companies that want to bring people back on-site … but aren’t succeeding

by Alison Green on September 1, 2022

In an effort to lure reluctant employees back to the office, some companies are offering free meals, extra swag, even financial incentives … and it’s often not working (probably because none of those things address the real reasons people don’t want to return, like safety, child care shortages, or just plain liking working from home better).

If you’re at an office that has struggled to bring people back, what are you seeing? What’s your company trying that’s worked or hasn’t worked? What would get you back, if you’re currently at home? Let’s discuss in the comment section.

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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. Someone Else's Boss*

    I would need my salary to increase enough to afford to live near the office. Currently, I have to live 30 minutes away, and housing near my office is too expensive. If my salary increased, or my company helped pay for housing, I would be willing to go in. I like the office, but I don’t want to drive for an hour everyday for the opportunity to join virtual meetings with people who live out of state.

    1. Sloanicota*

      Yeah, I see businesses say they want to pay remote employees less, but I’m not hearing a lot of folks say they’d pay someone willing to work in office more (this is assuming there’s a reasonable base rate of pay for comparison, which of course there isn’t in most fields). When the pandemic started, I got a dog, so having to return to the office would literally cost me a lot more per day because he’s not good being left that long. I could calculate the exact amount it would take to make me consider returning in-office.

      1. Kaiko*

        I don’t get this logic at all. They’re saving money on office spaces *and* want to pay me less? My back-of-the-envelop calculations indicate this is on-par with trickle-down economics.

        1. Momma Bear*

          Yeah, I think that this “you work from home, you get a pay cut” business is nonsense. They should pay you what you are worth.

          I also haven’t seen companies offering transit or parking perks or gas cards. Many years ago one officemate took the train to work and asked for vouchers (not uncommon in our area) in lieu of paid parking, since she didn’t drive. She only wanted the same value (and on a card, not cash). The company refused. She had another job in months.

          1. raktajino*

            The only thing I miss about working in the office was the free bus pass!

            Subsidizing the commute is a straightforward (and sometimes tax-deductible) way for offices to make a commute more palatable. It also avoids the perception of paying people more for coming in: wfh people “miss out” on a bus pass benefit as much as non-parents “miss out” on a parental leave benefit.

        2. Reluctant Manager*

          How do you figure they’re saving money on office spaces? Toilet paper and coffee, but rent isn’t a per capita cost.

          1. Wilbur*

            The only way it works is if they can downsize their office space, or avoid having to rent more office space as they expand. I could also see companies being able to get away with cramming more desks in the same amount of space, since people might not care if they’re only in a office occasionally.

            1. High Score!*

              My company downsized their space and it was a win-win. The new office space is far nicer and better utilized, it’s about a third the size so they are saving money, in a better location, they got a great price for it, employees determine when and where they’ll work, and productivity is up.
              Some of the older employees grumbled about hot desking but the office is a lot cleaner and gets cleaned nightly so it’s pleasant to work in office. I still WFH most days bc of the commute tho.

          2. John*

            While it’s true that the marginal cost of a single employee may be low, if half your workforce is working from home, you can clearly rent a much smaller space.

            1. spartanfan*

              Unless the company signed a multi year lease, which is fairly normal, it’s expensive to find and move office spaces.

              1. High Score!*

                Before our company moved, they cleaned out and closed off portions of the building to save on utilities. They tried to sublet but that didn’t pan out. So they negotiated out of their lease likely taking a bit of a hit.
                BUT even if they hadn’t been able to do that, it still doesn’t make sense to make everyone drive in every day bc you’re paying for the space. The old school BUTT IN CHAIR people are so annoying.

          3. raktajino*

            It sort of is. If you expect 100 people to be in the office every day, you’re going to pick a larger space than if you only expect 10 people to be there every day. As office space leases come up for renewal, moving to a smaller space is going to be more feasible.

          4. An Australian In London*

            Some occupancy costs are stepped not variable, but many are per capita.

            Cross-charges for utilities, cleaning, maintenance, general IT, etc., have always been per capita anywhere I was in a position to know. I’ve seen real-estate costs attributed in this way also.

            I think the point was settled in my mind when one of my clients announced that with the move to a hybrid model they were consolidating seven floors in a building to only three. While they necessarily had to upgrade some of their remote access infrastructure to handle the increase in numbers, that cannot have cost even six months of commercial rent of four floors in a prestigious financial district. If they owned the floors they were now a profit centre rather than a cost centre because they could be rented to other business tenants.

            Back of the envelope says they made their ROI on the infra cost in under 3 months and it’s pure gravy since then.

            Even if a workplace continues occupying the same space when it is only fractionally full, they will still have lower costs with a lower headcount on site.

          5. ProducerNYC*

            My last office (billion dollar company) let go of their lease on several floors in a midtown NYC bldg and doubled up on desks in existing, smaller space. Now no one has assigned seats and you have to jockey for space if you DO come in, so why would we?

          6. nnn*

            When my employer introduced the option of working from home a decade ago, 16 of the 20 people in our local office wanted to work from home full-time.

            So we went from office space that accommodates 20 desks to office space that accommodates 6 desks (4 people who want to work in the office, plus 2 hot desks for when others have to come in).

          7. Sloanicota*

            My company didn’t provide $$ to set up home offices – they offered use of their old laptops if wanted, but most ppl use their own devices, cell plans, printers, ink, office supplies etc. Obviously I realize this isn’t correct (we’re a small nonprofit – people could probably ask for reimbursement of things but we mostly don’t). They are definitely saving money.

          8. KGD*

            My company has saved a bunch of money by closing one of our two locations and moving everyone to the other. We don’t have enough offices for our staff anymore, but we are all at home 2-3 days a week anyway, so it’s easy to share.

          9. Zweisatz*

            My office avoided setting up a while new floor (including tearing down walls etc, not just rent and furniture
            ) due to work from home and the pandemic. That’s straightforward cost saving.

        3. MigraineMonth*

          One of my coworkers told me that permanent work-from-home would happen as soon as my organization succeeded in renting our office space to someone else. Unfortunately, our office is a cubicle farm from the ’70s with serious accessibility issues, so that might take a while.

          1. Goody*

            Is it just me, or does this sound like the company is actually weaponizing their lack of keeping up with modern necessities?

    2. Spargle*

      30 minutes feels like a pretty average commute. I’m not judging, just thinking – that’s been about the low side of my commute for every job I’ve had.

      If it’s not working for you then it’s not working for you! But I’d have to live within a very small radius of my office to get a shorter commute.

          2. Lizzo*

            It depends on whether there are cycling facilities (e.g. lanes, paths) available and whether you can make the trip without risking your life. Sadly, most places in the US are too car-centric for regular bike commuting to be a thing.

        2. Poppy*

          I lived one mile from one job, but it would take 20 minutes to get there with traffic and lights. I would have considered biking if it wouldn’t put my life at risk doing so.

            1. A slow poke*

              Average is 2.5 – 4mph.

              I’m short and once I hit 3.5mph I’m speed walking, my heart rate is majorly elevated, and I’m going to need a shower and 20 minutes before I stop sweating

              1. Not Australian*

                Yep, lack of showering/changing and bike storage facilities was what stopped me cycling to work many years ago. I’d rather arrive cool and comfortable and clean than red-faced, gasping and exhausted.

      2. Anonym*

        Yep, I can’t afford to live within 30 minutes commute of my office, although I think my salary is good and competitive. But it’s NYC, so that’s a known issue of living/working here.

      3. M*

        Yeah I agree, I’d say a 30 minute commute is pretty good. But I suppose it depends where you live (big city vs small town). I live a 30 minute commute door to door but I travel by train so it feels pretty easy.

        Like you say, if it’s not working for you then it’s not working for you!

        1. Just Your Everyday Crone*

          Just because it’s an average commute doesn’t make it “good.” I have one of the easier commutes for my office (about 40 minutes each way). Not doing it has given me 6 hours a week to do whatever I want. Even if they paid me for those six hours, I wouldn’t want to give them up.

          1. High Score!*

            Exactly!! I wish everyone realized it’s your life that you’re driving away with needless commutes. And what an eco-disaster. Everyone driving their cars into work, using more gas bc stuck in traffic. Even if it’s public transportation, more people=more vehicles needed. Then there’s more people using plastic plates and utensils to eat with. Bad all around.

          2. JM60*

            Some time ago, there was a study of what factors affects life happiness that can be affected by life choices, and commute ranked number 1 (IIRC)! The vlogbrothers did a video on it titled “One Scientifically Proven Thing Actually Makes People Happier”.

            1. raktajino*

              Anecdata: I live a 90 min bus trip or 20 min drive (freeway and large bridge) from my office. My work happiness was directly correlated with how I was getting there. If I bussed, I dreaded my workday but was happy at work until it was time to go home. I prefer the bus, it’s just LONG. If I carpooled or pool+bike, I was happiest. If I drove, I absolutely wanted to quit.

              I know everyone has their preferences for transportation and commute, but I know *nobody* whose preference is “sitting in traffic.”

              1. Buffy will save us*

                I have a 45-60 minute commute each way. If I took public transport (which I would still have to drive 5 minutes to) it would take over 2 hours, two trains and a bus. I’d rather drive and listen to my audiobooks & podcasts

                1. raktajino*

                  Listening to audiobooks and podcasts are the best part about a bus commute. I can’t safely do much of that when driving (a me thing, not a generalization). Plus, I can knit, read, meditate, or (most likely) just get my braindead internetting done with for the day. Honestly, I find it easier to disconnect from my phone at home when I’ve had any bus trip, because I’ve already binged.

                  4 hours rt is a LOT of commute time though. That really adds up, especially with the two transfers. My office commute was similar: when everything lined up perfectly I could make it in 60 min, but one late bus could add 20 min.

                2. Seven hobbits are highly effective, people*

                  When I had a 90 minutes each way bus/train commute, I bought a Nintendo DS and whatever the newest Pokemon game was at the time. I’m lucky enough to be able to both play video games and read in the car without getting carsick, so I didn’t really mind the commute much since that’s pretty much what I’d have been doing at home anyway. (It made it hard to have any kind of social life on weeknights, though.) It probably helped that I’d had an hour each way bus commute for years in school, so it just seemed reasonable, and that I’ve mostly perfected the fine art of napping on the bus without missing my stop.

                  On the other hand, when I had a 45-60 minute each way driving commute to a different job, I couldn’t stand it within about a month. (Fortunately, I could move closer to work fairly soon after starting that job.) Just felt like wasted time and a ton of stress. I can’t listen to audiobooks very well, though – my brain just tunes them out without a visual.

                  I also tend to get magical thinking about “just five more minutes” when I’m leaving the house to drive somewhere but am very good at being to bus stops on time, which is just a my-brain thing, but adds to the stress of car commuting.

          3. Siege*

            This. My commute is even shorter, at 25 minutes to the office, 20 minutes home, and that’s still 45 minutes a day I’m not spending to go to the office to be on zoom meetings with other folks.

          4. Lex*

            Same — during lockdown when I was all WFH I got back 5 hours per week for talking long walks, making better meals and reading in the morning.

            Even now that I’m at 2 days WFH it still makes a huge difference having those 2 extra hours to exercise and plan meals.

          5. The Cowardly Katana*

            Definitely.
            For me it’s an hour each way (can sometimes be more), either in an uncomfortable bus or driving a car on busy roads. Both methods are similarly time-consuming and expensive.
            I’ve made good use of those extra 10 hours each week.
            The management have stated that they expect people to return for three days or more per week, but there is no incentive to do so, and I get less work done in the office without taking into account the time wasted in commuting.
            So far, I’ve managed to get away with one day per week.

        2. Katrine Fonsmark*

          I had a 30-minute walking commute which I actually loved! But I moved 4 hours away to a small city and built a house, so I’m very happy to be permanent remote now. I go in 3-4 times a year for a couple nights, which suits me just fine.

        3. Emma*

          Train is so different to driving, too. On the train you can read a book, phone a friend, sleep, play a game, whatever. All the same things you could do at your kitchen table on a lazy weekend morning, in fact. You don’t get any of those options if you have to drive.

      4. Generic Name*

        Same. I live in a large metro area, and I’m maybe 20 mins from my office (which is NOT in the core downtown area, but a nearby suburb city). My commute feels like a breeze compared to what I used to have.

      5. RussianInTexas*

        Same. I live in 7 miles, and 30-45 minutes was the average without any inclement weather. I work from home now, but that what it would be again, if I had to go back.
        I wouldn’t necessarily want to live close to my office, the area isn’t ideal. But no one blinks an eye to a 30 minutes commute in my area.

      6. AnotherOne*

        I’m an hour to get in, sometimes longer to get home. I mean, I live in a major city so this is all via public transit. Subway would be a little faster- save 15 minutes maybe.

        But I’m still at the point where I prefer the bus- less people.

      7. WantonSeedStitch*

        Yeah, my work is in the middle of a major metro area, on the north side. I live in on the edge of that major metro area, on the south side. I don’t drive. A walking-and-public-transit commute takes me between 70 and 90 minutes door to door most of the time–IF public transit is operating at reasonable efficiency. And right now, the public transit of this metro area is a shitshow with major shutdowns on multiple routes (some people can probably guess now which major metro area I’m talking about). If I want to be in the office for at least 8 hours a day, that means I’m away from the house for about 10.5-11 hours a day. I would love to be at my workplace until I retire, frankly, but if they ever decreed I had to come into the office every day again, or even more than twice a week max, I think I would have to find another job. It was one thing before I have kids. Now, with a toddler? No.

            1. Notworthdyingfor*

              Yeah, also I don’t want to ride on the Boston transit system until we have a better guarantee that the train won’t CATCH ON FIRE-I mean I already don’t want to go back to the office but this REALLY seals the deal for me. Public transit is my only option and it’s just not safe.

              1. JustaTech*

                Ooh, that explains all the memes my Boston friends have been sharing.

                Honestly I really preferred my longer train commute to school compared to the days I got a (theoretically) shorter ride in – the train was more predictable and less likely to make me car sick, so I could read/do homework.

                But that was with only 4-5 catastrophic transit failures in 2 years.

              2. Poppy*

                When I lived just outside of Boston and commuted downtown (12 miles, a 20 minute drive on the weekend with no traffic) public transportation would take from 45-90 minutes. It depended whether the bus showed up, if they were on schedule SWITCHING STOP LOCATIONS across a busy intersection at a certain time and if the train was going to break down. Nightmarish. Unfortunately my employer charged over $400/month to park so I had no other option. I got in trouble once because I was late to a training when the train shut down due to a death at a station and we all had to be bussed. Apparently public transportation shutdowns were something I should predict?

                1. FionasHuman*

                  Charging your employees to park — that’s heinous. They do that at my husband’s job, too. He says that, if they ever push people to come back to the office full time, he’s going to put up signs saying: “Who else here can have a fully-remote, better-paying job within a month?”

              3. Chauncy Gardener*

                What? You don’t want to jump into the Charles to save yourself from burning?

                Honestly, why did we spend all that money on the Big Dig? We could have put train lines in the middle of 93, 128 and 495, with stations and parking garages in every exit area. But nooooooo

                2. Who Am I*

                  I have a great employer (and still WFH) but one of the few things they’ve ever done that really made me give them some side eye was to build a brand new building that purposely only has enough parking for half the employees – and they charge for it. (And this was well before the pandemic, so they weren’t counting on having fewer people in the office every day.) Not cool guys. So not cool.

                3. Hannah Lee*

                  I’m outside of Boston and commute by car along 495, 20-30 minutes each way + ?? minutes if the traffic turns. I’d much rather take public transportation, but the commute would take ~ 90-120 minutes each way. Plus I could no longer work a full day, with bus changes, the earliest I could be at work is ~ 9 am, but I’d have to leave around 3 pm to be able catch a bus
                  to transfer to another bus to transfer to the last bus to the city I
                  live in. Commuter rails along the ring road would have been a great idea. Also while they were excavating half of Boston, the north-south link would have been a good idea.

            2. penny dreadful analyzer*

              I know folks who are being asked to come in one day a week and are balking at even that, because with all the closures it’d take them like 2 hours each way on shuttle buses. Any Boston-area company that wants its people to come into the office *at all* should at least be postponing those plans until all the trains are back on line!

            3. Lex*

              Please tell me you’ve seen the ‘Charlie on the MTA’ parody song. *sings “If you’re in Back Bay and you gotta get to Malden, or from Cambridge to Jamaica Plain, hope you’ve got four wheels or a couple extra hours ‘cause you won’t get there on the train!* Signed — Fellow Orange Line sufferer

              1. Lizzo*

                I have not seen this yet but am a fan of the original and will be looking this up tout suite! Thank you!

          2. M&M*

            I also immediately flagged this as Boston! I’m starting a new job soon and have heard a lot about the orange line related headaches from my new coworkers. I guess it being shut down is better than it being literally on fire but…yikes.

        2. Thin Mints didn't make me thin*

          I commuted 75 miles each way when I worked in Boston and it was RIDICULOUS. So much traffic. So much gas. So many near-miss accidents. So glad I was able to move my career to WFH.

          1. Irish girl*

            I keep being called by recruiters for jobs in Boston and im like “nope” never gonna work in the city.

          2. Remote Fort*

            I commuted from Manchester, NH when I first started working in Boston – 2 hours of car to bus to train. The shortest I ever had once I moved to Brighton and Watertown was 30 mins – hour depending on the T and bus schedule. I’m sad to hear it’s gotten worse.

            DC is much much worse though… the Metro and bus situations are no where near as usable as I remember Boston being.

            1. Anonymous here*

              Pretty familiar with both the Boston T and DC’s Metro. They both suck. Multiple times I’ve given up on each of them and walked.

            2. Sharp-dressed Boston Terrier*

              Are you me? Grew up in southern NH and spent 14 years in the DC area. Can attest to the utter ridiculousness of the DC Metro system, to the point where walking to work made a whole lot of sense… except for the DC summers.

            3. Baffled Teacher*

              Yeah I lived in Brighton 18 years ago and my bus/train commute was a nightmare, but at least nothing caught fire at the time

              1. I would prefer not to*

                I find it hard to separate out home working and flexible working from all the other things I love about my job. I wouldn’t leave if home working was stopped, necessarily. However, the fact that they’d scrapped it would make it a very different sort of workplace, and suggest other things I love about the job might also change.

                I have a brilliant boss who trusts me, gives clear direction and feedback but doesn’t micromanage, encourages us to look after our wellbeing and avoid burnout, but never oversteps or gets condescending, shares out work fairly, and evaluates us based on outcomes.

                Within that context, we are all encouraged to come into the office roughly 2 days a week or 8 days a month. In our team, we aren’t monitored (but there’s an electronic sign in system so the organisation does have a record).

                In our team, we have a day that we all agree to be in. We all understand that people have different and changing preferences. For instance, people understood during a recent local Covid spike that I wanted to home work for that period, as my partner is clinically vulnerable.

                It works really well.

                But if the leadership was different I’d feel completely different. If I felt cajoled into the office because someone didn’t trust me and wanted to peer over my shoulder while I make a big show of flapping around, complaining about how busy and stressed I am (as I’ve seen in other jobs), I’d seriously resent it.

                Similarly, if I felt that when I go in, I’m picking up slack for people who aren’t working responsibly at home, I’d resent it.

                In an outcomes-driven, well run organisation, the flexible model works well. But if any of those elements slip, I’d understand a need to have people in the office, and/or people wanting to be home every day.

        3. I Speak for the Trees*

          Howdy, neighbor! (Maybe literally a I am on the south side, too). I feel you on this. I have been working at a suburban office location while supporting a Back Bay location, but now they want me to sit in the office. My 11 minute drive will become over an hour IF the train is running on time (and doesn’t catch fire or catch my arm in the door, etc,)

        4. Staja*

          Oh yeah…I had that commute for years until I got my license and moved to NH. Lots and lots of reading, but always the fear I’d miss a bus/train transfer or be late for work again. And then once I could drive and realized it was a 20 minute ride…via Storrow and then a quick navigation through downtown – with a $16 parking fee at the end? I still usually took the train!

        5. Mr. Bob Dobalina*

          I am also in Boston-metro (south shore), and I don’t drive. Public transportation, which I took for decades, is about 1 hour 45 minutes one way (on a good day). I am so done with that. Never again.

      8. Canadian Librarian #72*

        Yeah, my commute is 1.25 hours each way. Fortunately I only have to go in twice a week, or I’d never do it.

        Thirty minutes each way sounds great to me, and is very normal where I live; frankly I would be surprised to hear someone complain about it. That said, certainly the shorter the better where commutes are concerned.

        I’ve read that studies indicate a commute with a one-way duration of 45 minutes or longer is proven to have negative health impacts.

        1. Alex*

          I think 30 minutes used to be a sweet spot for many as a benchmark – but with wfh being so common in the last few years, 30 minutes suddenly sounds quite bad if you have the “zero minutes” option. And also the factor that you don’t have to pay for transit/gas for that trip.

      9. itsame*

        I had a miserable commute at an old job. I ended up driving to work at 6am to avoid traffic so I could keep it under an hour in the car each way. About a months before I left that job, they opened a second office a 30 minute bus ride from my home, which comparably felt extremely easy. Once I’d left for a fully remote role I realized that even that “easy” commute was taking up 5 hours of my life every week. At this point, I never want to go back to an office again if I don’t have to.

      10. Boof*

        I’m 30 min away and I’d still usually rather have that 1hr of life back esp when i’m often too busy to have time to sleep, exercise, or really do anything fun for myself*
        * sometimes the drive is pleasant and my only vague r&r time but by and large right now I minimize the back and forth and am glad to have that flexibility in the post pandemic zoom boom

      11. MacArthur Park*

        Sure, but if you’re working from home, and then you have to start driving 30 minutes each way every day, it’s basically a 12% pay cut for the amount of time you spend making your work day happen overall. More if you count that you have to spend time making yourself presentable before you go and get the subway off you when you get back. You wouldn’t want to do an extra 60-90 minutes of work a day for free, right?

      12. RebelwithMouseyHair*

        I have never accepted more than 40 minutes, and 40 minutes was only acceptable because I didn’t have to change on the metro, and was almost guaranteed a seat both ways. That way I got to read for over an hour without feeling guilty that I should be cleaning something.
        I live within 20 min of central Paris so there are plenty of jobs to be had within my 40-min radius, but then again, we paid a lot of money for a house that was within walking distance of a metro station, rather than buying a much cheaper and bigger house further out.

    3. Hlao-roo*

      I like the office, but I don’t want to drive for an hour everyday for the opportunity to join virtual meetings with people who live out of state.

      Completely agree. When my office was doing voluntary hybrid, I went in when I had meetings because I prefer to meet in a conference room (masked) to a virtual meeting. But if I knew a meeting was going to be virtual (with someone who was still 100% WFH, with someone in another state/country) I stayed home because I prefer a virtual meeting from my home to a virtual meeting from my cubicle.

      1. Aarti*

        30 minutes is my commute right now and it is the longest I have ever had! this is extremely region dependent. 45 minutes to go 4 miles is INSANE – I’d almost rather bike. It’s why I won’t live in a large city!

    4. Mabelline*

      This. I live in an area where housing is very “neighborhood” dependent. A place within a few miles of my office would cost 2-3x where I currently live, which is 10 miles away from the office. Commuting has gotten insanely expensive and my area does not have transit. I currently can’t afford to commute to the office regularly OR live closer to the office. My employer needs to make one of those options feasible before they require daily in-office attendance.

    5. HailRobonia*

      I’m in a similar situation – I work remotely 3 days a week, in the office 2 days a week, and my commute is typically over an hour. My rent is substantial and I will likely need to move even further away to find affordable housing.

    6. Pool Lounger*

      This is huge. My partner’s office options are all in the most expensive cities in the USA. We’d never be able to buy a house or go on vacation if we lived in one of those places. They’d have pay enough to live just as comfortably in NYC/LA/Seattle/Austin/DC/etc as in small-city south, NE, and midwest. Which they will never do. Which is actually fine, as long as they keep wfh happening. Wfh is working great, and in a huge company where people on one team may be in different countries let alone different states, wfh just makes sense.

      2. Emma*

        Mine is 20 minutes by bike and that would be the same for anywhere in the city centre for me. But by bike it’s enjoyable; I totally get why the previous commenter wouldn’t want to sit in a car for 30 minutes each way every day. Of course, lots of people are stuck with much longer commutes, but just because it’s common doesn’t mean we have to like it!

      3. Starbuck*

        For me that would be the longest commute I’ve ever had, and where I live it would mean driving about 25 miles away.

    8. Engineer 1.0*

      My office moved to a huge fancy suburban office park after being located in a compact downtown with bus, train and car access. Making a 45 minute drive every day does not compel me to come in, and they’ve been complaining a lot about being able to hire people in my demographic (20s, various minorities in engineering) — but no one in my demographic can afford or desire the enormous McMansions near work, and that drive isn’t desireable either.

      2. Glitsy Gus*

        I’m in a similar boat. My company is consolidating to one office in a pretty remote business park twice as far from me as my current office (which is already 45 minute drive away). I understand why the company made the decision, but a lot of us are switching to 90% remote because of it.

      3. Katrine Fonsmark*

        I feel like a few years before the pandemic, a lot of big companies in Chicago were doing the exact opposite move (suburban office park to downtown) for that very reason – to attract young people who had no interest in working/living/driving in the suburbs. McDonald’s and Walgreens and others I can’t remember.

    9. Flash Packet*

      Same. I would need a salary increase that not only compensated me for my one-hour-each-way commute but also paid for a pet sitter and an in-home elder-care aide. A lot of things changed in my life during the pandemic.

      And it would be a bad deal for the company because I get maybe 50% of the same work done at the office compared to at home.

      So they’d pay more, get less, *and* I would still be unhappy because of the lack of work/life balance.

      And I’d probably go back to needing a sick day once a month because I have an autoimmune disorder that flares up under stress (either mental or physical, like lack of sleep because of what I have to do to be in the office 5 days a week).

      Letting me WFH as much as I am now is a win-win situation all around.

      1. Majnoona*

        My reason is different. I live with someone immunocompromised and just didn’t want to be around sick people. Also I got pretty comfortable working remotely.

    10. Student*

      “I like the office, but I don’t want to drive for an hour everyday for the opportunity to join virtual meetings with people who live out of state.”

      This is so right. I just can’t picture my office successfully moving back to in-person meetings, given how much has changed.

    11. The Person from the Resume*

      But if you didn’t move and the company didn’t move, it’s the same situation as before COVID. Is it an I refuse to go back to the way it used to be situation.

      1. Alex*

        Yes, because the current “new normal” is a vast improvement over “how it has been”. If you have been poor, and now are making a steady income, going back to being poor is not “I refuse to go back to the way it used to be” situation, it just is not wanting to worsen your own situation (again).

        The old “normal” is simply not good enough anymore. Times change.

      2. BubbleTea*

        I have moved but if I hadn’t, the other thing that’s changed for me is that I had a baby. I literally couldn’t commute to the office (45 to 60 minutes each way) and work the same hours because there is no childcare available for that length of time. Of course now I’m 250 miles away and contractually full time remote so it isn’t an issue.

        Sometimes yes, it is a case of refusing to go back. Once it’s been shown that a better way is possible, going back is harder than it would have been to just stay the same.

    12. CatMintCat*

      My commute, when I lived near Sydney (no normal person can afford to live IN Sydney, even the outer suburbs these days), was a minimum two hours. 40 minutes in the car to get to a train station, then a bit over an hour on the train, and a fifteen minute walk to the office in the city. Reverse it to get home.

      Now that I’ve re-located to the bush, I look back and don’t know how I survived it. My current commute is 20 minutes on country roads, with the occasional kangaroo or emu as the only hazard.

    13. Stunner266*

      This same comment keeps appearing. How is it that this wasn’t an issue for you before covid, but it is now?

      1. Robots*

        Because commuting to work was simply the accepted standard. For a lot of workplaces, the office was where work happened, and you and everyone else had to get there, it was just a given.

        It’s taken the disruption of a pandemic and the introduction of remote working systems for many to realise that they don’t actually need to go into an office five days a week to get their work done. Even an employee that previously had a 30 minute, pleasant commute will have lived a year or two of having an extra hour to themselves every day, and the saved cost of gas/transport – not easy to give that up once you’ve tasted it.

    14. amethyst*

      Oh that’s the other thing I forgot to say in my comment! I also live about 20-30 min from the office – which is fine for me; I don’t mind driving that everyday in general. But I also think to myself – why drive into work when I’m going to sit in my office and be on video calls all day long? I can do the same thing without the commute.

    15. I would prefer not to*

      Shows how context matters! I live and work in London, and a 30 minute commute sounds blissful to me…

  3. Ask a Manager* Post author

    Another question — if you’re taking a hard line right now about not going back, how much of your stance is based on the current job market/your sense that you have other remote options if your employer tries to require you to return? If the job market were to dramatically change, would that affect your position and what feels realistic to you?

    1. Jane Bingley*

      I have a remarkably great job – a truly wonderful boss, an incredible team of colleagues, work I genuinely love doing. But key to that is also the fact that I work from home. I know my boss and colleagues would annoy me more if I had to see them every day. As an EA, my job tasks would change if I was in an office (more in-person meeting planning, ordering lunches, and general office maintenance). So my wonderful job would be substantially less wonderful if I went into an office, not just because I’d lose work from home, but because I’d lose other things I love about it, too.

      My job is still great enough that I’d probably stick around. I know I’ve found a bit of a unicorn. But I’d have a job search on the side, something I have zero interest in doing right now.

      1. Sloanicota*

        I agree, I’ve landed in a not-great, perma-remote job right now. I’m really looking for a better job, but the fact that I’m already FT remote means the new potential job has to compete with that, or else I’ll just keep looking. At this point, I’m willing to stick with my not-great remote job over having to return to the office more than one or two days a week.

    2. Keymaster of Gozer*

      An interesting angle! I think if my particular industry suddenly changed back to ‘you cannot work from home ever’ and there were fewer jobs available offering it I’d probably change my stance. I’d complain a lot, but I’d weigh up need for salary Vs need for not commuting everyday.

      1. MigraineMonth*

        I work in tech, and I don’t think we’re ever going back to full time in the office. The field is too in-demand, so it just won’t be competitive. Particularly because WFH has increased productivity in many offices; turns out it’s easier to concentrate when not overhearing your coworkers’ conversations or being interrupted every 10 minutes.

        I have made the choice between high salary/high COL/long commute and lower salary/lower COL/shorter commute before, so I know I’d take a less lucrative job for a 0 minute commute.

        1. amethyst*

          Yeah, I was thinking the same. I work in tech and I don’t see us ever going back to full-time in the office the same way we were before. It was already hard enough to justify the requirement to be in person in my field; most people just did it because of inertia. But now that we’ve all worked from home for two years and not only didn’t fail but did *better,* it’s really hard for leadership to try to justify why we should be back.

    3. triplehiccup*

      My sister is currently job hunting after 2+ years not working, and I see her making this calculation – she’s hurrying to accept lower pay just because it’s remote, and she sees the job market cooling down. Furthermore, I think this is part of why the Fed is cranking up interest rates even though there’s no evidence that too-low interest rates are causing current inflation. I feel very comfortable assuming that Jerome Powell would love to see workers lose power in the job market.

      1. Falling Diphthong*

        Pretty sure he has explicitly said that lower wages and higher unemployment is the correct balance?

        (That said, it is the nature of economic stuff to expand and contract.)

        1. Sloanicota*

          I’m not an economist but my sense is that inflation seems to hurt the rich and powerful – while stagnant wages and high unemployment benefit them :( Therefore the full force of our government is going to preventing inflation

          1. Spearmint*

            I don’t want to get too much into this politics here, but all I’ll say is many/most progressive economists think inflation is bad for ordinary people, and when you look at polling working class people consistently cite inflation as one their top issues.

          2. somanyquestions*

            Inflation hits lower income people much harder, as a higher % of their spending is for necessary goods and housing.

            1. Ubergaladababa*

              Yes, inflation is much, much harder on someone who is already living paycheck to paycheck than someone with some give in their budget, let alone someone who doesn’t need to have a budget.

              And it’s not that too-low interest rates are causing inflation, it’s that raising interest rates is one of the few/best tools we have for fighting inflation. It lowers the amount of money in the economy, cools demand, and it signals that inflation won’t last forever, helping the economy escape a cycle where demand is artificially high because people assume they need to buy xyz right now before it gets too expensive

              1. Sloanicota*

                OK I’m very ignorant and truly interested in learning here, but – surely unemployment is *even harder* on that person living paycheck to paycheck? Since they now lose their paycheck and can’t get a new job? Where as the wealthy live off their investments, not wages. No?

                1. Falling Diphthong*

                  Lots of wealthy people live mostly off their high salaries.

                  Unemployment is worse for those who don’t have several months’ salary in savings or accessible investments as a cushion.
                  Stagnant wages are worse for those who are already low paid.
                  Inflation is worse for those with no wiggle room in their budget.

                  Basically all storms are worse if you are poor.

                2. amateur econobot*

                  I don’t think this is an ignorant question. Yes, raising the unemployment rate is bad for the same people most impacted by inflation; it not only puts people out of work but also decreases worker power relative to employers, so people who still have jobs lose the ability to negotiate for better pay and working conditions.

                  Raising interest rates/increasing unemployment is also not the only possible tool for addressing inflation; price controls and subsidies, for example, would address rising prices much more directly by limiting how much companies can charge for necessities and/or helping people pay the higher prices (probably both since you don’t want to just subsidize ever-increasing price hikes). Even in the US, we do this in limited circumstances already; price-gouging during disasters or emergencies is illegal in most states, for example.

                  In addition, if the inflation isn’t caused by too much demand, raising interest rates may not help. The traditional idea of inflation as “rising wages/rising prices = more demand = more rising wages/rising prices = more demand” is only one possible scenario, and it may not be the one we’re dealing with now. There are global shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the economic sanctions against Russia because of their invasion of Ukraine; it’s entirely possible that the problem isn’t increased demand but lack of supply, which wouldn’t be helped by putting people out of work.

                  TL;DR: Increasing interest rates hurts regular people and it isn’t the only possible way to fight inflation. I Am Not An Economist.

                3. ShanShan*

                  The tradeoff is that inflation shrinks debt.

                  So, the general wisdom is that inflation is bad for people with savings and good for people with debt.

                  Obviously, this is more of a long-term view than the day-to-day grocery bill.

                4. Ubergaladababa*

                  The other comments are certainly correct that problems in the economy are pretty much always worse for the poor than the rich. But it’s also the case that pretty much every poor person is hurt by inflation, while high unemployment tends to directly affect fewer people (although the points about decreased bargaining power are well taken.

    4. Wats*

      It’s less the job market than the industry. I work in tech, so I’m not worried about finding remote jobs. They were always more likely to be remote, now even more so.

      1. Falling Diphthong*

        Youngest just finished a hybrid tech internship, and his priorities on a job for a year from now are that it have a good work-life balance and be fully remote.

      2. AsPerElaine*

        Same.

        My hard line is currently about safety. Even if the market were to get MUCH worse, I have enough financial cushion that I could take the time to spend six months looking for a job, if I needed to. I like this job, and I’d be sorry to leave it, but I cannot off the top of my head think of anything that would currently induce me to go back to a giant petri dish with 50 or 60 other people, many of whom are not masking. (If I had NO other options, maybe. But by the time I had no other options I wouldn’t have this job anymore.) And doubly so in winter, when I’d be taking my lunches outside in sub-freezing and sometimes sub-zero weather.

        I have skills that are needed, whether or not the market is hot, and skills that are transferable, even if my particular niche somehow went utterly belly-up (and if we don’t need computers anymore, going back to the office will be the least of my problems). I have enough privilege and resources that there are a lot of other things I could change before I had no choice to accept an in-office job in the current pandemic situation.

        (And, unfortunately, nothing I have seen indicates that we’re likely to get the pandemic situation under control to an extent that would alleviate my concerns any time soon. Which is too bad, because I do have value for not-fully-remote.)

        1. Majnoona*

          Same with me. The pandemic is over! No masks! Yet a week doesn’t go by that I don’t hear of someone testing positive. Forcing us back into the classroom (university) was a big factor for me.

          1. goddessoftransitory*

            Our delivery people are getting a LOT more notes about dropping off the food, ringing the doorbell and leaving because the orderer has COVID since masking requirements withered away.

          2. academic fibro warrior*

            Me too! And I can’t even say the word masks and was not able to decided when I was sick and needed to teach from home. By the time the paperwork processed I wouldn’t be sick anymore! Naturally I had students end up in the ICU.

            So when I was offered a position at a private university that requires vaccinations, indoor masking, testing, and is still 80% hybrid (and pays better than the state school) I jumped. Now I do not mind teaching in person. Also I get to excuse my students for skipping for being under the weather and I’m notified of COVID exposure right away.

            If I hadn’t had this opportunity I would have stayed working my online only part time education adjacent jobs. I’ve had COVID twice and had long COVID twice in the last 2.5 years. Oh but I’m not at any risk at all! If an institution doesn’t value my health, I don’t value them.

      3. Anony*

        It is because of WFH that I’m able to work at all. I love saving the commute time and expense. I like that I can take my lunch to do things like dishes, laundry, tend to our animals, etc. so I don’t feel like I’m drowning with a poor work life balance. Now when I’m off work for the day I can also relax more with my husband and pursue projects of our own because I don’t have a mountain of non-work tasks waiting for me. If WFH went away I wouldn’t even consider a commute more than 20 minutes anymore and I would only agree to work part time. I’m thankful my husband has created a life where I choose to work, not have to work and I know that’s not the case for a lot of people. But the amount of misery associated with the office just isn’t worth it. There was so much time wasted in idle chit chat, commuting, group lunches, etc. that people like me who just want to show up, do their job and leave really struggled.

      4. DANGER: Gumption Ahead*

        My job which is health and social services adjacent has started to go more and more remote friendly. Part of it is because most of the field grant funded, so cutting out commercial rent for everything except the services that must be delivered on-site makes you very attractive to donor. Another part of it is because it is heavily female and rapidly diversifying, so we have more people with caretaking responsibilities, without access to family wealth, and with disabilities that makes WFH or remote appealing. It is also really, really, really nice to have staff available during the workday in the communities we serve. That way they more can easily go to our community stakeholders, rather than asking the stakeholders to come to us. This is a huge benefit that I can’t see any organization giving up. Being able to meet our stakeholders quite literally where they were at in the beginning of the pandemic was huge and I can’t see us going back to the old way of making them come to us.

    5. Beans*

      I am permaremote. At this point, the only thing that would get me to work in an office full-time would be if I had literally no other options, burned though the last penny of my savings, and my spouse had also lost his job and couldn’t float us.

      The freedom, the flexibility, the ability to be myself and not have to maintain a fake Corporate Persona – I wouldn’t trade that for the world. I’m great at my job. But I don’t care about the career ladder or networking or in-person abilities. I just want to get paid. I don’t think I’m alone in this mindset!

      1. NewJobNewGal*

        I was thinking about the “fake Corporate Persona” aspect! When I work in the office, I have to be ‘on’ all the time. I’m a woman in tech, so every encounter is a game of “How do they want me to react? Are they judging me?”
        I get to be ME when I work from home. I don’t need to worry if I have RBFace every second of the day. No one sees what I’m wearing. No one judges my processes or my work methods. My work speaks for me. This is Freedom!

        1. Calaghan*

          These two comments are everything. I left formal employment in 2016 for exactly the reasons you two mention here – it was taking such a toll on my mental health, that went I started *centering* my mental health, I found that a full, healthy, honest life was just absolutely incompatible with “being on” in an office for a living.

          I took a year off, started a business, and pieced together the rest of my financials with freelance work. It wasn’t super fun or easy, but it was at home, among friends, and the day belonged to me. It was freedom. I stopped having this “shrink away” reaction to people that I had developed under the glare of office strip lighting.

          Reading your comments though gives me euphoria, and has me wondering whether, under the new WFH conditions, I might be able to return to that steady paycheck (literally the only thing I miss, ha – but really not something to sneer at).

          On the other hand, I don’t know how I’d explain a 6 year gap of “Oh I’ve been doing this and that, whatever it takes to pay the bills really, because in-office corporate life was SOUL CRUSHINGLY DREADFUL but I see *you guys* have WFH” – lmaoo, I’ll have to figure out a better way sell that.

          1. Esprit de l'escalier*

            You could say, I always wanted to run my own business so I took the plunge, but eventually I wanted to shift to a combination of working from home part of the time while also having a more team-oriented working environment part of the time [note, this doesn’t have to be true! and you’d have to be applying for something advertised as hybrid] so I started applying for positions like this one with a hybrid situation.

            Once you were back in the standard job world you could try to make it, or move to, a more WFH position if that’s possible in your industry.

            1. Calaghan*

              Oh gosh, hybrid work would be a non-starter. I wouldn’t be willing to work in an office again, even one day a week, even for part of a day. There’s no amount money or benefits that can replace the mental health benefits of WFH.

              (I’m specifically including this comment to join the rest of the chorus, because the article is kind of asking the question, What would bring you back to the office. My answer is literally nothing. Threat of death, maybe.)

          2. SaltedChocolateChip*

            I would think you can totally sell it — as a freelancer you’re your own business so if you’ve been making it work this long, you’ve clearly built a network (and are good at selling your services!) and have happy clients to use as references and a portfolio of some kind to point to. It will all be in the framing and you probably need to divvy the work into different buckets that get highlighted or cut depending on the job, but there’s definitely a way to do it.

            And you can simply say “I’ve enjoyed freelance work but am excited to work as part of an organization again, especially one that [insert reason you’re giving for applying that particular place].”

          3. Weaponized Pumpkin*

            It’s all in the story. I went out on my own and have really enjoyed many aspects of it but miss (being plugged in to the industry / rapid learning I experienced with a team / stability).

            I did this, so I’ve been through it. What’s weird is that many, many people will assume of course you want to return to an FTE because they believe it must be a terrible grind to work for yourself. Others will be very skeptical of anyone coming back in, believing that you will never be happy taking orders from anyone else ever again.

        2. Moon hopping*

          This so big for me. one example I had a boss that I went on the same MLM diet as her (pressured to because they felt it would give me more energy and therefore make me more productive) when I went off because I was pregnant I got many vailed comments about what I was eating. And I was under Drs orders to gain weight . I can only imagine the freedom to eat when and what you want at home could do for some who has been fat shamed feels like.

        3. She of Many Hats*

          The other side of Being On all day at work, especially if you are not a full-fledged extrovert is having anything left for those you care about outside of work: Friends, Spouses, Children – especially children….

          That’s why I had to leave retail, which I enjoy and am good at. I’d get home and I would not have patience and energy and attention available for my spouse and early-elementary aged child. That’s not including household management tasks either. Corporate work was enough lower a level of Being On that I could be Present at home and the pandemic WFH era showed me how much more Present I could be for my now teenager. It’s that flexibility and connection outside of work that I’m missing now that I’m on-site daily.

          1. amethyst*

            oh this cannot be understated. Working from home I have so much more energy for my husband and for my hobbies and life than I did when I was at the office. I used to come home every day beat and could barely get it together to cook dinner. Now I feel like I am really living my life!

        4. Not Today*

          We are back in office three days a week. I find that by the third day I am EXHAUSTED from being “on” three days in a row. Like just physically and mentally WIPED OUT and done. I dont know how we did it before….

          1. Teapot Wrangler*

            Ouch – three days in the office is bad but three days in a row is untenable! I’d be absolutely wrecked!!!

      2. Anony*

        You are not alone! I agree with every single word of this. I would have to be in a very desperate situation with my household to go back to office.

      3. lilsheba*

        I agree with every point you made! I’m also perma remote for which I am grateful. I don’t ever want to work in an office again. I save so much money now, and time! To me the time was always the most important.

      4. MacArthur Park*

        1000%. My job involves talking to strangers about 50% of the time, and I have to be at like level 11 politeness and professionalism during that time, even though they are often extremely difficult. If I am not able to roll my eyes and sigh heavily and eat a straight block of cheese during the other 50% of the time, that level 11 is not gonna happen. Either I’m going to end up cursing someone out or my head is going to explode. I don’t know how anyone did this job in an office. But at home, I do a really, really good job at it.

