working” is BS and it needs to go. The workforce is comprised of adults. We don’t need to be babysat all day. We are capable of doing our work on time.

    Ugh, sorry for the rant. I’m just so frustrated and blindsided by their announcement and all the work I will have to do in order to return to the office in one week (clothes shopping, meal prep, finding time to clean the house and run all errands without losing my entire weekends again, etc.).

  680. Banana phone*

    I want part time/hybrid from home for a lot of reasons. Its not the commute Per se. It’s really the relaxed being able to walk around anyway I choose when I talk to clients. also the ability to have video calls without worrying about being overheard and being able to manage my physical and mental energy. I think my company is only going to allow 100% remote for what they kind of consider perfect performers, and unfortunately that’s not me. My client work is great, people love me, but my detail orientedness isn’t perfect. Its frustrating- I could do laundry, cook dinner, go swimming, and garden in wfh time.

  681. Tristy*

    I’m leaving my current job mainly due to the WFH policy. Before the pandemic, I never even thought of WFH. Since the pandemic, my views of work & home life balance have shifted dramatically. My new job is 100% remote AND it pays more. I have zero desire to work in an office environment at this point or ever again honestly.

  682. Middle Manager*

    I lived several hours from family and when we went to full time WFH it just started to seem really absurd. My parents are very elderly and I was driving hours every single weekend to do things for them so they didn’t have to have any more COVID exposure than necessary. I asked about making WFH permanent and was told it wasn’t possible. So I started applying/interviewing and was offered a lateral move at another company and put in my notice. And all of a sudden, it was possible to offer me long term WFH. I’ve gone back and forth on if I made the right decision, I turned down the new job offer and stayed. But I 100% would have left if they hadn’t changed their policy to keep me. If COVID has shown me nothing else, it’s been that life is short and unpredictable and I want to spend more of mine with the people I love. Full stop. I have not for one minute regretted moving.

  683. Higher Ed nerd*

    I am actively seeking a new job because of the return to work plans, and overall disillusionment with my employer. I’ve been here over a decade and gone through a few promotions. Although I certainly get how this happened and don’t blame any individual, the final nail in the coffin was that they skipped the 10-year service awards last year due to covid-which I understand- but then this year they were supposed to recognize everyone from last year plus this year and somehow forgot about me. I have put in blood sweat and tears for this place and have a strong reputation across divisions. I have been through an actual national news level tragedy at this place (and still have some trauma from that experience). And… they forgot about me. Who noticed? One coworker. I have asked what happened (this is an official milestone here, you get a trinket) and 6 weeks later, no answer… I enjoy many things about my job and some of my coworkers have me laughing my butt off while we make magic happen behind the scenes (how often is work so fun?!), so it’s hard to think if leaving but I just feel so undervalued and demoralized by the push to go back (it seems rooted in lack of trust, despite obvious results). Did I mention I make 10% less than male peers? Suffice it to day, I AM NOT GOING BACK to what it was before. I have a small windowless office. In a high traffic area. I can actually focus now during business hours!!! I have a technical leaning assistant director type role, where I work most closely with IT and others across campus (not in my same office) and I feel closer to those partners now than I did before the pandemic. We regularly communicate over chat and stay connected on projects in a fluid way that has really worked. I do miss seeing folks in person sometimes but is it necessary for us to do the job effectively? No. That is now clear. I feel like administrators maybe realize they aren’t so useful or necessary from home and that is part of this whole situation…. I do plan to try to negotiate one last time this coming week for a raise and permanent WFH but it’s pretty clear I’m dreaming and not going to be valued, so I’ve been applying to other jobs. So far I’m happy to report I’ve gotten a call back everywhere I’ve applied and even turned down an offer. I want to find just the right fit and feel I am finally ina secure enough position professionally to be able to really hold firm and get what I deserve.

    1. tex*

      that’s so messed up! To not even get a response when you asked how you were forgotten – I don’t blame you at all for being ready to move on.

  684. L Lemon*

    I will absolutely be quitting if I’m required to return to the office on any kind of regular/recurring basis. My industry is 99% computer work and well suited to WFH though my employer has always been staunchly against it (old school mentality that mistrusts wfh). Prior to covid, in fact, we have had a few people quit because they felt the wfh policy was too rigid and inflexible (usually some level of wfh is acceptable for our industry). After 18 months wfh because of covid I will say our department is more productive than ever – morale is better, less inter-departmental politicking, we have all hit a stride. Now corporate is putting a hard start date on the table in July. I’ve rejected it once and will continue to until the bitter end. I will die on this hill if I have to.

  685. TheAG*

    I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a couple of observations about the data that you’re collecting (and I do think it’s a great question).
    In your comments section (and in the media) the manufacturing sector seems relatively under-represented. Granted I do not have statistics on what percent of the population that represents, so it is entirely possible that I am wrong.
    However, there are a large amount of people that make our food, beverages, liquor and beer (and other stuff I’m probably not thinking about that aren’t imported from places that have no such choices in life) that are required to be on-site, and all of those people require on-site support in supervision, quality, engineering, logistics, and IT (and from what I have seen in my career, these jobs in the US are far better paid than jobs outside of our sector. I make double what my husband makes, with the exact same stem degree, and his from a more prestigious college).
    Could I do my job from home entirely? Strictly the answer is yes. Would it feel completely wrong ? Absolutely.

    All of our corporate “support” is now being given the option of working from home 2 days a week (while we are told that is not an option if you work on the manufacturing side, even if the job allows it). We’ve had 3 RIFs (only in corporate, not in the manufacturing side) in the last 4 years. While the balance of power might seem to be shifting, the next time profits are down or stock prices drop, I guarantee there will be another RIF in what has become extremely bloated during our “WFH” year.

  686. Mademoiselle Sugarlump*

    If my employer switched to permanent WFH I’d be looking for another job. The nature of my work is collaborating with others, including doing technical drawings to their specifications, and it’s been a challenge. I have co-workers all over the world so I’m used to working with people over video conferencing but there are some key people in my office who could just walk over with my questions. I also crave the social interactions and really miss chatting with people.
    Luckily for me, my company is vehement that we need to return, that those water cooler conversations are critical to our way of working, innovation, etc. For now it’s hybrid work to have fewer people in at one time, but they took a poll and everybody wants to WFH Monday and Friday so I’m not sure how that’s going to work.

  687. PurplePartridge*

    I wouldn’t be out the door immediately if my office required everyone to return full time, but it probably would contribute to me leaving sooner than I otherwise might.

    I’d personally prefer a hybrid work option and would probably go into the office most days, due to living in a condo and having a freelance spouse who already works from home. My main concern would actually be that I think my company wouldn’t be able to hire as competitively if there wasn’t a full time WFH option.

    I’m a programmer, a job that can definitely be 100% remote. And while I may prefer to work in the office, I think remote work will be make-or-break for enough people that I’d worry my company wouldn’t be able to attract top candidates to our team if we didn’t offer it.

  688. Sara*

    My office has announced a hybrid work schedule, 16 hours a week for full time employees. I work in a field where people move around a lot. I would seriously not consider an offer from another firm if I wasn’t allowed to WFM at least two days a week.

  689. tex*

    My job announced we will be permanently WFH, and people who want to work in the office can, but they have to be assigned to certain days to come in. This change has actually made me reconsider continuing with getting my Master’s degree (that my job doesn’t know about) because I do love WFH; however, I don’t particularly love my job. Also, the things that I love about it may go out the window once I’m promoted and an exempt employee, so the great parts about it might only last for another year or two. I’m going into a field that is not big on WFH, other than in between travel assignments, so having a WFH component will be an important part for me in future job searching!

  690. Dan*

    My department actually had a hybrid WFH policy in place well before the pandemic hit (three days WFH, two days in-office, except during busy season). Considering the board and department leadership have officially stated they plan to go hybrid once the offices re-open, I’d be very surprised if they don’t keep an at least similar split in place. Besides, I’ve been promoted since, which means I get even more WFH in…so I’m supremely unlikely to accept a position anywhere else that didn’t both pay a solid chunk more money and allow at least the same amount of WFH.

  691. funny-username*

    I would not hesitate to leave an employer with a ludicrous insistence upon dragging its staff into an office where it does not need to be in order to successfully complete their job duties. My job does require certain skills and qualifications. It does not require specialist equipment that needs to be stored in a warehouse, lab or office; my work can be done from anywhere, as long as I have an internet connection and one piece of specialist software (although I can perform my job without that software).

    My role involves a lot of interaction with clients, as well as colleagues, absolutely zero of which actually needs to be face-to-face. I find offices loud, distracting and uncomfortable: I am far more productive working literally anywhere else, and I actually need a private office (with a closed door) in order to be truly priductive if I am in an office. I like some of my colleagues, and I am certainly extroverted (although I do have my limits), but I speak to the colleagues I like outside of work, too.