    6. NewJobNewGal*

      I joined my last company at the beginning of Covid and worked remote for two years. Then they wanted us to come back into the office, or in my case, start working in the office for the first time. I just found a new job where I could be remote.

      My main problems with working in that office were:
      1. My entire team was out of state. I would be going into the office just to chat with my team on zoom. This really grated on me. Executives wanted people in the office so they could look at them, it had nothing to do with productivity.
      2. Of the few people I spoke to who worked locally, a few of them were jerks. Major, sexist jerks. It turned my stomach thinking of being in an office with them.

      If things were different and it wasn’t so easy to find a new job, I would have still looked for a new job locally. Going back into that office was the straw that broke the camel. There were so many issues with my last job that going back to the office brought them all together and made me realize I didn’t want to work there. Working from home was the only thing keeping me in that job.

    7. Christi P*

      We are currently back in the office two days a week. I’ve taken a pretty hard stance with my boss that I WILL NOT come in more frequently than that, so if it comes to that let me know so I can make other employment arrangements. I’m not sure if I’m bluffing :). I have political capital that I’m willing to use on this, and if push comes to shove I could find something fully remote if I need to. If the market were to change drastically my stance might change, but I would probably be willing to push the issue, i.e. not come in more until it resulted in a negative impact to my performance review/bonus, etc.

      1. Lizzie*

        We are back however many days each department’s management deems it “necessary” in my case, its two days. I’m fine with that. I have a relatively short commute, but I still prefer my WFH days, although I have come to realize that I do need to come in for my own sanity.
        We JUST were notified by management that it will be three days shortly, at least that’s what will be expected of us. I am not looking forward to that, but will do it if necessary.
        Like coming back 2 days, it will be an adjustment. But leaving isn’t an option; pay and benefits are too good to give up.

        there also is some wiggle room, if you take a couiple of days off, in a week, i don’t think you will be expected to come in the other 3, at least not by MY bosses.

    8. Anonym*

      I’m taking a hard line (max 1 day in office) based not on the current job market moment, but the fact that I’m mid-career and at a mid-senior level in a fairly flexible field that offers a lot of pathways (communications). I think even if the job market drops back to more of a mid-point where candidates have less power than they do now, I expect to still have reasonable options, though I might have to begrudgingly accept a lower salary.

      And it’s not just a logistical calculation of what I can get that works best for me, but a matter of principle. Whatever skill and value I have to contribute, I want it to go toward decent, forward thinking employers. I’m a good employee who works hard and leaves things better than I found them. I don’t want to reward a bad employer with what I have to offer.

      My company is currently insisting on people coming in 3x/week, but I’m hoping that will pass. I’m currently working remote while dealing with health issues, and will go on maternity leave in a few months. If they’re still insisting on 3x/wk in office when I get back, I will be job hunting. (Reluctantly, because I actually like the company, but this is way too important for my quality of life to compromise on anymore.)

    9. WorkerBee (Germany)*

      It is reality for me now. We are required to return full time. It sucks big time. It is the only downside to my current job, as I also otherwise have a great direct boss, team and subordinates, pay is good and the job itself is good. Happy all around except for the return to office policy with no exception.
      But to my own surprise I’m not actively searching. I was sure I would if we ever had to return.
      I’m not searching due to the looming recession and the fact that my employer is doing super well and my job is very secure (almost impossible to get rid of me) plus all of the above mentioned upsides. And the tiny bit of hope that we can get corporate US to see the light and realize they will loose people over this or at least what already is happening: not finding replacements and new hires.

    10. nnn*

      My job involves sitting quietly at a computer and focusing on what’s on the screen in front of me, so there’s nothing gained by doing it in an office, and it’s actually a lot harder to do this kind of work where there are other people around.

      I’ve been working remotely for 10 years, since long before the pandemic, so I have extensive empirical evidence that my job can be done remotely.

      Many people in my field are freelancers. I don’t want to freelance, but I’d certainly give it a try freelancing from home rather than working a staff position in an office.

      If the job market in my industry changed so much that I couldn’t get work in a work-from-home position, I’d look at retraining for a new job before I’d look at going into the office.

      1. The Real Fran Fine*

        If the job market in my industry changed so much that I couldn’t get work in a work-from-home position, I’d look at retraining for a new job before I’d look at going into the office.

        Same. Fortunately, this isn’t something I have to worry about anytime soon. My company is in tech and has always had at least a third of its workforce fully remote, and I was hired long before the pandemic as a permanent virtual employee, so I can rest easy for awhile.

    11. Mauvais santé*

      My hard line is due to health. I was already sickly prior to the pandemic, then caught covid, and my health issues got worse. Working from home (specifically in the role I have) means I can get work done while dealing with a bad health day. Of which there are many. Before remote, I’d be calling out all the time.

      I have the credentials and experience for a different, higher-paying industry with interesting work. However, they mostly want hybrid while hinting they plan to slowly go full office. Still not worth more than being able to work from my sickbed. If this job fell through, I would look hard for one identical to it.

      1. Anonymous here*

        I’m pushing back on going into the office for health-related issues, and I’m definitely looking for remote positions outside my current employer (not only because of the in-office push). I’m looking into FMLA and ADA accommodations as other options in case the job market drastically changes and I have to stay with my current employer.

      2. Alice*

        Yes, I’m disabled and being able to work entirely remotely is a game changer for me. Even assuming I never caught a bug at the office, spending my energy commuting and lugging my laptop to and fro and around the office was really taking its toll on me. I’m sure if I were to go back to the office I’d have to substantially cut my hours to make up for the extra effort and my sick time would increase.

        1. lilsheba*

          Same here, I’m becoming more and more disabled as time goes on, and the commute I was able to do years ago isn’t true now. I don’t have the energy or stamina to get dressed and commute, and fix my lunch to take with and all that nonsense. I have enough to get out of bed, make coffee, make food and go sit at my computer at home and work. That’s it.

    12. RussianInTexas*

      I can’t afford to take a hard line, so I am lucky my employer just sort of forgot about the whole thing. If they call me in, I will go in.
      I am looking for a different job, and WFH/office will come in to the consideration among other things.

    13. Smitty*

      I was working hybrid remote pre-pandemic. As much as the current job market obviously makes it easier to take a firm stance on remote-work, I have always and will always make that a top priority in my decision-making.

      Many people have children and elderly family members that they are able to spend more time with because of the flexibility afforded by remote work. For me, I take a hardline because as much as I love the work that I do, my job is not the most important thing in my life. What is invaluable to me about remote work is having the ability to travel occasionally and work from my brother’s house in DC one week, having the ability to work from 5 to 1 one day so that I can spend my afternoon with family who is visiting, or going to my local shelter at lunch to walk dogs.

      Remote work allows me to enjoy the parts of my life that I value most. As a result, I find that I am less burnt out and generally happier when I am working.

    15. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

      Another question — if you’re taking a hard line right now about not going back, how much of your stance is based on the current job market/your sense that you have other remote options if your employer tries to require you to return?

      With my current employer, my supervisors over the years have all agreed, to a soul, that I’m more productive offsite. I’m also over 8 hours from the nearest office, so they’ve been disinterested in bringing me on site for less than a week at a time (excepting exceptional circumstances, which have arisen only once in my tenure so far). It’s no so much a hardline stance as it is a mutual understanding that being onsite makes no sense whatsoever for me 51+ weeks out of the normal year.

      For a new employer, though, I’ve been remote for roughly the last dozen years, and my sense is that my job security is above-average, so I’m sure that’s figuring in strongly in my hardline stance on that front. You’d have to offer me a significantly better overall Quality of Life package to get me to jump ship, and the baseline includes long-term, indefinite remote work.

      If the job market were to dramatically change, would that affect your position and what feels realistic to you?

      If the job market got tight and I were to need a new position (i.e. my current job/employer were no more), I’d probably concede remoteness on a temporary basis. I’m simply not in a position to retire early, even temporarily. I wouldn’t consider a new job a long-term fit until I were working remotely–either by proving myself onsite and returning to remote work or by leaving that job for another that offered remote work. I’d see it similarly to an employer that did not offer health insurance benefits or gatekept them behind a significant trial/probation period.

    16. Seriously?*

      I was a teacher. Left for a new business degree. I had several interviews for remote work (2 that were not advertised as such) but getting entry level in a new field over 50 = tough. I start a new job next week but I have to go in. Once trained I will be visiting multiple worksites and can do some of the office work from home. Plan is to mask, do this job for a year, and then maybe try again for remote work.

      1. irianamistifi*

        Congrats on making the switch! It’s very hard to start a new field, but with an MBA, you’ll definitely move up fast. I’d recommend trying to find a new role every 18 months to 2 years in order to increase your salary as quickly as possible (or work at a hedge fund where they like to throw money around).

    17. K*

      (Please do not quote!) For medical reasons, working on site in person is not healthy for me. I worked in person for several years, with a physical disability and a chronic disease that made commuting, being in an office, etc. draining and frequently painful. I didn’t know I could ever have the option to work remotely, especially early in my career. When the pandemic began, I was allowed to work from home only due to the aforementioned chronic disease, controlled by medication that drastically lowers my immune response. Even just my day to day life improved so much! I wasn’t getting sick all the time, the physical disability wasn’t being constantly aggravated, and I had a lot more energy. Due to the politics of the pandemic, I was called back to the office in 2021 and told absolutely no accommodations would be made for me. I frequently missed several days of work at a time due to severe illnesses, only my immediate team would wear a mask around me, and the previous issues I had working in person came right back. I started job hunting.

      I was luckily able to find a permanently remote position in the field I really wanted to be in again. I doubled my salary. I don’t have to fight for certain accommodations and I don’t have to try to make other people comfortable with my being disabled. Because I need health insurance/care, I need a job that can pay for it, and if having an in person job was the only way to have enough money to survive, I’d do it. But otherwise? No incentive would make me go back.

      (Teleworking has been an accommodation that the disabled community has been asking for for a really long time. We were told it wasn’t possible. Suddenly it was available when lots of non-disabled people needed to work from home too. This has allowed people to enter the labor market who previously could not! And that’s true for other communities as well. I just want to highlight this because a lot of conversations about returning to the office ignore the people they’d be excluding again.)

      1. Differently abled and then some*

        All of the above. When I began this job, I ask about WFH. I was handed a twelve page HR form to fill out with onerous restrictions. All WFH required advance notice and specific hours. There were NO exceptions even for documentation and request for accommodations.
        So I just ignored the paperwork, did my job, and worked from home as needed. I kept my head down and did not enter into any work place conversation about wfh. (selfish, I know) My supervisor is basically “don’t ask, don’t tell”
        Then the pandemic. I go in “as needed” Mostly I WFH. Officially we are back in the office and I am back to “don’t ask, don’t tell”

      2. lilsheba*

        “(Teleworking has been an accommodation that the disabled community has been asking for for a really long time. We were told it wasn’t possible. Suddenly it was available when lots of non-disabled people needed to work from home too. This has allowed people to enter the labor market who previously could not! And that’s true for other communities as well. I just want to highlight this because a lot of conversations about returning to the office ignore the people they’d be excluding again.)”

        THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So much this!!!!!! I tried for years to get to work from home due to becoming more and more disabled and being chronically ill. But NO it wasn’t POSSIBLE. Well we proved that was BS! It is possible and it needs to keep happening.

      3. The Real Fran Fine*

        +1 to your last paragraph

        This is so important (said as someone with an invisible disability I can manage beautifully from home – not so much onsite).

    18. AlphabetSoupCity*

      Hard line- there are parts of my industry that require in-person, and I simply don’t apply to those roles. If my niche became in-person, I would definitely first try to move to another niche that was remote-only.

    19. I've Escaped Cubicle Land*

      I live in a rural area. It would make more sense to quit if they tried to recall us then to make the long drive on a daily basis. The gas $ and the wear and tear on my car would not be worth it. Especially during inclement weather. It would make more sense to either WFH for another company, or it that wasn’t possible to get a local job near by. Even if the job paid less my costs would go down. (I only have the internet expense because I work from home so that could be cut, gas and insurance would be cheaper, I would have more down time at home for side hustles.)

      1. I've Escaped Cubicle Land*

        Also our offices were in a crime ridden neighbor hood in a crime ridden city and having to walk by ourselves to an unsecure parking lot after dark or in the early morning twilight? (member of management got car jacked in the parking lot one day) No thank you to going back to that now that I live in a place with pretty much zero crime. Not to mention the annoyance of having to scrape off the car, drive thru icy streets, play slip in slide in the company parking lot and side walk for the walk into work as opposed to looking out the window of my WFH office and being thankful that I don’t have to drive anywhere until the weather improves.

    20. ElizabethJane*

      I was recently laid off (it was very much a surprise) and found myself job hunting. I am not in a position where I could be jobless for long, which also means I couldn’t be that picky.

      That being said remote work or a short (15 minutes?) commute was non negotiable for me. And that was based entirely on the options available to me. I work as an analyst in tech and was easily able to find and apply to 73 remote jobs over the course of 5 weeks. While being relatively picky about other benefits offered (advertised PTO, retirement, etc) so any company that required any amount of in person work was just eliminated right off the bat.

      If the job market were to change without my financial situation changing (i.e. I still need a job) then my position would definitely have to change but I’d be mad about it. I just don’t see myself devoting 2+ hours of my day to commuting.

    21. cucumber*

      My calculation wouldn’t change – before the pandemic I was piecing together random part time work (dog sitting, restaurant hosting, teaching yoga etc.) and barely scraping by because I’m disabled. I was able to apply for a 100% remote job during COVID and I love it. I was able to move into a much nicer, larger apartment. If they tried to force us all back into the office, I’d just go back to what I was doing before and find a cheaper housing situation.

    22. Anonymous Koala*

      If my choices were “go back to the office or drop out of the workforce” then I would go back to the office. But if the choice was less dramatic – “go back to the office or change roles”, “go back to the office or switch industries” etc. I would really consider pivoting so I could stay remote, especially if the switch didn’t require much in the way of additional investments in education or a significant salary cut. I would absolutely take a small salary cut or switch industries and roles if it was the only way I could stay remote.

    23. It’s Not Over!*

      I saw a sharp increase in firm WFH requests from employees who didn’t care before because they are dealing with the effects of Long Covid. I wish we could get numbers on how many people have been disabled by this thing.

      2. Kay*

        This is me. With the effects of long COVID I am still able to perform my job well, but not if I need to have also woken up an hour + earlier, driven a difficult commute, parked and walked a pretty significant distance to the building, not have a place to comfortably take short rests, not have access to a private bathroom (sorry for the TMI, but it’s true for a lot of us). I’ve been able to set up my home to be able to live with this long-term if I don’t ever get any better, but the office is absolutely incompatible with my (largely invisible) health needs now.

    24. Weaponized Pumpkin*

      For me it’s non-negotiable forever. I’m incredibly fortunate to be in a strong position professionally/financially plus I was an independent consultant for many years so I’m confident I could roll back to that. But that said, I’m stacking the deck so my resolve won’t be tested — I work on a perma-remote team with no nearby office so they can’t call us back and being remote doesn’t marginalize me. I’d be hesitant to take on a job that had people who worked onsite or nearby.

    25. Thin Mints didn't make me thin*

      If I could not WFH I would have to stop working — I am disabled and it is a challenge to get to and from an office even if there were anyone hiring nearby for what I do. (I live in a small city but work for big-city organizations.)

    26. Quinalla*

      Honestly at this point, I would seriously consider starting my own company with a selling point of being able to work full time remote. I’ve thought about starting my own company before in my industry and if my current company who has been AWESOME about allowing people to continue to work remote as much as they want or come in as much as they want changed their tune, yeah I’d consider it for sure as we are currently using that as a selling point as much of our industry is butts-in-seat old-school nonsense. Some companies are allowing 2-3 WFH days, but most are back in the office 2-5 days now except us.

    27. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

      For me, not at all, but it’s because I think I have a pretty decent case for WFH accommodation due to medical stuff and a few specifics about my current organization.

    28. desdenova*

      I’d consider it if they gave me a private office. This will never happen at my current employer – there are no private offices in the entire workspace, it is a giant open-plan office with people squashed in cheek-to-jowl.

    29. Sally*

      I’m in Tech, so I feel like there will likely be ample remote positions into the future, and if my current job started enforcing in office work, I’d look for another job asap. I am the primary bread winner currently, but my spouse is full time work from home for the government with a very solid salary. If I couldn’t find a fully remote job that paid comparably to what I’m making now, we would likely move out of our high cost of living area and I would either stay home, start my own consulting firm, or find a lower paying remote job. I have in demand skills so I’m not overly concerned.

    30. Curmudgeon in California*

      I work remotely, and love it. It makes my disabilities invisible to the people I work with. I also don’t have to worry if I accidentally eat the wrong thing and have a bathroom poop explosion.

      Not driving an hour or more each way has saved me at least $5000 a year in fuel cost alone. It has given me back two hours a day of uncompensated time.

      What would it take to get me to go back to an office?
      1) An actual office, with a door, not a cube or open plan, so I can actually be productive instead of having weekly migraines
      2) A 25% increase in salary to cover those uncompensated commute hours that you want me to sacrifice

      I used to get frequent migraines, at least twice a month, in open plan offices. WFH I have maybe one a quarter if the weather is really wonky.

    31. la bella vita*

      I actually just started a new job this month and once I move I’ll be going in roughly two days per week. It’s a better job with a better title and more money, so I’m fine with commuting as needed. In my last job I was miserable and working from home was my saving grace, so no amount of additional money from that company would’ve made me go into the office.

    32. Middle Sized Manager*

      I was in this spot ~ a year ago, and I was much more open to in-office work than I would be now. I was moving with or without a job, so I didn’t want to rule out jobs, especially because I work in a relatively niche industry.

      But, if I were to look for a new job, it would have to be a lot of money to make it worth leaving – I can work flexible hours whenever needed with no questions asked, my boss is fantastic, and (the big one), we went down to one car during the panini, so it would need to be worth the monthly car payment. I know there’s a lot to be said for job hopping, especially right now, but I have a fantastic work/life blend with growth opportunities where I am, and I just can’t see myself sacrificing remote work to make more money with potentially more stress.

    33. Buffy*

      I made a career shift to tech during the pandemic and a large facet of that was the knowledge that I would be likely to be able to remain remote in future roles.

    34. Flash Packet*

      I’m good enough at what I do that if my employer required us to go back 5 days a week, I would change jobs. And that goes for whatever the job market is like. My skillset will always be in demand.

      If, however, every single company that could benefit from my skillset required 5 days in the office, I would stay with my current company. And I would go in those 5 days a week because I am not independently wealthy.

    35. J*

      I took a pay cut (close to 50%) at one point in the pandemic to have a fully remote option. Given that I’m disabled, it was a top priority to be remote, even at the expense of my earnings. Then in 2021, my spouse’s sibling died of Covid he got in the workplace about 15 years shy of retirement age. We decided to switch all sorts of priorities and that included jobs and cars and potentially even our city of choice. I’m already high risk but do I want to commit to a job that might kill me? Does my spouse want to work until he dies like his brother? Do we want to live in a community that denied how his brother died?

      On the job front, I might have a limited market, my partner does not, but we’ve decided we’d rather earn up to 50% less and downsize our home rather than go back to jobs that take so much of our time/energy. I’m lucky that the market showed some response so I’m now back to a job higher than my February 2020 salary but I’m also working much fewer hours, as is my spouse. In the meantime, I am aggressively saving, working on additional revenue streams for the household, and planning a long-term move so we can move away from in person job dependency. It requires a full lifestyle shift and sacrifice but we’re committed. My health isn’t going to get any better and I’m still decades away from full disability and this was a wake up call for me.

    36. Liz*

      Many people in my specific field have been working largely remotely since before Covid (which further accelerated that switch) so fortunately, I will be unlikely to have to make that choice. I just accepted a new job and every position I interviewed for was remote.

    37. Just say NO*

      My company had mandated 3 days a week back in the office but I moved 8 hour drive away…so I just said I couldn’t. This is a combination of me being at a point in my career where I have the confidence and capital to say no and knowing that there is other work out there for someone with my experience level. I could easily find a job, even if the job market was slow. The pandemic has just made it so most of the jobs I see posted in my field are remote, which gives me even more confidence.
      The funny part is that everyone knows I’m fully remote and there have been NO consequences. NO ONE cares. I’ve been doing this for over a year and am still confused why others in the office haven’t followed my lead.

      1. Beep Boop*

        There’s literally no way to enforce a mass return-to-office of unwilling employees unless you want to burn your business to the ground in the process. I’ve heard from several friends that those who have quietly chosen to continue working from home in violation of official requirements have faced no penalties.

        1. HappytobeWorkerBee*

          This!! It made me laugh out loud-probably the vision of an actual empty office building burning to the ground because no one showed up anymore.

          I would imagine the not-gonna-come-into-the-office-until-they-make-me mode might last until the market swings back to the employer side but will employers ever really have that upper hand position again? Boomers are retiring left and right and I see hiring signs literally everywhere I go. I am so curious to see how this all plays out over the next year or so and am very much looking forward to Alison’s article.

        2. Alex*

          We have had a mandated 3 days in the office for a while now, but nobody does it.
          The reason is simply that middle management has not even dared to tell their employees about the new mandates by upper management, because they know it will lead to mass quittings. (Or rather, they said “btw, the official stance I’ve been told to enforce is this, but I’m simply going to ignore that. continue as usual. If someone says something, send them to me”).

    38. OrdinaryJoe*

      I’m about 10 yrs from retirement and for the last 5 years have work from the home/travel for work often. If my job required me to come into the office, I wouldn’t derail my retirement plans and draw a hard line in the sand but I’d actively look for another job that keeps me home, even if it meant a 10% pay cut. I turned down a pay raise – about 15% – Fall 2019 because it was 100% in office (when not travelling) and the ED was very much against WFH or anything beyond the barest amount of flexibility. If I had known what was coming in 6 months, I might have taken the money :-)

    39. itsame*

      I went fully remote before the pandemic, and have felt very strongly about staying remote for a while now. I would have to be very desperate (think out of work for months/unable to make rent/etc.) to be willing to take an in-person job again. Personally, I’ve been glad to see the increase in remote positions the past few years just for – an increase that includes my current company, which transitioned to permanently remote-first during the pandemic.

    40. Anon in Midwest*

      This is a great question! I moved to a semi rural area and bought a house in 2020, so I am sticking with my decision no matter what. If all remote jobs disappear in six months, forever, I will simply not work as a knowledge worker ever again. I am lucky to have amassed good savings, and live in a low cost of living area. So I would explore local physical jobs like a part time service job, and probably only for 5 more years before fully retiring around age 40.

    41. Beep Boop*

      My old office announced on July 1st that staff working remotely would be required to return to the office at least 50% in September. I started job hunting that evening and accepted a new fully-remote position 5 weeks later (along with a 30% raise and better benefits). So I guess I did “take a hard line” about the issue? That being said, I wouldn’t have quit on September 1st without another offer in hand. However, I made it clear to my whole team that I was looking. Under current circumstances, it would take a truly crazy amount of money/opportunities/perks to get me to an office more than once a quarter. Obviously, the job market or my field could change in the future and cause me to rethink that calculus, but for now remote is the only acceptable option.

    42. CTA*

      I accepted my role on the condition that it would be fully remote and I told them I had no plans to relocate. If I was required to relocate, I would need them to require relocation assistance. Working on-site is not appealing to me. Most employees work in spaces with no windows. For my team, my colleagues call their assigned office “the cave.” I’m much happier and more productive working from home without having to worry about a commute or have people look over my shoulder.

    43. J. Quadrifrons*

      I quit my job when they went back to banning WFH for all but the most dire of emergencies because I knew I could afford to take a few months off to recover from burnout and still find a WFH job within a month. (It took almost two, in the end, but I could have had one in two weeks if I’d been willing to do hybrid)

    44. Susan*

      I do feel like I have leverage bc of market. Less that I feel confident that I could find a new position that’s remote. More that I’m fairly confident my employer wouldn’t fire me bc it would be very hard for them to find a quality replacement.

      I’m a lawyer at a small firm, and it has been nearly impossible to fill current vacancies for another associate and a paralegal/legal assistant.

    45. WFH forever*

      I worked almost 100% of the pandemic in office.

      I’m now immunocompromised. It’s new and it’s difficult to figure out my tolerance for risk. If I get any kind of sick (COVID, cold, flu), it can be a big problem for me.

      Working from home is important to me for that reason. (Although, yes, it’s also been great for my mental health and just improved quality of life in general.) I do worry that the market will change and I won’t find another WFH gig in the future. But I’m trying not to worry about that until I need a new job.

    46. Covid is still a thing*

      I’m on a temporary extension of WFH and soon, we will all go to hybrid flex or “full-time remote” with a stipulation that we must go in at least six times a year.

      Both I and my husband are @ high risk for adverse outcomes or death from Covid. I’m still negotiating an extension under ADA, but most likely will end up between a rock and a hard place. The only thing that will make me go in would be loss of income, before I could line up something else. And if I go in, I’ll drive to avoid public transportation, be fully outfitted in respirator, goggles and possibly diapers to avoid using the bathroom and I’ll get out ASAP. Since I’m the only income/breadwinner – this push to go in while the pandemic is far from over is enormously stressful, since it’s damned if you do (go in and face possibility of bringing home Covid) or lose my long term employment as an older worker.

      If the pandemic were over, I’d be fine following our flex work program. But, I am not capable of pretending that the pandemic is a thing of the past…

    47. Katie*

      I don’t think my organization can push people back onsite. I, and my cohort, were hired during the lockdown, and therefore fully remote. My company has always had issues with their location (it’s in a fairly unattractive area, with a long commute from lots of major cities), and their compensation always kind of reflected that (I live in a major city, and their salary band still matched those in my local area). My entire cohort, all of their new hires, don’t live anywhere near the actual work site (I’d be looking at a three-hour total commute for onsite). Also, we don’t need to.
      Forcing the issue would cause me, and probably most of my fellow remote hires to quit, just as we’ve fully established ourselves in our roles. Remote work widened their applicant pool, and they were able to get people, like me, who would never consider the position, considering the location of the actual site. I don’t think they can shut the door on that.

    2. It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s SuperAnon*

      This is something we’ve pushed for since I was hired in 10 years ago. This might be how we FINALLY get the leverage we need.

    3. Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss*

      I’ve long thought my office could benefit from this. So many ppl literally dash out the door at 4 on the dot trying to rush home for that pick up or risk huge fines from the provider. Sadly, there’s no real place for it – no outdoor play area. It would be a huge investment.

    4. Anonymous here*

      And elder care. As a member of the sandwich generation, I need both to make coming into the office feasible right now.

      1. RIP Pillow Fort*

        This. My mom has a ton of health issues and 2-3 appointments per week. Between my sister and I juggling, them we get them covered but I would love some flexibility on this other than “take sick leave and come back to a mountain of work.”

    5. Stressed Out Working Mom*

      Exactly! My salary barely covers child care as is. We’ve had long discussions about whether or not it even makes sense for me to have a job, which is mind-boggling!

      We live in a major city, and only have one car, which means my commute is an hour each way by planes, trains, and automobiles. That’s two more hours a day to pay for childcare when I could be working at home and get to spend those two extra hours with my family.

    6. WantonSeedStitch*

      THIS. We do have excellent childcare at my workplace (I’m on a college campus and there are a few different childcare sites there), but it is EXPENSIVE AS HELL–even compared to other quality options in my highest-cost-of-childcare state. And there isn’t anywhere near enough of it to meet demand. People wait on waitlists for months and months. My commute to work is ridiculous, but if I could make that commute and bring my son with me, and put him into that quality childcare on campus, and pay what I’m paying at the small center close to my home? And not have to worry about being late for pickup because it’s right there at work? I’d absolutely be more willing to come in more often. The place near my house only allows for 8 hours of care a day, so it would absolutely not be an option if my husband and I worked on site anywhere in our industries.

    7. Momma Bear*

      And options for older elementary kids for snow days or school breaks. If not on-site, see if they can negotiate with a nearby center.

      1. Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss*

        Oh, that would be nice too. My office is so NOT kid-friendly, it would be a seismic shift in management if that were ever available.

    8. Bananagrams*

      100 thousand times this. Right now we pay a high (totally worth it) price for an amazing nanny, and in working from home I can see my kiddo (who is just over a year old) whenever I have a break. I’m not giving up time with my child to commute into an office. But, if excellent childcare were tied to my employment, and onsite? Not only would I go onsite, I would be WAY more loyal to that employer. Which I suppose is really more of an indictment of the state of support for working parents in my country (the US) than anything else.

    10. Magc*

      My first job after graduation had on-site daycare starting in the 70’s. I worked there for 9 years before having kids and never realized how incredible it was until I had my first. Because the childcare staff were all employees, they got the same great benefits and were paid reasonably well. It was very common for employees to not consider leaving until their youngest was in kindergarten and they no longer needed full-time daycare.

      1. Magc*

        P.S. It was NOT subsidized, so having more than one child was really only possible if holding a higher-than-average-pay position in the organization.

        1. JustaTech*

          My friend has worked for two day care centers now that started life as subsidized daycare for hospitals and then that perk was eliminated for the hospital staff. The centers didn’t close, but they lost students whose parents couldn’t afford them anymore.
          (Daycares for hospitals are especially important because they offer substantially expanded hours to cover more shifts, something that’s almost impossible to find at most places.)

    11. Golden*

      YES! I just had a baby, and if my work had on-site childcare, I’d be in the office all day every day. For now, I’m just going to work from home until someone tells me I can’t.

      Our office of maybe 60 people or so had 8 babies within the last year alone, so I’m sure it would reliably bring people in. I’m a cat person/owner, but I can see an on-site doggy daycare being similarly effective.

    12. Massive Dynamic*

      My office is literally making this happen! Won’t help me too much as my kids are school-age now but will DEFINITELY help a lot of my coworkers.

      BUT but but… onsite daycare doesn’t stop having to work from home, odd hours at that, when kid is sick. We haven’t implemented it yet but regular “keep sick kid home” policies should be in effect.

      1. JustaTech*

        There’s a big cancer research center/hospital up the street from me that has a specialized daycare for sick kids whose parent’s Can Not call out sick to care for their kids (like, they’re performing surgery or have a vital experiment or something like that).

        The kids are sorted by symptoms (respiratory over there, GI in that room, rashes over here) and the staff are all nurses. It’s also hella expensive and I get the impression that no one uses it unless they absolutely have to.

    13. Engineering Mom*

      100%. I was pregnant when lockdown began in 2020, so I can’t compare to childcare pre-pandemic. But my toddler is in full time daycare and still comes home a few days a month because he’s sick or the staff is sick. And, there’s rumors they’re so short on staff they may have to transition everyone to part-time care. We have no family nearby and my husband can’t work remotely (manufacturing). I can’t go back to the office full-time with a shaky childcare situation.

      Also, the fact that I can run a little laundry or the vacuum cleaner sporadically throughout my day means I don’t have to spend all of my nights and weekends doing house chores and can instead hang out with my kid. Not sure what an employer could do to counter that, other than higher salaries or offering hybrid schedules.

    14. Hotdog not dog*

      Yes! On-site daycare would benefit all employees, not just the ones with children. Imagine if you could get a last minute piece of information to wrap up a task instead of needing to pick up the threads the next day because your colleague didn’t need to race out the door! And the parents on your team weren’t stressed out about trying to balance their whole day around drop off and pick up! As a parent to an older teen who doesn’t require care, I still benefit.

    15. academic fibro warrior*

      Excellent subsidized child care on the job site has been done before. It’s one way the US kept things going during world War 2. It was childcare or businesses shutting down. We can do it again.

    16. Grogu's Mom*

      Yes, came here to say this. Childcare has been extra-stressful during Covid and even more parents than usual are settling for sub-par situations (hours-long commutes to daycare, lower-quality care) because it’s all we can afford or all we can get off the waitlists for. I work in a field where it used to be common to have excellent, subsidized childcare on site, but it all shut down during Covid and hasn’t been reopened. If my workplace offered this again, I’d be on site every day, reliably, and happy to do it. Because we have to drop the baby off at daycare, either my husband or I already have a “commute” even when working from home (which is in the opposite direction of work, since the affordable care if farther from the city).

      But it has to be subsidized down to a level that can actually be afforded by the salaries that the organization pays. I keep seeing the on-site childcare benefit being replaced by a 10% off deal with the super-expensive city daycares, but 10% off a $3000-a-month daycare is still too far over our budget. The on-site centers were previously half of that.

  5. Foreign Octopus*

    To be honest, I don’t think there’s anything a company can offer me that would be enough to draw me back to the office even for a part-time/hybrid basis. The benefits I get from working from home far outweigh anything I’d receive from the office, as much as I enjoy free food.

    1. Wats*

      I agree with Foreign Octopus. I suppose a truckload of money MIGHT persuade me, but that would probably come with the kind of work I’m not interested in doing for my mental health. So, yeah. Probably nothing.

      1. somanyquestions*

        I could be bought. But it would cost a lot. I’ve already turned down what I once thought was my “dream” job (and a 25% raise) because it would take me from FT at home to FT in the office. It was a difficult decision but I am too happy here, and it’s not like I’m destitute. I’d retire earlier in that job, but I would also NEED to retire earlier.

      2. ElizabethJane*

        I thought I could for a significant amount of money. Turns out I will not do a hellish commute (1.5 hours + each way) for $40,000.

        I mean for the right dollar amount and a less shit commute I’d probably do it. But that number is higher than I thought.

        1. Alex*

          I mean yeah, if you pay me about 10x as much as you do now (which would break the 1M/yr threshold) then yes, I could slave away in an office FT for a year or two… and then use my >1M in savings in my bank account to quit that job and take another that is fully remote and I enjoy (and don’t have to worry about the salary that much).

      3. pbnj*

        I’d maybe if working < 32 hours/week with an increase in pay. As much as I'd love having Fridays off, it's not worth losing at least an hour/day commuting and not having time throughout the week to do quick chores. So there would need to be a sizeable increase in pay.

      4. Office Gumby*

        The amount of money it would take for one to overcome one’s principles and/or lines-in-the-dirt is much higher than one first estimates.

        You don’t really realise the value of your time, your patience, your health, until after you’ve traded it away for money, and then realise you’ve been shortchanged.

        Think about how much money it wold take for you to change your mind. Raise that number until you get to a “oh, no, that would be unreasonable” figure. Now, double that number. This is the *minimum* amount you should be asking for.

    2. Anonymous Koala*

      Same. There’s just too much to be gained from working from home. No amount of free food allows me to put a load of laundry in between meetings or unload the dishwasher on my lunch break. It’s better for my work too, because it gives me space to disconnect a little during the work day and return fresh and mentally relaxed, which in turn improved the quality of my output.

    3. Twill*

      100% agree. There are always benefits for different people in different situations but for me working from home is my gold standard.

    4. Colette*

      Especially during a pandemic. People are still dying.

      I could see the point if the pandemic were actually over, but it’s not, so nope.

      1. Curmudgeon in California*

        Seriously. I have an immune compromised housemate. The question is like asking “How much is your housemate’s life worth?”

        I have a friend with cancer. Yes, he’s vaccinated. But one of his housemates works in retail, was inadequately masked, and got Covid. She then gave it to him and his spouse. He had to go to the hospital for it. It could have killed him.

        The goddamn PANDEMIC IS NOT OVER! These clowns who want people back in the office are prioritizing their sick need for control over people’s lives, and I hate it.

        Google demanded a couple days a week in-office. Now they have significant outbreaks because they are all open plan offices. I doubt that is good for either productivity of “collaboration”.

        3. WFH forever*

          From an immunocompromised person: thank you.

          I get dirty looks and comments when I mask. It’s insane. And I’m even in a liberal state, but everyone stopped masking so long ago.

    5. Cold and Tired*

      100% agree. I’ve been remote since pre pandemic, and I could never go back. I live out of state from my company headquarters and went back last week for our annual in person retreat, and just the logistics of physically going in every day for the week (commute, food, etc) were exhausting on top of doing my job. And while it was nice to see people in person, it wasn’t worth the trade offs. So unless I get an office down the street that I can walk to once a week, I’m not going back in person again if I have a choice.

      1. ferrina*

        Oh man, not having to worry about lunch every day! It’s so small but really eases stress. I don’t have to try to get lunch together in the morning or pay $20 per day; when I wfh, I just meander over to the fridge and see what leftovers I feel like eating.

        1. A Simple Narwhal*

          Not having to pack my breakfast and lunch the night before (or meal plan/prep on Sundays) has freed up so much stress from my week. I know some people love it, but it really stressed me out for some reason, and I love not having to do it anymore.

      2. ceiswyn*

        Just before the pandemic kicked off, my GP was doing all sorts of tests to set what was causing some odd symptoms. Within a month of forced WFH, they all resolved.

        It turns out the stress of getting on an overcrowded train into work and back again, spending all my evenings making dinner and doing chores and making the next day’s breakfast and lunch (I can’t eat first thing), and somehow finding the time to walk to fitness classes and back in among that, was having an actual physical impact.

        What can an employer offer me that’s worth substantial negative impacts on my physical and mental health? Obviously nothing. I go into the office two days a week because I work better there and need the human interaction, but I can’t go back to four or five.

    6. Dittany*

      Absolutely. My working experience has been SO much better since I started working from home – no commute, no gritting my teeth and ignoring my coworkers’ political opinions, no goddamn open-plan office. If they tried to make me go back, I’d start looking for another job.

    7. The Original K.*

      Ditto. I actually really dislike the actual office space my employer has so I never want to be there, but in general, I don’t want to go into an office every day ever again. I could see going in for quarterly or monthly meetings and I’ve gone in a handful of times for work I truly can’t do at home, but the daily office grind is done, for me. The pros of remote work far, far outweigh the cons in my situation.

      1. K too*

        >I actually really dislike the actual office space my employer has so I never want to be there, but in general, I don’t want to go into an office every day ever again.

        When I was first thinking of applying for work at my current employer they were in a different building and I hated it so much I chose not to. Once they had moved I did, and have been there a long time now. Just before the pandemic shut everything down we acquired a new company but didn’t really have the space to move them all into our office, so instead the redesigned our spaces to make more desks – taking away 1/3 of our cubicle space (making our L shapes into side-by-side 5ft. sit-stand desks), taking away most of our personal storage space, and lowering the partition walls so they’re replaced with clear dividers. If I were viewing this new office for the first time I wouldn’t apply for a job there again. Funny thing is, despite the remodel – that was only completed after everything shut down – almost no one has ever been to the office since we haven’t been forced to, and there’s still not enough space for everyone even if they tried.

    8. Random Bystander*

      Parking another concurrence here, too. Between not having to sit near annoying co-workers (I sat next to someone who would start dealing with her stress by saying “I’m just going to kill myself. I’m going to just open the window and jump out. I’m going to get a gun and shoot myself.” (In a hospital, fifth floor–windows didn’t even open, but not going to lie that after four hours of hearing these things on repeat it took a lot of effort for me not to say “you want I should open that window for you?”). Same co-worker wanted the light-blocking shades down all day long (ask for a change of desk away from the window? Nah, too easy) … so now at home I have direct daylight from window available during daylight hours.

      Like Anonymous Koala, the chance to run laundry/dishwasher during little downtime bits of the day is another big plus. Likewise when I purchased a new dishwasher and could just take a couple minutes to let the installer in and another few at the end of the process to sign off on the paperwork (versus burning hours of PTO since I’d have had to be in the house throughout the process/window of time vs solid appointment).

      And, if I get stressed at work, I can pet one of my cats.

      In short, while I didn’t expect to work from home prior to March 2020, now that I have been WFH, what would get me back to the office would involve a *large* increase in pay and job duties that actually cannot be performed remotely.

      1. jr*

        that sounds horrible, and sounds like a goatile workplace. did you report that person? they clearly need help

          1. Random Bystander*

            I like “goatile”. No, did not report (it really wouldn’t have done any good–I wasn’t the only one in earshot, just the one closest).

      2. A More Brilliant Orange*

        “Between not having to sit near annoying co-workers…”

        My open-office is packed. Going back to an environment where everyone is packed in like sardines is not very tempting.

        I have to wonder how much avoiding the open-office experience is behind the reluctance to work from the office.

    9. NotAnotherManager!*

      I am hybrid right now, and I agree with this. I really, really like my job/boss/team, so I’m doing the part-time commute now… but I will also freely admit that my tolerance for it has nosedived v. before the pandemic. I have gotten used to seeing my family more, being able to take my kids to activities, and not commuting 1.5-2 hours per day. If I could do what I do and never go in, I’d be really happy.

    10. Iroqdemic*

      Honestly, same. I did not realize how much I hated working in an office till I got to WFH full time. At home, I can have a door on my office; I’m not high enough on the org chart to warrant an office with a door if I go back, and it is SO MUCH HARDER to stay focused when I’m in a cubicle farm. Combine that with the fact most of the people I work with live in other cities/states, so I would be on the phone vs. in person meetings most of the time anyway, and how much more time I have since I don’t have to get ready, drive to work, drive home, etc., I will never go back to an office. I am a better employee when I work from home. If they tried to make us go back, I would look for a full telecommuting position in another dept. (big multinational corporation so there are TONS of telecommuting spots all the time).

      1. Chief Bottle Washer*

        I am high enough up on the org chart to have had an office…until my employer decided that they would give up the lease on their really nice corporate HQ space in favor of contracting down into a space in a MUCH older and less nice building with cubes and almost no private offices. They did this before they asked folks to come back and then used the excuse that no one was coming in (before they asked them to) as the reason. I actually prefer to be in the office if other folks will be around, but going back to hot desking in cubicles is my version of hell.

    11. Eat My Squirrel*

      Agreed. Give me a private office, let me sit on the floor to work (blanket nest person from yesterday is kind of how my home office is and I love it!), let me bring my dog with me, cut my hours to 4-8 hour days so my commute doesn’t change the overall time I don’t have available, and give me a raise that actually keeps up with inflation. Then MAYBE I would go in.

      1. Mantis Tobaggan, MD*

        I’m expected to be in the office everyday, which I don’t like, but honestly having my own office with a door makes it much more tolerable.

      2. vinegary anon*

        My employer gave me a really really nice office so I could work onsite comfortably while keeping fairly covid-safe. I also flex my schedule as need to manage household needs (pet care mostly) so wfh first thing in the morning and some afternoons. Not as nice as full wfh, but I can see retirement on the horizon and this is better than any workplace arrangement I’ve had in years.
        The worst part is my commute, but a 30 minute drive gets me out in the country to my small farm, paid for by the steady paycheck, so it’s all good.

    12. Database Developer Dude*

      Same. Not even a truckload of money would convince me. I deal with enough of people who don’t do what I do trying to tell me how to do my job as it is. Remote lets me keep them at arms length.

    13. ferrina*

      Yup. My commute is 45-60 minutes one way (unless the metro is having issues, then add time). I have two young kids. Being able to work from home means that I can coach their soccer team, make meals from scratch, and give them time to just play at home. Plus being able to do a little housework during the day- such a sanity saver!
      I’m happy to go in the office a couple times per month, but only when there’s a reason to. If I’m going to meet with someone in person or get free food, that’s an incentive. But not an incentive to get me to come more than every other week- that 2 hrs per day I get back by not commuting is worth so much for me.

    14. Lynn*

      Adding my voice to the chorus (we agree, we agree).

      I am permanently remote and have been since several years pre-pandemic. My company has gone fully remote and has no plans to go back to having folks in person on a regular basis (they sold their large building and have rented a small office in order to have a conference room and mailing address). Even the folks who live local to the office (I am in Colorado, my home office is in Chicago) are not expected to go back in-person, except the two people tasked with checking the mail, on any kind of regular basis. And those two only go in for a couple of hours a day-long enough to check and sort the mail, collect payments and then scan anything that needs to go out to someone remote.