    I face long commutes of a minimum of an hour each way and I am not a morning person by nature; I am far more productive come 11am or so. As a woman in my 30s (who is naturally busty with an hourglass body shape) who works in an industry that can very much still be a “boys club”, I face consistent sexism from well-educated men who proclaim themselves and feminists.

    I am sick to death of having to bend and contort every aspect of myself in order to fit into a world that is not designed for me, whether as a woman, as a “gifted” woman (who also happens to be neurodiverse), a natural ‘night owl’ chronotype, someone who was not born into wealth, someone who doesn’t like to play games (including office politics), someone who wants and needs to have a life outside the office, someone who has to content a complex health and family suituation, or anything else.

    The older I get, the more intolerant I get toward people who have been brainwashed against the idea that we shouldn’t have to spend the best years of our lives slaving away in jobs, purely so we can afford the very basics of survival (let alone actual luxuries).

    If you want to drag into an office for 40+ hours a week (exclusing commuting and extra brain space your job takes up in your supposed down time), despite being able to work from anywhere, be my guest. But, as someone who is lucky enough to have a safe place to work from at home (keeping in mind that I have literally just enough physical space at home in order to be comfortable working here), WFH has improved every single aspect of my life and health, inclduing my work and its quality.

    I do NOT want to go back into an office just so some of my colleahues have some social interaction or entertainment, or so some manager stuck in the 1950s can have butts in seats. Get lost.

  692. Brittany*

    My work is a service position. My work allows us to continue to do 1 day per week at home. It’s just not feasible to do more than 2. No I wouldn’t quit, but I do appreciate them letting us. It’s not common in the field.

  693. Rainbow Care Bear*

    I quit my job during COVID without anything lined up due to my company’s extremely poor handling of the pandemic and toxic leadership. WFH was a key filter in my job search. I ended up accepting a position somewhere that’s transitioning to a hybrid model and didn’t apply to places that were returning to 100% in person (or dropped out of the interview process once I found out that was the case). For me it will absolutely be a critical factor going forward and I won’t (and didn’t) consider companies that don’t offer flexibility.

  694. A.*

    My wife did quit her job because they demanded she return to the office, but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. They had a really bad problem with micromanagement, and it’s really not acceptable to give two 15 minute breaks a day when your bathrooms are located at a 5 minute walk from your employees. We crunched the numbers, decided we could go a while without a second income, and she quit. She’d wanted for a while to open an Etsy store for the jewelry she makes and is working on that now instead of job hunting. I’m pretty sure that if she goes back on the job market anytime soon, it’ll be only for remote jobs.

    I would probably have looked for a new job if my job had demanded I go back to the office full time. (This would have been a really stupid move on their part, given we were only in-office 3 days a week pre-pandemic and how well most of us have been working at home for the past year.) However, right as they asked us to come back 2 days a week, the most experienced member of our team left for a different company. (This was another straw-and-camel’s-back situation – she had no way to continue developing professionally, none of us had had raises in two years, etc., but her new job is 100% remote and I know it was a consideration for her.) So far it looks like this was a much-needed kick in the pants for our boss and the remaining team is enjoying the benefits. Hopefully that continues and I also won’t need to enter the semi-remote job market.

  695. Nadia*

    If my workplace told me I had to be back in the office, part time or full time, I would immediately commence a job search.

    The pandemic-induced WFH policy currently in place is the only reason why I haven’t left this job. My direct manager is really great, but my grandboss is awful, and the office itself is overcrowded and physically unpleasant to be in. (They also owe me thousands of dollars in back pay.) My mental health, physical health, relationships and work quality have all improved markedly from being able to WFH. My work can be done 100% remotely, including all the client-based work.

    I think it’s utterly vile that a bunch of board members, C-suite executives and commercial landlords are whining that all us lemmings need to come back to the office. They were never in the office to begin with!

    To be blunt, they can all shove it. As can people who want me to drag back into the office with them for no other reason than they “prefer” to work from the office. (Obviously, I am not including either people who have to work from the workplace due to the nature of their work, working with specialist equipment, etc, in this list, nor am I including people who prefer to work from the office due to an unsafe or impractical setup at home. I’m talking about people who are perfectly safe and able to work from home, but merely prefer to work in an office.)

  696. Ginny*

    My employers get more than enough out of me. I am NOT going back to the office. EVER.