      Even once I get laid off (which I do expect, as my company supports a declining industry that has been made worse by the pandemic), I will not be willing to take a job that requires me to go to an office daily/weekly. The occasional meeting-sure. But I will never work in an on-site office as a regular occurrence again.

      That said, I am in a position to say that as, if push came to shove, I could afford to retire early. I’d prefer to keep working until my husband is ready to retire in a few years, but I don’t absolutely have to do so. Which allows me to take a hardline stance that I might not have been able to make at other points in my life.

    15. High Score!*

      Same! I go in occasionally for company events or when I need the lab. My employer just made our office super functional and nice with great coffee and snacks for in office meetings. Then they told us that we could work wherever we wanted to and set our own schedules.
      Shockingly, productivity has gone up and turnover is at an all time low.
      I have 2 extra hours every day that used to be commute. Since I can go in for partial days, no rush hour traffic for me.
      For me, there’s no going back.

    17. Kookaburra*

      This is the response I was looking for. I currently go to my office two days a week but not because I have to. I have a few recurring weekly tasks and it’s a bit easier to do them in-person. Also, I live only a mile from my office. (My boss doesn’t care where or how I work as long as I do my job well. This summer, I worked 100% remotely for a month when my family travelled to another state.)

      The ONLY thing that could get me to go back to an office five days a week would be a dream job + a dump truck full of money (i.e. an obscenely high salary) + living very close to the office. I don’t care about food or swag or any of the other “perks” some companies are offering. I care about not wasting my time commuting, not wasting money on gas, being able to spend that extra time doing things like exercising or hanging out with my family, and being able to do minor household tasks during the day (like unloading the dishwasher or starting a load of laundry) while I microwave my lunch. Plus, I am more productive when I work from home so that’s a benefit to my employer.

      TLDR: Unless the job market in my field drastically changes and I have no choice but to take a job in an office, I am NEVER going back to working a job where I am in an office five days a week.

      PS – I just want to add that most of the people pushing for workers to go back to the office are just bad managers. They’re people who probably didn’t know how to manage people in an office so they certainly don’t know how to manage people remotely. And most of the business execs I see publicly complaining about how workers don’t want to return to the office are dinosaurs. They’re hypocritical old men who are out of touch with the issues regular people face.

  6. Choggy*

    I can honestly say that nothing would get me back in the office more than I am going in, which is currently three days, but want to WFH more. My commute is not good, and has actually gotten worse (I drive), and that’s not going to change.

    1. Quinalla*

      Avoiding the commute is one of the biggest pluses for me as not only is it stressful it is also a huge time-suck. I’m over commuting and hope to never have to go back. When I am out driving for personal things during commuting time, it is the worst. I don’t know how you make working in the office great enough to offset how awful commuting is.

  7. MisterForkbeard*

    My company wants people to come back but isn’t trying too hard. They’ve re-opened the (really nice, actually) cafeteria with a discount, keeps encouraging people to come in, have Exec Assistants get most meetings over 4 people catered, and so on. Subsidized child care on site is back on, as is the gym and other perks.

    Of course, it being a big company there’s some other things that screw up the messaging. Like unassigning most people from set desks and putting them on Flex Seating, etc. People have a lot less incentive to come in when they don’t actually have a place of their own.

    1. The Original K.*

      Flex seating is so demeaning to me. Like, you want me to give my all to a place but you won’t even give me a place to sit? I can see it for certain people – the sales team at a previous employer was primarily remote and on the road so they didn’t have desks because they were almost never there. But in-office employees deserve their own seats. It’s really the least employers can do.

      1. MisterForkbeard*

        You know what’s really dumb about it? We moved everyone to flex seating because the company charges its departments more for dedicated desks than flex desks. And because no one was coming in ANYWAY but we were still being charged for it, everyone moved to flex desks.

        And it’s all accounting fuckery anyway, since it’s all inter-departmental charges.

      2. Zephy*

        +1000. A previous job in the Before Times had almost enforced flex seating – certain people were assigned specific desks on specific days, to make sure we could all rotate through all of the areas of the job rather than sticking someone in one place all the time. (It was not a job that could be done remotely, so I have no idea what they did for the first bit of the panini. Furloughed everyone, I guess.) Suppose we painted teapots, someone would be assigned to the red teapots specifically and someone would be assigned to the blue teapots, and everyone else would handle either red or blue teapots as the orders came in. Making sure Jane didn’t get stuck on blue teapots every day is a nice idea in theory, and technically she did need to know how to paint both per her job description, but in reality it was more like Jane much preferred the blue teapots and only grudgingly took her turn on the red teapot line when she had to.

        Nonprofit, preferred to pack my department with part-timers rather than hire any new FT people (and pay benefits, the horror), so it was different people sitting in different places every day. At least most of us had consistent schedules week-to-week in terms of days and hours, if not space, but I think those schedules got loosy-goosier with each new hire after me, and I felt like I had to fight pretty hard to get the level of consistency that I did.

    2. Robin*

      I just started a new job and we have an open floor plan + some offices/conference rooms, all flex seating. Everyone has an assigned default desk, but because of COVID distancing requirements, we can only sit diagonally from one another. If somebody booked a seat right next to mine before I got a chance to, I would have to move to another desk for that day. As such, we have to make sure our desks are usable by others, though we can decorate however we like.

      Currently, that is mostly fine, though I do not love the system. Very few people actually come into the office because the current policy is technically hybrid (come in once a week) but there are definitely folks who just WFH full time because nobody is actually tracking anything. As such, there are few issues getting the seat you want.

      Here is the funny bit: out of curiosity, I asked my manager if we actually have enough desks for all the employees + interns if COVID were to disappear and in-person work became the norm. We do not. Which makes me wonder about the assigned default desks and what will happen when (please make this a when!) we get COVID resolved and policy shifts back to favoring in-person.

      1. High Score!*

        Our company switched to hot desking too but no default desks. The facility closes in the evening and a cleaning crew cleans and disinfects every night.

    3. online millenial*

      My job switched to hot desking as well, even though we have enough space for everyone to have their own desks. What’s ended up happening is a) most people just don’t go in and b) when people do go in, they work in an empty conference room. At this point, having my own desk wouldn’t make me want to go into the office, but losing that space sure didn’t help.

    4. sacados*

      Ugh, yes I really HATE the flex seating.
      I’m actually enjoying going back into the office — I appreciated a lot of things about the work from home lifestyle but after a couple years it did drag a bit. Now my office has moved to a (very flexible) hybrid format. Most of my team does M/F work from home and Tues-Th in the office, with still a huge amount of freedom to switch it up from that. The company as a whole is encouraging people to come back in, but there’s absolutely no overt pressure to do so if it’s not what you want.
      Personally, I like being forced to get out of the house, seeing people in person, putting on actual clothes from time to time … Though I’m not going to lie, it hits different. The first time I did three full days in a row in the office, I could not believe how WIPED I was by the end of the week.

      But the one irritation about the whole thing is the flex seating. Given the flexible/no pressure stance, my company has chosen to handle this by assigning desk “neighborhoods” to specific teams, but not to individuals. So in my case, the whole 2F of the building I work in is allocated to the Teapot Production Teams, with various groups of desks within that being specified for Kids Teapots, Adult Teapots, Teapot Finance team, etc.
      The Adult Teapot space, where I work, actually does not have enough desks if all members of our team come in on the same day. So in that case you’re forced to kind of float around to some of the other “neighborhoods” on the floor to find an available space. Granted that doesn’t happen every day, because we usually don’t have everyone in the office at the same time. But it’s still an annoyance to have to go around every morning all “is this desk open? Have you seen anyone sitting here today?”
      Not to mention I really just would love to be able to, say, leave a sweater at my desk. Or tack a schedule up on the wall. All things that you can’t do without an assigned space.

      A few times we’ve gotten various higher-ups and department managers asking what it would take to encourage more people to come back in to the office more, and the answer is ALWAYS “assigned desks.”

    5. Miette*

      At my sister’s office, they are hybrid and require people to be in the office 2 days per week, I believe. Because they still want to enforce social distancing, they’ve spaced desks to whatever their standard now is. This means there are not enough desks even if they decided to go back to full time in the office, so have had to move to a hotdesking policy.

      On top of this, to enforce a maximum daily number of people allowed in the building, an attendance reservation system now exists. Employees must “register” that they want to be onsite on any given day. If they don’t, their access badge won’t work when they try to get into the building.

      What message is this sending? You must be at the office some of the time, but you have to remember to schedule it, but then again you might wind up in a crappy desk/location when you do finally get here… it sounds so exhausting

    6. SP*

      My company has hot desking too. I hate it because I can’t leave things overnight and I have to pack up everything every day, and then unpack all of it in the morning when I come in the next day. I have two work laptops and my job requires specialized peripherals to use our software in addition to the standard mouse. So every.frickin.day when it’s time to leave I have to cram two laptops, three mice, a headset, and two power cords into my bag. Then in the morning I have to unload my Mary Poppins bag of electronics and set it all up again. I probably lose a few hours of work a week packing and unpacking my office luggage. In the Before Times I had it all connected to a docking station on my desk and all I had to do was plunk down my laptop and I was good to go.

      1. Spruce*

        We have hotdesking too, but everyone has a fixed locker – so we can always leave everything we need in a safe place overnight. It makes hot desking a lot better!

    7. amethyst*

      My company is also re-assigning people from desks into flex seating, as suddenly now everyone is on an aggressive ambition to downsize office space to save money. They are doing it in the most irritating way possible.

      It actually reduces flexibility – there’s a certain percentage of time that you have to work onsite in order to keep a physical office, so I and many others have decided that if you don’t work that amount or more there’s really no point in working onsite *at all*. I’m definitely not driving into the office to go sit in a flex space. Especially since I’m a manager who works on really super secret stuff!

      They also rushed to do this because (IMO) they really want to try to get rid of physical space quickly, so they kind of went back on a promise they made to give us plenty of time to decide how we wanted to work and are using an unsavory method to figure out “accurately” how many people are actually working in the office at a given time. This is upsetting a lot of people. Our company posted record profits during the pandemic because of the collective efforts of our employees, who worked hard and kept it together during a time of extreme stress and uncertainty. These last two years were HARD on us as a people. We did all that work to make this place successful and you don’t even want to pay to give me a place to sit? No – you don’t even want to maintain the place to sit I already *had*? Yeah, well, then I don’t need to come into the office. I love my company and we’re normally good at doing well by our folks, but this seems misguided.

  8. Smitty*

    What would get me back is really flexibility. I’m happy to work a hybrid schedule, but I have no interest in working a job where the number of days I come to the officer per week or per month are kept track of.

    If I have a month where it makes sense for me to spend most of my time in the office, that’s fine. If I have a month where it’s just not necessary and I don’t feel like putting on real pants, I would hope that my employer could be as flexible with me as I’m willing to be with them.

    If I am doing my job to the expected standard, I hope that my employer can work with me in truly being flexible and not just worrying about Butts in Seats.

    1. Justin*

      At my job they ask us to tell them when we plan to go in but don’t demand. And that’s how I prefer it. I usually go in twice a week but next Friday I can’t, so I won’t. Flexibility is everything.

    2. Sloanicota*

      This is true but also, one reason it’s not going well at my org is some people are flexing their time, so there’s no ability to actually have meetings fully in-person anyway. We end up having zooms because the worst offender is actually my boss. If I trucked it all the way into the office but then we end up having all our meetings as zooms, it makes me feel like I should have just stayed home. So I don’t have the perfect solution here.

      1. Joielle*

        Yeah, that’s our problem too – the higher-ups were gung-ho about returning to the office, but now they’re the ones who aren’t coming in much, so meetings have to be remote anyways. I don’t mind coming in to the office so I’m not overly upset about it (more of an eye-roll level of annoyance) but people who object to coming in are absolutely steamed.

        1. Sloanicota*

          I do think it’s darkly funny that for a while our boss was gung-ho about in person staff meetings, then consistently skipped them all, as did the #2, so it ended up being just a crew of junior people sitting shoulder-to-shoulder trying to peer into a computer screen while the leaders were at home. The words “canon fodder” came up a few times.

      2. Tau*

        Our company leaves it up to each individual team to figure out whether they’re going to have mandatory in-office days and how often. Our team discussed it and decided that every two weeks we’d try to meet in the office on Monday, which is the day we have a ton of planning meetings. It’s not mandatory-mandatory, in the sense that some people still end up dialling in for one reason or another and that’s fine (and we’d also make it work if someone was full-time remote and living in another city or the like), but we did agree to make an effort. It’s been working out pretty well IMO – honestly, I find a lot of discussions just go smoother in person than over video call, it’s great to be able to get lunch and chat with my team regularly, and since we agreed on it ourselves nobody can feel resentful that it’s being imposed from above.

      3. Big Bank*

        My company is fully flex. They want people in at least 2 days a week to get that “in person” benefit. It’s not the worst stance, but .. we are a multinational corporation. My team is scattered across other continents. In or it of the office, I’m still on Skype meetings! Some teams are regional located, so that could make more sense, but they don’t differentiate the policy. Even the local teams are staggering their wfh so guess what? They still met each other on Skype. I get corporates impulses here, but they don’t reflect either the way we work or the way flex time breaks your team apart anyway.

        I’m more than happy to go in on special days: boss or CEO in for special visit, employee appreciation day, brainstorming event, etc. But the current structure just doesn’t make sense and isn’t actually benefiting anyone other than corporate getting to applaud that the facilities are being used again.

    3. Spearmint*

      I’m generally pro-flexibility, but the problem with it in this case is that one of the main benefits of being in the office is being able to interact and work with coworkers in person. So if anyone can just come in whenever they feel like, to me that makes coming into the office less attractive, because it’s likely I’ll be coming into a mostly empty building.

      1. Anonymous for this*

        I’ve seen this floated as the reason to return and it’s the reason my office required us to come back as well, but I have yet to see any tangible benefit to collaborating with my colleagues in person for my particular role and a lot of my colleagues’ roles too. I’m not getting anything out of in-person interactions other than a building resentment that we decided not to look at jobs on a case-by-case basis to see if it made sense for those people to come back.

        1. Smitty*

          Agreed. In my current role, there is no difference in the interactions I have with my team whether I am on-site or remote.

          Of course, I am sure there are industries and positions where there is benefit to being in-person to better collaborate, but I find in my line of work that there is little to no value add in meeting in-person versus virtually.

          Personally I think the positive impact on employee morale by allowing greater flexibility far outweighs the benefits of in-person collaboration.

        2. ferrina*

          I do get some value out of being in office because I sit next to the kitchen and can hear the casual conversations that go on. It’s weird, but part of my job is information services, so eavesdropping helps me better pinpoint what information hasn’t been communicated effectively.

          I’m okay with the flexible days. Our teams tend to coordinate among themselves when they’ll come in, and as a parent it makes it loads easier for me to work around my kids’ various activities.

          1. Anonymous for this*

            The “I overheard a useful piece of information” thing is very real, but it also always just illustrates to me that communication within the org could be better if we’re relying on accidentally overhearing something in order to do our jobs, so for me the issue is that an org should work on improving how it communicates across teams and individuals rather than forcing everyone to come into the office so they might get an extra piece of information by accident. I know that’s not usually realistic, but it’s also not realistic to expect staff to do their jobs like this.

            1. let's not and say we did*

              Oyyyyy. I’m part of a remote team spread out across the state we work for, and THIS is how we find out most of our information. It kills me that we have all these remote work tools (because our team is remote, so yah) and then we don’t even use them. Our boss does a random conference call (on our personal cells) and whoever doesn’t answer isn’t included in the conversation. And then it’s up to you to know that you missed that conversation and seek out the information from someone who was on the call. And you have to hope that they interpret the information for you correctly, and now it’s a game of telephone… I’ll end my rant there.

          2. Spines*

            This struck a chord with me — I’m a total introvert working in tech, so I can do (and have been doing) my job 100% remotely for nearly 3 years now. If the rest of my team were working on-site, though, I would *happily* go back to the office; I don’t want to interact with anyone directly, but being *adjacent* to interactions — overhearing what folks are saying, even just seeing who’s talking with whom, getting a sense of the general vibe — is *incredibly* useful to me.

            My home office is great and comfortable, but whole days can go by without “hearing” anything from anyone, which has made it hard for me to … self-regulate, sometimes.

            As other folks have said, though, I have absolutely ZERO interest in returning to an office only to be on conference calls/Zoom all day ’cause half the team’s off-site.

        3. Quinalla*

          Yeah, we have a select few meetings (think 2-3 times a year) that we want people in person for, but even those we understand if people can’t make them. These have actual value to collaborating in the same room, but many meetings, etc. can be done remotely with little or no downsides, sometimes meetings are better remote if you want focus as you at least don’t have verbal side conversations happening (though sometimes IM side conversations instead). People really need to look at this case-by-case with more scrutiny.

      2. londonedit*

        Yeah, they’re making us do set days because the whole company line on returning to the office is how great it is for collaboration and interaction and working together. Which is fine if your job relies on that, and I can see why it makes sense to say that teams who work together need to be in the office on the same days every week. But if your job doesn’t involve a lot of face-to-face collaboration (which mine doesn’t; in fact it involves a lot of close reading that is far easier to do in peace and quiet) then it seems a bit pointless to me. Whenever I’ve been in the office since we all started going back, I’ve had to make sure I have enough general admin-type stuff to do because there are just too many interruptions to do my ‘real’ work properly. I’m sure half of it is that I’ve got used to having peace and quiet so it all seems more distracting, but I also think people are being (unintentionally) more distracting in the office because they only have one or two days of face-to-face time.

      3. AnotherJen*

        My husband’s group has “solved” this by an informal arrangement that people who are going to come in do so on Tuesdays. Typically. A few people come in more frequently, others less so, but if you want to catch up with other folks (and you don’t want to arrange something ahead of time), show up on Tuesdays. (Several team members bike in that day, so they’re there for like 5-6 hours and get in 30-40 miles of bike riding.)

    4. The Prettiest Curse*

      Yeah, I’m very fortunate to only have to do 1 day a week in the office. It is required and we have to book a desk if we need one, but they don’t track it and they have never pressured us to come in more often.

    5. Churpies*

      This is where I’m at. I switched divisions at my org (started a month ago) and my new job has *real* flexibility. My last job, we had “flexibility” but there were definite penalties if you weren’t in the office – my boss would consult with whomever was there (even on things that were your sole responsibility), people paid attention to when you came and when you left, and in general people saved up things to talk to you about when you were there in person. I always felt like when I came into the office, I was bound to Butt in Seat and felt bad even just taking a walk throughout the day, even though I was completely underemployed.

      Now I’m coming to the office fairly regularly because I like it, but for example, today I didn’t come in until 10 because I don’t have a meeting until 1 and I wanted to work out and not blow dry my hair. I didn’t have to tell anyone, I didn’t have to justify it to the rest of my team, I just did it.

    8. WantonSeedStitch*

      This is actually what my office is doing well. We only have 100% remote work arrangements available for a small subset of people, but for everyone else, it’s not really expected that you’ll come in unless there’s a reason to do so. Come in for that quarterly strategy meeting? Yeah. Come in because it’s Wednesday? Nah. Come in a couple days this week to see clients face-to-face? Great. Come in a couple days next week because you’re supposed to be in a couple days every week? Nah. And we’re actually handling space issues in a way that reflects that this is for the long term: people sharing cubes here and there because we don’t expect that we’ll have people in every day, for example.

    9. BasketcaseNZ*

      My work tried to implement a compulsory 2 days a week in-office.
      A few weeks later, they realised that national case numbers weren’t dropping, and in fact, lots of staff were suddenly ill with flu, so rescinded that.

      Even with the mandatory 2 days, lots of people just weren’t. Add in that the work my team have been doing is winding down (due to complete a 4 year programme of work this month), and you’re lucky to see 10 other people in our 65 person section of the office on a busy day, where previously you’d struggle to find a seat.

      The advantage we’ve got is we have always had hybrid (since pre-pandemic sometime at least). Some people are still in every day (because their living situation makes WFH uncomfortable), some people are in once every 2 weeks. Thankfully no one is keeping track.

    10. anonforthis*

      This. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing WFH but what I would like to keep is the flexibility. Before, if I wanted a remote day in addition to the one weekly allotted remote day we got, I would have to prepare a court-level defense for permission. Now I get to decide more on my own terms.

  9. Justin*

    I can provide a sharp contrast. At the job I left in April, they Demanded we come back because it’s How Things Are, and people were mad and just didn’t listen. Now, it was sort of out of our hands (we were contractors for the city and the city went back), but our director didn’t really try. So I left, and everyone else literally chose to go part-time (you can work a full schedule, but you can’t do dependent health coverage; none of them had young kids so they just accepted that). It was, and remains, a mess.

    At my current job, with exceptions for occasional travel/big meetings, we aren’t required to go in at all. But it really is a lack of pressure. Because of that, I choose to go in twice a week, and we do get small incentives like making the office a really attractive environment (lots of goodies and knick knacks). They’re also giving us an extra 150 in travel money a month (which I don’t need but I’m gonna take it, thanks). So, money, and kindness, and grace (ie they don’t monitor what time we arrive if we go in).

    (We have openings…)

    1. Justin*

      I would also say I’d never go in if I had to drive, but I refuse to ever move to where I have to drive, so that’s never going to be relevant to me.

    2. Maggie*

      At my current company most people are required in all the time, regardless of working remotely in the past. There aren’t any new perks, besides all the PPE you could want, and as a result we’ve lost a lot of people (including me hopefully soon). Your current schedule sounds like my ideal; I actually like going in a few days a week but five is too many, and agreed that flexbility and trust being tantamount.

      1. Justin*

        It helps that seeing how my old job fumbled it guided my search.

        They didn’t seem bad at this before covid but this was a new thing and they were weirdly controlling when we were at home bc they didn’t know how to manage without an iron fist. It’s bragging, I guess, but when the only one of your employees who had further professional ambitions thinks it’s not a great place to stay, maybe pay attention. Sucks for them.

      1. Justin*

        Not sure I can effectively throw up a link to our jobs list! But if Alison someday is willing to vet our places as being well-compensated and accessible we can do that.

        I can share the name of where we work if allowed though.

        1. Angry socialist*

          I think you can say the company name and the rest of us can go google for your job listing….

  10. Eldritch Office Worker*

    Our people wanted to come back some of the time, but only if there was an actual purpose. We do a lot of work collaboratively and in teams that’s genuinely easier in person, and we have a lot of in-office perks. But when we tried to let people come in whatever days they wanted, we didn’t get the coordinated overlap that made it worthwhile and people got frustrated. Our biggest complaint when we surveyed was that people don’t want to come into the office just to have zoom meetings anyway.

    Mandatory in-office days (with flexibility if people are sick or have conflicts) has been the most successful for us. We are currently two days in, three days optional. We prioritize lunches, events, etc for the mandatory days. We make common sense exceptions but put extra pressure on management to be in person, present, and accessible on these days. It’s working well.

    1. Llama Llama*

      This was the big problem at my previous employer. They wanted us to come back 3 days a week for “collaboration” but I would often go into the office and almost no one else would be there (there were only 12 of us). Those who were higher up felt they didn’t need to follow their own rules, and since many of us also did a lot of field work and had complicated schedules there was no overlap between the people who needed to collaborate. It was a mess and no one wanted “mandatory in office days” to fix it (it would have made scheduling field work a pain, which would have hurt some people’s job performance). In the end the whole place was a mess for many reasons and I peaced out to a job that’s almost fully remote.

      1. Eldritch Office Worker*

        “Those who were higher up felt they didn’t need to follow their own rules”

        This is where any policy falls apart, especially one that could be controversial.

        1. No Longer Gig-less Data Analyst*

          At my old job we were supposed to come in 3 days a week, which I did for 3 months. I only saw my manager in his office once the whole time. I spent all day on Teams calls anyway, as half of my team was out of state or our of the country even. I finally just stopped coming in, and it was fine because he wasn’t there to notice, which is what everyone else did too.

        2. Charlotte*

          I think sometimes the decision makers miss the ways their privilege makes them misunderstand what the weight of different “perks” are.

          For instance:
          My department assistant: pays $10 to park when she has to go in a few times a month. Most people having to go in are assistant level. This is a huge deal for her budget. When she’s at home that’s money saved.
          Our higher ups have free parking and $10 is never going to change their circumstances even if they did have to pay. They also never have to go to the office. The office is not easily accessible by public transportation. It is also located in an extremely expensive area.

          For me, doing a load of laundry, or running the dishwasher, at random times of the day has made life exponentially easier for me. My manager has a housecleaner. This isn’t a problem for her either way.

          So, for me, it’s hard to imagine any swag or free food ever being a bigger perk than being able to start a load of laundry in between meetings and having time to relax in the evening with a shorter to-do list. For my boss, I’m sure the swag and food would be considered better perks than something that wasn’t a hardship before. For our assistant these policies seriously makes or break her budget, especially in these times.

          1. Rocks are neat*

            It seems to me part of the solution would be to give the free parking to those who actually show up to the office! Just a thought.

            I think your illustration of people in different income brackets and what constitutes a ‘perk’ is excellent.

        3. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

          YUP.
          I mean, I’m pretty sure senior leadership at the CDC aren’t coming into the office all that much…

      2. NotAnotherManager!*

        We are currently suffering from this problem as well, though without the higher-ups not coming in. They’re here and many want everyone else to be here, but, in my industry, the higher-ups often have stay-at-home spouses and enough money to get the help they need while the middling/lower people are still struggling with childcare, school, etc. and strongly prefer remote work and flexibility.

        Our leadership has been very mindful about how tone-deaf other organizations have been (and are also dealing with a competitive labor market) but area also dealing with complaining from the higher-ups who want everyone to be required to come back in because that’s what they prefer.

      3. Italian Beef*

        Our founder announced that remote work is “not allowed” on the same day he announced that he would be spending more than eight weeks over the summer working from his vacation home. Management has taken to posting on LinkedIn about the joys of in-person collaboration… while they are all working remotely. It’s all especially absurd because our field requires us to travel to our clients’ offices regularly, so we are well-practiced at coordinating with our colleagues while in different physical locations. But as a junior employee, I have spent the past year fearing discipline if I dared to work remotely, only to come into the office and find that almost no one was there.
        My last day is next week.

        1. The Real Fran Fine*

          Good for you for getting out! That’s absolutely ridiculous they would implement these rules and then flout them right in your faces like this. It’s so disrespectful.

      4. Ding Dong*

        Yes, same, and this is also a big reason why mine is a former, not current, employer. Dept head kept saying we would all benefit from being in the office at the same time… but it became clear the only “benefit” was to her, because she felt more able to micromanage everyone when she could walk around the desks instead of doing her own work. (But, of course, she was hardly ever there!) If management extols the benefits of in-person work, they have to commit to it themselves AND the benefit to the employees has to be real. Meanwhile, my former dept has turned over more than 100%!

    2. hamsterpants*

      Yep, as much as I hate mandatory anything, if there is an actual tangible business reason to have people in person, then companies should actually set and enforce mandatory in-office days. Not enforcing it just drives home that it is a perfunctory, empty gesture. Yes they might lose employees over it — so businesses need to decide just how critical in-person attendance is, and establish a consistent standard, and live with the consequences.

      1. Captain Swan*

        ** No quoting in articles please Allison**

        Starting sometime in the next couple of weeks, I will start going back into the office 2-3 a week. It’s been then plan for us to start going back this Fall for around 6 months.
        I’m looking forward to it. My house is not built for permanent WFH and I can have big monitors and such that just don’t fit at home. I’ll be able to talk in person to my leadership, so lots of benefits.
        It helps that my commute is rough 7 minutes one way. Plus, I can pickup and drop off daughter at the local transit station to go to her campus since I drive by it anyway to get to the office.

    3. Green great dragon*

      Almost everyone in my office is happy to come in for arranged, face-to-face meetings or anything else that truly benefits from being in. But that’s not enough for management, who want us to come in at least 2 days a week. A lot of people are seriously fed up with it, coming in just to have zoom meetings anyway (since a lot of the people we talk to are other branches or other companies) or doing individual work, and having to do these in a noisy office environment rather than in the quiet of their home offices.

      We’ve also lost weeks of time to people being off with covid and other illnesses. I’m sure some of those would have happened anyway, but probably far fewer.

    4. mskyle*

      Yes, this is the problem for me… I’m a software developer and I go in to the office sometimes, but when I do hardly anyone else is there and enough of my team has moved out of the area and gone permanently remote that we will have all of our meetings via zoom for the foreseeable future. I live by myself and I definitely miss the casual interactions with coworkers I used to have in the office but those just don’t exist anymore!

      So, yeah, it’s nice to have free snacks and air conditioning, and I’ll often go in to the office if I’m going downtown for another reason, but spending 30+ minutes each way going to the office to sit at a different desk than I sit at at home doesn’t feel particularly worthwhile in and of itself.

    5. online millenial*

      This would be my ideal–having one in-office day a week (or every other week) when everybody’s in the office so we can have in-person meetings, team lunches, etc. HOWEVER given that there’s still a pandemic going and my employer just “strongly encourages” masking, I have zero interest in sitting in a cube farm with 14 other people right now. If COVID ever gets properly under control, this would be a great setup. But that seems unlikely to happen anytime soon.

      2. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

        Hard same.
        In the before times, I liked the office and hated WFH, though the latter is probably because I didn’t have a proper space set up. I have no interest in risking my health for this.

    6. Stretchy Pants*

      Yes, this is how I feel – give me a purpose! We have been back at the office full time for over a year in corporate but other corporate departments have different rules. The main thing I want from leadership at this point is ONE REAL REASON why I have to be here every single day when other employees with substantially similar jobs do not. It drives me crazy. Leadership has been completely unable to answer this for over a year. It makes me lose a lot of faith in their decision making ability.

      1. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

        Yup, we’ve been told the return is about collaboration, but there’s no evidence we’re not collaborating well WFH.
        They either have no idea what our jobs are like or they’re not telling us the real reasons.

    7. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

      Yeah, the whole thing smacks of just wanting to “get back to normal” because people are uncomfortable with change / don’t want to do the work of figuring out a better way / want to pretend the pandemic is over.

    8. Government worker*

      I work in a government job and we need some level of department staffing to help walk ins. We took a similar, although more restrictive approach. One day a week my whole department is in and we prioritize meetings that lend themselves to in person interaction (high likelihood of conflict, brainstorming, etc) and then we have a rotation for the other days. The rotation avoids anyone having to work every Monday or Friday. Part of what makes this work is my team’s willingness to swap office days to accommodate each other when we have an in person meeting not scheduled on our day in or having a contractor coming to the house. Our current expected level of in office staffing feels like overkill to may of us but prior to the pandemic I never expected to be able to routinely work from home so I am happy with the situation.

  11. Nekussa*

    Our company doesn’t even have a full office any more, just a coworking space downtown that is available for those who do want office space. I would only consider going in if there were a day where a bunch of coworkers agreed they would also come in to the office. Otherwise I don’t see the point of spending the money and time to commute in only to spend all day in online meetings anyway, which I could have done at home.

    1. kbeers0su*

      Agreed. I have a remote team spread out all over our region. We all mostly work from home. So why would I put on real clothes and drive an hour to sit alone in my office to communicate with everyone else who is at their homes? I have intentionally scheduled dates where we get together to talk at the office, but other than that, the only reason I come to the office is to check our mail and let the security guards know we still exist.

      1. Lexi Lynn*

        Given that I work with clients in 2 countries and all US timezones, having neetings in the office is worse than having everyone remote. When you have a quarter of the meeting in a room and everyone else on 5lthe phone, it’s hard for the phone people to hear and participate.

  12. Laura*

    My company has one day a week that everybody is asked to be in. Everyone is in on Tuesdays, I think they chose that day because we’ve always had whole-company training Tuesday mornings, and they supply pastries and fruit for breakfast that day. A few people go in every day, some people go in a couple more days a week, there’s no pressure – but they have been clear that individual team leaders can ask people to be in more often if required. That hasn’t come up on my team yet, but because they’re generally so flexible I won’t mind if I have to go in for specific meetings etc. And I do trust that they’d only ask for a good reason, which I think is a key factor.

    1. NewJobNewGal*

      Yep, that was my big issue-> I would have been okay going into the office if there was a reason.
      My office asked for the same thing, everyone comes in the same day, plus another day of the employee’s choice. The problem was that there wasn’t enough physical room for everyone to be in the office. There wasn’t enough parking or workspaces. Some of us were supposed to sit on beanbags and picnic tables. (I’m a grow-up with real work to do, thank you.)
      And my team was out of state, so I would still be on zoom calls. It felt demeaning that I was supposed to sit on a beanbag and be on zoom calls just for my executive’s comfort.
      But if my team was local, and I had regular meetings with people in the office, and I had a chair to sit in, then I would have been okay with 2 days a week in office.

    2. Ashley*

      I could have written this comment about my company, except our days are Wednesday! And this was after a very slow ramping up process. After exclusive WFH from March 2020 to Sept 2021, management requested that employees come in one day per month. Then when Delta hit, they became less strict about it. Then mid July 2022, they required us to be in every second Wednesday. After a month of that, they decided it would be every week, because the days we were all in were too jammed up with everyone trying to get in person meetings booked. Now things are spread out more. We’ve been able to have a couple of retirement parties and a baby shower in person after being virtual for so long. Plus we have new people on the team and so I’ve appreciated having the in person opportunity to provide training. Prior to the shutdowns, we could WFH 3 days a week, so if I only have to go in 1 day a week going forward, I will be happy.

      It would take a LOT of money to get me full time in the office again.

  13. hamsterpants*

    How about an actual business reason to come in, a tangible career benefit? Usually when I come in, I still don’t see people in person because they live in a different state. I’m also usually less productive because bored people drop by to chat about non-work items.

    1. Stuckinacrazyjob*

      Nod. Like they can say I’ll bump into someone who’ll change my career but that’s never happened to me. I like to chat but the trade off is too much and there’s no actual medical condition called ” my body doesn’t do gaslighting.”

    2. High Score!*

      An actual business reason shared with employees. My employer says we should “act like owners”, and it’s a big company so I was skeptical at first, but they are very open with us, they allow employees to work together to determine when they need to come in or travel or get training or whatever. To an extent, we even choose our own teams. I’m shocked at how well it works.

    3. Eyes Kiwami*

      This is the thing I don’t see any company actually considering. No one has actually measured and valued “collaboration”, no one is evaluating workers who are good at it and paying them more for it. So the only people who work onsite are those who have to, and those who prefer to. Everyone is trying to lure workers back without lowering the risks or increasing the rewards, just cajoling and demanding and being confused why it doesn’t work.

  14. Jenny*

    I’m in a situation where I don’t think I’d want to switch jobs if we went back full time, but I would be VERY unhappy.

    We’ve been in the office one day per week since April. Right now, my main concern is people are getting really whiny about that 1 day per week and I’m hoping that they don’t ruin it for the rest of us. One day a week is actually enjoyable, but more than that? I wouldn’t like it.

    I do laugh because I am FAR less productive on my one day in the office. They want us in the office to collaborate. I spend a lot of time “collaborating” by getting coffee with coworkers, going out to lunches (which are longer than normal), etc.

    1. Roland*

      Those things are the kind of relationship builders that really create community and are what I miss most about working in the office, so I would say they’re a great use of time :)

      1. Grey Squirrel*

        100% agree. I started a new job after the pandemic where they used to be in-office and are now fully remote. I love working remotely, but I do feel a bit disconnected to my coworkers (especially with people in our division but outside of our specific team). I would never want people to come in just to socialize but… I do miss that aspect of work.

      2. nonprofiteer*

        And I think that is what makes some leaders nervous. People tend to leave much easier if they don’t have strong relationships at work. “Collaborate” is a word you often hear but I think they really would like people chatting in the hall and going for coffee.

      3. hamsterpants*

        I agree to a point, but 2 hours of socializing per day is excessive, and it’s easily that much when I’m in office.

        I also have great, personal relationships with people I have never met in person.

  15. Pidgeot*

    I think expectation of reduced hours would prompt me to come in to the office in person. Meaning, if I usually work an 8 hour day, and they want me to come in to the office and it would take 1.5 hours of commute time, I want the expectation to be that I work 6.5 hours in the office and that the 1.5 of commute time is part of my workday. What I like about WFH is that I don’t need to take that 1.5 hours of commute out of my life. But if work was ok with me working only 6.5 hours/day (without reducing my salary) to accommodate the commute time, I’d come in.

    1. Eat My Squirrel*

      This is the biggest thing keeping me at home. I work 4 10 hour days, and with the commute, the 10 hour day becomes a 12 hour day and I have literally no time to myself that day.

    2. ferrina*

      Yes! Now that we know that a commute isn’t required (for certain jobs), asking us to invest our own time in a commute feels selfish for a company to do. That’s time that they aren’t paying for, time that I could be spending with my kids, doing life admin/housekeeping, having hobbies and seeing friends…the stuff I don’t get to do with my 2 hr commute.

      2. kbeers0su*

        THIS. So much this. I took my current job in summer 2020 when there was no established office, because it was a new role and everyone was WFH so it didn’t matter. Then I find out that they selected an office that made my commute 1.25 hours EACH WAY. Why should I spend 2.5 hours in the car every day, and charge it against my time? I wasn’t consulted about the location of the office or allowed any input. (So I told my supervisor I would not commute more than 2 days a week. Luckily, he’s been supportive because he also didn’t have much say in the decision on location.) If this ever changes, I will quit. It’s not worth losing my time over (for sleep, to see my kids, to be able to cook an actual meal, to get an earlier start on my weekend, etc.).

    3. J*

      My partner occasionally still goes in for meetings with out of town visitors and that’s how he insists on treating his day now. He doesn’t schedule in person meetings until 30 minutes after his start time so his commute is in the work window versus coming on his clock. He’s lucky that his boss doesn’t nickel and dime his time and looks the other way for her team doing this but it’s not the company policy. If they took that away, I think he’d stop taking any in person meetings and they’d never see him again.

    4. Data Bear*

      On the days when I come into the office (currently one day a week, maybe increasing to 2 if there’s another day when people I need to talk to will be here), I never leave home before 9 am and I always leave work before 4:30 at the latest. That drastically reduces the degree to which I have to deal with traffic.

      I still need to either make up the hours, but having a good WFH setup makes that a lot easier to do. Or I just take PTO (we get a *lot* of PTO) and call it good…

  16. gef*

    my company is having a huge issue where lower-level staff (including me, although i prefer going into the office 2-3 days/week, i don’t like FT WFH) are mandated to come into the office X days per week (dependent on department), but senior folks and leadership across the board simply never come in at all. the disparity is causing huge morale issues, which are completely legitimate IMO. if the company wants people to come in, leadership needs to be at the forefront and explicitly model it or else it just comes off as out of touch and super unfair.

    1. Justin*

      My old boss demanded people go in, but she didn’t, and it turned out the higher ups were, let’s just say, one demographic, and those who went in were a different one. Wasn’t a good look.

    3. Gracely*

      This. As much as I hate that my great great grandboss wants everyone back in the office like before, to their credit, they are here every day, and so is great grandboss.

    4. shruggie*

      Hell, this was a problem in my job before the pandemic. NOW, to be expected to be in the office when the voice from on high won’t deign to grace us with their presence? Pfft.

    5. Manic Pixie HR Girl*

      From a sheer duties perspective I can see how lower level staff may have duties that can’t be done remotely (or full time remote) where higher level staff this is not the case, but it is SUCH a bad look.

      1. gef*

        this has definitely been part of the conversation at my company! and i kinda get it, but i do come down on the side of, if management wants it, they gotta model it. same as with things like workplace professionalism, DEI stuff, etc. – top down is the only way. so yeah i totally agree with you!

    6. Esmeralda*

      Oh yeah, we have the same issue. The PTB in our division have grudgingly, after our bosses fought very very hard for it, agreed to a 3(office)-2(remote) hybrid for this year. We had data that showed we were incredibly productive with 3/2, with 2/3, with 1/4, with fully remote (during the depths of the pandemic), and that our students still prefer virtual meetings — even on our in-office days, most students make zoom appts. But but but! the students!!

      Anyway, they finally agreed, but they get no gratitude for it, because they made it so frickin hard to get, AND they’re almost never around. They’re working from other states most days. Family reasons, which I totally get — it would be nice if THEY would get that we want the same.

      Every time they said no to hybrid schedules, we lost more staff. Everyone on staff is grumpy — we are all pitching in to cover the vital pieces of work, plus a good percentage of us are serving on search committees. (And that’s been no fun, because we’re getting fewer applications, and the really good candidates get lots of other offers where WFH or hybrid is not a stupid fight.)

      Personally, if they take away hybrid at the end of the year, I will retire, kick back a few months, then pick up a new fully remote job. I have one lined up. Less pay, but less hassle. Worth it, especially w retirement payouts.

  17. shruggie*

    More money would make me consider it, but it’s hard to even put my finger on a realistic number, considering how tight-laced my company is being with raises, COL adjustments, etc, even when employees’ income is going down due to inflation. Remote work is free, and something people actively want, and a way to retain workers. Just… why fight it this hard? I don’t understand the issue.

    1. ferrina*

      I want to say more money would help, but honestly it would be awful long-term. If Bobby had a lower productivity level than me but was paid more because he went in to the office, I would be pretty annoyed.

    2. Meghan R*

      Companies paid lots of money for the office space and they don’t want to see it wasted? Or managers don’t know how to manage when their employees aren’t right over the cube wall for them to watch.

    3. Esmeralda*

      Right. It’s the easiest thing to do and, at least where I work, it costs them NOTHING to do it. Nothing. We already had laptops and docking stations, so we can all work remotely. Some of my coworkers have long commutes, childcare, eldercare…why make life MORE difficult for these people? They have other options.

      Short-sighted, inflexible dumbassery.

    4. A Name*

      I think for retire-in-a-year money, I’d go back in one day a week to my current office (one-hour commute each way, coworkers I mostly like). Assuming the pandemic was actually over, and not over-because-we-said-it’s-over.

    5. The Real Fran Fine*

      Remote work is free, and something people actively want, and a way to retain workers. Just… why fight it this hard?

      Right. My company has always had at least a third of their workforce working permanently from home and dispersed around the globe pre-pandemic (we’re in tech). When the pandemic hit and our offices around the globe shut down, they put together a task force to monitor productivity levels across the organization as well as to investigate the possibilities of expanding remote work to a greater number of employees. What they found is, our company productivity levels actually increased these last two years, so they told everyone who was office based that they could decide when (or even if) to come back into the office as long as they worked out a schedule with their managers or took the appropriate steps with HR to go permanent remote if they chose not to come back at all.

      Now, the messaging has changed again to no one has to come back in if they don’t want to and we can work from anywhere in our respective countries – no restrictions. I guess they figured since they don’t pay what the FAANG companies pay, offering this level of flexibility will help with not only retaining their current workforce, but also attracting new hires that care more about work/life balance than money (and to be clear – they do pay well, just not the super high salaries of an Amazon or Google).

  18. Pumpkin215*

    I have seen a lot of lures, and none of them are working. Free Coffee Day! Free Continental Breakfast Day! Free Pretzel Day!

    Then they upped their game to “Free Redbull and come see some adoptable puppies!” They literally had a puppies in the office. They almost got me with that one. If it had been “Free Wine and Kittens”, I would have burned rubber to get there.

    I have to go in one day a week but I don’t want to do more than that. It is a really nice building, with plenty of meeting space, cafeteria with good food, coffee shop, gym, etc. As nice as that is, I still prefer yoga pants and my cat as my only coworker. I get my own bathroom, full kitchen and no commute. They really can’t beat that.

    1. londonedit*

      Our place is trying similar things (though no actual puppies yet!) It’s stuff like decent free coffee and snacks, lunchtime events for staff who are in the office, competitions, free copies of some of our biggest new books, etc. Plus endless emails telling everyone how much the people who are back in the office are loving it and how fantastic it is for collaboration with colleagues. Hmm. We’re meant to be in for a set number of days a week but over the summer people have largely ignored it. I have a feeling many more people will start going in once the weather gets colder, though, because with the price of energy the way it is in the UK at the moment (if you’re unaware, imagine how totally insane the price of energy could be, then add about 200% more insanity – people on decent incomes are going to end up unable to heat their homes this winter and people on low incomes are literally going to die, and that’s not even hyperbole) the cost of commuting is going to be massively offset by the savings you’ll make if you’re not having to put the heating on for those 8-10 hours a day.

      1. Higher Ed Cubicle Farmer*

        Having grown up poor and spent the first quarter of my adult life at or below the poverty line (and sometimes living off work party leftovers), I do appreciate free anything. It takes a lot to make me pass up free food.

        But lunch on the boss’ dime has a different flavor when the hidden cost is having to sit your immune-compromised self down and take off your mask to eat at the break room table with the people who brag about coming to work ill.

        2. Emma*

          Totally get that. The extent of the UK energy crisis is extreme – I’ve heard people talking about getting their elderly parents to move in with them over winter, so they can split the bill for heating the house and running the fridge; small businesses are seeing their energy bills jump from four to five figures per year. But always, there are people for whom these ‘hacks’ aren’t accessible and it’s… gonna be really bad if you’re in that position.

      2. Tau*

        Yyyeah not needing to heat my home during daytime in the winter could be really useful, considering. (I’m in Germany, so…)

        Also, I’m pretty sure the air conditioning brought some people into the office this summer! Because we’ve been getting heat we are in no way set up for in recent years and pretty much no private home here has A/C.

    2. Former Young Lady*

      I’m with you on “free wine and kittens.” And there’d better be cheese pairings.

      Anything less feels patronizing.

      1. Properlike*

        But wouldn’t adopting said puppies or kittens then make employees even LESS likely to want to come in? Someone hasn’t thought this through.

    3. Richard Hershberger*

      Free coffee? Is this fancy coffee made by a barista, or standard coffee from a drip coffee maker? I ask because I have never worked in an office where the standard stuff wasn’t free. Offering it as an occasional (forgive me) perk would be kind of pathetic.

      1. LegalEagle*

        I was just telling someone today how the free drip coffee in my office is a huge perk to working from the office! I spent years working in government where the coffee situation was “sometimes the elected official you work for brings in a plastic bag full of loose k-cups and you make that last as long as you can” so having an office where the coffee and milk is always fully stocked and I can take as much as I want is awesome. But I agree, if they were just offering it one day, that wouldn’t be enough to get me in the office, but having it here all the time is a good perk for the three days a week I do come in.

      2. Katie*

        Pre pandemic the coffee onsite was some extremely generic garbage stuff. Now that there are so little people in the office it’s Starbucks brand (so just slightly garbage ). This has been one of their bragging points.

      3. Pumpkin215*

        I completely understand! To clarify, we have the “regular” free coffee machine on each floor. This was coffee from the attached coffee shop that is open to the public.

        Think $6 fancy coffee drinks that are totally worth it. Every Tuesday I get my “Campfire Cold Brew” which is marshmallow and graham cracker flavored.

      4. londonedit*

        It’s barista stuff for us. We’ve always had free tea, coffee and milk but now there’s a barista coming in every day with a posh coffee machine so you don’t have to spend £3 at Pret on a latte.

    4. HahahahaVeeon*

      Yep. Hard to replace the sleeping later, no traffic, being able to cook at lunch if I want, and having so much more flexibility and time. I would have more demands than it would be practical for my employers: clothing allowance, gas/tolls/wear and tear allowance, count commute time as time at work, dog daycare om site, food to order, subsidized housecleaning discounts, and may even reduced work time but no salary reduction. Pretty sure they’re just gonna say ok fine remote work it is then!

      1. Richard Hershberger*

        In fairness, once you take into account the extra expenses incurred by travel to the office, the employees undoubtedly were paying good money for that covid.

  19. glitter writer*

    My company opened in January, 2020 and so had to shutter its offices almost immediately after launch. We survived and thrived as a company, and have grown significantly, but it definitely built a strong work-from-home culture. My managers, my peers, and all but one of my direct reports are in different cities, states, or countries from me and so I’ve never felt much urge to spend any time commuting just to… not see them.

    We got the leases for the spaces for cheap, too, because 2021 had great incentives for businesses to sign space agreements, but I really wonder if they’re going to bother renewing in any of our three U.S. locations, all of which are expensive cities, when those leases expire.

    1. The Real Fran Fine*

      I know my company let a lot of our leases lapse and will probably continue to do so while only keeping our majorly visible locations (i.e., company headquarters in different countries).

    2. Pidgeot*

      Yes! What I want most of anything is more time – time not spent commuting, time to sleep, time with my family.

    6. High Score!*

      Make it a 24 hour work week, 3 8 hour days and it’s a deal!
      We have a lot more productivity tools then we did even 30 years ago when I started my career. So much automation, AI, robotics, etc… We worked so hard on that stuff so that the next generation would have it easier. Not so corporations could work is the same or more for even more profit.
      Let the workers have the work life balance that we’ve worked for. I paid so much of my life to make a better future and I want to see it.

    9. DANGER: Gumption Ahead*

      Pensions look good to me. NOT 401(k) but legit, guaranteed, lifelong, pensions that vest in 5 years.

  21. Spooncake*

    I don’t think anything could convince me to go back to in-person work, unless accessibility improves a lot- the option to still work remotely when my disabilities make it difficult to get to work, improved accessibility both on public transport and in corporate buildings, etc. And of course the attitudes of people in positions of power, who have to accept that if they want everyone back in person, they’re going to have to make an effort themselves to make it possible, especially since we’ve been going through a mass disabling event. If people want me there in person, they need to do more than the bare minimum so that I can go in every day without being sick and exhausted- and therefore basically useless as a productive employee.

    1. StrikingFalcon*

      Remote work was such an equalizer for me. When everyone was remote, no one could even tell I am disabled. In person, it’s the first and most obvious thing about me.

      I only go in occasionally, but when I do, it’s frankly exhausting. It takes me three days to fully recover. Nothing a company could offer will make that easier. I simply cannot do in person work more often, and would vastly prefer to do it less.

      Plus, I’m on immunosuppressants so I don’t get to pretend the pandemic is over.

  22. Ground Control*

    I’m medically vulnerable so if my company wanted to get me back in the office they’d have to implement policies and safety measures that would keep me safe. We’ve never had a vaccine mandate, they got rid of the masking policy as soon as legally possibly (and it was never actually enforced anyways), and have done nothing to implement improve air purification systems or other facilities safety measures even though I work in the medical field and they know better. Showing how little they care about people like me gives me zero incentive to care about them.

    1. BrooklynBlondie*

      So much this. Most offices are simply not safe for those of us who are high-risk. (COVID is not over, people!!!! )

    2. many bells down*

      I have been going in, but I have been insistent on continuing to mask. I convinced them to buy CO2 monitors, and showed them how to make Cori Rosenthal boxes.
      “Compassion in human relations” is one of our core tenets and I’m gonna make darn sure we abide by that one.

    3. Keymaster of Gozer*

      This is an excellent point. I think if our place hadn’t enacted a mask/vaccine mandate and a ‘you do not come to work sick!’ policy I doubt I’d still be here.

      The firms that had the ‘if you’re high risk then too bad for you but we’re not doing anything’ kind of attitude are the ones that could offer millions and I still wouldn’t work there.

      We’re disabled, not disposable.

    4. Midge*

      My work had what I thought were very good Covid mitigation measures last year: they did HVAC updates, mandated vaccines and boosters, required masking, and required weekly testing. Then in the spring and summer, masking became optional, and testing became optional before it was discontinued entirely. They spent a lot of time last year telling us it was ok to come back to the office because of all the safety measures they’ve taken.

      I definitely feel more vulnerable going back to the office now than I did a year ago.

    5. PotsPansTeapots*

      Yes, this. I’m freelance now and would only consider in-office work if they had good health and safety protocols.

    6. J*

      Also medically vulnerable and I’d agree. My partner goes into the office for meetings but he’s masked 100% of the time. They comment on it to him how weird he is for masking. People constantly invite him to lunch meetings but our household doesn’t eat indoors with members who aren’t in our household so he declines or sits but doesn’t eat which garners more comments. They ask him to present in person for a 5% in person/95% virtual meeting and then complain he’s masked and not able to be clearly heard.

      So many workplaces have not only implemented safety policies, they seek to make it very uncomfortable for people who mask. Every Monday he’s a ball of anxiety trying to see if he’ll be asked to go into the office on his scheduled Tuesday and he’s been given exposure notices more times than not. He struggles more and more even with his average 20 hours a month in the office and it’s part of why we’re seeking some household changes to allow him the freedom to apply for different jobs.

  23. CTA*

    For my team, we are more productive. We also found that a lot of in-person meetings didn’t have to be in-person or didn’t need to happen at all. A few co-workers will come on-site for one day a week, but a lot of them had to stop because they kept having Covid exposure scares and stayed home so as not to spread infection. Or there was an increase in Covid cases in our city, so folks stayed home. I’m a fully remote employee and I’ve seen my employer move toward preferring new hires to be local. I don’t understand it because a lot of teams are continuing to work from home. So they want new hires to commit to relocating when they are just going to be WFH for a lot of the time? And try explaining that you have fully remote employees (hired during the 2020-2021 period of the pandemic) that are not required to relocate.

  24. Former Young Lady*

    I’d consider going back onsite if it meant a substantial pay increase and a private office. My productivity is much higher without people dropping by to share their stream-of-consciousness at all hours. Shared touchdown space in a high-traffic hallway, or hotdesking in some open-plan wasteland, is not an option.

    1. Richard Hershberger*

      “people dropping by to share their stream-of-consciousness”

      I believe the term of art for this is “spontaneous collaboration” and it is, we are assured, a critical business function.

      1. Former Young Lady*

        *Snort!*

        In my old department, it was more like “spontaneous combustion” — someone coming to accounting to yell, or cry, because we’d told them they couldn’t do a fraud they really wanted to do.

    2. I would prefer not to*

      Oh my god, yes to this.

      I constantly hear people describe this as a benefit of office working. “You can drop by someone’s desk and ask for things for a quick chat.” Yes, and one person’s “quick chat” is another person’s highly annoying distraction. It only takes a few of them to throw the day completely out.

      Part of why I’m often more productive at home is definitely because I’m so much more in control of my priorities. And I’m best placed to prioritise my own workload!

  25. Red Lines with Wine*

    We have a 25% return rate right now but most people are coming in 1 day at week, 3 at most. Unless everyone is back, it makes no sense to drive to work to be on Zoom when I can do that from home. The benefits of WFH really do outweigh the perceived in-person collaboration, IMHO.

    Yesterday I spent over an hour in traffic for a commute that normally takes 20 minutes, I’m rethinking my hybrid situation. As much as I enjoy the free food and the onsite gym, the ding to my mental health may not be worth it!

  26. JMR*

    My company doubled in size during the pandemic, from ~200 to ~400 employees, and the company started running out of space to put them. Many new employees were not assigned office/cubicle space, but lots of people were working from home anyway. Starting in mid-2021, the company started trying to bring certain groups/functions back on-site but realized that many of the newer hires did not like coming in because they had nowhere to work. They therefore decided to do a complete office redesign to create additional space. They tore down large groups of cubicles and replaced them with open desk areas that were a quarter of the size and fit four times as many people. The result: Everyone hates the open desk plan with a passion and a vengeance, so everyone continues to work from home. Prior to the redesign, people with assigned space worked on-site and people who didn’t have an assigned space worked from home. Now, people who still have their offices/cubicles continue to work on-site, and people who now have an assigned desk continue to work from home, because everyone hates the desks. I don’t even want to think about how much money they spent on the redesign, and there are no more people on-site than there were this time last year.

    1. online millenial*

      Ha, my employer spent I don’t know how many thousands of dollars on a bunch of lockers to store our stuff in while we’re hotdesking and on a desk reservation system. The lockers have never been touched, and the desk reservation software is so bad and user-unfriendly that I don’t think anyone uses it either. So much money wasted.

  27. Nairn*

    Unfortunately my company just told everyone we are coming back starting next week. They haven’t made any exceptions for things like childcare and because they are such a large employer for this area they get hundreds of applicants for every job so they don’t care if anyone quits over it. We weren’t offered any incentives, just told we are coming back unless a public health lockdown happens again.

    1. Carlee*

      Which isn’t exactly unfair or unreasonable. Your original condition of employment was being in the office daily… it was just interrupted by a 2.5 year pandemic.

      I honestly think there’ll just be a fairly major realignment of the workforce – folks who want to work remotely will (and should) get remote jobs, while those who don’t mind going into the office daily will (and should) shift to firms that expect it. Enough with moaning on both sides!

      1. NotAnotherManager!*

        Their original conditions of employment were offered when you could find childcare spots and schools didn’t send kids home on no notice because of an outbreak in the classroom or you didn’t have to quarantine your kid who’s too young to stay home alone for more vacation days than you have available.

        Trying to pretend like it’s January 2020, everything’s totally normal, and pointing at your pre-pandemic job conditions is not a good look for employers, especially when their only reason for demanding in-person work is “because we told you so”. The reason some organizations have not been so quick to insist everyone return and start handing out pink slips is that they can’t afford to lose the talent.

        1. Former Young Lady*

          Well said!

          I know we all went into COVID-19 thinking “OK, this is temporary, and we’ll adjust to it, and then we’ll go back to normal.” We all took our jobs home to our kitchen tables on zero notice, figuring it’d blow over in a couple weeks, maybe kill a few very unlucky people, maybe infect one or two folks we knew.

          We no longer live in that world, and we can’t pretend our way back to it.

          Workers adapted to a brand-new reality overnight; employers have now had plenty of time to adjust as well.

      2. Eyes Kiwami*

        It’s very weird to pretend like the ongoing pandemic, in which literally everyone’s everyday lives were violently disrupted, has not fundamentally changed things!

        The pandemic is still ongoing, so offices are still asking you to risk your life for your job.

    2. Richard Hershberger*

      Go back in and begin your job hunt. Yes, they are a large employer in your area, but the beauty of seeking remote work is that this no longer matters.

    3. Generic Name*

      A friend of mine worked for a major national corporation that just told people to come back to the office today, no exceptions. She has decided to retire early.

  28. L-squared*

    I find it interesting hearing about places where its “not working”, as my company just mandated it and will fire people who won’t come in. I wish we had the option to just refuse lol

    1. NotAnotherManager!*

      We can’t afford to just fire people – many of them are not easy to replace (require specialized certification/education/experience and the market for those particular skills is *very* competitive right now), which would leave us in a position to not be able to complete the work we have, much less do it well or take on more work. Even if we had the resources to fully train new people in those specialized areas (and some are very, very niche), we certainly don’t have the time to dedicate to the training and ramp-up time they’d need to be successful.

      For the positions that are more fungible, some people have elected to leave rather than come in on a hybrid schedule, and one of my colleagues lost two people on their team who refused to be vaccinated or follow the organization’s health and safety guidance.

      1. Emma*

        Yep. My cousin’s employer required everyone to go back to full time in office work, but he has a difficult to find skillset, and is now the only person qualified to do his job because they made everyone else with the same skillset redundant. So he’s just ignoring the no WFH mandate and continues to work from his parents’ spare room on the other side of the country. He hasn’t been fired yet, but if they do fire him they’ll be in trouble and he won’t struggle to get another job.

    2. Irish Teacher*

      In Ireland, legislation has been written to back up the demand for remote working, so that makes a difference too. Employers don’t HAVE to agree to it, but there are only certain grounds on which they can refuse.

      If it interests anybody, this is the situation: https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/health_and_safety/working_at_home.html#:~:text=The%20draft%20Right%20to%20Request,policy%20on%20working%20from%20home. To be honest, there are enough reasons that employers could probably find a reason to refuse if they wanted to, but it can’t just be “because we MISS you all.”

    3. fhqwhgads*

      If 50% of you all refused, would they fire that many all at once? The places where it’s “not working” to bring people back are places in the situation where that kind of proportion would quit over it/they can’t fire that many people at once and still function.

    4. I'm A Little Teapot*

      Start looking for a new job. You don’t have to accept an offer if you don’t want, but you might find that you have more options than you know.

    5. Another Person*

      Yeah, they can’t fire the 50% of our office who decided not to come in. We do very specialized work with specialized qualifications. And we know it.

  29. Persnickity*

    I go in once per week for a staff meeting and “collaborating” that could probably be done on line. If I were required to start going in any more frequently than that, outside of one off requests for a true need to be on site, I would look for a new job even if it paid less. WFH has had a huge positive impact on my physical and mental health plus I am just as effective at my job from home.

  30. Lurker*

    In order, increase of salary by 50-100%, flexible work hours, an assigned desk, cubical walls so we have some privacy/ cut down on the noise, and snacks/ drinks freely available. The loss of time due to commuting is really the worst, now if I was paid more and could afford a meal subscription service, a cleaning service once a week, and to pay a trainer to maximize workouts, I would be willing to spend the time commuting again.

  31. Bird Lady*

    For those saying an actual reason or a tangible part of the mission, yes, this is what brought me back to the office. While I was more productive during WFH in terms of quantity (and quality) of work, I do love meeting the people associated with the nonprofit I work for. The donors, the volunteers, and the visitors are all wonderful to engage with. My job could easily be done at home, but I really do like meeting the people we serve. It helps me connect better with the organization and the job.

    1. Spearmint*

      This is the main thing that has brought me back (though super part time). I felt very lonely and disconnected at work after not seeing anyone in person for over a year. And I’m an introvert who isn’t really close with anyone at my current job, but it’s still nice to see real people and feel connected to something other than a screen.

      1. nona*

        Ditto – as a single introvert that doesn’t have a roommate (and doesn’t want one), work is one of the places I see people.

        I also have a job that benefits from relationships. In-office build relationships more organically than remote does. And relationships help me do my job. I work cross-functionally, so I have to ask things of people outside of my group that I don’t have managerial control over. Relationships help that. There’s a lot of product information I got in the side/hallways conversations that has helped me a better communicator in my role that…just wouldn’t have happened via the text of an IM or email.

        Those 2 years I spent WFH benefited from all those in-person relationships I had. Can I build relationships remotely, sure – but it’s harder and you have to be more deliberate and it takes more energy than doing it organically because I’m just around people, so in-person relationships are likely going to take precedence because of that immediacy bias. (not a manager, so not impacting disparate treatment of direct reports).

        Also, I just f’ing burned out on reading and writing things. Writing is a big focus of my work, so yes I need the focused quiet time, but frankly – home has more distractions (in terms of chores and messy rooms) than work does, so I’m better at it at work (with headphones). Some people complain that a meeting could have been an email – I feel like I’ve encountered email chains that should have just been a freaking meeting.

        Which is all to say why I have preferred the in-office route (3 days a week). It’s still pretty quiet here, but it’s also summer and we’ve got a lot of parents with school aged kids. The spring was too abrupt of a change with kids, I think, so it will be interesting to see what its like once school starts up this fall. There are a fair number of people in at least 1 day a week so maybe that will increase with school starting?

        1. Lily Rowan*

          Thanks, nona, I agree with all of this! Living alone means that theoretically it was no problem to WFH, but for me it was so isolating and I hated it! To do anything other than stay in the house was such an effort. Even when I don’t see a lot of people in the office, I see someone, and get out into the world.

          1. nona*

            I also figure, someone has to start. If the issue is that “no one is in the office to talk to”, I’ll be that person. I won’t be the reason everyone comes back, but if I come in consistently because it works for me to be in, that might incentive for someone else, who then is an incentive for the next set of people.

            It took us a while to figure out how to go from 95% in person to 100% WFH. It’s going to take time to figure out the hybrid thing.

            I mean the cafeteria also has a nice salad bar, so it means I get my veggies 3x a week without the food going bad in my fridge at home (because I never manage to eat my salad fixings at home). So, the food is an incentive to me. I’m tired of having to do all the work to feed myself!

      2. Spencer Hastings*

        I am also an introvert, and I strongly prefer onsite to WFH. I learned in my student days that if I want to get anything significant done, I need to be outside of my living space, like in a library or computer lab on campus. Even if I don’t talk to anyone while I’m away from home, I find that the change of scene has a huge effect on my mood and motivation, and on my ability to disconnect from work at the end of the day.

        1. Tau*

          I hear you. WFH was pretty much a disaster for my productivity and mental health, I need to be in a physically separate location in order to be able to properly switch into work mode. I sometimes hear people talk like they’re assuming that obviously everyone will be more productive at home than in the office… yeah, no.

          Thankfully, although my company hasn’t made coming back in mandatory (as stated somewhere upthread, they left it to each team to figure out whether they want team office days and if so how often) there are quite a few people who come in Just Because so you’re not alone. I’m really trying to come in 3 days a week minimum – I mourn the ability to work in my comfy home where I have everything set up the way I want it, or run a load of laundry at lunch, but my brain just doesn’t handle it well at all.

          And honestly, I have found that certain discussions and brainstorming etc. go a ton smoother in person. There was one day where everyone in my subteam was in and we decided to talk through a problem in a meeting room on the whiteboard. It was super productive, we came to a good solution, and I came out of it certain that if we’d had to do it over Zoom we’d have needed twice as long and probably not managed to figure things out as well.

    2. WillowSunstar*

      Yes, the people are one of the reasons I want to go back. Problem is, there are less than 20 cars in the parking lot on a good day. It’s usually a ghost town. Saying hi to the security guard and the cafeteria person is the most social I get. Still, as a single person in an apartment, that’s more social than at home.

  32. Carlee*

    My company offers free, on-site childcare for anybody coming into the office. Folks have the option to work remotely, with the occasional (like, weekly) required in-person meeting.

    Offsite childcare (for 2 kids under 3): $3,200/month

    I’m in the office every day. As is every parent of any kid aged 5 and under.

    (Honestly, I prefer working from the office and it’s *so* much more collaborative now that probably 50-60% of the 600+ people in my office work from here daily).

    1. Properlike*

      When my kids were that young, this is something I would’ve gone in for. (But would’ve needed the flexibility to stay home when all those germs kept circulating.)

    2. Remote until an empty nester at this rate*

      Free or subsidized on-site child care is the only thing that would bring me back to an office. Eliminate my >$4,000/month child care costs and in a setting where I don’t have to shorten my workday to drop off/pick up my offspring? I’ll work weekends too, and thank my employer for the privilege. Seriously.

      1. Carlee*

        It turns out that the free on-site childcare is an *excellent* tool for recruiting in a really tough labour market — many of our competitors are struggling to hire new staff, and I’ve had zero problems on-boarding three new engineers (*shockingly* all turned out to be parents of small children).

        Fwiw, the firm is really good about “caregiver leave” for any reason (ie for a sick parent/grandparent/sibling), so it isn’t just parents who benefit.

    6. starfox*

      For me, it would be pet care. I was never able to work remotely because I work in healthcare, but I have worked out a hybrid schedule with my boss so I can write reports from home in the afternoon, or else I wouldn’t have been able to get a puppy which is something I wanted more than anything else in the universe, lol.

      Doggie daycare is significantly cheaper than childcare, but it’s still $470 a month. The cheapest dog walker I could find is $300 a month.

  33. Rayray*

    If a job can be done from home, companies need to just allow people to do so. No one wants t-shirts or Domino’s pizza. They want no commute and no distractions.

  34. UKgreen*

    I’m in the UK, I’m a learning designer and trainer, and used to work at home 2 days per week pre Covid. I now work at home 4 days a week, travelling into the office once per week.

    On the days I go into to the office, I get up at 5.15am, and because it’s too early for the buses to run have a 30-minute walk (often in the dark) to the station, or I get a lift in. I board a train at 6.15am and change onto another train halfway through my journey. I eat breakfast (a cereal bar and a coffee) on the train, then walk 20 minutes from the station to the office, lugging my laptop and all my crap for the day. I arrive at 8am, assuming the trains were on time, and find a hot desk, set up all my crap, connect to the internet, etc etc.

    For the rest of the day I sit on a very uncomfortable chair that gives me butt-ache in a big, noisy, open plan office getting increasingly distracted and annoyed by people YELLING INTO TEAMS CALLS YES HELLO SIMON, SIMON! SIMON! YOU’RE ON MUTE! NO, ABSOLUTELY SIMON! and usually end up getting far less done that I would if I were in my quiet, comfortable, private office at home. Doing the bulk of my job (designing training courses or delivering training) is a no-go in such a noisy space, so I end up just catching up on emails and doing bland admin.

    At 5pm I leave the office, walk 20 mins with butt-ache from the chair to the station lugging my laptop and all my crap, catch two trains home (often having to stand for 45 minutes on the second one as there are usually no seat reservations in place), get a bus or a lift or a long walk (uphill) and arrive home exhausted just before 8pm but often due to train delays as late as 10pm, so I can’t commit to any evening activities on Thursdays.

    Even booking well in advance and committing to a specific train, this hell still costs me between £25 and £45, to show my face in the office for ‘political’ reasons and to have to spend Friday catching up on all of the work I couldn’t get done in the actual office on Thursday as it’s so loud and distracting…

    But yes, employer, keep telling me how ‘important’ it is for me to be in the office.

    1. londonedit*

      I thought I was going to really enjoy getting back to going to the office a couple of days a week, because in the Before Times I could afford to buy a coffee and something reasonably nice for lunch every day, even being in-house five days a week. With inflation and electricity prices the way they are? I’ll be paying (luckily only about £9 because it’s all on London transport, but still) to schlep my packed lunch to the office, so I won’t even get to enjoy the benefits of a central London location.

      1. UKgreen*

        Yeah, although the Pret coffee subscription is Worth It if you’re a hot drink fan (although I find the temptation to then buy All Of The Things while I’m in there negates the saving!)

    2. Miss 404*

      Ugh, same. Two days a week mandatory, that change depending on the week (because heaven forbid the peons are allowed the same evenings free each week), I get up at 5:25 for my two-hour, 20-quid commute (including two separate half-hour walks), to sit at the first desk I can find (and so I have to manually adjust the brightness on Every. Single. Desk. I sit at for the sake of my poor macular-degenerated eye) for eight hours on a chair I loathe.
      Honestly, the worst part about all this is that I love being in London and would be perfectly happy to come in two days a week if I could just choose them! I’d love to be able to pet the dog after mass and spend my Friday evenings in the city I love without worrying about having to get up in the morning! But sometimes I just want my comfy chair and ratty old T-shirt, y’know?

        1. UKDancer*

          We are in 2 days per week (minimum) and we can choose which ones which makes a huge difference. I actually quite like it because it means I can arrange to do particular classes at Pineapple on office days. My flat is small (being London) so I like the change of scene 2 days per week and it is helpful going to some meetings in person.

          In the winter I will need to weigh the cost of the commute against the cost of electricity at home. Then I can decide whether I’d rather be in more or less.

          1. Anne Kaffeekanne*

            I think the rising energy costs will definitely be a factor here in terms of coming back to the office (I’m not in the UK, but in Europe). I’m lucky and my employer pays for my public transport ticket, so you bet I will be going in more often in winter than my current 1 day a week.

  35. Anon Entity*

    My desires are simple: A hot water kettle and a desk fan for when the office is too hot. Both of these are disallowed under our office policy.

    Oh, and a computer that’s not slower than my home computer and and office that’s not half the size of my home office would be nice, too, but those are stretch goals.

    1. Ms. Hagrid Frizzle*

      Oh goodness, yes! We have a building that is most often WAY too cold, to the point that I am bundled in multiple blankets while sitting in my desk chair. Keeping my door open helps a bit wih the industrial-freezer vibes, but then I have lots of intrusions and distractions that make it hard to accomplish my tasks. Working from home means that I am comfortable and am not actively fighting environmental conditions that cause my chronic pain to flare up.

      1. Anon Entity*

        That reminds me of another simple desire: authorization to use a keyboard that doesn’t actively make my hands hurt.

        1. Raine*

          I have an ergonomic keyboard that I convinced a former employer to buy for me and have carried around ever since, because when I was laid off, they claimed it was mine. In the US, that kind of accommodation does fall under OSHA/ADA purview. Might be worth the effort to push back on that, because repetitive stress injury does fall under OSHA….

      2. kathjnc*

        hahah yeah. I’ll be going back in to the office this fall, when the in-office temperatures are no longer so arctic I need a space heater.

    2. Bread Crimes*

      This is certainly helping me understand even more why I’m desperately glad to be back in my office again. I have a comfy cubicle with my own snacks and tea kettle and tea, and a little desk fan for when it gets stuffy, and a fairly quiet space but occasional coworkers in the room I can chat with about our interesting area of work… It’s so much easier to work here than in my apartment, with no dedicated desk space or decent chair. And my commute is a pleasant walk, so it gets me out of the house when I might otherwise slowly melt into the couch.

      No kettle, no fan, and I’d be a bit less happy. The flex space or noise other people describe, or a long driving commute? Ugh. The office is by far my most productive environment, but it clearly varies by environment, on both the office and home side.

  36. Jane Bingley*

    A real reason is most important to me. “I want to see your faces” is not a good reason. Neither are productivity arguments, unless there’s evidence that productivity was negatively affected by WFH. “We have an expensive lease” is the worst reason of all.

    If I’m coming back for a good reason, I want a clear and predictable schedule, one where everyone is in office on the same days whenever possible. The value of collaboration is wasted if the day I come in is not the same day as most of my colleagues.

    I don’t particularly want perks. They feel patronizing to me, personally. If there’s money to go around, pay us more or give one-time bonuses to your most valuable team members. Otherwise, acknowledge that it’s inconvenient and give the good reason, give people lots of notice (like a few months, given how hard it can be to find child care), and set a clear schedule.

    1. Jane Bingley*

      Oh, also – removal of all fluorescent lights! At best, people hate them; at worst, they cause people physical pain. They’re a major migraine trigger for me. Death to those horrible, overbright, buzzy lights!

    2. Prospect Gone Bad*

      My issue with your first paragraph is that then I need to get into the “you suck working from home thing” that most people vehemently rail against. People want it both ways. They want the rational but then are going to hate and fight the rational for going in some days, if you give it to them. Everyone talks like they’re so productive at home but I am not seeing it in many cases. Quite the opposite. I find it a weird hill people are dying on because in many cases they are so obviously wrong, where if they think that if they admit to any flaw, then poof, WFH is gone for ever. When I used to deal with productivity type issues in the office, people didn’t fight me anywhere near as hard. We’d just sort of agree the thing happened and move on. But now people won’t ever admit to possibly doing anything less than stellar.

      1. Curiouser and Curiouser*

        I agree with you. I can speak from my job and those of my friends, but there are definitely people who are good at working from home. There are also people that are objectively hard to reach, do the bare minimum, and were much more productive when they were in the office. But that last group seems to be vocal proponents of more WFH time and when it’s pointed out that they were much easier to collaborate with in the office (I get that that’s a buzzword, but I mean actual collaboration – talking through projects, working through fire drills), they respond with eye rolls or monologues about how people are always bothering them in the office and not giving them time to work. It’s a lose/lose.

        There are certainly jobs that can be done equally as well (or better) remotely. But there are also jobs that CAN be done remotely but can be done BETTER with time for collaboration, meeting in person, and reminders that there’s a person on the other end of the computer. We should stop pretending those jobs don’t exist.

      2. Oxford Comma*

        We have metrics for everything. We had them before Covid and after Covid. I have hard data that I am more productive at home.

        That’s me and I am sure there are people who slack off at home, but I would point out that there are people who slack off at the office.

        1. Curiouser and Curiouser*

          I do think that’s job specific. Our metrics are a bit harder to quantify. I mean we have metrics for how well the company did over the past couple of years (down but better than expected) but in a creative field it’s hard to quantify something like “team/person didn’t come up with an idea that could make us do better”.

      3. Pisces*

        To Prospect and Curiouser, I would add that some WFH-ers conveniently forget about when they ask someone who is in-office to do a task of theirs that can’t be done remotely.

        A small task is one thing. A big task is something else. People did the latter to me only twice before ExJob became ExJob.

    3. I would prefer not to*

      Totally agree that a lot of perks and treats to coax us in feel patronising. I always worry that maybe I’m a bit sourpuss about it but I’m an adult, deciding whether to go into work. I’ll usually make that decision on a work-based reason. If not, it’ll be another serious reason, like “my partner has Covid and I don’t want to risk spreading it into the office.”

  37. Ms. Hagrid Frizzle*

    One of the biggest things for me would be a truly accessible workplace. I have several health conditions that are much easier to manage while I am work from home, and I recently had a medical procedure that my doctor is happy to say I am required to work from home as I recover (at least in the short term).

    Now, could I go back if I our building actually met minimal accessibility standards? Possibly. I could definitely go back if not only did we have an accessible building but a workplace culture of inclusion and sensitivity (e.g. accessible restroom stalls are NOT phone booths, they need to be available for their primary purpose; sometimes it makes sense to let people flex hours and work half days in office, half days at home).

    While those situations aren’t specifically about returning to the office after pandemic-related closures, having nearly everyone working remote from March 2020 to January 2021 actually gave many of us the chance to learn whether we were or were not “work from home people”. I happen to be very happy and even more productive when I work from home and I’d appreciate it if management could acknowledge that only about 20% of my work requires me to be in person, and even then, it isn’t every day.

  38. Anna*

    I go in to work, and what makes me happy about it is that I can see that I can do my job better in person than I ever could online.

    1. Prospect Gone Bad*

      Me too, some days anyway. I feel like switching my environment makes me more focused. Sitting too long in one place (by “long” I mean a few weeks in a row) and I find myself checking AAM and my phone too often!

    2. Courageous cat*

      Oh my god yeah. I can’t stand wfh full time. Did it a year and a half, and I am so much happier and healthier going back out into society and interacting with the world and leaving my house.

      It sucks for me that so many roles are fully remote now. I’d get so depressed doing that again.

  39. DarthVelma*

    For those of us who are not going into the office because we don’t want to catch COVID (and heaven forbid develop long COVID), no amount of free food or swag or even money is going to make me want to be around other people who I know aren’t taking even minimal precautions. I went back into the office a couple days a week for about 3 weeks and no one was masking or distancing. So I noped back out.

    1. Quietthistime*

      I had a similar experience.

      Wanting the pandemic to be over does not magically make the pandemic over. Some of my colleagues on our leadership team were very enthusiastic about being back together, but I was SO much less productive when I was on high alert about masking, distancing, etc. in the office. My adrenaline was going all the time, and I came home exhausted. Why would an employer want to unnecessarily expose their employees to what, for some of us, is a life or death risk on a daily basis? I did not sign up for that, so I am staying home.

      1. Prospect Gone Bad*

        Was this recently?

        Surveying everyone I know and my own job, most if not all workplaces are at a point where a significant number of people already had covid and the rest have been travelling and in the office or school or factory or wherever and are vaccinated and never got it.

        1. louvella*

          Not who you’re replying to, but I agree with this…I’ve had to come in for a handful of in-person meetings and have worked in-office very occasionally but being on constant high alert, going outside to remove my mask and take sips of water…it’s not fun and not conducive to actually being productive. And yeah, I am referring to recently.

          1. Prospect Gone Bad*

            I have been wondering what the long term game is for people who don’t want to go in because of covid. I usually only get snarky responses when I ask. But if you’ve resigned yourself to covid being here like this and I guess the vaccine wasn’t enough to change your mind, then do you just stay home forever? What about other activities like dining out or holidays or travelling or going to the library or gym?

            I think people think I am being snarky when I ask this but I am truly interested in how people view 2024 and 2025 and beyond, I promise I won’t push back. In fact, I won’t even respond, I promise!

            1. Anonymous for this*

              There are a vast number of options between “never leave the house” and “pretend COVID isn’t happening.” Lots of people say things like “We need to learn to live with COVID!” which, to them, means just getting over it and not taking any precautions.

              Whereas if you truly want to live with COVID, then as a society we need to actually be making the changes in our shared spaces that make that possible. Upgrading ventilation. Masking where you’re unsure about air quality, and sometimes even when you are if other factors are at play (crowds, small spaces, etc.). Paid sick days so that people who come down with this highly contagious disease aren’t financially penalized for making the ethical choice to isolate. And there’s lots more besides that! A century ago people didn’t just “learn to live with cholera”; we upgraded all of our water/plumbing infrastructure to make sure we could reduce the chances that people got it. The same should be true here.

              If your workplace won’t meet the low hanging fruit that is learning to live with COVID in a meaningful way, then they really don’t deserve you back.

            2. Gerry Keay*

              So here’s my honest, non-snarky response: my risk analysis for the world has been permanently altered, and my behavior has been as well. I’m an introvert and a homebody by nature, so spending weekends crafting at home or wandering in the woods genuinely is how I want to be spending my time and honestly it’s nice not having the pressure to “do more socializing” than I actually want to do.

              I live in California so I only eat at restaurants with outdoor seating (or do takeout) — again, no great sacrifice. I travel less than I used to, but will still get on a plane for a family event or a wedding, just with lots of masking and testing and caution on the way, usually once or twice a year (hey, still more than many people can afford to travel!). I still go get groceries, go shopping, etc, but I do so in a mask and usually not as a group social event. I’m fine with it! I live a smaller, quieter life than I used to and expect to do so for the foreseeable future. And you know what? I’m genuinely happy!

              The short of it is that I’ve already got mental AND physical health issues I have to manage on a daily basis. I would much rather make these lifestyle changes myself than have them made for me by becoming permanently disabled through long covid.

            3. online millenial*

              I don’t want to go into an office full of people because I don’t want to get COVID or long COVID or spread it to others. I haven’t dined in at a restaurant since July 2021. I haven’t travelled since before 2020. “We’re all just gonna get it, oh well” is not an attitude I’m willing to embrace or accept. There are still millions of vulnerable people who will die if they get it, and millions more are being permanently disabled. As anon for this says, “living with COVID” doesn’t mean pretending that it doesn’t exist or it’s not a big deal; it would mean masks, clear messaging around vaccines and boosters, upgraded ventilation–you know, an actual, functioning public health initiative.

              Until that happens? I’m not going into the office or spending more time in public than I have to. It’s made my life much smaller, and it sucks, but that’s what I have to do to keep myself and others safe, because so many other people think it’s no big deal if we all get sick.

            4. Irish Teacher*

              I am going to work and am actually attending a couple of events in the next few months, so I’m not somebody who has to remain home due to being high risk or having a high risk person living with them, so I am just speaking in general here rather than for myself.

              To be honest, it’s looking like society needs to change. While the vaccine HAS been a game-changer, unfortunately, it hasn’t stopped people getting covid, it has simply reduced the severity and while that is amazing and I think it’s easy to underestimate this, the reality is people are still dying of covid, though at a lower number. And having gotten covid doesn’t prevent from getting it again. So I really think it looks like we have to accept it could be around long term and that means, if we want people back in the office and to keep the vulnerable people in society safe, we need to make long term changes, such as improving ventilation, possibly reinstating the mask mandate for certain environments like healthcare settings, public transport and large scale indoor events, possibly retaining a certain amount of social distancing – this does not mean we have to remain 2 meters apart at all times, but…I don’t think we should be returning to events/pubs/restaurants, etc so crowded that you’d worry about how you are even going to get out (whether that should ever have been allowed is a good question).

              People talk about “living with covid” as if it means just pretending it doesn’t exist any more, but I think “living with covid” means making small adaptations so that things like lockdowns, hospitals overcrowded with people suffering from it, etc don’t happen. Just restricting events to the number of people who can fit without having them jammed beside each other, having adequate ventilation in buildings, wearing masks in busy places or places like healthcare settings where vulnerable people are particularly likely to be and encouraging people to take time off when they are ill are not really onerous and shouldn’t have much impact on our life, but can reduce the spread of covid (and also other illnesses like flu).

              There IS also talk of the possibility of a more effective vaccine AND there are likely to be further improvements/maybe even a treatment that would prevent serious illness or death further down the line. We are still VERY early in the game. There are bound to be further improvements or treatments that can prevent long covid and maybe someday, covid won’t be a threat at all, but we are not there yet. Thankfully, we ARE at a point where we don’t need to shut down all of society, but there is a big middle ground between “close down everything” and “pretend it’s not happening.”

            5. Matilda*

              It seems like a lot of people are still forgetting about families with kids under 5. We took our toddler for his first vaccine as soon as it was approved, but that wasn’t until a couple of months ago. He’ll complete the series later this fall. We’re not talking about never getting back to normal! My partner and I just want to protect our kid as best we can.

            6. mlem*

              As with several others who responded to you, I’ve changed my life to decrease my risk of Covid, but not really significantly.
              – I don’t eat out at restaurants, but I almost never did before Covid.
              – I shop or go to libraries in a mask, and with identified needs rather than just-to-browse.
              – I haven’t flown in 8 years and the meltdown of air travel makes me have no interest in changing that; but I’ll drive somewhere if I need (or want) to.
              – I’ll go to the office *for a specific need* like working with a specialized printer, but not just to sit in a different place for the same video calls.
              – I don’t go to the gym; my exercise is walking the neighborhood (carrying a mask in case of in-person encounters) when the weather allows and an exercise bike at home when it doesn’t.

              None of that is a big deal, at least for me.

              My only real changes are no longer going out to movies at all (which was a pricey habit anyway) and only seeing one set of equally-cautious friends at Thanksgiving. The only thing I’m sad about is that last one, but I’m not so sad that I’m prepared to risk killing any of my friends to change it.

            7. Generic Name*

              Here is a data point that I offer as-is, just stating the facts: I have a friend who basically did not leave her house for like 2 years. Remote work, grocery delivery, no eating out, etc. When my other friends and I were starting to cautiously emerge, and have small meetups with maybe 3 people outdoors, she said she was still being very cautious with COVID and never attended. Then, she got put on anti-anxiety medications, and she feels comfortable eating in restaurants again, going to stores, etc.. She still works 100% remote.

            8. louvella*

              The world is riskier now, and I doubt my behavior will ever go back to what it was before the pandemic. But that doesn’t mean I take zero risks now. It means that when I do take risks, they sure as hell be worth it. I do dine out but only outdoor. I may reevaluate that if cases get pretty low and the weather makes outdoor dining harder, but a lot of places where I live have covered areas and heaters. I have traveled (once), obviously I masked in the airport and on the plane and did mostly outdoor activities when I was there. I do most of my socializing outside when possible, but I’ve still seen small groups indoors, mostly my family. I’m even going to an (indoor!) concert later this month, because it is a band that I really, really want to see. (I’m not planning on taking off my KN95 at any point.) I do in-person grocery shopping sometimes wearing a high quality mask,though more often I get most stuff from the local farmer’s market because it’s outdoors and I like it more. And I know some people aren’t wearing masks to the grocery store anymore, which I honestly do not understand because what benefit could you possibly be experiencing by not wearing a mask in the grocery store? If I get covid from something that really mattered to me, that felt worth the risk, fine. I’m sure I will at some point. But that’s not a reason to just take constant risks for no real reason. If I got covid from sitting in an office when I didn’t have to be there to do my job, I would be pissed.

            9. Curmudgeon in California*

              Because so many people have “decided” that Covid is “over” and they won’t mask or vax or stand six feet away many of us have given up on “… other activities like dining out or holidays or travelling or going to the library or gym”.

              Yes, we are going to have to stay home forever so we don’t get a disease that could kill us or our housemates. When we do go out we wear N95 masks, which aren’t all that comfortable, and refrain from eating or drinking indoors.

              Because a very large number of people never got on board with reducing risk and stopping the spread, we are stuck with this shit for the forseeable future – as in for the next 20 years at this rate. They have even doubled down on the “it’s just a cold/flu” even though there is an increased risk of ending up with long Covid each time you get it. Yes, I resent it, and my view of my fellow citizens is at an all-time low.

              1. The Real Fran Fine*

                Same here. I’m high risk for severe complications from COVID, so I’ve stayed in my apartment this entire time except for medical appointments (and I’m always double or even triple masked on the very rare occasion I go to these things).

                It must be nice to be totally healthy and be able to ask these kinds of tone deaf questions all the time, though.