    I am over commuting up to three hours a day (because of unaffordable housing and other bad government policies, including roads and public transport), spending money I don’t have on commuting and food, running on a permanent sleep debt and living in a constant fog of exhaustion at and away from work, seeing my relationships and personal life fall apart because of that exhaustion, and putting up with a toxic office environment and unsupportive upper management who turn a blind eye to WHS breaches and workplace bullying.

  697. zolk*

    We had an all-staff a few weeks ago about this topic where they said everyone would be able to have at least a hybrid set up, and full time WFH could be negotiated for some people, especially those with disability/health/etc issues. One week later an email went out expecting us all back in the office within two months. Today we had a smaller meeting where they told us hybrid might be okay but that our big boss prefers everyone be in the office all the time and that full time wfh is impossible.

    So not only are we confused, but I find myself getting angry every time they bring this up and change it. I have a medical condition that has been much better managed at home, which my bosses seem to write off, even though my sick day usage pre-covid was very high and during covid has been extremely low. I don’t trust my bosses. I’ve already been looking for other jobs, and if they try to get us back full time I will ramp up my search immediately after the announcement.

  698. L.*

    I had to fight for any work-from-home pre-pandemic, and I want desperately to hold onto it now. I worked for a company for 4 yrs but had to relocate, so I found a new job (since WFH wasn’t an option). I was searching again after six months, so OldJob offered me my job back remotely; I’d only have to come in 2 or 3 times a month, and they needed someone with my skillset. I excelled at home, and greatly value the flexibility. Not having a commute meant I had more time for doing the things I love (outside of work). After a year I was able to move closer, to a neighboring state, and they told me now I had to be in 3 days a week, every week. It hurt, frankly. They knew I was productive at home, but WFH still wasn’t part of the culture, and they felt like I need face time with coworkers and clients in order to succeed in the role. Six months later, COVID hit. Everyone started immediately working from home 100%, without a plan – but it’s never been more productive. They’re talking about a hybrid return in a few months, but I want to keep working remotely. I’ve been largely satisfied with their covid response and what I do, but I am job searching in case hybrid isn’t optional.

  699. Grace*

    I didn’t think I’d be in this boat, because my boss and grandboss are both pro WFH-in-reasonable-amounts (some of our work is best done in-office, but certainly not all). Our department did a lot of great work over the last year (including winning an industry award we’ve never won before).

    Unfortunately, we have new great-grandbosses who are eliminating all WFH next month. We asked for a mere 8 hours, and it was no dice. It’s pretty insane how dead-set they are about butts-in-seats, even for those of us who are in no way public-facing. Especially when they’re also doing a company-wide audit in an effort to hire more diverse employees…like, eliminating WFH is NOT going to help us with that.

    Right now I’m not going to leave over it, but I’m certain some people will. And I don’t blame them at all.

  700. Lorraine*

    Yes. I’ve already had two calls on this subject and will have another one today. I cannot continue to work from home. I don’t have the space or the privacy to do so. I consider that my employment offer was to be in an office and I expect to be provided with a work station to do so. Our company policy is not to pay for home offices, so I can’t afford to move to a new home with an office, much less furnish it myself. Requiring us to work from home long-term is just passing on rent and supply costs to the employees without compensating them fairly for the change.

  701. Scribe*

    Yes. Frankly, I don’t care that my grandboss thinks butts-in-seats is the only way forward (because that what he prefers). I don’t care that some of my colleagues want to go back to the office, and what the rest of us dragged in as well, because they have a personal preference for it.

    All my life, I have done nothing but twist myself into unnatural shapes in order to keep everyone around me happy while I try to make my way through a world that was designed for and by people completely unlike me. I am not losing the small amount of pleasure and autonomy that this cursed plague has given me by forcing everyone onto WFH, just so the vested interests in the world can have their awful status quo back.

  702. Jen Barber, IT*

    I will absolutely be leaving if we are made remote full time. I’ve been the least productive I’ve ever been over the last year, and the most unhappy I’ve ever been at work. I like the job but I cannot focus sitting alone in my small city apartment – I’ve noticed that my coworkers who are happiest working remotely are those whose partners are there working from a home office with them. Most days I don’t speak to another human being before 6pm, which is doing nothing for my mental health. I am in the process of being assessed for ADHD which might be exacerbating some of my issues.

    My office is currently planning to move towards a hybrid model; if that doesn’t ease my remote working angst I’ll be moving on.

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