            10. covid virgin*

              Ooh, I have found my people in the replies to your comment. I am a Covid virgin and behaving like I want to remain that way. I am blessed with a job that can be done remotely. I rarely if ever go out, and I limit the people I go out with, and space time between seeing them. I am behaving like some other people behaved in spring / summer 2020 with their cautions and risk analysis. Few people, rarely, and I am pretty against seeing a large group of people indoors like a workplace would be.

              I don’t want covid, I don’t want long covid, and more than anything, I don’t want to be the cause of my bus driver’s kid’s immunocompromised friend sick with covid. I have friends who are just now starting to fall ill for the first time, and it is definitely still no picnic.

              I also don’t understand why everyone is treating this like a done deal. I personally think everyone (who has a choice and) is taking this lightly now is no different than the irresponsible people in April-May 2020.

              I miss my friends, I miss the socializing, I am extrovert-leaning ambivert, but I’m also a happy homebody and I have an active social and volunteer life through Zoom. I’m not going to be the broken link in the wellness chain.

              1. covid virgin*

                editing to add:
                I do plan to, and want to, go back to the office _when_ this is all over and not before. At this rate, I’m guessing it will be another 2-3 years before everything has settled enough for me to feel comfortable.

            11. Peyresorde*

              Lots of us are engaging in cost-benefit analysis and decided what is worth taking a health risk for us. For me, I’m currently willing to take some health risks to eat at a favorite restaurant, to see family and close friends, to travel to awesome places. I’m not interested in taking those risks to sit at a desk and file TPS reports.

            12. Nightengale*

              I work in health care although we don’t see acutely sick patients in my office. I take care of children with developmental disabilities. I was switched completely to telemedicine at the start of the pandemic and now see patients on telemed 1 day a week and in the office the other days. We are all vaccinated at work and are supposed to wear masks at all times around others except when eating, although this is not always followed. To my knowledge I have not had COVID but several in my office did. Fortunately none of them got very sick from it. This was January-February at the height of omicron. Immunity from COVID seems to be a few months. Immunity from vaccination is longer but not indefinite.

              What I am doing? Not just staying home all the time but being pretty cautious. I keep an eye on the numbers in my urban county.
              Specifically I am :
              Not eating indoors in restaurants.
              Attending outdoor social events.
              Attending some small indoor events where I know the other people are vaccinated, and I wear a mask, when the numbers in my county are pretty low.
              Wearing a mask indoors in stores, etc
              Trying to keep bus trips down under 15 minutes.
              Only accepting rides when the numbers in my county are pretty low.
              I have flown twice and will again, masked.
              I am going to a conference this fall and I will wear a mask except for eating and will not be eating in group settings.

              COVID is so very not over.

            13. J*

              Every single month I’ve had someone who I work closely with out for 5-15 days because of illness. Many are on their 3 or 4th infection. Every single time they come back at diminished capacity. How is that sustainable? I’d much rather do my approach of remote work with no illnesses and masking always outside the home than to risk further disability and that level of disruption in my life.

              I dine out on patios when the weather allows. I am not traveling because my holiday leave last year was spent at a Covid funeral and this year masks are off so it’s not safe for my level of disability – I could probably do a road trip but I had to adopt a disabled animal that I inherited from said Covid death and petcare is just too much of a hassle for me to deal with right now. I just went to the library this afternoon (and all my indoor activities are fully masked) and I work out at home or on my ebike outdoors. This reduces decision fatigue, disruption to my life and yes, a lot of people. But considering half of my family don’t believe in Covid and refused to mask around me even in 2020, I’m okay with losing some people. My life is more important than trying to make other people happy. Travel and dining out were literally my entire entertainment budget in 2019 so I clearly value them but I’ve had to give them up during treatment before and I’m clearly doing it again. I didn’t survive cancer to die in a preventable way.

            14. Anon for this*

              I think there are reasonable accommodations employers can make. Like we have these big all staff meetings twice a year. There are only a few rooms big enough to hold us all and we end up sitting on top of each other to attend. Our director is insistent we do this again. Why? They were germ factories before and with Covid… They work better on zoom. We are all able to attend. We can all see. I don’t have to risk getting a virus so “it’ll be normal again.”

              A lot of our meetings work better remotely. Some require being in person. It would go a long way if our managers would just figure out when they should be remote and when in person and not shove us all back together because someone wants to go back in time prior to 2020.

              Right there, that’s an accommodation that would go a long way to reducing risk.

            15. Eyes Kiwami*

              You get snarky responses because it doesn’t seem like a serious question, especially not the way you’ve posed it: “if the vaccine wasn’t enough to change your mind, then do you just stay home forever?” Why are the only options you see either to take no precautions forever or stay inside forever?

              The vast majority of normal people have been adjusting their behavior to the current circumstances. When local cases are down: unmasking outside, seeing friends and family, eating indoors. When local cases are up: masking indoors or moving activities outside, getting takeout, postponing things and staying at home. Surely 2024 and beyond people will continue to risk assess for their locality and circumstances.

              1. The Real Fran Fine*

                You get snarky responses because it doesn’t seem like a serious question, especially not the way you’ve posed it: “if the vaccine wasn’t enough to change your mind, then do you just stay home forever?”

                Exactly. It’s a snarky ass question to begin with, so the responses are given in kind. Many of us are fully vaccinated and still don’t want this shit and are doing everything in our power – including remaining isolated and indoors in our own homes – to prevent infection that could literally kill us.

                People like the OP of this particular thread need to stop with the faux concern and mind the business that pays them.

              2. Curiouser and Curiouser*

                This. I think there are valid reasons to want people back in the office. And I think the MOST valid reason for not wanting to is “this isn’t over yet”.

            16. Emma*

              As others have said, it’s not a binary choice between “be on personal lockdown forever” and “take no precautions”. Everyone is going to make their own judgments about risk based on their own health, circumstances, and attitude. Personally I’m ok taking more risks for things that are important to me, but not for things that aren’t, which means, among other things:
              – I wear a mask on public transport and in shops. There’s no downside do doing this and if it keeps me from catching or passing on Covid, that’s a win.
              – I go to the theatre for shows I’m excited about! I wear a mask, to reduce the risk.
              – My employer moved offices last year. The new office has big windows on every floor which we keep open all the time for airflow. Most people have had Covid, including one who passed away, but nobody has caught or passed it on at work. Because of this I wear a mask less at work than I used to, and if I were looking for a new job, I would need to see the physical space and risk assess it for myself as part of deciding if I wanted the job.
              – I test every week and test again if I’m seeing someone who’s more vulnerable.
              – At restaurants, pubs etc I sit outside where possible. It’s nicer outside anyway.
              – If I’m organising a social thing with a bunch of people, I plan for it to be outside.
              – My partner is leery of flying. I’d fly for something I was excited about, but I’m also happy to take international trains instead for my partner’s comfort.

              None of this feels weird to me, because it’s in the same vein as the decision-making I have always done in order to live in a way that’s compatible with being disabled. Maybe some abled people are still finding post-Covid life to be “a lot” because they’re not used to having to make decisions like these?

        3. Quietthistime*

          Yes, recently. I am very grateful for my vaccine, which is helpful but not some sort of impenetrable defense. But I am really uncomfortable with the idea that most of us will ultimately get Covid and we all just need to accept that and go back to normal. For people with underlying medical issues, or who need to interact with them, Covid is very much still a dangerous or deadly illness, and it is not how I want to go. Our cultural shift away from masking, distancing, etc. has actually made the latest phase of the pandemic more dangerous for some people with medical risks.

          1. Quietthistime*

            Reading this thread over, I think my big takeaway is: Everyone is performing their own wanting to avoid COVID/wanting to live life risk calculations right now. For many of us, it is complicated and personal. As a result, employers are not in a good position to make those risk calculations on behalf of their employees, and, when the role allows, should trust their people to make the best choices for their health, mental health, and productivity.

            1. J*

              That’s a very good way of putting it. I just wish more places applied it in practice and did more to make workplaces safer, like improving ventilation and filtration or even having a masks on day each week in the office. They could be an active participant in the process of improving the risk level in the calculation.

        4. J*

          Most of my colleagues are on Covid encounters 2-4. A few 5s in there. Some are on infection 2-3 for the year. We’re a fully vaccinated workplace. Vaccine-only precautions lead to all sorts of disruptions.

        5. Pointy's in the North Tower*

          In the last three weeks, my office of about 20 people had three people out with Covid. Two others had in the the month prior. That does not include the folk who caught the original or Delta strains. A quarter of my office, out with Covid in the last 2.5 months.

          Just because I’m vaccinated doesn’t mean I’m no longer high risk. I have to be in the office every day. I wear a mask while I’m there, except for when I take my lunch break in a private office where no one else goes (job duties prohibit me from being there all day).

          So yeah, people are still getting it despite the number of people who’ve had it previously or have been vaccinated.

    2. No Longer Gig-less Data Analyst*

      I was required to go to an in-person training at our home office a couple of months ago. It was the first large gathering of office employees since 2020. Our instructor tested positive for covid on the second day, and a good number of attendees including myself got covid too (I had avoided it up until then and I was pissed).

      But yes, let’s bring everyone back into the office in January. Stellar idea after your first test run turned into a super-spreader event.

    3. Another Person*

      Every time I have gone into the office, I have gotten an email about a COVID exposure. So I stopped going in. Luckily, no one has complained (and actually case rates are currently high enough that none of us are required to work in the office right now).

  40. Sunny days are better*

    After working from home for two years, in March, the management of my team decided that “starting next week, we will come into the office 1 day/week.” It made no sense because nothing had changed in the Covid situation where I live. It was so arbitrary.
    They knew how I felt about coming in, and haven’t pushed. I have gone in a handful of times when I needed access to equipment, but I haven’t been there since November.
    Some weeks, people aren’t even going in on that one day and they haven’t really said too much. My team has mostly turned over in the last year, which is probably a lot of the reason that they aren’t pushing.
    There have not been any company incentives to come in. I would be more willing to come in if people were masking, but everyone is just living like it’s 2019, and I know that I will be far less productive sitting in an N95 mask all day at my desk. Covid is definitely running rampant at work, though some are good about staying home until they test negative.
    I am being dragged in for a weeklong company wide event later in the month, but that’s all they’re getting out of me. I will come in when they make me and I have no choice.

  41. Keymaster of Gozer*

    Our place has a sharp divide between the staff who absolutely have to be on site and those who don’t and frankly it got really nasty during lockdown and wasn’t addressed. So people are reluctant to come back to a place where they know Bob down the hall told them that they were idiots for believing this ‘hoax virus and taking the opportunity to skive off work’.

    Me, personally, I prefer the order of the office (my house is tiny and there’s really no room) but I actually loved not being around people and not having to drive to work. The commute is a big thing for me as anything over a few metres I have to drive. Petrol costs a lot in th UK.

    I’m no expert on human psychology so I leave the question of ‘how to get people who’ve resented each other to work together’ and ‘how to deal with people who actually don’t like being around other humans’ to those with actual expertise in the area!

    But the commute thing, that is a big deal and I think companies should understand that people now know that there are alternatives to paying out the nose every day for fuel and offer at least flexible WFH/office times.

    There’s also the issue of if the firm had spent years telling people they absolutely could not do their job from home – no, disability accommodations didn’t matter – only to suddenly switch to whole offices working from home…well, nobody is going to believe a word that employer says ever again. And that’s a breach of trust that cannot be solved.

    (And why there’s a certain large firm I am never working for again)

  42. Elgrash*

    I think there’s a couple of ways to bring me in:
    – Ensure that the work in the office is meaningful. There’s no point in going in if I’m doing the same thing that I would be doing from home. It just adds stress for no reason, and it’s no fun taking meetings on MS teams in the office, ends up being disruptive
    – Give me some sort of benefits for adding extra hours to my work time and increasing my expenses re: the commute
    – Don’t pretend that there are some magnanimous reasons for going back to the office or how it’ll improve everything. Just be honest that it’s because senior management wants butts in seats, or you’re doing it for making sure the building folks get their rents or whatever. Much easier than making up all sorts of outlandish reasons (or I guess, lies)

  43. Former Retail Lifer*

    My husband’s company has everyone going in two days a week on assigned days. They insist it’s because they want to maintain the “culture” and “collaboration.” His department is on the phone with customers all day. There is zero collaboration, and no one can identify the supposed “culture” they’re referring to. They do have regular team meetings, but since everyone’s assigned in-office days are different, they’re still doing them over Teams. They receive no extra perks for going in and there’s never anything accomplished in-person when they’re there. He said he wouldn’t mind occasional in-office days if there was actually a point to them, like an all-team meeting in person, or there were any perks at all for going in, like lunch provided.

  44. Sangamo Girl*

    I work for state government. There are no carrots, just sticks. We are required to be one day per week with no flexibility on that day.

    People are, of course, not happy because our metrics proved we were more productive at home.

    The state as a whole has over 7,000 current vacancies they are having trouble filling. They don’t see the connection.

    1. Meow*

      Similar situation in state government, but our management requires everyone to be in one day, and then also come in 2 other days, scheduled.

      A ton of people quit when it was announced. To be a tiny bit fair, hybrid isn’t unusual at all around here, and a lot of people actually like it, but I think the difference with us is that the pay is also terrible. A lot of people made the comment when they quit, “I can get another job that’s fully remote AND pays better, what benefit is there to sticking around here?”

    2. Sit in Syrup*

      I work for federal government. No treats or free food, no swag. We have to come in 2 days/week to keep an assigned desk. Minimum of 1 day/week (with hot desking). This is way more flexibility than we had pre-covid, so it’s satisfactory to many. They gave everyone a multi-month period to “figure out your new normal” and have been patient with people who had car trouble, child care trouble, etc. Overall it’s been a middling success. You don’t expect much change from a giant bureaucracy, so only having to work 1-2 days/week in-office is a bigger step in the right direction than I expected.

    3. I watered your plants while you had covid*

      I am also in state government and later this month we are going to 3 days in office mandatory for all state employees. Since that was announced we have received multiple resignations daily from our department alone.

  45. Elle*

    Last year my company instituted a hybrid work policy. We come in one day a week and it’s our choice of the day. There hasn’t been a lot of push back because it’s only one day a week and the policy is clearly written out.

    1. Elle*

      I should add that we have a mask, covid and flu vaccine requirements. We’ve been back a year and have had no covid outbreaks in the office.

        1. Elle*

          We were required to do it by the state but I think it’s made more people comfortable being in the office. Also because we can pick the day we’re in and so many people work in the field the offices are largely empty. I don’t wear my mask unless I’m talking to someone or walking in the hallways.

  47. MxBee*

    80% of my team are on another continent, I wouldn’t be working with them in person if I did go in to the office building. Add in that my employer has switched everything to hot desking, so no one has an assigned desk, and no one has a locker to keep personal belongings in, and they’ve just made it completely inaccessible to me and anyone else without the ability to carry all that they need for a day in the office in with them each day and take it home again every evening.

    At home, I have dual monitors, a desk that’s the correct height for me to work at, and no competing background noise when I’m on Teams calls with my team. I’d need at least that, personal lockers, and an assigned desk to return to the office on a regular basis.

  48. Snow Globe*

    I’ve been working from home since long before the pandemic. The only reason I’d be willing to return to the office is if there was a convincing reason I’d *need* to be in the office. For example if I was offered a promotion to manage a team that needed to have a manager on site. I’d be more than willing to go in if it was necessary for the job, but otherwise it’s just so frustrating to spend all that time commuting for no reason other than senior management wants it. I wouldn’t want to work for that kind of management.

  49. The Prettiest Curse*

    For UK folks, I’m wondering how much the energy bill crisis will affect your going into the office – will it be cheaper to go in than stay at home and put the heating on occasionally? I’m sure for some people the rising cost of commuting will mean that it will be less cost-effective to go into the office. (I’m very fortunate to live a half-hour walk from my office, so commuting is free, though sometimes unpleasant in winter weather.)

    I go into the office once day a week at the moment – our team coordinates and all goes in on the same day. We have limited desks and have hired a lot of people recently, so I don’t think I’ll be required to do additional days in-office unless we get a new office space.

    1. UKgreen*

      I could literally have my heating running all day every day and get bills as high as the hyperbolic figures in the Daily Mail and it would still be cheaper than an annual rail season ticket between my home town and the town I work in… (and that’s before the 10% increase in rail fares we can expect in January)

      1. Keymaster of Gozer*

        Memories of the £8k/year season ticket I had to get to work in London every day. Trains in the UK are ridiculously expensive.

        I work for the railway, and in the past when we had a big offsite meeting we’d send people by car or plane. Not joking.

      2. The Prettiest Curse*

        Yeah, rail fares are so ridiculously expensive here. I feel really bad for anyone who has to commute by train.

    2. londonedit*

      I said the same above – I’m not sure whether it would work out cheaper for me personally, but I’m sure for a lot of people the cost of heating their house five days a week would be more than the cost of commuting (or they’d at least feel better about going and using the company’s electricity rather than their own!)

      1. LDN Layabout*

        The Telegraph tried to sell that one. For Londoners, even with all the penny savings they tried to squeeze out of it, the sums still didn’t add up to covering the costs of a typical commute.

        (and by typical commute I mean the actual London zones, not the fake ones or home counties)

        1. londonedit*

          If I do two days a week that’s £18 total with the daily price cap on contactless, and my gas and electricity are about £100 a month (at the moment…). So in theory it might just about work out cheaper for me to spend the £18 and not worry about heating for two days out of seven, but you’d have to spread all the costs out over a long time and I’m not really sure how much difference it’d really make to my energy bills in the grand scheme of things, as I’d still be cooking and showering and paying all the standing charges, I’d just be saving a bit in gas by not having to heat the flat all day.

          1. LDN Layabout*

            Yeah, it also depends on how strict you are on yourself with the other costs of commuting (e.g. I know my own habits, even if I have a packed lunch, it’s likely I’ll treat myself to a drink or similar if I go in. Which is fine as a treat but does feed into the costs).

            Honestly, I think the margins are fine enough that sorting out some draft excluders and picking and choosing what rooms get properly heated and which only get the chill taken off the) would probably cross out any savings made by commuting.

            1. londonedit*

              Yep, absolutely. I’d rather work from home anyway and on top of that £9 a day to commute you can absolutely add on £3 for a coffee and, let’s face it, probably £5 when I decide I don’t fancy the lunch I’ve brought, or even more than that when people suggest going for a quick drink after work. Being in a small flat it’s heat the whole place or nothing (though I don’t have the radiator in the kitchen switched on) but I’m absolutely going to be making use of my thermal layers and jumpers this winter!

    3. MxBee*

      My employer’s office building was set to a lower temperature last winter in the name of energy efficiency, but professional dress was still required. There were a lot of complaints – I can’t imagine that going into the office will be a solution to staying warm this winter either.

    4. UKDancer*

      I am going to need to do the maths on the electricity bills v cost of commute into London. The company asks us to be in 2 days per week and I like to do 1-2 days at home, so I will need to weigh up whether it’s a cost saving to come in more often or not.

      I do tend to spend money on lattes and nice salads when I’m in the office and there’s the cost of the commute which is capped at £9 per day. I’m not sure what my electricity bills are going to be this autumn.

      So I think I will do the maths and see. Personally I like hybrid as having a mix of office and home suits me quite well. So 2-3 days in the office is probably my ideal.

    5. I would prefer not to*

      It seems easier to manage the costs of fuel a bit. You can wear four jumpers and drink hot water and lemon all day. OK that isn’t ideal but the cost of commuting is just fixed, all the time, same every day.

  50. Laney Boggs*

    I mean… just having an Actual Reason for it.

    My job is primarily dealing with other departments across the country; rarely ever with my own – e.g I go weeks without speaking a word to any other CSRs in my office.

    Additionally, we deal with purchase order numbers, item numbers, delivery numbers, tracking numbers, &c&c&c. So even if you are 2 feet away, I am going to IM/email you the relevant number string so you can copy and paste it into the relevant spot. There are people who will take the time to note down the number, walk to your desk, and then hover while you retype it. Those people are weird.

    Anyway, the point I’m making is… there is absolutely no reason for me to be in the office. All my work is done electronically at home. They just hired a new CEO and HE doesn’t like wfh, so we don’t get to anymore. If it was actually a collaborative environment where heads were pressed together all the time, I might feel differently.

  51. BellyButton*

    I quit. I had been WFH for years before COVID. I supported North America, South America, and Central America. I had been given permission to move states and did so over a year ago. The majority of our employees are WFH and only about 5% live in the state where regional headquarters is. Less than 3% of the people who have participated in any of my programs and webinars/trainings were located in the state as regional headquarters. It made no sense for me to be in office. I would have had to book a conference room for 8 hrs a day anyway. I pushed back and was told no I needed to be in the office at least 3 days a week. I offered to be in the office for one week a month on my own dime and was denied. So I quit after fighting for my 2021 bonus and a severance package.

    Weeks after I left the only person who had even close to my seniority and skills also quit. In the 3 months since I have been gone, they haven’t been able to replace me, even with the position posted 3 levels below me. They haven’t gotten any applicants for my former colleague’s position which needs to be bilingual. Some of the employees I am close to tell me my former team has completely gone downhill and has not met any of the deliverables they were supposed to since I left. All the programs typically delivered have been on hold because there is no one to manage or facilitate them.

    I just landed a fantastic new job that is 100% remote.

  52. thelettermegan*

    I don’t mind coming in for a specific reason, and love it when I can go home when they specific reason is completed.

    The biggest thing for me is the desk itself! I’m very short, and I wish there was a supply of big footrests that I could borrow some to make the desk more comfortable for me.

  53. DANGER: Gumption Ahead*

    Our biggest bosses, because bureaucracies get oddly territorial about office real estate, wanted people in the office so that other parts of the org don’t start squatting in our assigned area. I’m remote so don’t know how big a deal this was pre-pandemic, but I do know that not even the bosses want to commute to the office so office squatting has to be up there with being raided by honey-badgers in the probability stakes.

    Our team just did Tuesdays as in-person and everyone schedules whatever is easier to do face-to-face on Tuesdays. No one has to be there Tuesdays and you can come in whenever you want if you prefer, and if that want is never then fine. Half of us work in another state anyway so it isn’t a huge deal. Right now two folks who live in places that weren’t great for WFH come in just about every day and use the offices. On Tuesdays almost everyone comes in every week unless something urgent comes up. No honey badgers or office squatters to be reported yet, but there is still 2023!

    1. PaperPal*

      We have a similar situation. Large org, some of our office spaces are in desirable areas of the building so people are always looking for it. An adjacent team was just told because they were hybrid they were getting moved to a building across the street, farther from clients they meet with. As a result our manager wants to make sure we have people “in seats” all the time.

  54. Sara*

    Currently working remote and we seem to head to the office once a quarter when all of our team comes to the office to actually meet together and collaborate. That seems to be the best of both worlds for me. I still see coworkers occasionally, I don’t waste time driving to an office where “collaboration” is magically happening because I happen to be there and I get to see a city I enjoy a few times a year.

  55. AKD*

    The thing that has seemed to encourage more people to come to the office at my workplace (in the Bay Area) was making mask wearing optional, which we only did a couple of weeks ago. There are people who are still very worried about covid and they can certainly keep wearing a mask at the office, but others did not want to come in if they had to wear a mask all day. We had been doing all the other “perk” type things with social gatherings and free food and really it wasn’t moving the needle all that much.
    (I think we are probably weird in that we still had a mask policy inside the office, but we are in Berkeley, so…)

    1. COVID isn't over*

      If my employer drops our mask mandate, I’m giving my notice that same day. This “incentive” is actually making life more dangerous for everybody who works there, and in particular it shows a complete lack of respect for people at high risk.

      2. J*

        My workplace gave us 10 days notice for dropping masks and then immediately opening doors to the unmasked public. I had an offer within 72 hours and my last day was Day 9. I don’t play when it comes to my safety.

    2. Twenty Points for the Copier*

      This was actually the first thing I thought of, not because it’s relevant to me (I am self-employed and work from home… working from an office would mean paying for an office and a huge paycut), but because of a conversation yesterday. Someone was saying her employer is getting serious about luring people back, and one way they’re doing that is dropping the mask mandate.

      While a lot of people are still very cautious about Covid for various (often very legitimate) reasons, another group of people (that I suspect is larger) doesn’t want to wear a mask all day in the office and won’t voluntarily come back until they don’t have to.

      1. Curmudgeon in California*

        Yep. This is why I’m going to be mostly a prisoner in my own house for quite a while. Because my housemates and I are high risk, and can’t be around the “just a flu” crowd.

      2. Higher Ed Cube Farmer*

        The question of cost/benefit or risk/reward anlysis between employers mandating masking or leaving masking to employee individual choice doesn’t need to be as binary as it’s often presented.

        In a workplace where everyone can come to work at the same time without it being crowded, and have the option of an enclosed private office (in which one is allowed to eat and drink), the building has good air ventilation/filtration and surface sanitation especially in shared spaces, the company culture doesn’t rely on eating/drinking together, allow/promote coming to work ill, or problematize sick leave use or reasonable accommodations, that work environment is arguably lower risk for contagious disease transmission than one that has none of those other things but mandates masks.

  56. No Longer Gig-less Data Analyst*

    After everyone got sent home to work in 2020, my corporate office decided to get rid of the huge campus they were using on the outskirts of town and go to a few floors in a downtown office building.

    They just announced that anyone living within 35 miles of the downtown office location must start reporting to the office Tuesday – Thursday in January. I’m not sure what the hell they were thinking, but this will require 800 employees to return and there are only 200 parking spots available for our company in that building. I visited there in July and can attest that parking is a nightmare – I had to park in a private lot 3 blocks away from my hotel because both their parking structure and valet parking was completely full when I checked in. They say they are “working on a solution” but I don’t see how they can making parking lots fall out of the sky. Everyone is freaking out and the CEO even mentioned at a recent town hall that he recognized it was an unpopular decision but everyone would have to make the best of it.

    Thankfully I live several states away and we don’t even have an office in my city, so I’m good. But ooooh, this is going over like a lead balloon and it will be very interesting to see how it all pans out in 2023. My guess is we will definitely lose some good people over it – I know I would be looking elsewhere if I was required to go back.

  57. Feral Humanist*

    My organization started trying to get people to come back 70% time last spring. There has been a lot of “soft resistance”; the org doesn’t have the resources to enforce it and individual managers, myself included, haven’t wanted to. It seemed like a waste of time and energy so long as many of my meetings remained on Zoom. But now we are starting to schedule in-person meetings and events. There are just a lot more days when I have a reason to come in –– and so I do, though still not 70% time. While I had some dread about it at first, I’ve rediscovered that there are things I really like about being in-person, especially during the busy parts of the year (during the slow parts, which are predictable, I suspect I will work almost entirely from home).

    For my own team, we are starting off with in-person meetings, but I’ve told people to let me know if they need to be virtual. As a manager, I’m trying to allow folks as much flexibility as possible and being careful to give reasons when I ask folks to show up in person. So far, this has been well-met, and I’ve made it clear that I’m open to adjusting how we do things as we go.

    I will also say that so far, my organization has so far been good about allowing hybrid work (within our mostly fictitious 70% mandate) and condensed workweeks. I think that allowing folks to condense the time that they spend in the office or working in general is one very real adjustment that offices can make. It is easier, though, when more than just a handful of people are doing it. I tried a four-day workweek for one semester, and it was nice… but it never stopped feeling weird to not work on a Friday when most of my colleagues *were* working. I ended up going to a slightly less condensed schedule where I work Friday mornings from home but am off on Friday afternoons.

    TL;DR: Some folks either can’t or don’t want to come back at all, and I’m not sure there’s anything that will tempt them back. But for someone like me, having REAL reasons to be in the office (bagels and yoga don’t count) was what drew me back, and maintaining some degree of flexibility in my own schedule has been necessary for keeping me happy.

    All of that being said, I don’t intend to ever be in the office five days a week again. If my organization were suddenly to require that and enforce it, I’d be job hunting.

  58. Cookie*

    I would do it for a pay bump and an office with a door that closes so I can run the air purifier all day long.

    This place is asking me to drive 25 minutes each way for low pay and a good chance of getting covid every time I go in. I’m looking for a quiet, clean, low-microbe workplace, and right now that’s my house. I go in when they insist I must, no more.

    People at my office give each other covid every day. Nobody is doing anything about it except going “oh so sorry you’re not feeling good!” and meanwhile planning donut parties in the cafeteria, large indoor group “celebrations,” etc. All breathing, sneezing, coughing on each other.

    1. King Friday XIII*

      Yeah, this is where I’m at too. If I could stop getting notifications that there’s been a covid case in my home office I’d be less worried about going in…

  59. Sharp-dressed Boston Terrier*

    Small company (~13 people, employees and owners included) that went full-on WFH shortly after the pandemic hit in March 2020. Stayed that way for over two years and it went off without a hitch. To be quite honest, the industry we work in – translation – doesn’t require much more than a computer with internet and a specific piece of software, and client interactions (job requests and deliveries) are almost exclusively via e-mail.

    Once the restrictions lifted, management went full flexibility, requiring only two days a week in the office and maintaining a set of core hours that had been in place long beforehand. Things are still running very smoothly. I think there would have been a more serious struggle if management had tried to get us back into the office full-time from the get-go, but since they’re translators themselves and not simply project managers they were quick to see the advantages of the flexibility they’ve granted.

      1. Sharp-dressed Boston Terrier*

        Fair point. Those two days, however, are up to each of us to determine. And we do have one employee with an immunocompromised partner who is exempt from the policy until the COVID situation improves.

        I suppose we could have stayed on full-time WFH with no problems, but personally I lost a lot of contact with the outside world during that time. There were literally weeks at a time where I did not leave the house. So, for better or for worse, I’m in the office 5 days a week.

  60. triplehiccup*

    I think this is part of why the Fed is cranking up interest rates even though there’s no evidence that too-low interest rates are causing current inflation. I feel very comfortable assuming that Jerome Powell would love to see workers lose power in the job market.

      1. Gerry Keay*

        You just accidentally invented a hilarious conspiracy theory: “the fed is cranking up interest rates to get us to go back in the office”

  62. Chelle*

    I work fully remote and did before the pandemic, because I work with clients located
    all over the country. However, with the sort of work I do (lots of meetings/collaboration), if I were looking for another job, I would be looking for either fully remote or a hybrid schedule where the in-office days were specified. I think it’s fine to specify by team or company-wide, but if you leave it up to individual people, you lose the collaboration benefit of being in office.

    Personally, no “perk” would make want to be back in the office, but a tangible work benefit (like meetings genuinely being easier when all participants are present in person) would.

  63. LizB*

    My org has “reopened the office” for employees but not the public, but out of 40 of us, we have one person there 5x/week (because their job duties require using physical office equipment), one person coming in 4x/week, four people coming in 1-2x/week, and everyone else still very happily remote. I think people would be okay coming in to meet with the public if we reopened for in person appointments, or for occasional meetings or trainings, but we’ve proven we’re really good at doing our jobs from home. When 99% of your job would be done via phone or email anyway, there’s really no point in commuting.

    1. Yikes*

      Does your company compensate that one person in the office to account for being the only one having to commute while everyone else is WFH?

  64. Queen Ruby*

    My workplace had everyone come back for 4 days/week, assuming your job can be done from home – not everyone can, or at least not on a weekly basis.
    However, yesterday, we were told we can now WFH 2 days a week. I think it’s partly because we can do our jobs from literally anywhere with internet access, and because so many people who are physically in the office still do virtual meetings, even when everyone in the meeting is on-site lol
    I think the WFH habits are hard to break, so they decided to just go with the flow rather than force it on us.

  65. Lauren19*

    I’m curious of how the employee expectations match up to the original job offer. As an employee, does it make a difference if you were employed by the organization prior to March 2020? Are the expectations you’re receiving from leadership different than what were expressed at the point of job offer?

    1. Anon4This*

      I’ve worked for my current company for 20 years, so long before the pandemic. What I’ve realized, since the pandemic, is that my quality of life is substantially better not having to commute, seeing my family more, and not having a lot of in-office distractions. Because of the Great Resignation (and skills I’ve developed during my career), I also have substantially more leverage to negotiate than I did when I was hired or even in March 2020.

      I don’t think conditions when you were hired versus current should really be a factor since jobs evolve all the time – they just did it this time on an expediated schedule due to extreme circumstances. Tons of expectations at my job have changed a lot since I was initially employed. When I first started out, it was all business professional dress (very expensive on entry-level salary), then it went to business casual, then added jeans on Fridays, and now has a dress-for-your-day/job requirement. When I was hired, working could only be done in the office – if you went home and then they needed you, you had to go back into the office. When we were all sent home in March 2020, I was part of a one day/week telecommuting pilot program.

      Given the current market conditions where I am, if employers point to pre-pandemic employment conditions rather than real business reasons to return to the office, they’re going to find themselves short on employees and at real risk of losing the most experienced, productive ones.

    2. mlem*

      I’ve worked for my company for 25 years. In the Before Times, I was allowed two WFH days a week, and I was openly pushing for a third day as one way they could compensate for the poor pay and lack of advancement opportunities.

      I’m now WFH full time except for “necessary” meetings and “meaningful” interactions. (They tried requiring 2 days a week for a while, but our retention rates have been plummeting so they lost their nerve and backed off.) Leadership absolutely *wants* to make us go in more, because they’ve convinced themselves that some mythical “innovation” happens only by chatting at water coolers and in cafeterias, but the job market has been forcing them to back down.

  66. The Wizard Rincewind*

    My job is a little different, because we had a hybrid schedule/fully remote employees pre-pandemic. When the pandemic hit, it was relatively easy for most of us to pivot to fully remote and those that couldn’t (groundskeepers, people who needed access to a secure computer) were few enough that as long as they masked/got vaccinated when available, there was space to accommodate that.

    My boss used to talk about bringing everyone back, but once it became clear how much this pandemic had changed everyone’s perspective and lives, he hasn’t brought it up again. Now, it’s up to us if we want to come back or not. Several people in my team have moved out of town and I’m looking to do the same. In the meantime, I’ve come back to the office two days a week because I have my whole office to myself instead of sharing it with the teammates who have moved away. We’re a small organization, which helps.

    I definitely see having the extra space and privacy as a perk I didn’t have before. I bet a lot of people would feel the same. If an organization could balance the people who want to stay home with the people who don’t, I think that could be a real selling point.

  67. LDN Layabout*

    Ours isn’t working but management (so far), isn’t taking a hard line on it. They have warned that eventually the powers that be will likely start forcing people in, so it’s better to start doing it voluntarily on a less frequent basic vs. forced onto what will be a stricter schedule.

    An issue with my job is that a lot of people are based in location X, with much smaller numbers in A, B and C. So people in the smaller locations are (rightfully) wondering why they should come in if all their coworkers are either in location X or wfh.

  68. Web Crawler*

    My company wants people to come back in for “key moments”, like indoor company-wide events with masking encouraged which means only one or two people will wear masks. They’ve also done a bunch of catered food events, in-person “meet the leaders” and other networking events, discounts for a gym in the same office park, and periodic reminders of how nice the office amenities are.

    From what I can tell, it’s not working very well. Most of my 30 person team is local and from what I can tell only one person has gone to an event to get the free book which they were handing out. I’ve got an invisible condition that randomly makes it hard for me to drive. I was able to commute (with a lot of difficulty) when I had no choice, but now I’m never going back.

  69. I Fought the Law*

    They need to pay people what they’re worth and keep up with inflation each year. That’s the biggest problem.

    We’ve come back on a hybrid schedule that I also find problematic. We can’t change our remote days, which are on a set schedule. People need the *flexibility* to work at home while they’re sick or dealing with other issue that require them to be offsite; they don’t necessarily just need to be home a couple days a week. Having two days at home isn’t helpful if my doctor can’t get me in on those days or whatever the case might be.

  70. Lacey*

    My office gave us the choice and several entire departments have chosen to stay WFH, while others have a mix of people in and out of the office.

    And while I live very close by & I enjoy all my co workers & the management, if they asked me to go back I would start looking for a job that would let me work from home again.

    But, on the flip-side, being able to work from home is definitely keeping me at this job, even though I’m definitely underpaid. To be able to not worry about my appearance most days, to be able to pop in a load of laundry during a slow time, or bring a package indoors.
    Nearly priceless.

  71. cynicism*

    What is going to get people back in the office is the coming recession and layoffs, and companies choosing to lay off remote workers first, because out of sight out of mind.

    Or what’s coming is the major contraction of office space leasing, and commercial real estate is like 5% of gdp and employs 8.5 million people.

    Macro issues both that will likely overwhelm micro issues like you don’t want to commute.

    1. shruggie*

      But weren’t there, and aren’t there still, macro issues with working in person? Traffic (–> climate crisis), lack of adequate space to work productively (or even at all, as some comments above indicate), lack of childcare solutions, etc?

      1. RussianInTexas*

        I am not sure how much the employers will care about these issues once they once again have the upper hand in the job market.

        1. shruggie*

          Yeah. Heard. Sigh.

          I just want to at least push against the implied dichotomy that personal issues are micro issues, because they’re not. They affect more than 8.5 billion people, if you wanna quantify it that way. But you’re right, RIT, that they are historically deprioritized, and if/when the pendulum swings the other way, they’re out the window.

    2. mlem*

      My boss isn’t nearly so terrible that “out of sight, out of mind”. She runs metrics and knows I’m her top producer by far. So does *her* boss. They both know who on their teams do and don’t produce, and why, because they have to. (We’ve always been spread across buildings anyway, so this isn’t some new skill they’ve had to develop.) In our group, it’s mostly — not exclusively, but mostly — only the newest hires who wanted more in-office time, and they’ve been as likely to wash out as they have been to impress the bosses.

  72. Ellen*

    My company wants us back three days per week – Tuesday and Wednesday, and then one other day of your choosing. But they also moved to all open-plan cubicles during the pandemic, so they don’t want you sitting at your desk if you’re on a call lasting more than 5 minutes. And they agreed that if you have an early start, you can attend those meetings from home.

    Since my department works across North America and Europe, we are on the phone about five hours per day, often starting at 6:00 or 7:00 am, so, applying the secondary rules, in practice I don’t go in apart from one or two afternoons per week, and when I do I often sit alone and don’t talk to anyone. That said, I do find I’m more productive in the office on those afternoons, so I guess it’s working for now.

  73. Em*

    I’ll start this comment by acknowledging what a privilege it is to be able to dictate what I am and am not willing to do to earn a living- but I started a job search in May 2022 with the criteria that I am not willing to consider jobs that are not fully remote. I have two babies at home (my partner is a stay-at-home-parent), and I just simply enjoy being able to see them in the mornings (no 90 minute commute anymore!), during my lunch break, and when I end work at 6 PM, I get to change into sweatpants and go immediately jump in to bath/bedtime routine. My quality of life is greatly improved by being home and having easy access to my kiddos.

    I think what a lot of companies forget to consider is that the loyalty that my new company has gained from me is valuable- I am extremely happy in my new role because I am 100% remote and it would take A LOT for me to start looking for another job and risk giving up this perk. I work hard and I appreciate my employer because of this benefit.

    Signed,
    A former state employee whose Governor mandated in-person work this year and caused a mass exodus of employees

    1. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

      Staying remote has been a hard requirement for me to consider a new job for about 8 years now.

      This sums it up nicely. Remote means I get 90-180 minutes of my life back every day; it’s hard to put a price on that.

      My employer also claims I’m significantly more productive (and less disruptive) remote as well.

    2. Just stoppin' by to chat*

      Em – I’m so curious if you used to work for the state of starts with a V and ends with irginia :)

    3. J*

      The loyalty issue is huge. I stayed at a job for the first 18 months of the pandemic because they offered a fully remote experience – I even took a nearly 50% cut in pay to stay safe. They suddenly required us to be in office and got rid of masking and opened to the public and within 10 days I was gone. I was willing to be treated like shit by a boss, take a huge cut in pay but as a disabled person I wasn’t willing to be told my safety didn’t matter. My new job will have ongoing loyalty until they mess with my remote employment, but then they’d wipe out my entire (essential) team since none of us live within 1500 miles of HQ.

  74. Dasher Hadwick*

    The issues we’re having right now is that the office is picking and choosing who can WFH/work remote. So there’s a lot of anger at being required to come in when others aren’t. Plus sometimes we have a large amount of downtime, but aren’t allowed to do anything that doesn’t look productive at our desk. Definitely makes everyone want to argue for WFH.

  75. Green Tea*

    My organization has decided to force people back into the office two days a week. As someone with a long commute who mainly interacts via Zoom with out-of-state colleagues, I hate it. I hate the noise of the open office floorplan which impacts my ability to focus. I hate having to either do Zoom calls where everyone can hear or in phone booths with poor wifi. I hate losing 3 hours of my day to commuting after two and a half blissful years of having that time back. I hate spending $20 a day on combined metro parking and metro fare. I hate that my office is masks-optional and the vast majority of people don’t wear masks.

    They’ve given us free swag. I still hate it. Next month they’re planning to do a series of catering and food events, and I will still hate it then.

    If you want to draw people back to the office, I think it’s really important to communicate the business reason for it and make sure it feels worthwhile to your employees. Swag and free food are not a good draw for people in situations like mine, where my work quality and my personal life are both being harmed by being forced back into the office. Have employees go back to the office for specific in-person meetings or workshops, like a monthly collaboration day, not just to be there for the sake of being there.

  76. middlemgmt*

    A reason. That’s what is missing. The CEO moved to hybrid, 3 in/2 out. he thinks this is “generous” but only in relation to what was allowed before the pandemic, which was one day of WFH. he blabs on about collaboration and spontaneous conversations, but fails to realize that most of the people in the office don’t do that. they don’t walk around chatting, they don’t have a ton of meetings. all of that is proportional to how high you are on the ladder. the CEO thinks that he gets a lot of value out of it, and i’m sure he does. but the person doing content updates on the website does not have the same type of workload as the CEO. they are not interfacing and negotiating and hashing out new ideas or partnerships. they are sitting at their desk all day doing concentration work to lay out webpages or troubleshoot, or they are meeting, but by sharing screens, not face to face.

    the policy has also been unevenly implemented, with an intentionally unspoken caveat of ‘individual VPs can do what they want with their department’ so some SVPs including my grandboss are following to the letter, some are more flexible. A few people in my dept have ‘medical exceptions’ to continue to WFH or only come in once we week. my own boss is skeptical of this and constantly comments to me how she thinks it is “unfair” to the rest of the team that she has to allow this, like they will be mad that they can’t stay home too. i don’t think it’s unfair though. i mean, i don’t think my co-workers finding an exception is unfair. if i’m annoyed at anyone it’s at the CEO for implementing this uneven policy to begin with, trying to force us back to the way we were.

    meanwhile, we have 3 open mid-career positions in my department alone and the hiring scene has been dismal. barely any resumes, and what we do get are not qualified. i’m sure that our company’s lack of flexibility on remote work is hurting us, but they still won’t see that as something to change. soon they’ll lose me too. i have an easy commute and i’d be happy to come in sometimes when needed, as i do run a few projects where face-to-face stuff needs to happen. but there are plenty of days where is just sit at my desk all day. there are no spontaneous conversations I would have missed out on. that is a fantasy that management is telling themselves all over the country right now, but it’s about as real as courtroom scenes on tv.

    1. middlemgmt*

      and TBC there is NOTHING they could offer me that would make me feel like that time in the office is worthwhile, if it’s a day where i didn’t have a real need to be there anyway. it would have to be a lot more money in my salary. pay me like a senior vp and then i’ll happily show up like one.

    2. J. Jonah Jameson*

      We’re supposed to be going back part time in a month or so, and I agree that we just don’t have a good reason. My team voted for only in the office when there’s a reason, but we got stuck with 2-3 days a week, in a shared space where (if it goes as described) we literally can’t all be in at the same time to collaborate.

      Plus the mask policy is you don’t have to wear it at your cube desk even if that’s near other people. I am not enthused.

  77. SubjectAvocado*

    We’ve gone hybrid, but have just a handful of people in on any given day unless someone from another branch is visiting. I like coming in, personally– I live alone in a small one-bedroom apartment, which makes it hard for me to segregate work life from personal life, and I find my commute meditative. I understand why the others in my office don’t want to come in, though– we work across several states, have all the tools to collaborate virtually, etc. I think the days of 50%+ of our workforce being in office are just gone. The ease of being at home and not fighting traffic combined with being able to do all your work virtually just aren’t beatable.

  78. ThatGirl*

    I’m in kind of an idealized situation for me right now. I realized during 2020 that I actually do like being in an office sometimes – I have better/bigger workspace, I get to see people, some things really do go more smoothly in person. And, my office is VERY close to my house (about a mile). But I also do like being able to WFH sometimes, to do focused work in my leggings with my favorite music on. So I have the best of both worlds.

    That said, it would take … a LOT to get me in an office full time. Like, either the best most awesome job ever with a truly casual dress code in a nice office close to home, or a permanent 32-hour work week or something similar.

    1. ThatGirl*

      I should have said that officially we’re supposed to be here 3 days a week, but unofficially it’s 2 and our managers pick which days so we can have team meetings.

      I also have coworkers who are full-time remote or work in a different office entirely, so there is ALWAYS a zoom option and my manager is very flexible if something comes up.

    2. The Prettiest Curse*

      I don’t think I’ll ever want to work on an office full time again, but I do appreciate having a hybrid schedule. I have done 100% WFH in this job during lockdown and since my husband is retired, we just got sick of the sight of each other. We get along much better having 1 day a week apart!

  79. RCS*

    Pre pandemic, I was already on a hybrid schedule due to a very long commute (3 in office/ 2 home). I already had a good home office set up, so WFH went smoothly for 2020. Went back to hybrid Summer 2021 and that is working for me.

    I have a great boss that does not require anyone in office and we had lots of remote employees pre pandemic all over the US and Asia. I found that I missed the office though! I missed the camaraderie and getting out of the house.

  80. Saffie_girl*

    For me it would be tough to truly make me want to go back, but a couple of things would make it easier. First there has to be a reason to go into the office. Most of the people I work with come in and mostly close their office doors to do their work. Some do need to be on site, but attitude is “well if some people need to be here we all need to be here”. Second my home office is so much easier to work in: my internet is far faster, the desk is the proper height, the chair is more comfortable, I have the exact computer equipment I need. Getting this in the office is a no go.

    1. Katie*

      The internet thing boggles my mind. I have colleagues who had to come back (not the same office as me). The in office internet has been horrendous. This is really unacceptable.

      My internet is on par with my office internet.

  81. triplehiccup*

    I would need a strictly enforced respirator mandate on public transit…so it’s never happening. For me, nothing is worth acquiring another chronic illness involving fatigue – two year ago I finally got on the right medication and clawed back some of my old energy and strength, and I’ll do anything to keep my ability to run around and play with my kid.

  82. Essentially Cheesy*

    Grateful for my 15-minute commute to my non-corporate in-office position more than ever. (I have tried wfh and it didn’t really work. My job is very support/service oriented towards my office coworkers and I’m happy to help them. )

  83. SdB*

    I don’t think anything would convince me to go back to regularly working in an office. I’d be more willing to consider the odd in-person meeting if health risks were taken more seriously. i.e. Proper ventilation & filtering being been installed, wearing masks if a vulnerable person is in the meeting, a rule that people work from home when mildly ill to avoid spreading illness, etc.

    Also a major thing for me – only ask for physical attendance when it’s actually necessary! Not just because someone prefers seeing people at desks/around a table.

    Companies to think about *why* they’re asking people to come back in, and if it’s something nebulous like “company culture” or “creativity” to try to find out whether those things are actually aided by people being in the office… or if those things are relevant to productivity or quality of work at all. If there genuinely are cases where in-person work is necessary, present those specific, concrete reasons to employees – and give people the flexibility to come in just on those occasions. I would switch job rather than go back to the office at all, but I think a lot of people are willing to go to the office from time to time when there’s a genuinely good reason to. Past that? Well, why spend effort or money to encourage people to come in if it’s not actually improving productivity or employee satisfaction?

    1. SdB*

      Thinking more about this – I think companies should spend more time finding out why *their own* employees prefer WFH/don’t want to come in before deciding on any action. And I mean find out from everyone – don’t generalise based on responses from certain people or teams.

      I’m sure there are a lot of shared reasons, but there are also things specific to certain teams, roles, and individuals that won’t be obvious. Putting covid to one side: for me, working split between two places is very disruptive, and my home office setup is much better than the office (better monitors, fewer distractions, more comfortable, I can listen to music, etc. – all of these things help me get work done). It’s also easier for my team to collaborate via screensharing than in person – that’s been a huge bonus from us going fully remote. And it’s made it easier for my team to hire!

      When I’ve explained those things to people in other roles at my company they’re sometimes surprised – particularly about collaboration being *easier* with the team WFH – because it’s not the same for their team/them personally. So I think without specific information, management risks coming up with completely useless incentives and solutions. They also risk trying to fix things that aren’t a problem.

      1. online millenial*

        Sometimes that info gathering doesn’t even make a difference–my employer did a huge survey on how WFH was going, everyone I talked to said they loved it, and the result? Mandated 3 days in-office. For “collaboration and culture.”

        Fortunately, our division head immediately said the 2 days in we’d been doing was fine, and my department’s immediate supervisors have taken the official position of “the work’s getting done and no one’s taking attendance.” I go in one day a month, give or take.

        1. SdB*

          Oh yeah, it’s useless for the kind of company where the result is pre-determined, because they’re dead set on forcing people back in with rules regardless. I meant more for the companies that seem to be doing this optional-but-encouraged thing, and trying to tempt people in with incentives. I think if they bothered understanding why individual teams prefer WFH, they’d either come up with better improvements, or realise there’s no point.

  84. WillowSunstar*

    I’m in an office where the higher ups in another state have said they’d like to see people coming in, but aren’t forcing the issue. They have done things like offer free food to those who come in (which was cheap processed meat like hamburgers, hot dogs, and tacos). But they forget that things like rising gas costs and well, pretty much the rising cost of everything is making people not want to spend that extra money to come in. Pay checks are going to have to rise accordingly and I think, sadly, that companies will need to force the issue if they want us all to come back to the office.

  85. BleedingHeart*

    This past May, my org went to a 3x/Week in the office hybrid policy, with Tuesdays being mandatory day in-person. We’ve seen varying degrees of compliance.
    As others have said above, what I’ve found is that there has to be some tangible benefit that is relevant to my work that overcomes the tangible benefits relevant to the rest of my life that I get from WFH.
    I don’t mind going in to the office on days when we have in-person meetings, when I have things that I need to print, mail, etc (all tasks that are easier with the ‘work infrastructure’ of office products, printers, nearby mailing and shipping services). Being in the office gives me business-related benefit there! But going in to still be on the same video calls as I would be from home makes me extremely irate.
    Ultimately, for me it is a problem of time: WFH gives me hours of my day back, both in terms of the actual commute (an hour and change round trip whether by train, car, or bicycle), and in terms of the little hurry-up-and-wait tasks like swapping laundry between calls, which otherwise detract from my weekends and non-work hours. No amount of free snacks is worth hours of my day, and any increase in pay would have to be enough that I could outsource some of these tasks (by, say, hiring a laundry service), and still come out ahead. When I have increased productivity as a result of going into my office, then that gives me time back, because I spend less time on those work tasks. Anything that takes away time in one arena has to give it back somehow, or it isn’t worth it to me.

  86. Can't think of a funny name*

    A few months ago I interviewed at a place that is 100% in the office…I told my current job what the salary would be (assuming they offered me the job)…current job gave me a raise but was still $20k under possible new place…I decided I preferred 100% WFH enough to withdrawal from interviewing…so the amount to bribe me back into the office is somewhere over $20k lol.

    1. An Admin*

      I’ll tack onto this – I had two internal recruiters reach out to me earlier this year with what would have been at the time 90% and 105% raises in salary(I work for a midwest company but live in California hence the huge difference in salary). One role was in person 5 days a week and the other was in person 2 days a week with a 60 min each way commute for both and I STILL declined to interview. I turned down what could be a 105% raise over going in office 2 days a week and a 2 hr per day commute!
      I have no regrets, I love the company I work for, I am deeply loyal to them for letting me work remotely in a role that is not always remote and this year I got a 27% raise. Turns out I learned I don’t have a magic salary in mind but I do value my time, flexibility and the company I work for.

      1. The Real Fran Fine*

        I love the company I work for, I am deeply loyal to them for letting me work remotely in a role that is not always remote and this year I got a 27% raise.

        Damn!

  87. Designmaster General*

    My firm is doing everything right (come in one day a week, free breakfasts, happy hours, and masking required) and I still refuse to go in. I am that person drawing the hard line. My mother is 94 years old and I am the only person who visits her weekly. I simply cannot risk contracting COVID. Even doing everything right, we still get 4-6 notifications per week about cases, requiring 5-day quarantines.

    I can’t risk it, and thankfully my big boss understands. Then again, I’m nearing retirement and they don’t want to lose me.

  88. Katie*

    Why I like working from home:
    1) Super convenient travel
    2) Childcare. I have two disabled kids in grade school. No group is able (or too afraid – honestly they are easier than my other kid) to take them on during the summer or when they have random days off
    3)Its soooooo much quieter here. I was in a open floor plan with hundreds of others.

    To get me back, they would have to get cheap onsite childcare. Plus a work reduction to make up for commute time. This isn’t going to happen so I would fight tooth and nail if they asked me to come in more than a few times a quarter. (To note I have worked twice in office since March of 2022).

    1. Katie*

      To add to this, my office was already collaborating via Teams well before we all started WFH. We work with people all across the country and world all day long. If they had us come back, it would just be hundreds of people on headsets talking and collaborating with someone elsewhere.

      Also to note, the two days I did come in were extremely beneficial but it would not be that way if it was multiple times a month.

  89. soontoberetired*

    Timely topic. My work place wants us to all go back in 10 days a month. This was just after telling us they wouldn’t mandate this just a few months ago. There’s a lot of unhappiness for it – it does mean a lot of people are essentially going to take a paycut. the mandate is if you are within a certain distance of any of our offices, you have to go into that office. Now or corporate headquarters is in a place where an hour commute means you live out in the country about 40 to 50 miles away. We have satellite offices in major cities where you can live 15 miles away but the traffic is such that it will still take you an hour to get in and cost you hundreds a month in transportation and parking costs.

    There’s a ton of negative buzz, and the C-Suite people don’t understand it. They have no clue how things work for most people. They also don’t understand how we found out early. Fricking idiots told enough people themselves.

    And we’ve shown we are more productive working from home. They’ve sold buildings, they’ve re-arranged floor space, there’s not going to be room. I’m at an age where I could retire but I really want to keep working for a while, just leave the company. So I may be looking at all the resume advice on the side bar very soon!

  90. Catsforbrains*

    I would like offices to take an all or nothing stance – echoing folks above, driving an hour work to put my headphones on and zoom with someone in another time zone feels absurd and disrespectful of my time. Commuter subsidies and flex time would be a start there.

    What I’d really need to see is thoughtfulness around creating community and camaraderie at work, and deliberate decisions to increase that (as an end unto itself and not because unaliented workers are more profitable). I’m not the most extroverted person and remote work in a new role has been lonely. Opportunities and space to find my weirdos was the actual benefit behind the free food and open bar at my last job.

  91. WFH for Life*

    Our company has been pretty flexible about WFH but we just had a Town Hall that was all about “give us your feedback on working from home” and the entire conversation was workers saying “I like working from home” and leadership saying “but collaboration” and “but community” and “but creativity”. I’m pretty sure that this was the precursor to “we’re going to start tracking badge use” but we’ll see.

    My biggest issue with going back to the office is that my company no longer has assigned desks/cubes for employees. It’s all “open office” seating on a first-come-first-served basis. There aren’t even storage lockers on site. All the leadership that is encouraging us to go in have offices or at least enclosed cubes. They are able to set up their “nest” with family pictures, their monitors and keyboards, their favorite coffee cup, etc. The rest of us have to carry everything in and out of the office every day. We never have a “home” location at the office.

    When I’m at home, I have an office with multiple 27″ monitors, my comfortable, ergonomically correct chair, my family pictures, my favorite coffee cup and water bottle, etc. I can go downstairs and get food or coffee – I don’t have to walk all the way across campus to the cafeteria or eat/drink from a vending machine. I can control the temperature. I can control the noise level. I can control my entire environment to make it most functional for me.

    Until my company starts treating us as people and not widgets, I don’t see myself ever going back to the office and I’m pretty sure I can get my boss to support it. If that changes … well, we’ll have to see.

  92. A More Brilliant Orange*

    The free market will take care of this.

    Work from home will become a negotiated benefit no different than vacation time, PTO, salary, bonuses, medical, and work hours.

    Employees that value WFH will move to companies that offer it or reevaluate their expectations (perhaps they’ll have to accept lower salaries or other benefits).

    Companies that want employees to come into the office will hire employees willing to come into the office or reevaluate their expectations (perhaps they’ll have to pay a premium to have in office workers or increase other benefits).

    The world is not going back to pre-covid when going into the office everyday was standard-operating-procedure.

    1. Prospect Gone Bad*

      The free market will also “handle” junior employees who want to WFH before they have the skill set to work independently. Many will become frozen in their 2021 skill sets.

      I am dealing with this know with a pretty junior person on my team. They are good but really need more general experience to get to the next level. And we deal with so many ad hoc situations that it is hard to put together formal trainings. I’ve suggested they come to the office but they always have an excuse. It’s sort of frustrating because they live 30 minutes away and I know they live in a crowded apartment with roommates, so in my head, working in a huge office in a nicer area should be a perk and a break. I feel like they have a mental block now, where any trip out is a huge thing. You’d think I was asking her to go to 3 hours away with how she talks.

      Long term this is eroding her skill set. She doesn’t know what she doesn’t know and I can’t cram stuff down her throat on zooms because I tried and she’s sort of like “why are you calling me” or “what is the point of this” anytime I’ve tried to force interactions that way.

      1. Firm Believer*

        I completely agree with this. The people who have known nothing or almost nothing about the working world pre-covid won’t be able to realize the career sacrifices WFH means for them. I told my younger staff that they should want to come to the office and get face time with managers, colleagues, learn soft skills and witness the big things happening that they don’t get to see isolated at home. They don’t believe me, but it’s important.

      2. UKDancer*

        That’s interesting. In my company it’s the junior people who’ve wanted to come back soonest because they’re living in flatshares and have limited and uncomfortable work spaces. They’re also often closer to the office in London so can walk / cycle more easily. The older and more senior people lived further out and had more comfortable work from home settings so they were less willing to come back (on the whole).

  93. Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss*

    It was bargaining season and it was for sure being brought to the table as something that we were not backing down on and we wanted to bargain for a hybrid work arrangement.

    The employer put out feelers to directors, who all replied, yeah, we’re okay with a hybrid schedule to keep our support staff happy, which surprised some of the higher ups.

    And we got it. It’s not perfect, it’s only a pilot, but it was a huge step in the right direction and is fairly flexible if you have a good director despite all the conditions. We made a lot of sacrifices during the height of the pandemic – chronic short staffing, no replacements or backfills of staff, forced to spend down vacation when no one was travelling – a hybrid solution was only fair!

  94. calvin blick*

    I think these companies (especially the larger ones like Google or Chase where senior leadership is very clear they urgently want people back) need to figure out WHY they want people back and then proceed from there. I do think there are benefits to working in the office: younger/less well-compensated people might not have a dedicated workplace in their home (I didn’t when Covid started and it was a nightmare), less-experienced people definitely learn from and network with more experienced people, and while there are inefficiencies to working in teams there are benefits as well.

    However, from what I see on LinkedIn these companies not communicating whatever benefits they are hoping for. The general vibe I get is that these companies think their employees are all lazy and need to supervised closely.

    Also, I have free food at home, that is exactly what I want because I buy it. Ditto with gyms, etc. When companies act like doughnuts in the break room is some awesome benefit that will surely get people back in the office, they really come across as hopelessly out of touch.

    1. Curmudgeon in California*

      Unless there is literally physical equipment that I must lay hands on, there is no benefit these companies have come up with for commuting in to a shitty open plan. They shovel baloney about “collaboration” and “creativity” at us, and think we’re dumb enough to believe that it’s a real reason. I hate a company that wants to gaslight me into risking my life just so they can see butts in seats and have a feeling of control over me.

      If these companies that are moaning about people not coming in to their huge open plan nightmares would just realize that not having people come in to the office means that they can downsize their real estate spend we would all be happier. They could put offices back for those that want to work on-site, and let the rest of us WFH. But very few are that smart, especially the huge companies with huge real estate spend. It’s the sunk cost fallacy at work, IMO.

      Lots of smaller, more nimble companies have realized that, even as much as they saved on real estate by cramming people into open plans, they can save even more, and grow faster, if they don’t have to provide desks at all. If they have to wait until they build out new office space to grow it makes them slower to market, so many are just… not bothering. While this pisses off all of the downtown chamber of commerce types, it really is the wave of the future. Eliminating commuting unless absolutely needed means less pollution and less wear and tear on the roads themselves.

  95. jean ralphio*

    My office is bringing everyone back for no reason and it is not working. We are “required” to be in the office 3 days a week but no one is doing it except for a handful of people who like working in the office. Our boss keeps trying to bribe us with cookies and cold brew but… that’s not nearly enough incentive. And there seems to be no stick–no punishment for people who flout the rules and don’t come in, so why would they? It’s all very weird. I am currently job hunting for something fully remote.

  96. smirking*

    I work in higher ed in a student services role inside an academic department. All of us on the staff side are mandated to come in person at least 3 days a week. But it’s up to each team lead to figure out how to allocate the telework. It’s been an interesting challenge because we need to have a couple of people there every day to have a presence for students, but all of us are really protective of our team’s ability to telework. And we don’t want to have people just come in and then close their doors to do Zoom So we also need to have mandatory days when everyone is in the office to meet and work together on stuff. Lots of pieces to consider!

    For our small team of about 7, we all come in on Tuesdays in person. We plan various in person meetings on those days. Then we schedule fixed telework days for everyone so that we always have a couple of people on site the other days. It does mean that there is less flexibility around telework – everyone’s days are set – but this allows us to have both the on-campus presence for our students and the benefit of collaboration in person while also protecting everyone’s ability to telework at least a little. It’s not ideal but it’s working fairly well for us.

    1. Pam Adams*

      My higher ed job is similar- we are still seeing what the new semester will bring. My team is working 3 office/2 WFH days with a lot of student drop-in availability, both in a person and via Zoom. We flex amongst ourselves for individual needs. Students like the ability to meet via Zoom, even when they are on campus.

  97. kiki*

    My current company finally gave up on their mission to get folks to return to office regularly post-covid. It’s a small agency founded by three dudes who I think historically derived a lot of their social fulfillment through work. It’s the kind of office with a pool table and beer in the fridge. They wanted to get people back into the office ASAP in summer 2021 once folks could get vaccinated (and before we knew what was coming with Delta and the other variants). They tried to make working remotely suck, basically. They made it hard to stay in the loop remotely, they tried to get rid of the fun Slack channels (pets, OT, etc), and they gave clear priority to anyone who came into the office, even if they were mediocre at their job. But the work lends itself to being done remotely (software development and design) and everyone is so overworked, nobody really had time to socialize in the office anyway– people did it to stay in the founders’ good graces, but it meant they’d stay later to get actual work done. The founders very much want the office to feel fun but don’t reconcile that with the amount of work they’re asking of people and the fact everyone else has responsibilities and a life outside work.

    I actually prefer working from an office ( I like the physical separation of work and home and I feel less like a recluse), but I haven’t gone into office regularly for the last 8 months. I would go back if the founders didn’t annoy me so much with their antics

  98. A BA PO*

    My small company has about 1/2 of our staff in the same state, but the other 1/2 work out of state and 100% remotely. Even before the pandemic, we were always set up for WFH and even people in our state would only come into the office 2 or 3 days a week. Most every meeting needed to be virtual. In March 2020, we were all equipped and ready for WFH and it was totally fine, we almost didn’t see much difference in how we worked.

    But in the last few months, they have really been trying to get people to come in at least one day a week, I think particularly as they have a lease they can’t get out of in the building. My manager, who started in late 2021, has been pushing this as I don’t think he likes managing people remotely. (Even though half of our team is out of state and that was known before he started – but I digress). Our in-state team has grown so much though that there are no longer assigned desks and everyone has to hot-desk or share a space. There is also only one space that is available for people to have meetings or to take a call and not disturb everyone else in the open area.

    I have made my line pretty clear that I do not mind coming into the office if 1) I am given some advanced notice, and 2) there is an intentional reason for me to come in – like a meeting or training. But otherwise, I know I’m more effective and comfortable at home. I haven’t been asked to come in much at all. Yesterday I was in to do training with a new hire, and outside of the 30 min we spent going over our punch list of training items, I sat in silence and worked much as I would have at home. I got interrupted a few times to help someone out with their computer problems – that was the only real difference. And I left with a big old headache.

    Another side-effect of this too: we have all-company meetings every Quarter. And in January and June we try to do longer meetings, and sometimes everyone will be asked to come to attend these meetings in person. We always rate these meetings individually afterward. The meetings that are the biggest frustrations are the ones where half the team is in person and the other half is remote (the background chatter, AV issues, etc.). The absolute BEST rated meetings were the ones where everyone was remote and on an equal playing field and technology was not an issue (other than the odd “mute yourself, Bob”).

    All in all, I think in-person work can make sense, but I think it should be intentional, or as was said above – articulate a real reason for doing it. I completely acknowledge that some people prefer working in the office, which makes sense to accommodate if the company so chooses. But overall – just treat people as adults and judge performance based on output.

  99. Dix*

    Our corporate owner is requesting that our department tries for one day a week that we’re all in the office, but due to a communication snafu, the executive pushing for it apparently did not realize that my subsidiary/location has sold one of our buildings and may not have enough physical desk space for that, depending on what other departments are doing. So that attempt at RTO is off to a rocky start…

  100. Picard*

    We never had WFH before (other than very exceptional cases) and as an essential manufacturer, we didnt WFH during either. Are there jobs that COULD be? Yes. But our BigBoss feels that unless EVERYONE can WFH, no one should. (serious side eye here)

    Anyway, I know that we have for sure lost at least 5-10% of our employees due to not having WFH/remote options.

  101. Anon, good Nurse*

    I’m one of those who actually drastically prefers to be in the office than at home. I desperately struggle to remain focused and on task when I am fully on my own, and my productivity tanks if I WFH most of the time. HOWEVER, flexibility to work from home has always been extremely valuable to me. Right now my office has a schedule where they name the days everyone comes in and the days they have the option to be WFH, and then just has general flexibility if someone has a need to be home on an office day. We’re adults and treated as such, and that’s just nice.

  102. Det. Charles Boyle*

    Things that would get me back into the office:
    -High-quality, low-cost or subsidized child care either very close by or in the same building. Before- and after-school care and summer camps, too, for older children.
    -A more flexible schedule, instead of 8 – 5, maybe 7-4 or 7-3 if I eat at my desk for lunch.
    -On-site gym or fitness classes
    -On-site low-cost cafeteria for breakfast and lunch

    But, I love my WFH job and all my co-workers are also WFH, so I doubt any of us will ever go back into the office again.

  103. Trawna*

    I work for a mature, future-thinking company that knows reality when it sees it. They are consolidating office space and/or getting very small resource offices in much better locations.

    What would get me back? Destitution?

  104. NeedRain47*

    I’m still wfh two days a week which is about right for me (much of my job cannot be done from home). Upper leadership where I work is leaving it up to individual managers and mine is fine with that. The downside to this is that it could be yanked away at any moment, not much I can do about that. I have a rather niche job and it’s not easy to find something similar for the same or better pay.

    Money is the only thing that would possibly convince me that coming in more is a good idea. I got the highest possible raise, which was 3%… have you seen the price of pretty much everything? I essentially am considering the money I save (about $10/day in gas and tolls) and the free time where I’m not commuting as part of my salary and benefits.

    1. NeedRain47*

      I forgot to say, my workplace has free food events regularly, but if they fall on a wfh day oh well. I’m not spending 90 minutes of my life and $10 in gas to eat $5 worth of free food.

  105. Jo*

    Our office has been pushing working in-office since July 2021. At first it was a “suggested” two days a week, with each department head making the decision for their team. This was very unevenly applied–some VPs let everyone WFH every day, some mandated two specific days a week, one VP wanted her people in all five days until HR told them they couldn’t do that because everyone would quit. During the pandemic several people moved out of state so of course they could be fully remote. Some “favorites” were allowed to work remotely full time. It created a very uneven, unfair culture and hurt morale. After March 1st of this year, they’ve tried to be more fair about it–all departments need to be in office two days a week, and everyone has to be in-office on Thursdays for “collaboration day.” Even so, pretty much everyone has found a reason to not to be in on Thursdays at least once–doctor’s appointments, children soccer games, etc. etc. They aren’t offering any real incentives to be in office–sometimes they’ll provide breakfast or lunch, but that’s really it. It’s very much a “do this because we say so” kind of thing, and it’s not really working out, as far as I can tell.

    There’s really nothing that would get me back to the office full time. I love the work-life balance that working from home provides–as others have said, I can throw in a load of laundry while I’m waiting for an email or run to the grocery store over lunch, which makes my evenings much more enjoyable. The internet in our office is way slower than my service at home, which makes working in the office frustrating. Our organization has reduced staff and everyone has more work–spending an hour or more a day on a commute makes everyone less productive. If my employer mandated five days a week in office, I’d look for a new, fully-remote job.

  106. DisneyChannelThis*

    What I would like: Private offices. Proper lunchroom, not just eating at desk. Nicer office equipment (at home I have a printer, second monitor, ergonomic footrest). Relaxed dress codes.

    I do truly value the social interactions that occur naturally while in person. Those small chit chats don’t translate to zoom. As someone who stared working mid pandemic here remotely I honestly didn’t feel like I knew any of my coworkers until we started coming back in. I currently work hybrid, sometimes in office sometimes home.

    If we are back in office I would like to get off zoom calls. Especially when in shared office and all 3 of us are on the same zoom call its insane.

    The benefit of at home that really keeps me hybrid right now is being able to sign for packages, let the plumber in, schedule the AC repair dates without having to email the scheduling team and get my PTO in, update my timesheet and all the procedures all for what ends up being a ten min interaction at home. So maybe more flexible work hours would entice me back to full time in office?

  107. nope*

    At this point, nothing would get me back into an office. I’m chronically ill and high-risk, and my local government is sticking its head in the sand pretending the pandemic is over – there’s no way that I’m going to risk my health and life to go into an office for a job that can 100% be done from home.

  108. Sasha Blause*

    There’s nothing realistic that would incentivize me. WFH is my hill to die on. I could spend two pages defending all the reasons, but why bother? I am not normal, I will never be normal, and in the past 2.5 years I’ve discovered it’s possible to be something approaching mentally healthy when I don’t have to try to pass myself off as normal.

    I guess I might be able to deal with commuting and office life again if I were given such a huge truckload of money that I could afford to hire a nanny for myself.

    1. Just Your Everyday Crone*

      I hear you. WFH has been great for my mental health and my sense of self acceptance around my differences.

    2. Nonny Moose*

      Truly this – my recent switch to full time WFH has been life changing. I feel happier, more in tune with my actual self, and I’m even seeing my hair grow back after falling out from stress.

  109. louvella*

    There are other reasons why I prefer working from home, but the biggest reason I don’t want to work on-site is that I don’t want to get covid and the long-term complications that brings for a lot of people who get it. In general I minimize my time in indoor space full of unmasked people, so spending eight hours a day in an office is not something I’m excited to do. When I have done it I’ve kept a KN95 on the whole time, and my ears end up hurting and I end up very dehydrated. I eat outdoors but my office is not in a pleasant area for that.

  110. another Hero*

    at my sibling’s small company they tried to mandate it, but pretty much all the staff refused. it’s one thing to fire a single recalcitrant employee but another thing entirely to threaten to fire everyone and see how many of them take you up on it.

    1. another Hero*

      oh this was supposed to be a reply to the person who said their workplace was threatening to fire people who didn’t go back, sorry.

  111. LindaLou*

    I would need my salary doubled to even consider it. When I went to the office to pick up my laptop for my current position, I met my manager there. She took me to meet her manager and mentioned while there that we may be coming back to the office soon, which was not what I was told when I was hired for this permanently remote position. I didn’t say anything as I figured I would burn that bridge if we came to it. She never brought it up again (it’s been almost a year), so she needlessly stressed me out. Ugh!

  112. drinking Mello Yello*

    Not a whole heck of a lot would bring me back into office. I’m more productive working from home, I get more time to sleep without having to commute or put on Real Clothes vs my now standard athleisure wear, I don’t have to pay nearly as much money on gas or on dealing with the wear and tear on my car from the commute… And biggest of all, there’s Still a damn pandemic going on, no matter how much people would like to pretend otherwise, and I would like to not be infected with a potentially deadly or disabling disease when I know there’s not a good chance of people reliably taking decent covid precautions. So maybe a huge pay raise and/or the threat of being terminated if I don’t start coming in might do it???? Thankfully my company’s gone in the “Hey, we really like this whole Everybody Remote thing!” direction, so it doesn’t seem likely that they’ll try to bring people back to the office just to see our shining faces.

    1. online millenial*

      These are my biggest reasons. Commuting sucks. So does catching the plague. WFH means I get to skip both of those things! And there really aren’t any incentives that are worth my time and my health.

  113. A*

    I’m currently looking for my first full time job after university and every previous role I’ve had (part time, building experience in my field) was fully or mostly WFH. This has changed DRASTICALLY in the past six months to almost every entry level role in my field being mostly/fully office based.

    Whilst I much prefer being at home to being in an office enviroment, I’d be happy to do a hybrid or flexi working if it felt like there was a good reason for it but so many companies seem to box ticking. There’s a new norm and it just feels archaic to regulate time spent in the office for roles that can be done outside it. We do not give a shit about free snacks – subsidize travel, offer better holidays, lifestyle perks, or do flexible working times if you actually want people to come in again.

  114. Ferret*

    My company is pretty flexible, partly because most of our work is project based and shaped around what the client wants and any preferences they have for in-person. They have been trying to encourage people back in but primarily by improving the office – we have just moved and the new space has monitors and a lot more booths and space designed to allow for the increase in video calls without annoying everyone.

    There are some food treats provided but this is all on a low-pressure/no monitoring basis – they aren’t claiming it as a major incentive but just a nice thing to do for the office.

    One thing I will say is that it tends to be the younger/more junior people coming ing more frequently – I think a big factor is that they are less likely to have a nice home setup (we do have an allowance for home working equipment but it isn’t enough for an extra room so…) and more keen on the social side of things. As opposed to the senior staff who are more likely to live in a big house further out or be dealing with childcare in the evenings

  115. QED*

    My current organization’s policy is a recommended 2 days/week in office, and each team picks which two days are their days. So my team has Tuesdays/Thursdays, and while not everyone comes in, most of us do, and that means we can have in person meetings, which is helpful. It is optional, so people have flexibility and can always join our team meetings by Zoom even if most of us are in the conference room. We are also all masking in common spaces and in meetings (at least in my office), and most of us have individual offices with doors that close. Those that don’t can use the office of someone who’s not there.

    I will say that my office location has the highest in-person attendance of all my organization’s locations, probably because I live in an expensive city and many of us, particularly younger and lower-paid people, don’t have space for home offices. A lot of entry-level staff have roommates and don’t have space for desks, and even higher level people live in small apartments. So a decent number of us prefer to come in because then we have double monitors and separate spaces (my org will pay for home equipment, and salaries are pretty good, it’s just expensive to live here).

  116. Eliza*

    My old job instituted an inflexible return-to-office in May 2021. No hybrid schedules, no exceptions. The result is that my department had 70 percent turnover in a little over year and essentially lost ALL of its institutional knowledge. I left for a job that was remote-first and will never require me to come into an office, as did several of my other departing co-workers, and the rest left for offices that offered at least a hybrid schedule. The company was far from perfect but I think they could have retained a lot of the people who left if they’d given just a little bit of flexibility.

  117. Colette*

    Here’s what it would take to get me back in the office:
    – an actual, business reason (i.e. something I cannot do from home, not “collaboration!”)
    – taking COVID seriously – requiring masking, monitoring air quality, ensuring people stay home when they’re sick or exposed to someone who is sick

    As it is, they have mandated going back to the office when there is no reason and no attempt to mitigate COVID at all. It’s not happening.

    1. drinking Mello Yello*

      ^^ This. ^^

      As far as I can tell, NOBODY (at least in the US in my area) seems to be monitoring air quality at all, and hardly anybody is bothering with masks, etc. Improving air quality overall is such a simple step that would help prevent A Lot of illnesses, but it’s just not happening. :/

      And when you can do your job as well as/better from home AND there’s a looming risk of dying/becoming disabled from infection if you go into the office… Where’s the upside?

    2. CdnAcct*

      Totally agree! Our floor has been recognized for doing fantastic work 100% WFH, through multiple quarters and some year-ends. Our building hasn’t done anything to improve ventilation as far as I can tell, and masks are now optional.

      If COVID had been taken seriously and wasn’t a danger anymore, I’d be ok with doing one day a week in the office to ‘collaborate’ – meaning have a team meeting, socialize/catch up with other teams, and actually get a lot less work done than I do from home in order to team-build etc. But until they do, I and lots of people will never feel comfortable being in the same old office where most people don’t mask, and there’s no strong work reason that I’ve seen to counter that yet. And my commute is just a short walk, most of my team and coworkers feel more strongly because they’d need to take public transit.

      1. Colette*

        Agreed. And I’m OK now with going in for short periods if there is a reason for it, and if appropriate COVID precaustions (like masks) are taken.

        But I’m not going to go back to a workplace where masks are optional, no one has to isolate even if they’re sick, and air quality is … unknown at best.

        And my meetings would still be on teams, because I’m the one who books them and I’m not asking people to go into a closed conference room in a pandemic.

  118. OyHiOh*

    Businesses – make the business case in your communities for accessible, affordable public transportation, to counter commuting difficulties. Won’t solve commuter issues everywhere in the US, but will address some. This isn’t going to happen with individuals making public comments and commiserating with colleagues. It’s an issue far more likely to course correct if business owners and leaders present the dollars and cents reasons why.

    When local hospitality leaders say they’re having trouble attracting and retaining employees, they mention our local “donut” effect – affordable housing is far away from the center of the city, where the really good, high value hospitality jobs are located. But also, public transportation in our community isn’t very good at getting hospitality workers from where they live to where the good jobs are. So they (hospitality leaders) come to my organization saying “help us advocate to the city on this (transportation) issue. They talk to the city council members who represent the districts they live in, and the district their businesses are located in. When our org has combined meetings with city council, the topic comes up there as well. The business case basically runs as “these expensive high end hotels, clubs, and restaurants will close if we can’t get staff into our buildings when need is high (evenings/weekends) and our businesses contribute X, and Y figures to the city and county coffers (lodging tax is a big one here), add lifestyle value, attract clientele that spends approximately A and B values within city limits and all of that is guaranteed to vanish if we don’t solve the problem.”

    This particular business case is a little different from the more typical AAM commenter who just doesn’t see the need to work 8 to 5 in a defined office, but it’s one that my org is tangentially involved in right now.

    Result of the pressure – city is actively beginning a process of reassessing public transport and developing new routes and schedules based on current and anticipated future use.

  119. Ann Onymous*

    I’ve been back in office for awhile, but am now contemplating going back to remote. My employer is still giving people the option to work fully in office, hybrid, or fully remote (if their role allows for that) and will give people the option to be hybrid or remote permanently. My role could be done 90% remotely, but I found that working from home was very hard on my mental health and (unlike many people) I’m actually more productive in the office. For those reasons, I chose to return to the office full time in July 2021. I’m not immunocompromised, but do have an underlying medical condition that would put me at increased risk of hospitalization or death if I did get COVID. Despite that, I’ve felt safe in the office up to this point because my employer has taken COVID very seriously. Now they are starting to relax restrictions (despite case counts in our area having increased in the last couple months). I still feel safer at the office than in most public places (because my employer required vaccination with limited exemptions) but I definitely don’t feel as safe here as I did.

  120. Alton Brown's Evil Twin*

    There is one long meeting every other week that it would be really handy if my entire department of a dozen people went in. But we have one guy who lives 1+ hour away, and doesn’t have childcare for his 3 kids <8. We also have one guy who won't get vaccinated, and we have a vaccination requirement for the office (which they have talked about dropping but no decision yet).

    Otherwise, we're just as productive working at home, if not more. And collaboration w/ other departments works just fine remotely.

    So if they want me to come into the office, at the very least they're going to need to spend $ on IT (I have better monitors at home than at the office). And given the labor market, a salary bump too.

  121. Ari*

    My company simply told people to start coming back in 1-3 days a week. For background, I started off as part-time telecommute because I support teams at a national level and because leadership at the time wanted to save money on real estate by allowing many people to be hybrid workers. The office I’m assigned to doesn’t have anyone in my organization or even anyone who I support or might otherwise need to interact with. For six years, this worked well—I was WFH more than in the office, highly productive, and receiving excellent yearly reviews. In 2019, leadership changed and suddenly expected everyone to be back in the office full-time, though this meant larger offices didn’t have enough space and some of my team members would have to work while sitting on the floor because there weren’t enough seats. About a year later, we were sent home “for two weeks”, which of course turned into something much longer.
    Now leadership is at least agreeing people should have hybrid schedules again, but it’s a one size fits all approach that doesn’t make sense for everyone. Additionally, their main talking points to support this approach are vague: people need to collaborate, people need face to face interaction, people need to feel connections to their coworkers. Despite everything we’ve learned the last two years that shows this isn’t true. Despite the fact that people like me have never met a single boss or coworker in person because we aren’t collocated…and yet we have been very successful and productive for many years.
    Personally, I do not enjoy going to the office. I like people but I have a large workload and can’t afford to spend time distracted by chats that never involve work. They also don’t let anyone have an assigned desk unless they’re in the office every day, so I have to haul my laptop and everything else I’ll need back and forth every time I go. This includes coffee and other staples, as none of that is provided. For me, working from home full-time would be far less stressful. I can focus on my work. I can get up and stretch my legs without risking being pulled into a lengthy discussion about sports or people’s weekend plans. I can know that anything I need is handy…I’m not accidentally forgetting something crucial like my work phone or mouse or water bottle.
    I’ll do whatever they ask, but I can’t think of any incentive that would make me want to go into the office more often. The pros of WFH far outweigh the pros of being in an office for me.

  122. irritable vowel*

    Now that I’ve realized that commuting time is unpaid time that I’m giving up in order to do a job I can do at home, I’d ideally want my salary to be increased to cover not only that time but the cost of commuting. Fortunately, my work isn’t requiring anyone to come back at all, unless they want to, for the foreseeable future.

    1. Just Your Everyday Crone*

      I agree with this theory, but the extra time is worth more to me than the marginal income would be. Maybe if they reduced my work hours to account for the commute time, I’d be okay with it.

      1. A More Brilliant Orange*

        It’s not just the commute time.

        It’s gasoline, wear and tear on your car, maintenance costs and insurance costs.

        How many two income households have found they really only need one car if both are working from home?

  123. teensyslews*

    I would need all or part of my commute to be included in my work time. I am in the office part-time and already do this some days by working from home in the morning and then driving in for the afternoon or vice versa. In the interest of not penalizing those who live close to the office, ideal would be you “start” at 8 and end at 4 but you have 30 mins for travel on either end, so you’re functionally in the office from 8:30-3:30. And then when you are working from home you work the full 8-4.
    I’d also want strict covid-related safety policies. Absolutely no one in the office when they are feeling unwell, with unlimited sick/WFH time. Masking in common areas during spikes, improved ventilation, testing available for staff.

  124. from the govt, here to help*

    one issue i foresee as a possible future problem is what i see as the inevitable moment when these businesses realize that there is very little difference between a work from home workforce and full fledged outsourcing of staff to overseas. which would save them a tremendous amount of money.
    i run a help desk – and i’ve encouraged my people to work hybrid and/or even full time from home on certain shifts for years. But i work in govt – so the cost of these people isn’t something i feel directly. if i owned the company and this affected my bottom line, i’d keep the in office personnel (who i can use to multi task for special projects like pc rollouts and such) and outsource the wfh staff.

    1. Curmudgeon in California*

      LOL. I’ve worked with overseas outsourced teams. Quite frankly, they suck. The extra communication burden and rework requirements take the savings into negative numbers territory very quickly. Unless you are building software for use in the international market, the cultural gotchas will make your stuff into crap.

      Now, if you are building an application to be used in country X? Then I can see outsourcing that work… to country X. The enables them to build in the subtle use cases for local needs.

      But outsourced workers in the end are really not cheaper, because the management and quality assurance overhead is greatly increased to to vastly different work styles and culture. Plus, I haven’t even gone into various intellectual property differences between various nations.

      1. Ursula*

        This has absolutely been my experience as well. I’ve heard rumors of outsourced teams that are as good as local teams, but I’ve never seen one. I think it must be just next to impossible to do knowledge transfer to a big group remotely all at once like that, because remote teams scattered across the world seems to work just fine, as does having offices in other countries. There’s something about outsourcing a whole functions to a new team in a new country that doesn’t work.

  125. DataGirl*

    I would need a travel stipend to make up for the outrageous cost of gas- at least $50/week if not more.

    I’d also need to work less hours. Currently with wfh I do anywhere from 45-70 hrs/week depending on what is going on. I can manage that because I can take breaks or even naps. The one full week that I was back in the office since the pandemic, between commuting for an hour and being at a desk all day, the physical strain left me useless for anything else after work. If they are fine with me only working 35-40 hours (and getting half as much done) then ok, I’ll go into the office. If they want me to continue to maintain my current workload, it has to be from home.

  126. squid*

    I think there’s not really anything they could do, because my job really…. didn’t need to be in person in the first place. Everyone communicates via email, and everything I had to do was done on a computer – which means it could happen anywhere. They’re making us commute 45 minutes or more back into the office 3 days a week just to sit there and…. not talk to anyone, or to be on Zoom conference calls from across the hall. Sure, we could go back to meeting in person but….. why? It’s easier to screen share on a call than it is to set up the projector and reserve a conference room. The benefit of sitting in the same room just isn’t really that significant.

    I really do like my job, but there was so much I was able to do remotely during that extra couple of hours of free time I got. I’ve never felt more alive than I did when I was working from home full time. From home, I don’t have to pack a lunch, I can cook in the home kitchen, I can vacuum or clean during a 15min break, I can talk to my family, I don’t have to worry about a commute, I can be home to wait for an important package or repair person.

    Working from home I feel like I’m in control of my life, and if we have to go back to full in-person there’s almost no chance I’ll stay, no matter how badly I love my job. I know the logic is building community, and I do miss the sense of community at work. The staff lunches were always nice and I liked getting to know people but…. at the end of the day, the reality is that I love my hobbies and family more than I’ll ever love any job and coworkers. And nothing they can do will ever change that.

  127. Antilles*

    To me, the biggest thing is being able to clearly explain why it’s necessary. Don’t give some vague explanation like “it’s time” or “we think it’s better” but have a specific reason why you think it’s better to convince your employees that it’s beneficial.
    And that reason needs to be one that will hold up once people get there. Nothing is going to kill people’s enthusiasm about return to the office quicker than showing up and realizing that it’s exactly the same as working from home – also known as “you made me commute 45 minutes for this??? why???”

  128. Age of the Geek, Baby*

    My office was 40 minutes from me, but a move further south and the office moving literally in the city makes it close to an hour with days on bad traffic. I used to head in once a week just to get out of the house, and because we had an intern I thought would benefit from more facetime.

    But really, I’ve fallen off the schedule because I just found out I am pregnant with my first child and really don’t want to risk COVID. The explanation of me wearing a face mask around people, (when I wasn’t doing it in the office before) also just seemed like too much of a hassle at this point.
    To be blunt, being home has made it EASIER to hide the pregnancy. I’m still in the first trimester, and I’m exhausted all the time and nauseous. When the bulk of my work is done and I can’t rally, I take a quick nap.
    I’m in a quick turnaround field of journalism. My company has magazines, and loads of women work in them and some are moms. But hard news writing and how this job is structured is so fast-paced (I got in essence to design the position and the paper with my boss when we were hired in 2020) compared to a magazine who does it a month out.
    I do it mainly because it’s way more convenient (and safer). Maybe a little fear because I’m the only woman in this specific type of publication in our company. No other women – let alone those who have kids – are doing this.

    Tldr; In the office is a nice perk for me, but when it comes to health and convivence, it’s no contest.

    1. Age of the Geek, Baby*

      If you do quote me, please omit stuff specific about my job. It’s fine to say “high turnover field” in a small department.

  129. Michelle Smith*

    I work for a nonprofit organization that insists people are required to come into the office at least two days per week. They also insist that they will not approve any disability accommodations that require an employee to work fully remotely. I find this interesting because (1) my previous employer permitted me to work fully remotely, despite requiring employees generally to be on site 5 days per week and (2) no one on my team goes into the office, ever. One teammate doesn’t even live in the same state as the office.

    For the first two weeks I came into the office every day. I saw a few managers come in once and virtually no one else bothered. I pretty quickly learned that no one cares and the rule isn’t enforced (certainly not by my manager, who has been fully remote since before the pandemic) so I’ve only been coming in when I feel like a change of scenery.

    1. Michelle Smith*

      To be clear, my previous employer allowed it for me as a disability accommodation. I wasn’t clear on that in my first comment!

  130. Anonymous Engineer*

    Unfortunately what brought me back in was the potential for resentment from the part of our workforce that has no choice but to be onsite. I work in manufacturing, at a production site. Many of my coworkers have to be at work to push the buttons and turn the valves, as they were everyday during lockdown. About 80% of my work could be done remotely, and I can almost always plan the few days I need to be onsite. But I need good working relationships with the always-onsite folks in order to do my job well, so I comply with our 3 in/2 optional hybrid schedule.

    The second I change roles to one that supports another part of our company, that hybrid schedule will start feeling pretty arbitrary and unnecessary.

  131. anonymous state employee*

    My employer (a state agency) tried to impose a hybrid approach last year, and lost huge numbers of staff to resignations and retirements because nobody wanted to be in the office even two days per week. Recruitment efforts were fruitless because candidates weren’t interested in working in person two days a week, either. So they allowed a return to fully remote work for all staff that could do their jobs successfully from home, which is most of the agency, and that is still the case today.

    Elections are coming up, and as always, there is a chance that the Powers That Be will be different after November than they are now. Frequently when there is a change in the Powers That Be, there is a concomitant change in policy. As politically fraught as remote work and the pandemic that made it so common both are, I am reasonably confident that if the Powers That Be change in my state, the current remote-work policy will also change.

    And if that happens, I am out of here. I can get my retirement forms completed and submitted in minutes, and that is exactly what I will do if I am told that in-office work is required. I am over retirement age, I’ve got all the years of service I need for my pension, and while I love my job and love being able to help the people in my state, going back to the office would be a deal-breaker for me.

    The sad thing is that when the employer is a state agency delivering services to state citizens, it is ultimately those citizens who pay the price for political gamesmanship about remote work vs. in-person work. When we lost so many employees a year ago, services to citizens were directly impacted in a significantly negative way. And if the Powers That Be require everyone to go back to the office after November, it’ll happen again.

      1. Alton Brown's Evil Twin*

        I think a lot of the evil managers are petrified that their jobs will go away when somebody realizes that having a supervisor standing over your shoulder with a stick isn’t necessary.

  132. RJ*

    I work in accounting/finance with most of my work being analytical and software based. Over the pandemic, I had quite a few offers to RTO as most of my industry is real estate dependent, but I turned them all down. I even had to sever the connection to a member of my network who took a very hard and cruel line on WFH after the death of a former co-worker who died as a result of being exposed to COVID during the early months of the pandemic by an neglectful manager.

    The firm I work at now is international and my division is completely remote with a remote first policy. We have a local branch office that is about 20 minutes away should I want to come in, but it’s been emphasized that this is entirely up to me.

    It would take a hell of a lot for me to ever return to on-site work or even hybrid work.

  133. angrytreespirit*

    OH BOY people. I am in a BAD place right now. I work for midsize local government (my life is basically Parks & Rec). I live in both one of the highest cost of living areas and worst traffic areas in the country, got pushed out by housing prices so now I live 45 miles and one and a half hour commute from my office. Before the pandemic I spent between 2 and 2.5 hours a day in my car.
    When covid hit office workers had telecommuting agreements approved by management that allowed for most days out of the office, and since I am a scientist with office and field days, I basically was never in the office. All our meetings are on Zoom (and there are a lot of them – my typical week is 15-20 meetings).
    This month, management unilaterally nullfied all our agreements and mandated we all have to be in office three days per week, and every Wednesday is mandatory. Every employee stuffed in a four story cubicle farm – OH, AND, all our covid policies are still in place, so masks all day, no one can meet or eat together in the same room, no more than two people to a restroom. With one restroom per floor in an office of over 300 people.
    When it’s too cold or hot out, the only place we can eat lunch is in our cars. God knows what is going to happen to staff in our office this winter.
    The union attempted to confer with management which did not budge its stance and refused to meet further to reach a satisfactory agreement (this is illegal, but review of our case by the labor board will take months).
    Meanwhile, we have to comply. So now I feel like I work for the evil empire and I have zero motivation to do much of anything for them, let alone the exceptionally high quality work I’ve been doing the past two years. Currently, I am now actively job hunting but unfortunately because of where I want to work and what I do, good opportunities don’t come up that often. Basically, I intend not to honor the new agreement they forced me to sign. They’re going to have to start writing me up. And if upper management really wants to play they can force my (lovely and understanding) manager to fire me, I guess. I’m hoping between our clearly out of touch and deranged upper management and our strong and dedicated union this entire scheme will fall apart, but it will take time. If I can find a similar role without draconian remote work policies I will absolutely leave over this.

    1. Chilipepper Attitude*

      I’m so sorry! I worked for a city government; also Parks & Rec life! They can be really poorly managed. We don’t have unions and the “city hall” folks had us back at work in May 2020 while they worked from home until very recently!!

      It was so frustrating!

  134. Generic Name*

    My company has historically been more remote-friendly than average. I know management has been wanting folks to come back to the office, but it’s not mandatory. I made the suggestion to do things to make folks WANT to come to the office. Make it so people have a reason to come in. If all of our meetings are remote-only, what is the point of coming to the office to have meetings with colleagues on Zoom anyway? So we started having in-person options for meetings- all our conference rooms have the ability to have people join meetings remotely. We also had company paid-for lunches, which are reasonably well attended.

    I personally come in to the office 2 days a week. I have a very functional home office, but it is nice to see my coworkers in person every so often. It’s not mandated that I be here that often, and I can always work from home as the need arises.

    Like a lot of companies in the STEM field, we are struggling to hire, and we are starting to explicitly state that roles can be 100% remote. In the last year or so, several of our new hires are remote-only employees in other states.

    I don’t think there will ever be a mandate to come into the office.

    1. Generic Name*

      I forgot to mention, our company is dog-friendly, which I think is a good incentive. I’m in my office with my pup snoozing at my feet as I type this. :)

    2. IT Manager*

      I think this is the right direction – I heard someone say on a podcast that a company has to “earn your commute” Eg what was actually worth being in the office today.

      Where I’m struggling is that I think it’s not just lunches and perks that are worth it, but that people who are early career need that mentoring and collaboration they miss in (most) virtual environments. And that’s hard to convince the early-career folks that it’s worth the drive.

      I mean, I love not commuting, I can stay home the rest of my life and be fine but that’s because I had 20 years of in-person learning. And I’ve not seen anyone yet replicate that successfully online.

  135. Pauli*

    My job is full remote and plans to stay that way (tech/logistics industry) but are trying to incentivize people based locally to come in to our co-working space once a month for a big team meeting by planning other fun events for that day. Last month we left the office at 3:30 for a group event and then had a company-sponsored happy hour at a very nice bar nearby. I think about 2/3 or more of our local team attended. We’re all very happy to work from home, but once a month is worth it to come in for something fun and to hang out with coworkers a little bit, and those who couldn’t make it weren’t penalized.

    Our non-locally-based employees got to leave early that Friday to make up for covering for the rest of us when we were out that afternoon.

  136. Can't Commute*

    I moved about 10 hours away from my office while we were fully remote, so there’s not a chance of me moving back just to go into the office. It hasn’t been an issue, but I made it clear to my manager that if the company ever required me to move back, I would quit on the spot.

  137. i can't think of a name*

    Right now, it’s pretty chaotic at my office. Supposedly people are required to come in 3 days a week, but it’s not widely monitored or enforced with a lot of managers just saying “screw it, do what you want.” And my department has an exception (too few desks), but the days required depends on role (some people only 1, some 2-3). All of this has led to some resentment.

    So far they’ve been using the carrot – prize draws that appear to be giving out old, used products, increased events with free food, etc. Word is though the stick will be coming shortly, though no one’s said what that’s going to look like.

    What I’d need to actually want to come back in office:

    – Acknowledgement that we are still in a deadly pandemic. They’ve forgone pretty much all measures at this point – no masks, no contact tracing, no need to stay home even if you 100% know you’ve been exposed, etc. Just “please don’t come to work if you’re sick.” I’d like to see them reinstate contact tracing, tell exposed people to work from home for several days until they’ve tested negative, increased flexibility for sick time/wfh when sick, and a pivot in the messaging to “coming into work with symptoms is unacceptable.”

    – Speaking of messaging – stop with the BS ~culture excuse. We all know it’s BS and we’d respect leadership a lot more if they up and admitted they don’t want their facilities wasted and don’t trust employees not to waste time. Also on the topic of messaging, the rules have changed several times over with almost no notice. (Ex. we were coming in 1 day a week, that was upped to 2 literally without warning.) We need at least several weeks notice in advance of changes to prepare things like child care, transportation, etc.

    – Increased pay. I got a 4% raise in April, and just the increase in gas prices completely eats that up if I go in 3 days a week, with nothing left for all the other increased prices. Commuting needs to make financial sense; pay me enough to properly cover gas, buy an electric car, or move closer.

    – Lastly, flexibility. I’d understand the need to have a talk with someone who just isn’t coming in at all, but don’t even think about calling me out for skipping a day after months of coming in as instructed. I am an adult who can manage their own time. I have family commitments, dog commitments, a screwed up back, horrible seasonal allergies, and an 11 year old car. If you can’t trust me to understandably schedule my time around all that, why the heck did you hire me in the first place?

    1. Antony-mouse*

      I just want to say the culture reason is absolutely not b-s. Since moving remote, I’ve essentially lost out on almost all my work friends, and know almost nothing about any of the new staff who have started. I really miss my colleagues and being in person with them, it’s not b-s

  138. Mehitabel*

    My nonprofit organization is 100% remote and is going to stay that way. Everyone on our (relatively small) team seems to like it that way, although I do hear people say sometimes that they miss seeing their colleagues on a day-to-day basis. I don’t at all — I love working at home and seeing folks on Zoom is just fine with me. I talk to everyone on my team at least twice a week, so there’s no lack of contact.

    After 25+ years of spending 1.5 to 2 hours per day in my car every work day, and coming home at night physically exhausted from putting in a 12-hour day and mentally exhausted from having to ‘people’ all day, I feel like I’ve hit the lottery.

    But I know a few people (not a lot) who are sick of remote work and *want* to return to the office. A friend just started a new job today that’s probably going to be hybrid, and she’s thrilled to have at least a couple of days a week in the office.

  139. FlyGal*

    I work in a satellite office of big business. So even before the pandemic my small team of 6 was used to video conferencing with main office. Switching to working from home was not a big change for us – especially compared to main office folks who seemed to really have trouble with online meetings. Now they want us back in the office and my team is rightfully questioning the need to do so.
    One thing I have noticed is that online meetings, collaborations etc seem to work really well if there is an already established relationship. But colleagues who started during the pandemic struggled to make connections and establish strong working relationships. This was especially pronounced for entry-level individuals and interns. I wonder if this is something others have noticed? With our own interns, we were fully remote last year and noticed the interns struggled with even basic office etiquette and norms. This year we are going in 2 days a week and things seem to be much better with the interns.

  140. BBB*

    literally nothing. my office currently goes in twice a month for “culture” and they are the worst days. endless meetings so management feels like our in-office days are justified and I get zero work done for twice the stress.
    as an introvert, wfh was life changing. I’m not actually antisocial or lazy, I was just exhausted ALL THE TIME from the daily grind. now I get to save up my energy to spend on things I want to do, with the people I want to be with, instead of running on empty all the time and what little energy I could scrounge up being wasted on coworkers.

    1. Kermit's Bookkeepers*

      Truly, the bonus to introvert-life cannot be overstated. I agree it’s very different from being anti-social or disliking my coworkers, but if I have limited energy I can happily spend being around people, I want to spend that energy around people of my choosing, y’know?

      1. Curmudgeon in California*

        It’s funny, spending all day on a (camera off) Zoom meeting was still exhausting, because of needing to moderate my speech for office culture norms. Plus, all the talking! I was hoarse by the end of the day. Yes, it was an all hands on deck thing, but it’s not something I want to do more than once a month.

        But yeah, I find people exhausting, so I only want to spend the energy on people I want to be around.

  141. work from home life*

    Our CEO has come out and said (multiple times) that people that worked from home during the pandemic “didn’t really work”, even though we were all working major overtime because we’re a public health adjacent organization. Our area had a really strict lockdown, which we were apparently supposed to violate to “show passion” for our jobs.

    This has not inspired people to come back to the office. About 40% of the company has left since they announced we would be going back 5 days a week. (My boss decided that we would only go 1 day a week and that’s the only reason I’m still here. I have no idea how she did that but she’s amazing.)

    I have been wondering lately if it’s that I don’t want to go back to the office, or that I don’t want to go back to THIS office.

  142. FoxInABox*

    I live within 15min of my office and if I go in I’ll get an environment with more productive energy + free lunch, both of which are big deals to me (I have simple needs). They’ve even made it super easy to book desks with an app and everything. I just haven’t done it. Like, they’ve done everything I think is reasonable and I am totally on board with going in. I just… don’t? I think that might be the hardest point to get across–a company could do everything right as far as encouraging people to come back but the simple answer is “I don’t feel like it”.

  143. WomEngineer*

    We’re having the same conversation rn.

    My team doesn’t want to go back because of the commute and lack of meaningful work. The office is not in a heavily populated area. It’s at least 20 miles away for most folks and 10 miles from the closest fast food place. Additionally, my team is spread across different states, so we’re always going to have virtual meetings, and our product is not made on-site.

    If we go back, they want a good business reason (that’s not just the social atmosphere) or some kind of incentive. Personally, I’m not opposed to being onsite as much as my peers are, but I agree everyone benefits from flexibility (especially if they have kids/dependents).

  144. DogTrainer*

    I would need to be able to bring my dog to work with me. I would never again leave my dogs at home for 9+ hours at a time, even with a dog walker. That doesn’t seem fair to them.

    1. SEB*

      Same, and that’s just not realistic for most offices given allergies, people’s personal preferences of dogs, etc. I own my own business so always WFH, but I did get a dog during the pandemic. There’s no way she could stay home for a full day given the routine she’s had the past 18 months. And while I don’t mind occasionally sending her to daycare, I wouldn’t want her there every day.

  145. Kermit's Bookkeepers*

    One major factor is that my company hired me remotely during the pandemic, and their headquarters are in another state. If they were to require a return to the office, and to that office in particular, quitting would be an easy decision; the city in which they are based isn’t one I have any interest in living in long term, and the job itself (though it’s generally low-stress and serves my life well in its current form) is neither in my industry of choice nor otherwise alluring enough to move for.

    Even with that consideration aside, I’m hard-pressed to think of an incentive that would make me excited to return to the office full-time; as others have stated, it’s a huge bonus to my quality of life to do minor chores like moving laundry, cooking a hot lunch, or washing dishes in between meetings, but also the lack of commute has put so much more life in my life in other ways; I can go out for a morning run and be back in time for work without having to get up before sunrise or head to the gym on my lunchbreak for a quick session. Any manner of evening plans are more convenient if I can get dressed and ready to go from home at the end of my work day rather than preparing in the morning and possibly hauling extra gear to my office that I won’t need until the evening. Children are not currently a consideration for me, but my cat is; being able to work next to my furry personal assistant is a huge boost to my mental health. Finally, I’m an introvert at heart, and while I sometimes miss the stimulation of being in an environment with other coworkers, the benefits of being able to choose when and how I engage with them far outweighs it.

  146. Klonoa*

    My company has definitely struggled with getting people back in the office, but they seem to have successfully roped people back into hybrid work.

    Initially they mandated that ALL employees return to the office 5 days a week. This resulted in a lot of people quitting and most of the people who were left just… not doing it.

    After that didn’t work they said okay, fine, you can work hybrid but you have to come in at least 3 days a week. This resulted in less quits but still a lot of resistance — again, people just didn’t do it if they didn’t feel like it.

    So then they shifted to bribes — they set up an account with a company that delivers food to the office from a variety of local restaurants, and made it so everyone could either get a free meal from them or $15 to spend at any dining establishment in the neighborhood, as long as they came into the office that day. I can’t actually put a finger on how much that helped but I do know it’s been wildly popular, to the point that when they tried to take it away a few months ago people basically rioted and they backed down and kept feeding us free lunch.

    How it’s panned out is that most people come in at least 2 days a week unless they have some reason not to (reasons to stay home include the normal stuff like being sick or not having childcare, but also petsitting for someone, car trouble, about to go visit someone vulnerable so self-isolating beforehand… basically anything that would make it super inconvenient to go to the office). It’s also fairly common to take morning meetings from home and then go to the office.

    How flexible the hybrid work is depends on your manager but it seems like in most departments managers are pretty mellow as long as you turn up at least some of the time and get your work done.

  147. Some Dude*

    I work at a small office and we are in one day a week and sometimes another if there are meetings. We spend most of our time on our own work, and traveling to the office to sit on zoom calls and not talk to colleagues makes no sense. There is an air of, what are you gonna do, fire us all? None of us are irreplaceable, but we are highly specialized and when 4/5 of your employees don’t want to come back full time, that counts for something.

    There are numerous jobs i have not applied for in my area because the commute would be 1.5 hrs of hellacious traffic each way and housing is insanely expensive in the area. I do not understand why firms with offices in Silicon Valley are requiring people to be in-office. No one can afford to live in Los Altos or Menlo Park, there aren’t good public transit routes, and traffic there is terrible. It seems so out of touch.

    1. Curmudgeon in California*

      I applied for a job at one company that was supposedly remote. The person who referred me was living in another state. Then they saw that I lived in the same area as the company. “Oh, you’re local? Local people have to come in to the office three days a week.” I had to nope out of what was otherwise a promising interview set because I have an immune compromised housemate, and can go in to open plan germ pits, period. The hiring manager was bummed, but he couldn’t get his upper management to budge. If I lived in another state remote would have been fine. It was extremely stupid.

  148. Faye*

    I don’t think anything will make me go back for the two days a week my employer is trying to enforce. I share an office so I have very limited choices on what days I can go in, and sometimes I wake up and am not feeling up to a 15 minute walk to the metro and being around people. I honestly don’t know how I used to do it 5 days a week.

    Right now my department doesn’t seem to be enforcing the two days a week (I haven’t gone in at all this week and nobody said anything to me). If it comes to it, I’ll get a note from my doctor. I suffer from migraines and light, sound, smell, and temperature changes are all triggers, and are things I frequently encounter during my commute.

    Sometimes, I want to go in, see my coworkers, maybe shop downtown on my lunch break. But I want it to be on MY TERMS. They don’t pay for my metro pass, or my lunch if I forget it at home. And with inflation, I need a raise to make it worth my while. In this job market, people won’t put up with coming in to the office just for appearances. My department is constantly hiring, they can’t afford to lose anyone.

    2. Anon for this*

      I was thinking that too – I am in a job where I am interacting with people all day (whether virtually or in person) and I honestly have to admit that it’s much easier to do that virtually at home. I can get off a frustrating call and go take a walk, read a book for a few minutes, or whatever to recoup my energy. I don’t have that luxury in the office, where I have to be “on” all the time.

  149. anonymous sales rep*

    I wasn’t thrilled about going back into the office, we were sent back in very late 2020 to “increase productivity” .
    We had maybe 3-4 in person meetings in the past two years, everything else was on Google hangouts, and the kicker is the company only covered half our parking pass, and the rest was deducted from our paycheck. It wasn’t a huge amount of money, but when you calculate gas + parking, it was definitely costing employees to be in office, when the job could have been done from home.

  150. Zap R.*

    I’m the receptionist at my office so I’m in every day. WFH has created a real have-or-have-not situation in our company; those of us onsite every day are now expected to pick up a lot of slack for people when it comes to receiving deliveries, onboarding/offboarding new employees, shipping work equipment to employees’ homes, etc…

    I’m not receiving any benefit from WFH and it’s actually made my job significantly harder. When a supervisor who makes far more than I do expects me to onboard a new hire even though that’s not my job because they wanted to sit at home in their sweatpants that day, it’s really frustrating.

    TL:DR: WFH has not been kind to admin pros. Instead of managing one big office, I’m essentially managing one big empty office all of the time while putting out constant fires in 200 little satellite ones.

    1. Chained to Desk*

      YES, this! WFH has been great at my company for everyone who gets it and hell for all of the admin staff who have to show up on site. WFH has just added to the workload of everyone at the office who now suddenly has to support everyone WFH. Coordinating deliveries to remote staff. Having to digitize tons of paperwork for remote staff. Being a middleman for clients who show up to talk to remote staff that isn’t there. Playing constant phone tag for WFH staff who aren’t available consistently. Having to put out fires for remote workers having computer issues and constantly monitoring local workstations. Handling issues for meetings when people can’t get their Zoom calls working, or one person thinks it’s an in person meeting & the other thinks it’s remote. Having to print out tons of stuff for remote workers. It never ends, and remote workers are blissfully ignorant of all of the garbage being piled on everyone else’s desk to keep them happily working at home. All of the admins have had so much added to their already busy schedules, and everyone else is making constant demands of us with no appreciation or understanding of how much more difficult our work environment has become in exchange for them getting an easier one.

      It gets incredibly frustrating to hear WFH/hybrid workers bragging about how great it is or complaining when they rarely have to go in because admin workers have been screwed by everyone else getting to WFH this whole time with no benefit or compensation for us.

      1. Zap R.*

        All of this. On top of everything, we downsized to a smaller space and nobody came in to the old office to pack their stuff despite being explicitly told to. Guess what I ended up having to do?

    2. Philosophia*

      Zap R. and Chained to Desk, I’m sorry you are getting such a rotten deal. Two admin positions at my company were RIFFed during the past few years, but management has worked hard to keep the rest of us from being overloaded. They can do it if they want. I hope you find somewhere better.

    3. Quite Anonymous*

      All of this! And especially to highlight your point about the WFH folks often being supervisors or higher up in the chain relative to on-site workers. That adds yet another dynamic to the whole thing.

      Offices with mixed worker types are in an especially tough situation here, I would say.

  151. Chilipepper Attitude*

    The people commenting about the commute and the total hours (even 30 minutes each way = 5 hours) they spend commuting really drives the disconnect home for me.

    The 5 hours a week (the average commute time in the US), that you are NOT commuting is almost like getting another weekend day off. Not the extra sleep part but the 5 hours of daytime to do stuff or just read a book.

    If bringing staff back to the office means taking away a whole day of my time, I’d push back too!

    I say that as someone whose employer brought us back to work in early May 2020. And I have about a 15-minute commute. Which was even shorter in 2020 because everyone else was home.

  152. urguncle*

    Move me out of the US to where I want to live with an unlimited work contract and make sure my partner can legally work there as well.

      2. NotAnotherManager!*

        Ha! In DC, half of our orange line is also currently closed/curtailed for major maintenance, which is, of course, impacting the other half as well.

        Boston is apparently the only commuter rail system that has more fires than DC, though – I can’t imagine how often that must be as I feel like we’re constantly down for fires near the Stadium-Armory stop.

        1. penny dreadful analyzer*

          The feds released a massive report on Boston’s transit system today and it is WITHERING. Honestly it looks like we’ve been very lucky that more people haven’t died.

  153. Stavia*

    I’m permanently remote at a company that really leaned into it, and because of that I relocated back to Washington State from Texas, where they moved me when they hired me. If they wanted me back in the office, they would need to let me work from our nearby office rather than Austin, which would be against company policy (you’re not allowed to be assigned to an office where your organization doesn’t have a formal presence). I’d actually be willing to work from this office—it’s a nice office!—but if they wanted me to move back to Texas I would hand them my resignation letter. Three years of having no nearby friends, the Texas heat, and the Texas political climate was more than enough.

  154. ICodeForFood*

    I work for a large company, and depending on the area within the company, some folks are 100% WFH, some are in the office (think client-facing roles) and most are hybrid. I’m hybrid, and my entire team is in a different state and location.

    I know when management originally worked out how frequently we’d be in the office, they were concerned that if they made us come in too much, they would lose people.

    My organization decided on three days in office per month starting this past April, and then reduced it to two days per month in June.

    Now there’s a rumor that they’re going to increase the number of in-office days for hybrid workers… I’ve reached ‘traditional retirement age’ (65), but wanted to work for a few more years, primarily because I enjoy my job and my coworkers. But if they make me go into the office, even though I’m the only one on my team in my location, that’s definitely going to push me towards retiring sooner.

  155. not thrilled about wfh*

    My company is “encouraging”, not requiring, twice a week in the office. We have about 20% non-local/permanent-remote employees, and of the local people about 40% go to the office at all. The other 40% figure that if meetings have hybrid options for the remote people anyway, then why shouldn’t they get the same option? Most of them have very normal city commutes and very few have made formal requests for WFH as a health accommodation. They just don’t want to.

    The biggest predictor of whether someone will come in is if they’re in management (not surprising) and if they worked in the office pre-covid. I’m in that group, go to the office 3x/week, and think it sucks that others won’t. It’s very apparent that our junior people in particular are struggling with the admittedly steep learning curve in our niche area, and are missing out on building connections with more experienced people. Everyone says they’re “just as productive” at home, but most people are objectively not. They also say they like working without the interruptions you get in the office… but those interruptions for conversation and idea-generation are also work! I realize this is a manager’s-eye view but people seem to have a harder time engaging with aspects of work that don’t have a concrete product (a discussion rather than a pull request or a ticket or whatever).

    When we decided during covid to start hiring non-local people, we planned for 20-30% remote max, so 60% of people being de facto remote is way over what we anticipated. Turnover is higher among people not coming to the office and performance on average is lower. We were already pretty flexible pre-covid and I’m happy to have even more flexibility, but I think the shift in default expectation has been a net negative.

    1. Don’t Pay Me Less Because of Body Parts*

      “Everyone says they’re “just as productive” at home, but most people are objectively not.”

      Sounds like your managers need to be managing better if people aren’t hitting their goals. I don’t see how this is connected to WFH. There’s also a blended approach that allows people to WFH if they’re performing well enough but come into the office if they aren’t performing. Though I’d probably rather manage someone out than babysit them.

      1. Anon for this*

        I think this depends on the person. I’m much more productive when I work at home – there are fewer distractions/interruptions and I can focus on tasks at my own pace. Some people may find the opposite is true.

        1. UKDancer*

          Definitely. It also depends on your home setting very heavily. My young team members were all the keenest to come back because they had less than ideal home environments for remote working (sharing houses with many other people, no dedicated work space). The older managers who lived further out of London liked working remotely much better because they had dedicated home offices.

    2. Alice*

      I mean, if you are a manager and your staff don’t understand that the side conversations are “real work,” or if their understanding of their productivity is not accurate, I think you have standing to tell them and fix it. Good luck.

    3. SdB*

      I think if you’re going to intentionally hire remotely, you have to really treat the business (or maybe certain teams/business areas) as remote-first or it doesn’t work very well.

      If the business is still operating like in-person is expected then you get this messy situation where the fully/mostly remote people end up out of the loop, which can cause some of the problems you’ve mentioned (people not engaging in discussions, not able to be as productive, etc.)

      Conversations and creativity can absolutely happen in remote teams – lots of very creative work is done collaboratively by people who have never met in person. But if a significant chunk of the business treats those things as something that only happens in-person, then that’s what will happen. You have to actively engage with remote workers rather than let things happen by chance. Done well, you get the upside of less non-productive interruptions, but you still get engagement.

      My boss insisted on regular department-wide chats (it’s a small department so this is workable) when we went remote and I was annoyed at first, but it’s made sure we all speak regularly, and new people coming in always have a chance to get to know everyone else. Plus it’s normalised us all calling and messaging each other regularly. Communication in our department is actually much better than before.

      1. Curmudgeon in California*

        We have a regular weekly meeting where we catch up on what everyone is working on and get the chance to shoot the breeze. If you build a little slack into meetings and have a habit of joining early you can get plenty of chit-chat and cross-fertilization. Even little things like having new team members introduce themselves can help make the connection.

      2. IT Manager*

        I think we have a ways to go before we can effectively be “remote first” at my company, at least. That’s our goal and policy, but there’s not much methodology for it beyond “always have a dial-in” and “heavily leverage chat”.

        We haven’t found (IMO) a way to replace job shadowing, mentoring, work planning, informal status reporting, and ad hoc communications like you would get from chatting with someone in the hallway/kitchen. So work is less efficient, it’s easier to form silos, and juniors don’t learn what they need.

    4. Mid*

      If you’re intentionally hiring people who are fully remote, then you need to accept that remote work is part of your workplace and set people up for success, not resent them for it.

    5. Curmudgeon in California*

      If your people aren’t as productive remotely as in the office, it’s up to their management to set expectations for work output, regardless of where their butt sits. If they need to communicate more, then ad-hoc zoom chats are viable, but you will have to model that behavior.

  156. Anon for this*

    My company has taken the position that they’d like most people to return to the office at least on a hybrid basis (for those employees whose jobs don’t require them to be on site). I’ve been going in usually 1-2 days a week, which seems to be the right balance for me. It gets me out of the house and gives me a change of scenery, but since I spend much of my time in remote meetings, it does seem kind of pointless for me to go into the office for that.
    I will say that being in the office is nice for camaraderie and general socializing, but I don’t seem to get as much work done on the days when I’m in the office, so that’s the tradeoff. Also, my dog misses me when I’m gone all day!

  157. saradesel*

    My office has been working from home since March 2020 and has not returned to in-person work with a few exceptions for events or meetings. Our physical office was kind of shitty and in a mediocre NYC neighborhood that was difficult for most staff to get to, so no one really wanted to return. We’ll be closing it when the lease is up in a month and moving to a dedicated office in a coworking space with amenities in a better neighborhood. I expect that staff will start coming in an average of 2 days per week because of the easier location and nicer space (at least, that’s my plan!)

  158. Anon4This*

    I’m not sure anything would make me *want* to go back in any more than the bare minimum required. I live in a major metro, and commuting here sucks a lot – average commute time is over an hour each way. While I was at home, I was able to eat dinner with my family every night, be more active in my kids’ schoolwork and activities (not sure THEY aren’t happier on the days I’m in-office), and do more to help my spouse with house/kid stuff. I get so much more done during the day, and the pandemic got a lot of resistant people to use video calls and instant messaging rather than drop-bys and phone calls. If I could find a comparable, 100% remote job, I’d take it in a heartbeat. I’ve been casually looking but have not yet found the right fit.

    I also hate being in the office. Our company moved to a new building mid-pandemic, and it’s all open/glass. I absolutely hate it. There are nice amenities like free beverages (coffee, fancy coffee, teas, seltzer, soda, flavored waters, you name it) and an onsite market with fresh food instead of vending machines. The meeting facilities are nice, and meetings are catered. But my “office” is tiny and all glass, I can’t move my desk and the position has me constantly startled by people coming up on my peripheral vision, and you have to get any sort of office or cube decor approved by a committee. The whole thing is sterile, there is no privacy, and it is distracting as hell. And the people I need to see are never in the building at the same time, so I end up on Zoom in the office.

    1. Hats Are Great*

      I’m in a similar situation. My job involves either writing complex documents that require quiet and concentration, or being on phone calls with teams scattered around the world, some of which involve confidential information that I can’t talk about in the open office plans my company uses. There’s very little benefit to being in an office listening to OTHER people’s phone calls when I’m either writing or trying to have my own phone call. Since the pandemic sent everyone remote, the office is actually a little nicer, because if you wait until day-of, you’re allowed to schedule any empty conference room as just one person, and even the open seating areas are just a lot quieter. (Fortunately, my boss said if the company wants to bring our team into the office, she will make a business case that we all require private offices, which they’ll refuse to do, and let us stay remote.)

      But one of the biggest things keeping me WFH is that my kids are still pretty little, and one of my kids has a significant disability. It gives me SO much peace-of-mind to know that if my kid gets sick at school, I’m five minutes away, rather than an hour away. And SO much peace-of-mind to know that if my disabled child has a health crisis, I am RIGHT HERE. And it’s really great that working from home, I can easily block out an hour in my day to go and be the “story reader” for kindergarten! When I worked downtown, that was at least a half-day commitment, and I generally had to take PTO to do it. Now I just block the time off, walk 10 minutes to school, read, and go back to my workday.

      Two other women on my team with caregiving responsibilities have said that our team being fully remote is basically why they’re still in the workforce, because the logistics of childcare would have been too complex if they had to commute, or the health concerns of an aging parent made being out of the house all day too difficult. I’d love to see a really good discussion of how remote work might be increasing workplace equity in some ways!

  159. FineWithHybrid*

    There isn’t anything my company could do to make me “want” to work in the office, but something they’ve recently started deffs helped lessen the blow of coming in. They recently offered a transit corporate discount pass where we get unlimited transit rides for 90days. Just going in twice a week (we’re currently doing an optional hybrid trial) is already saving me over $100 so if I was forced to go back for more days I would save even more money so it would make me less upset about it since one of my complaints of working in the office is cost of commuting. The big guy wants us to come back full-time but there’s a lot of push back from other senior members so we’re kind of stuck in limbo at the moment. I’m personally fine with going 2 twice a week but I laugh because each time I go in I barely do any work! My in office days are my least productive, I’m too busy socializing. I’ve noticed they do a lot more company lunches/events/treats to get people to come in. We have a barista type of machine to make starbuck type drinks in the morning. It’s also an unwritten rule, but another perk is that on the days we’re in the office, there’s no more 9-5 schedule. People usually arrive at normal start time but by 1-2pm, everyone starts to trickle out. To clarify though, I have a company laptop so still able to work on train. The flexibility to come and go as I please makes coming in not as hard of a pill to swallow. Leaving early means no traffic and this transit pass is saving me money too. Don’t get me wrong, going in still feels completely pointless and my dream scenario is WFH full-time! But if the comprise is a hybrid 2/3 times a week, I deffs won’t complain and I’m happy with the perks our company is providing.

  160. that doesn’t compute*

    I work for a large consulting company, so the people in my office usually aren’t the people I work with day to day. That being said, I still go in about once a week because they have free lunch on Fridays, and tend to schedule social events that day too. I would say about 25% of people who live locally participate. With gas prices I probably am paying for the experience overall, but I find it worth it, as being in the office on the “social” day gives me lots of opportunities for face time with people that will help me land my next project, and can offer helpful mentoring including my grand boss and great great grand boss, who I probably wouldn’t have had similar face time with pre covid when everyone was in office every day. There are definitely people who show up at 11 AM and leave at 1 PM, but there are a handful of us that are there all day have a chance to network and connect and I *hope* it will lead to a better career trajectory for me overall. If they were offering free food and leadership was not in the office I probably wouldn’t come. Also my great grand boss has been talking up how wonderful it would be if we were all in the office more and emphasizing how we should all come in more often and I have seen him on one Friday. Whereas the other two leadership people I mentioned who are there pretty much every day don’t pressure anyone to come in at all.

    In order to get me to commute every day I would need a pretty solid reason they needed me there and more desk amenities- right now I just have the same laptop I use at home and have to crawl under my desk to plug it in.

  161. Snarky McSnarkerson*

    Our piece of a much larger organization has stated that you can come in if you want. We have a space assigned for every person who lives locally. We have had some teams come in for specific events (team building) and some meetings. But the boss doesn’t care if we come in at all. Since I was getting sick of looking at my living room, I started coming in two days a week. I get really annoyed if someone comes up with a good reason that I have to go in more late in the week when I’ve already been in, but it doesn’t happen often. I’m also the office manager so I deal with the physical space, computers for staff and all that jazz, but if I only chose to come in twice a month, it would be fine. I don’t think there’s very much that the employer could offer that would make me want to go in more.

  162. Don’t Pay Me Less Because of Body Parts*

    We incentivize but don’t mandate. I go in about once a month and do it when there’s something organized in addition to my day-to-day. Combining something work related

    1. Don’t Pay Me Less Because of Body Parts*

      Misclicked!

      When we combine something work-ey (all staff meeting, training, intentional project meeting, volunteering) with something fun (happy hour, celebrating pride, going out to eat, a couple hours to play games) I’m much more likely to go in. Key is to do most/all of it during work hours!

      Feed me, entertain me and make it worth my time, energy and money from a professional standpoint.

  163. Quite Anonymous*

    Personally, I’d love to hear from anyone who has successfully tackled this in an office with mixed schedules. How to lure remote workers back with perks while not alienating people who have been forced to be in the office all along?

    (Alison, please delete if this is too far off topic or likely to derail!)

      2. Zap R.*

        This would make such a difference. During the mandatory lockdowns in my country, I saved maybe $1500 in transit fare. Once I had to come in again, I had to resume paying $100-$150 a month on transit plus about $100 a month on Ubers because my city’s public transit system is notoriously unreliable. At the very least, some sort of stipend would be cool.

  164. Blue Collar Worker*

    WOW! The shocking amount of entitlement in these posts blows my mind. Do you know how many problems happening in this country directly relate to people refusing to go back to their offices and facilities? It would be really nice to hear from some blue collar, healthcare and service workers who have had NO CHOICE but to go to work (now AND during the worst of the pandemic when the world shut down) or lose their jobs. It’s because of people like us that you WFH folks were even able to get toilet paper back then! There are so many people living in pain and poverty that can’t just decide to defy their employer and stay home anyway, even when told they need to be in the office. How nice for you to be home doing your laundry and unloading your dishwasher on your lunch break while other people are forced to go in to work every day. What would all of you do if, say, Amazon warehouse workers refused to come to work and a major source of online shopping wasn’t available to you anymore? You’d all be leaving the house pretty quickly to get the things you need. And the person who now won’t go back to work because you got a dog during the pandemic? That’s a joke right? Literally millions of people have to leave their pets at home every day to go to work. And in what universe is that your employer’s problem? You’re the one who chose to get a dog knowing there was a possibility you’d have to go back in to work. Ditto to those who decided to move out of state or further away and now can’t come to their company’s facilities because it’s too far. That’s your problem, not your employer’s. And the person who decided that a 30 minute commute is too far so they’re not going to go in? Seriously, you folks sound overly spoiled, entitled, ungrateful and like you’ve lost all realistic perspective on the working world. I’m curious about one thing. How many of you who won’t go in to work still order takeout food, socialize in groups, travel, go on vacations, go shopping or to the movies, etc.? If you aren’t afraid for your safety under those circumstances then you’re just using Covid as an excuse to stay home at your company’s expense.

    1. Anon for this*

      I actually had the dog well before the pandemic. It was a light-hearted comment, but your point is well-taken that many people do not have the option of working from home.

    2. Justin*

      Well, plenty of people here are talking about not wanting to be sick.

      But aside from that, I did have one coworker who refused to come into the office because of safety (fair!) but took her child to Disney World (um…). Like, you sure aren’t protecting yourself THAT hard. But I left that job because I had coworkers like that. And another who bought a new house very, very far away (not to save money), and so forth. I had less empathy for all that.

    3. BluRae*

      It’s cheaper for my company if they don’t have to rent office space, actually.

      I can do my entire job from home. I’ve proven that over the past two years. There’s no reason for me to go into an office.

      I do think jobs that have a required in-person component should pay more though, for the inconvenience. They should also have commute stipends.

    4. Valancy Snaith*

      It’s abundantly clear that every post on this website is targeted at a group that has the option to work from home, which is already a pretty small subset of the working population. Which is fine, but it doesn’t take into account the many millions of people who work in production/industry/manufacturing, retail, healthcare, transportation, service sector, etc., and I think really gives a skewed perspective of what the modern work world looks like. I personally know 0 people in my area who have the ability to work from home on a permanent basis, due to the nature of their jobs, the nature of their industry, the availability of good consistent home internet in their area, etc. You’re not the only one who is a little amazed at the response here.

      1. Justin*

        I think it’s a valuable resource for a subset of the population but some of us (myself included) probably forget we’re a subset sometimes.

    5. Mid*

      I don’t think anyone here was implying that all work can be done remotely, just that there isn’t a reason for work that *can* be done remotely to not have that option. (Though, for the record, a lot of medical care is being done remotely! I had surgery (in person, obviously), and all but 1 of my follow up visits have been virtual. Entire medical offices near me have 2+ days a week of only virtual appointments, and only certain appointments are in-person as necessary. We’ve found out that a lot of things that “couldn’t” be done virtually actually can be!)

      Obviously, I can’t open up a manufacturing plant in my living room. But it’s not “spoiled, entitled, ungrateful” to not see the point in driving 30+ minutes to sit in an empty office to have Zoom meetings. Also, working from home is usually *cheaper* for a company, so it’s not really “an excuse to stay home at your company’s expense.” Some work will always be done in person, but that doesn’t mean people are being ridiculous for recognizing that not all work needs to be done in person.

      Everyone should have the right to a safe work environment, and people with jobs that have to be done in person should have adequate protections to ensure they’re safe and healthy, with pay that acknowledges the risk of being in person and the time and money that commuting costs people, with enough employees and paid sick leave so people can take time off without worry.

      Honestly, it sounds like you have some misplaced anger here. People advocating for better working environments aren’t your enemy. No one is denying that there’s a level of privilege in being able to stand up to your employer, but there are also far more workers than there are bosses, and there is strength in numbers and unity. Why do you think there are record numbers of new unions forming? Because people are realizing they actually do have power, and that a united front is allowing people to stay safer and healthier. The threat of losing your job has always been held over people’s heads, but since a lot of employers can’t get or retain staff, there is a slight shift in power for the first time in decades, and that’s a good thing.

      1. Mid*

        And before you come at me for being a white-collar-ivory-tower-out-of-touch person, I am from a solidly blue-collar, working class family, from a blue-collar, working class town. I worked multiple jobs my entire working life until very, very recently, and even while working my one white-collar job, I was also working a blue-collar job. If my body is ever healthy enough again, I’ll probably go back to doing manual labor jobs on the weekends. I worked at an in-person-only job throughout the pandemic, scared the entire time. I didn’t see my family for years because I couldn’t risk killing them and couldn’t stay home. I get it, I understand how hard it is.

        But other people fighting to improve their situations is not an attack on you. If your workplace isn’t safe, fight them. If you can’t risk losing your job, form a union and a united front. Don’t direct your anger at people who are also working to survive.

        1. Quite Anonymous*

          It’s been discussed here before that many people on-site are shouldering an extra burden to allow people to WFH successfully, myself included. In that respect, fighting to improve their situation may not be an attack on me, but it does have a cost for me. I just can’t see myself putting their already privileged interests above my own for the sheer principle of it.

          1. Mid*

            And that’s something that should be addressed. If people have to shoulder extra burdens due to other people working remotely, then WFH isn’t working correctly, and either positions need to be restructured, people need to come into the office sometimes to correct the balance, compensation needs to be adjusted, etc. But that’s on the employer to correct, and getting mad at your co-workers still doesn’t actually fix anything. The mentality shouldn’t be “if I’m suffering, everyone else should be too” and employers that are shrugging and pretending it’s your coworker’s fault that your workload changed instead of their fault for not properly staffing and adjusting roles aren’t good employers.

            1. Quite Anonymous*

              Just speaking for me, but it’s not about being mad at co-workers or wanting to see anyone suffer; it’s just putting the fight for WFH at the bottom of my priority list, especially since it makes my own life more difficult. I guess I’m also dubious that this issue will lead to tangible improvements for the rest of the working world and would like to see some of the other things you suggested happen first.

    6. NotAnotherManager!*

      So, I should go back to my pointless, miserable commute because not everyone in the entire world can work from home? Sorry, not playing the race to the bottom game. The working world has changed for a lot of people in the past couple of years, so, of course, people’s perspectives on the working world have also changed. It is not spoiled, entitled, or ungrateful to know your worth and advocate on your own behalf – employment should be a mutually beneficial arrangement, not one in which I have to accept without question any working condition – this smacks of the whole “you should be grateful you have a job!” BS that employers try to feed you.

      Different jobs have different needs and requirements. If your job physically cannot be done from home, that’s entirely different than insisting that people show up at the office for no reason other than the some higher-up’s antiquated notions of how work should done. I’m not losing 10 hours a week with my family to commute for no legitimate business purpose. I don’t have to be in the office to put hands on a machine or a patient or a product, so why should I risk my health, waste my time, and contribute to unnecessary pollution when my organization has made record profits and exceeded KPIs in a fully-WFH environment?

      And, if all the Amazon workers went on strike, I’d cheer them on because they deserve better working conditions, period, and Jeff Bezos could dip into his yacht and spaceship account to rectify that problem immediately.

    7. SdB*

      People aren’t staying at home at anyone’s expense, though. Different types of job have different needs. What’s happened is that a lot of office jobs (which aren’t all well paid, by any stretch) didn’t really require people to be there in-person, but it was the status quo, so it continued. The pandemic came along and made it really obvious to a lot of people that it was unnecessary, and that their lives are better this way.

      We *all* stand to benefit from this shift. Lower traffic from commuting benefits everyone. Any swing towards taking workers’ needs and preferences into account is a good thing. People who can afford to risk defying unnecessary orders to go back in can be the ones to drive change, allowing lower paid office workers to get the same choice to work from home without risking their jobs. Some people who struggled with in-office work for various reasons might well be able to flourish working from home. And lots of office-type jobs are open to just about anyone – if it becomes normal for even entry-level office jobs to allow WFH, then people in other roles where that isn’t an option can potentially choose to switch jobs to one that it is. Before, working from home was often only available to people in very senior or specialist roles, so it was much more unfair before.

      1. Zap R.*

        The thing is, in some cases it *is* coming at someone’s expense. I’ve talked about this further up in the thread, but my office admin job became significantly more difficult after most of my coworkers moved to WFH. I’m happy that so many lives have been improved by WFH, but it’s absolutely created a new underclass of onsite workers and it disproportionately affects people in pink and blue-collar jobs.

    8. Anonymous Koala*

      My partner works out of the home full time. He *has* to – his work simply can’t be done off-site, and that’s a reality he accepted when he began training for his field. But that’s completely different from companies who simply *want* their workers on-site when the work could get done from home. I don’t think anyone here is saying that they won’t go into the office to complete work that can’t get done off-site – they’re objecting to being asked to commute to take Zoom meetings and sit at a computer for 8 hours.
      It’s true that many jobs can’t be done from home, and I have great respect and appreciation for on-site workers. But the WFH push might actually benefit those workers too by forcing companies to pay them premiums to work on-site. Will that drive the cost of goods up? Maybe. But it’s also an important step towards shifting power towards workers, and that’s a net benefit in my mind.

    9. ALLCAPSRESUME*

      The counterpoint is that people who are in jobs that genuinely must be performed onsite and/or during specific shift times are the ones burdened when people who are going in to the office for no reason are commuting and running errands at the same time as them. Like you understand that a “30 minute commute” depends on how many people are trying to make that commute at the same time, right? Or that the more demand there is for housing in any given area, the higher the housing cost is? By reducing the competition for homes by allowing people who do not need to commute to an office to live away from urban cores, this increases the likelihood that people who do need to live closer to an urban core can find available, affordable housing.

    10. Frustrated Front Desk*

      I realize this specific post isn’t for the likes of me, but it’s kind of amazing. I work in the office of a factory and working from home was never an option for me or almost anyone I work with. I can’t wrap my head around the mindset of the laptop class. All of the responses along the lines of, “Give me a good enough to reason to come in on any given day, and if I decide it’s good enough maybe I’ll consider it,” aren’t coming off well. There is a middle ground somewhere, I’m sure.

      1. RussianInTexas*

        Yeah, I was allowed to work from home and haven’t been called back, but half of my coworkers are in, and if I am called back, I don’t really have any power to refuse.

      2. NLR*

        If they are in a position with the power to negotiate that, why shouldn’t they? It’s similar to saying someone shouldn’t say “offer me $X and I will consider your job offer but otherwise no” if they are in a position to do that simply because others are not. When workers get more power and employers get less it is good for everyone. Direct your anger at employers, not workers.

    11. AnonReply*

      And my job and company make sure you and a million others can do their jobs. What’s your point?
      Having people in for no other reason than because they want us there isn’t a valid reason. Things change, and times change. People used to complain about email as the standard form of communication, and now they complain about DMs.

    12. Chuck Finley*

      I agree with you. The commenters here are coming off as extremely privileged and delicate little blossoms. My industry is manufacturing and I only worked from home during my state’s 2-month shutdown (and the odd snowstorm). It got mighty annoying hearing the non-manufacturing staff at the corporate office complain about having to go to the office in 3-6 months when the manufacturing sites (including the office staff) were at full bore for nearly a year.

      I’m also finding it ironic that the same people who had such a hard time in isolation back in 2020 are now refusing to leave their homes.

    13. online millenial*

      I don’t think the solution here is for everyone to suffer equally. Lots of jobs can’t be done remotely, so those jobs should have better pay, better protections, better health and safety supports, better childcare offerings. If a job can be done remotely, it should be an option, and those of us who can make that choice should use some of our free time to advocate for better policies for EVERYONE. All workers being equally miserable only gives more power to the employers who treat everybody like crap, blue collar, white collar, and everything else. Because people who are tired and burned out can’t organize and fight back.

      1. Generic Name*

        100% I am sympathetic to folks who HAD to work in person. Heck, my husband is a carpenter, and he went to work every day during the shut down. What would make your working life better, Blue Collar Worker? I’ll guess higher wages, affordable health insurance/healthcare, paid sick time/vacation time, a consistent work schedule? Let’s all advocate for those things!

        1. Healthcare Worker*

          It’s not an either/or. I’m for higher wages, better paid leave, and better benefits, but I also think a lot of y’all are being ridiculous. Thirty minute commute? Boo hoo, I’ve done that and more every day of my working life. You got a dog? Your responsibility, you figure it out. I’m all for worker protections, but you still need to, you know… work.

          1. Curmudgeon in California*

            30 minutes each way, five days a week times thousands of cars equal how much pollution?

            People who work from home actually work, damnit, and I resent this whiny insinuation that they don’t.

      2. J*

        I’m always shocked when someone who has to go in thinks we all want them to suffer. I absolutely want them to work in a safe, well-paid environment with lots of benefits. I just don’t see how me suffering helps them. If people have to go in but much of their workforce is at home, maybe this requires hiring more in person help. I know my workload increased in 2020/2021 when I shifted from home and increased my work capacity because of fewer interruptions. It was recognized with a raise and promotion. I’d obviously expect the same for someone in the office picking up additional duties but also an acknowledgement of the need to hire more. That’s a company issue to solve and not one fixed just by magically having workers return. They won’t be taking on those former duties again and likely had reassigned roles themselves. We all should be asking more of employers.

    14. Anon for this*

      Covid broke some things in our society. One of the things that’s relevant to this particular topic, is that a lot of employers, mine included, made it real clear that taking precautions to keep their workers safe during the height of the pandemic was not a priority. Mine had to be dragged kicking and screaming, first by the unions we have, and eventually by the press into doing the bare minimum. That went for everyone, including the front-facing workers who had to keep going in.

      That’s a thing that I won’t forget any time soon.

      I am lucky enough to be tenured faculty and the nature of my work is such that as long as I do the tasks in person that require my physical presence, I can work from anywhere. I have a director who does not want to acknowledge this. I am privileged, yes, but I worked damned hard to get where I am and I am not relinquishing that right.

      The plans for my particular department before Covid were to move us to a windowless suite of offices that are no bigger than supply closets. They begrudgingly agreed to clean. Yes, I am privileged to have an office at all, but again, that’s the nature of my job. I get to have an office. That still is the plan, by the way. I’m going to be in a supply closet. Having a nice office is a perk, but it’s a perk that usually goes with someone who has the kind of job I have.

      The director wants us all back because she wants “normalcy.” Our director by the way earns a high six figure salary and hated working at home. At least, this is my impression which I formed by the way she would scream at her children during zoom calls and yell for the au pair to come get them. While I am sorry that she hates her children, her husband, and her household staff, that really isn’t enough reason for me to have to haul my butt into the office every single day. Not when I can point to data that shows I do my job far better at home, have authored more publications, and done more committee work, which is what is valued by my university.

      That’s the nature of my job. If they want me back in the office every single working day, I’d really like a valid reason other than “I hate working from home so everyone needs to be back.”

    15. Curmudgeon in California*

      So, because you had to go in to the office you think that the people who don’t want to are “entitled”? Even though there is no rational reason that they have to risk their lives to go and do work that can be just as easily be done remotely? I hate to tell you this, but that is really, really, really arrogant and entitled!

      Is it really “defying their employer” when someone prioritizes their mental and physical health over grinding through a commute for a pointless risk in the office?

      How would it help all those poor benighted “blue collar” workers to force all the knowledge workers back into an open plan germ pit?

      Seriously, you folks sound overly spoiled, entitled, ungrateful and like you’ve lost all realistic perspective on the working world.

      No, you sound like someone who wants everyone to suffer because you have to. You are a bucket crab, or a dog in a manger, unhappy because someone else has different circumstances than you do, so you want to drag them down to your level of misery.

      I am having a really difficult time not telling you exactly what I think of your nasty attitude toward people you don’t even know.

      BTW, I get takeout, and wear an N95 mask when the delivery person comes, and I tip well. I don’t go on vacations except to fully masked events, and that only started this year. I don’t go shopping without an N95 mask. I don’t go to movies, sporting events, etc. because not enough people mask up, and even with an N95 it isn’t worth the risk.

      You have basically called every person worried about Covid and taking precautions, including WFH, a liar. You have belittled their physical and mental health concerns. You act like companies are entitled to risk people’s lives and like no one should ever have any recourse since Amazon employees and fast food workers don’t.

      Companies are not gods, people shouldn’t have to risk their physical and mental health for a paycheck. Quite frankly IDGAF if the company wants me in the office. I work better from home, and so do thousands of other people. There is no point to require people to go into an office if their jobs can be done remotely. No goddamn point at all. You argument is arrogant and invalid.

    16. Mewtwo*

      The thing is, many jobs *don’t* require going into an office, which what I think a lot of people are complaining about. Of course, many do (like the sectors you listed), but there is no point in people who don’t need to be onsite being onsite. I have a lot of friends and family in the healthcare industry, and during the height of the pandemic, they were really frustrated that more companies weren’t sending their employees home and that people weren’t properly isolating because it was that much harder to keep transmission down.

      I was one of the privileged people who worked remotely full time before getting vaccinated and for what it’s worth, I found myself basically eliminating takeout and lot of convenience services from my purchases because I gained more time to cook and do things on my own. The pandemic allowed me to develop hobbies that don’t require me to patronize businesses because that wasn’t an option for two years.

      1. Mewtwo*

        I also hope that the increased existence of remote jobs results in increased compensation for jobs that are required to be onsite in order to entice workers who would otherwise be wooed by the remote jobs. I do appreciate that not all jobs can be done offsite and that they are indispensable, which is why they should be compensated well.

    17. Magc*

      I don’t go into work. I don’t eat out even at restaurants with outdoor seating. I don’t see my friends. (Well, I _think_ they’re still my friends even though I haven’t seen them in over two years. I still exchange emails with some of them.) I only order items that I can’t buy locally, and try to order from big box stores where the delivery is to the store.

      I have been unmasked indoors with people not in my household exactly twice since March of 2020: a dental appointment, and a visit to see my 90-YO mother. I have always worn N95 respirators and recently switched to an N95 half-face elastomer respirator. I wiped down all my groceries until I was vaccinated, and didn’t get take-out until the same time (and take-out is because we had to put my MIL into memory care 7 months ago and just closed the sale of her house last week — we’ve been busy).

      By my not going into the office, I am not a disease vector for my household — or for anyone else at work; less people breathing in a building means lower chances of spreading covid. It’s airborne, and it sticks around in the air in a room even when the person with covid has left. (See cases when people were infected in hospital break rooms this way.) So you’re working alone in the conference room (or your office — do you _know_ where your office’s air came from??) and took your mask off, but you don’t know that Joe came to work sick, spent two hours without a mask in the conference room, and now you’re breathing in what he breathed out.

      One study’s data showed that 30% of the study population had a higher risk of cardiac events and stroke for two years post-covid-infection (including mild infections); the highest increase in risk was for my age group (50-64). I can’t make it possible for everyone to work from home, but those of us who are working to lower the odds of catching covid are also working to avoid spreading it.

      1. Magc*

        P.S. If there were vaccination and mask mandates, I would change my behavior — but there isn’t, so I won’t.

        I’m also aware that I’m quite privileged because I can work from home, if I have to go into the office I can wear a mask (and the HVAC was upgraded specifically for covid reasons), my entire household can remain isolated (no little kids), and I’m not likely to go stir-crazy without in-person activities.

      2. Car door*

        You know that wiping down the groceries is kind of pointless, right? Touch transmission isn’t the primary transmission mode for COVID.

        It’s also not March 2020 anymore so you being a self imposed hermit is hurting you instead of helping anyone.

        1. Magc*

          I was definitely aware that fomite transmission was not the primary way that SARS-2 was spread, but I have household members with chronic medical conditions so kept doing it longer than I needed to.

          I’m not worried about dying from covid; I’m worried about long covid and the substantial increases in cardiac and stroke risk. It’s like wearing a seatbelt: not hard to do, doesn’t guarantee you won’t get injured or die, but it sure helps lower the risk. I’m also concerned about spreading it to anyone who is at much higher risk of dying from it.

    18. PaperPal*

      I was an essential worker who could not do their job from home. Than I switched jobs that could wfh and now in a job that 95% of the time I can’t do from home. I don’t resent people who can work from home doing so. Do I wish I got more “perks” working in person, yes definitely. But the standard for this job is in person so it is what it is. Better working conditions for some don’t make my job worse.

  165. Accounting Otaku*

    To get me to come back into the office full time, I would need a fuel stipend for the commute. I saved so much on WFH. I’d also need the office to be in a desirable location where I can get my errands done nearby. I’m not going to commute 45+ minutes to some place in the middle of nowhere.
    Currently, I live in the middle of nowhere and have a 15-20 minute commute to my office/factory in the middle of nowhere. I have to be in the office at least 3 days a week but it’s not strictly enforced. See: my boss can’t remember which days I’m actually supposed to be in the office. I’d like it to be either 2 days a week or just come in when I have in-person things to do.

    1. Accounting Otaku*

      Also! A relaxed dress code. I never interact with clients, there is no reason for me to be in business casual. It does nothing but make me uncomfortable.

  166. irene adler*

    Probably off-topic, but here in San Diego -prior to COVID- the various mayors of the nearby cities were meeting together to find ways to reduce commuter traffic. And they basically said ‘we throw up our hands at this issue’ and didn’t offer up any viable solutions. Just a lot of commiseration for the >1 hour commutes that people endured getting to and from work.

    So I would think they would want to be in the thick of things right now-encouraging WFH – to the fullest extent possible. Throw their weight behind WFH as a viable long-term way for employees to do their jobs. But…nothing. Not a peep from them. And, traffic is returning to pre-COVID levels, making travel just awful for everyone.
    Local governments can’t help persuade businesses to include WFH into employee work options? Really?

  167. jackthedog*

    I’m permanently remote in my current role, and do not intend to seek non-remote roles in the near future.

    I’m also chronically ill, this year has been rough with some medical things. Intense pain, weekly+ medical appointments, etc. Working from home has never been more valuable to me. If I need to lie down, I lie down. I schedule appointments when they’re convenient and don’t need to miss nearly as much work. I can choose certain comforts that would look really weird in an office, but at home no one can tell. Expanded WFH policies have greatly improved the ability of people with disabilities to remain in the workforce and I will never take that for granted.

    1. Curmudgeon in California*

      Ditto. My disabilities don’t even register with my coworkers since I WFH. They don’t see me limping as fast as I can on the way to the bathroom with an IBS flare.

      I used to have migraines once or twice a week. Now that I work remotely, it’s less than once a month, and I can usually take medication and a quick nap to knock it down. I couldn’t do that in the office.

  168. Angelinha*

    I’d go in more frequently if my employer reimbursed my commuting fees – parking at the train station and round trip train tickets.

  169. Mara*

    I don’t have a choice—my company is 100% on-site right now, unless you are at a client site.

    We are having massive problems recruiting and retaining good employees.

    They are doing a pilot hybrid program now for a few small teams—to work out the kinks of hybrid working. Everyone is kind of incredulous about this. We had 1.5 years of forced WFH and hybrid work. We have worked out the kinks. We’ll see if the company becomes more flexible soon. If not, I don’t know how we’re going to be able to hire.

  170. EverythingIsInteresting*

    Since we’re still in the middle of a global pandemic, I require proof of current vaccination and masks at all times for everyone in the building – enforced! – before I would go to the physical office. Since that will never happen, I would look for a fully remote job if I was forced to go to the office again and risk dying because of it. For some of us, it is literally a life and death matter. Denial will not make the pandemic go away.
    That’s hurdle #1, and it’s a deal-breaker. But assuming they passed that hurdle, they’d have to give me a 20% pay increase to come to the office every day, because of the financial expense and time expense. We didn’t realize how much we were paying for the privilege of working until we didn’t have to pay it any more.

  171. Katie Porter's Whiteboard*

    My office is physically uncomfortable. It’s always cold but I’m not allowed to bring in a space heater, the ‘kitchen’ is a 2-3 minute walk away but the only place I can refill my water, there’s no breakroom and the nature of my work prevents me from eating at my desk so I’m forced to eat in the copy room if the weather prevents me from eating outdoors, and I share space with a workshop when I work best in quiet environments.

  172. What Would Motivate Me To Telework*

    As someone on the other side of things (prefers working from office 100% of the time, fighting to avoid attempts to make partial telework mandatory), what would lure me into considering a hybrid schedule would be being provided with a separate set of computer equipment and peripherals for work at home. As someone who doesn’t commute by car, having to haul my computer and peripherals back and forth multiple times a week is a hard line in the sand for me. It weighs too much and I don’t want the stress of worrying about keeping it from water damage if the skies open up halfway through my commute.

    Conversely, since I don’t commute by car, I don’t consider not having a commute a positive. My commute is my daily exercise. Motivating myself to walk or bike in circles every day is harder than motivating myself to travel to a destination, and since I’d ideally be doing the same amount of exercise anyway it wouldn’t get me back a single minute of my life.

    1. BluRae*

      I used to have a walking commute before the pandemic and I dealt with this by removing all the coffee from my house, forcing me to walk a mile to the coffeeshop every day if I want my daily caffeine.

      It’s been very effective.

    2. What Would Motivate Me To Telework*

      Having read through a lot of the other comments, I do want to note:
      I have a flexible work schedule (show up between 6:30 and 10:30 am, work roughly your assigned hours, if you stay late one day and leave early the next it’s fine)
      I get ample leave and my boss has never once objected to me needing a few hours off on short notice for medical appointments, contractors, etc.
      I have a compressed work schedule (Fridays off)
      My work pays for transit if I use it instead of walking or cycling. It also provides free parking.
      I don’t have a private office, but I do have a large cube with full height walls permanently assigned to me, decorated to my taste and full of all the tools I need to do my job

      If these weren’t baseline part of my work experience, I might understand the appeal of telework more.

  173. Jamie*

    My company culture has collapsed during the pandemic. We used to be collaborative, but now with significant turnover, it feels like more of a competition with team-mates. I do believe remote work contributed to this change. I strongly believe that in-person work is critical in maintaining motivation and a good team dynamic. People who were extremely motivated before now look checked out. But it’s gone already and it’s too late to get it back because the newer people are not here to create that culture.
    Work is no fun any more, so I don’t want to come in. I feel bad for our company that used to have a great culture, but the pandemic and remote work has destroyed it from the inside. If management can find some way to bring back our culture, I’d come back in a heartbeat.

  174. Odd One Out*

    I feel very off saying it, but I 100% personally choose to come in full time. I absolutely hate working from home. I also have no other complexities like child care needs. But personally, I work better in the office. My job is extremely collaborative and involves chasing down issues across multiple departments and many people – and when we’re all in the same building it is much much easier. At my company, there is a lot of spontaneity that arises from us all being in the same office. Granted, if I’m one of 5 people in, that’s totally lost. But when most of are in most of the time, we run a lot smoother. Also my mental health is DRASTICALLY better when I’m in the office and have that structure. As we all weigh our risk tolerance, the benefit of being in office comes out on top for me.

    1. TechWorker*

      I go in 3-4 days a week but feel similarly. I get way more stressed and anxious wfh compared to being in the office where I can talk face to face and leave work at work when I come home.

      There’s also the fact that training new grads is 100% harder remotely and the ‘but with perfect management it should be just as good’ argument doesn’t cut it for me.

  175. Athena*

    I work in publishing and there’s been growing push back against forcing workers to go back to the office (both hybrid and full time) and there’s a movement toward unionization because of this. There are a few core arguments 1) workers have proven that they can do their jobs at home 2) forcing workers to work in office doesn’t consider those with disabilities or health issues who were able to thrive in WFH environments 3) Publishing is entrenched in systemic racism and having remote positions will allow more BIPOC employees to be hired. Publishing salaries are very low and with HQ being in New York many cannot afford to work in the industry

    I personally now work for a company that gives us the choice to be fully remote and that’s great, but it’s true that almost no one has chosen to go back. This probably means that down the line they will downsize and rent out the space.

  176. Aspiring Chicken Lady*

    I work for a public facing government office. A large portion of the staff are conducting mandatory appointments for recipients of our services — and a considerable percentage of those appointments are virtual (phone calls). We are allowed only 1 WFH day a week at this point.

    The staff conducting these appointments sit in an open office space — no cubicle walls, just a few dividing half walls to create sectioned off teams. Staff does about 30 appointments a week, with an average of 2 a week in person. So we have 80% of the noses in the office on any given day, when they’re providing only 5-10% of their work in person. And because of all of the noses in the desk areas, in-person appointments are being held in other rooms in ad hoc arrangements. Staff are mad that they can’t bring customers to their desks, as we did in the before times.

    The reasonable solution would be to have staff in the office 2 days a week, well distributed, so that there’d be enough coverage for in-person services even if someone was on vacation/sick, which would then allow for some reasonable preventative measures (like plexi on the half-walls and suitable masking precautions) to be more effective because of the natural distancing.

    Unfortunately, as a satellite government office, we’ll never have the authority to make sense.

  177. Janet*

    I’m a manager overseeing a pretty cohesive team of 10 people. I like being in the office and I go most days. My staff have the option to work from home when they want or come into the office. On their own accord, most of them come in most days. We chat a lot and often sit together in the lunch room and the days pass pretty quickly and people seem very engaged in their work. Interestingly, I have several manager colleagues who do the same job with similar teams under them. They come into the office rarely, some almost never, some one or two days a week. Their teams come in much less often. Many times if their direct reports do come into the office, they end up talking to me, because I’m the only manager there. Long story short, I think if a company wants to get people to come in more, it has to start first and foremost with managers setting an example and creating an environment where people enjoy coming in. And that doesn’t mean spending money on buying food or doing promotional things. It just means that when I am in, I sit with my staff and talk to them frequently and take a lot of interest in their work. They feel it is worthwhile being close by because they can get feedback and work more efficiently without long delays in getting answers. And they simply enjoy the low-key company around them. This obviously won’t attract every worker to come back, but it gives a lot of people a good reason to feel it is worth it to come in, without feeling forced or compelled.

  178. Alex*

    If my company wanted me to come back, the only thing they could do is pay me enough to live in the neighborhood where the office is. As of right now that would be about double my salary at least. Probably more.

    Not having a commute has changed my life. I have 15 more hours a week to have a life. What could a company give me that could replace that? I can’t think of anything.

    Oh, and also, I’d like a private office (no hot desking! no cubicles!). With a comfy chair.

    I realize that my requests would drastically increase business costs, so why don’t we all just accept that WFM is good for business (as well as good for the environment!)?

  179. Alice*

    I’ll tell you what argument for in-person work actually made me really upset: saying that on-site work leads to more “empathy” and “shared understanding” and thus that people who prefer WFH are uncommitted to achieving DEI goals.
    What would make me feel *safer* about working in person? Policies improving air quality — better ventilation, better filtration, better source control (ie making multiple models of N95s available to staff for free). Also a tent outside so that I could eat lunch outdoors even when the weather is bad.
    What would make me *effective* in person? If leaders in my org found resources (money or space) to give the individual contributors in my department private offices, so that I could do my work (which is a combo of detail-oriented editing that I need to focus on, and Zoom meetings/trainings with internal clients who are usually at different sites) without disturbing others or being disturbed by them.
    What would make me *want* to work in person? Hard to say — leaders have been nattering on about in-person “collaboration” and “collegiality” for years now, and required a hybrid schedule for a long time. But we haven’t actually done any interesting collaboration exercises in person, and it’s hard to feel collegial with a colleague who comes in to our shared office, sneezing, without a mask, knowing that I and my partner (who lives in my household) are both at high risk.

  180. Expat of Higher Ed*

    My last job was in higher ed, at a large regional public institution. We did get about 3 months’ notice, but the institution went from 100% remote to 100% in-person — no phased approach (unless individual departments decided to) and no mention of any possibility for telework.

    We returned in person in July 2021. It took my institution until October 2021 to announce they were “forming a committee to begin the process of” thinking about a telework policy. In January 2022, they announced we could get….one day a week of remote work. By the time I left in April 2022, they finally announced we could get…two days a week of remote work, subject to departmental approval.

    3 people from my team alone put in their notice in the first month we were back in office. One year later, 80% of my team (including me!) had left, mostly for hybrid or remote opportunities. There’s been similar turnover in lots of other departments, and roles that have been open for over a year on both the faculty and staff side.

    I left for more money, more flexibility, and a fully remote job. I’d been casually job-searching since before we went back in person, and the fact that it took ALMOST A YEAR to create a 2-day telework policy made me realize my institution was not going to change its policies quickly enough to meet employees’ needs (and that’s without getting into the low pay, lack of work/life balance, and chronic stress that existed pre-pandemic…)

  181. HannahS*

    Medical resident here. Obviously, a great deal of my work is non-optionally in person, but I get one day a week of clinic work, which now is done virtually. I love it; I get to sleep in, I can have my own tea and snacks, I don’t have to wear an N95 all day. My patients love it; we can see each others’ faces, they don’t have to physically go to the hospital clinic (no parking fees! no uncomfortable waiting room!) and they only need to take, at most, an hour off work, instead of half a day.

    What would it take for me to go back? Only if it was mandated. The hospitals that have tried to return to 100% in-person care have failed. They don’t really have the physical space or support-staff, because so many hospital staff have left. Additionally, the attending/staff physicians (i.e. my supervisors) are digging in their heels and will allow residents to work from home, even when it’s not what the official policy is. From an infection-control perspective, it doesn’t really make sense to have all staff and patients in person, and by and large our patients really prefer virtual care.

    1. Mid*

      Slightly off topic, but hospitals that charge parking fees have a special place of hate in my heart. People aren’t going to get medical care for fun, and charging parking fees to anyone who is working there is also asinine.

      I think virtual care is great, and I’m predicting that we’ll see a rise in it. I know of one medical office that has 2 days of entirely virtual care visits and 3 days in person. (Some things make more sense to have in-person, obviously.) And I think it highlights how a lot of work that was previously “impossible” to do virtually isn’t actually impossible to do virtually.

      1. RussianInTexas*

        Man, my cardiologist is awesome.
        And it’s $16 parking. She is in the Houston Medical Center, and there is zero free parking in the whole thing.

      2. RussianInTexas*

        Oh, and friend works in the TCM as well. She has to pay for parking for her job. Or park at a park and ride, walk a mile, then ride a train for 30 minutes.

      3. J*

        My hospital sits on fully subsidized land, removed the bus route next to it and then demands I pay $20 to park, but will write off $2 with validation. They also removed bike racks during a recent renovation. My lung doctor on that campus is fully remote minus hospital consult time for surgical patients. We regularly complain about the parking there since he has to pay too.

  182. AfT*

    At the staff level in my office, we have to come in 3x per week to an open office with limited privacy, less than six feet of space between desk neighbors, and days full of Zoom meetings. Most other people outside of my office just… aren’t having to go in at all, including leaders. Our work can be done entirely remotely. As you can imagine, this situation is demoralizing.

    I am going to the office, but I’d be a lot happier about it if I had my own private office where I could socially distance from colleagues and take my now-frequent virtual meetings without distraction. There really hasn’t been any recognition that we have a ton more Zoom meetings now than we had before the pandemic, and our office is not set up for that at all.

    I’d also be happier for unlikely to happen things like: a pay bump to entice in-office work, increased off-site professional development opportunities (opportunities to do anything other than work extra hours during the pandemic have been pretty light), more chances to earn and take leave to adjust for the extra exhaustion of office life, pro-masking policies, flexibility to come into the office only when needed, and, in my dream world, my commute factoring into my hours.

  183. Emily*

    This wasn’t my major reason for switching, but I left jobs to go fully/permanently/remote in part because my employer couldn’t give us information about when/how they were going to bring us back. First, there’s the commute piece, which has gotten longer for me than it was pre-COVID because our public transit has gotten less frequent. And second, I didn’t feel confident that my kids weren’t going to be home unexpectedly either due to having COVID or due to closures, and they’re old enough that I can be productive from home but not old enough that I can leave them by themselves.

    There is some amount of money that someone could theoretically pay me to go back in full-time, but it’s a lot and I don’t think anyone is going to do it. I do miss being in the office, and I can see myself going back at some point, especially if the school situation seems less tenuous (or my kids are old enough to be on their own.)

  184. Linda Belcher's Wine Glass*

    THE COMMUTE WAS KILLING US.

    Between traffic and gas costs, it’s literally not worth going into the office.

  185. Trivia Newton John*

    I just started a new position a few months ago, and currently they have staff coming in 3 times a week. I’m lucky if the people I support are in the office one or two days a week (I never know when to expect them). Most of the meetings my team hosts has the executives attending via Zoom. Most of the meetings I attend while I am in the office are via Teams. When I first started, we used to get free snacks every morning and special treats a couple of times a week. The snacks have stopped and the treats seem to be trickling to a stop as well.
    I don’t mind coming into the office 3 days a week but I definitely would not want to come in more than that, as there does not seem to be a real point.

  186. TruthHurts*

    Honestly, I don’t want to go in because my job takes me less than 40 hours a week to do and I’ve learned that making that obvious earns me more work but not more money. (It’s not that the job is calibrated wrong, but that I’m either over qualified or just really good at it, I’m not sure which. Most of my coworkers are usually either right on track or behind). I have some health issues that aren’t severe enough to keep me from working/qualify for disability but are bad enough that I can’t be too ambitious in my career, so I’d rather just work from home and make it look like I’m taking more time on a project than I actually am. I don’t think it’s unethical because everything is still getting done by, if not before, deadline, and I’ll always jump in to help on stuff when needed.

  187. CheetoFingers*

    Echoing other commenters, my previous company (I reskilled and got a tech job so I could stay home) could have reduced my hours to make up for the commute or paid me enough to outsource cleaning, childcare, laundry, and tutoring-basically the things the execs making us go back have as a matter of course. But then our CEO said “it’s not like you’re going into the trenches” while we had refrigeration trucks parked outside to handle the overflow of corpses. That was the last straw. Couldn’t give me a million bucks to go back.

    1. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

      This whole situation has made it abundantly clear just how little many of the people in charge care about their employees. It’s no wonder people aren’t that interested in going above and beyond for people who obviously don’t care if we live, die, end up with life-long health problems, etc.

  188. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

    A big thing for me is the health protections that are (or, more accurately, are NOT) in place. In addition to all the additional time and expense of commuting, looking presentable, and losing being able to toss in some laundry during quick breaks, making people go back to a communal space during an ongoing pandemic adds to the risk we’re all facing. This is particularly the case when there are no mask requirements, solid policies about staying home when sick or family members are sick (and paid sick days to allow people to actually do this), availability of testing, etc. We are starting to really understand the long-term effects of getting COVID and it looks bad. Especially for multiple infections. People with no previous history of cardiac issues are dropping dead from heart attacks in their 30s and 40s months after having COVID.

    Add to that, my unit’s jobs require a lot of meetings, often with people in other buildings/cities. Those meetings are all going to continue to be by video. We have cubicles and not a lot of access to meeting space with doors we can close.

    An office with a door I can close would make a big difference since I could bring an air filter and not be bothered by noise. In my organization and in my job position, this is not going to happen.

    Basically, the push back to the office means more risk to my short-term and long-term health and it will make my job harder because of all the noise. It’s a bad deal for me all around.

    1. Mid*

      Yes! The pretending-the-pandemic-is-over thing is very frustrating. Or pretending that if you don’t have Covid, you aren’t sick and that other illnesses aren’t real/dangerous.

  189. CharlieBrown*

    Money. Lots and lots of money.

    It seems like companies will spend all sorts of money on incentives, but I didn’t get a job because they have great doughnuts on Thursday mornings. I got a job because I have bills to pay. I’m there for the money. This should be simple, but companies just do not get it.

  190. Constance Lloyd*

    My employer just announced that they are expanding health insurance coverage to include $0.00 out of pocket cost for prenatal and postnatal care, including NICU stays and home health care if bed rest is needed. Before this I felt very strongly that I would find a new job if I had to go into the office full time. After this, as a resident of the US who is planning to become pregnant within the next 5 years, I would go into the office every single day if that’s what they decided.

  191. BluRae*

    They hired a lot of permanently remote people during the pandemic.

    I technically live within commuting distance of one of my company’s offices, but, like, why would I go in to be on zoom meetings with people when I can do that from my house?

    Also, they switched the office to a hot desking set up and Hell No.

  192. Sarah*

    My company has asked people to come in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is not required. As an incentive, we have free, no limit Uber Eats on those days. The staff is mostly young, living with roommates or parents, with no kids. We see a lot of success on having most people in, even if its just for the free food. We also allowed people to move out of state and work fully remote. I personally don’t see a difference in getting our work done in office vs remote, but it’s nice being able to chat in person or grab a meal together.

    1. Mid*

      I like the set-day approach, because I think that solves one of the main issues that people are seeing with being told to come in 1-2 days a week, just to sit in Zoom meetings like they would at home.

  193. Anon E. Mouse*

    At AnonymousBigCo, where we are in the office half time, attrition is up, number of applicants is down, and we can’t hire anyone at all in areas like IT. Work is being delayed because there is no one to do.

    Some existing employees are refusing to come in, and there’s no consequences. The employees who are coming in are mad. AnonymousBigCo had record profits when everyone was working from home, and everyone knows it. Even before the pandemic, we’re so big that many people didn’t sit with their team and never have met their manager in person.

    Having management push for people to come back to the office has nothing to do with our work or culture, and management insisting that we come back is making employees think the leaders are out of touch. Doubts about our leadership is increasing, and people are more vocal about it. This is going to lead to even more difficulty hiring.

    AnonymousBigCo is doing ok for now, but if they don’t change soon, they are going to be in trouble.

    1. irene adler*

      Your narrative makes me wonder: Is no one getting the ‘big picture’?

      I wonder if this notion of employees returning to work is borne of some middle management fear that with no workers on-site, upper management might conclude that middle management is no longer needed.

  194. Associate X*

    Some pie-in-the-sky ideas for me personally:

    – pay for parking and car service
    – provide on-site and/or subsidized doggie day care
    – provide high quality food and drinks, not just industrial processed stuff
    – give real billable credit for time spent commuting and attending the encouraged in-person social events

    1. Mid*

      I love all of these. I’d also love to see transit passes paid for (if that’s available.) Also childcare subsidies (even though I don’t have kids. Or a dog for that matter.) Where I’m at, childcare is skyrocketing, most places have a 1-2 year waitlist to get in, and I know several people who have had to quit working because childcare ate up the majority of their paycheck, and commuting ate up the rest.

  195. Didi*

    We are currently still on the hybrid schedule we’ve been on since October 2021 and April 2022 (we shut down again around Xmas due to the rise of Omicron). So we are all expected to be in the office 3 days a week, but so far no one actually checks. We’ve been doing lunch twice a week and the standard perks we’ve always had (lots of free beverages and snacks).

    I will say that our biggest problem with getting people back into the office is that the big bosses like working from home too. My big boss comes in maybe once a month and she used to be hardcore anti work from home. She fully supports all of us doing what feels safe for ourselves and our families, so she doesn’t force the issue. One of my lower level bosses wants people back in full time, but he doesn’t have the clout to force this on the rest of us.

  196. pepper*

    My work is making it mostly required to be in-office twice a week starting in October (exception is for staff who live outside of the region our office is located). Hiring has been difficult so they’ve started hiring staff remotely for some positions, which is mixing the messaging a little. We’re still waiting for an official announcement on the policy, but I expect folks to be pretty unhappy… personally really not looking forward to it as I have a 5-month-old and have loved seeing her throughout the day when I take breaks. With my commute I’ll be going 10+ hours without seeing her, pumping at the office, and trying to keep my ability to breastfeed up while away. I also prefer WFH since my job is easier to do in a quiet, calm, space, and our office is open concept. Not thrilled!

  197. Mid*

    My company wasn’t offering any incentive to come back, but made it required that I’m in the office every day, for very literally no business reason. The support staff are expected to be in the empty office every day, and everyone else gets to be fully remote if they desire. I would go literal weeks without seeing another person in the office. I have documentation that I am more productive and efficient when being able to work part-time remote, and was told I could continue that schedule, but reasons kept coming up why I “had to” come into the office each day. When I had medical reasons for working remote, it was clearly resented, even though I got more done in fewer working hours while being remote.

    So, now I have a new job that is fully remote, with a fully flexible schedule, better pay, and more room for learning and growth. I know my departure from my old job is causing a ton of work to fall on the other support staff and I feel bad for leaving them in the lurch. But, if I had been given the flexibility I was repeatedly promised that was then clawed back for no reason, I wouldn’t have been open to talking to the recruiters that were constantly reaching out to me. And I wouldn’t have found this new role that’s even better than I could have imagined.

    Basically, companies need to realize that they need to compromise a little, or they’ll risk losing people. Times have changed, and you need to be willing to explain why things are done the way they are, instead of just relying on “we’ve always done it this way.” Think critically about why things are done the way they are, and see if it truly makes sense to continue doing that, or if there is room for change and flexibility for employees. Some roles can’t have flexibility for various reasons, but a lot of them can have a lot more than was previously granted, and I think employees have realized that. There is some value in having people together in a room, and I don’t think in-person work is fully dead, but people don’t want to waste their time, energy, and fuel to sit in an empty office and have Zoom meetings. Monthly, or even weekly gatherings can be a great way to team build and have in-person work without having everyone resent a daily commute.

    Honestly, I can’t see myself ever going back to a role that is 100% in-office. I can’t see any jobs in my skillset that would ever make 100% office work necessary. Lunch and happy hour doesn’t matter that much to me as much as having a real business reason for my presence. It’s fine to say “I’d just like the team to have face time together.” That’s a valid reason to me! But to me, being honest with your employees is the most important part. Trust your employees to get their work done without having to be babysat. If you can’t trust them, then they shouldn’t be working for you. If you can’t manage without physically seeing over people’s shoulders, then learn how to manage better.

  198. Kat Maps*

    When my company began to transition back to in-person, we were told that we had to be in-person 2 set mandatory days per week. We could go in more often if we wanted to, but I don’t think anyone really did except for extenuating circumstances at home (internet outages, needed a quiet place for a meeting, etc).
    During the pandemic our office location changed to a new building. The building is very nice, modern, and clean. I think they were really hoping that how new and modern the space was would be an incentive for us to all want to be back in-person. However we’re all hot desking – none of us, including managers, have our own dedicated space.
    After a few months of two in-person days per week, our managers pulled each of us aside individually to have a candid conversation about whether it was working for us. I’m guessing there was a resounding “meh” because we were told that we were going down to one day per week.
    I can speculate that the fact that Friday was one of our in-person days was extremely unpopular.
    We were given the option of free bags (backpacks or wheeled bags) to help with carrying our tech back and forth from home to office. I’m one of the only (maybe the only) person who uses transit to commute and I thought either bag was WAY too huge for me to want to take on the bus to work. I’m sure they’re fine for people who drive.
    While on the topic of transit, the new office location sucks. It’s an hour commute one way and I have to cross a busy 7-lane-wide intersection.
    Our company was very strict about all returning employees having at least 2 vaccines doses, and they kept a mask mandate for much longer than any other places around us. I think there was some pushback, especially about the vaccines, but I was personally quite thankful that those safeties were in place.
    At this point in time, I’m not sure there’d be much of anything that would get me back in the office full-time. My preference would be zero mandatory in-office time. I just overwhelmingly prefer working from home. I don’t get enough out of being in-person to make it worth the extra hassle. The socializing we (staff) do amongst ourself is nice, but minimal. I rarely have enough work to fill my day, so the time drags. Being in person is more expensive (buying new clothes, transit), it takes more of my personal time (travel time, time spent lunch prepping), and I just feel like it robs me of so much more energy that I could otherwise spend on my family and friends.

  199. Sharon*

    What would incent me to come to the office would be a real reason I need to be there. Everybody is focused on # of days/week people need to be in the office rather than the reason they need to be in the office. Want me to attend an in-person team meeting once a week? Fine. Do I need train a new employee or work on a physical thing or meet with somebody who’s in town from another office? Fine. Want me to spend 2 hours commuting to sit in an office and read emails and have Zoom calls with people in other cities? Not fine.

    1. Kat Maps*

      This is actually a great point that I hadn’t thought of…
      Everybody is focused on # of days/week people need to be in the office rather than the reason they need to be in the office.
      I’ve been back in the office since March and I genuinely have no idea why I have to be there. I’ve met new colleagues, which has been nice, but otherwise there’s no need. Heck, we still choose to IM when we’re litterally sitting next to each other. I know that’s not the case for everyone in our department, but it certainly is for some of us.

  200. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

    Because of WFH, I’m getting a lot more sleep. I can get up at 8:50 to start at 9 instead of 7:15 because of no longer needing to get presentable and commute. I’m a bit of a night owl, so I’m going to be awake until 12:30 or 1 no matter what time I need to wake up. Unfortunately, in my role, I can’t shift my working hours very much, so there’s not much my employer could do to fix this for me other than WFH.

  201. KTC*

    I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I’m not a fan of full time WFH for many roles. I work for a large global Fortune 50 company and our team is in the office together 4 days/week and WFH on Fridays. When we have newer team members, we all come in on Fridays to support them. I would in no way call myself old school but I am 100% sure that full time remote workers are missing out on connection, culture and opportunities for advancement when there are people at the same company working in-office.

    1. Anonymous for this*

      If people who work from home are missing out on opportunities for advancement, that sounds like a management problem, not an employee problem.

      1. KTC*

        Maybe! Doesn’t make it any less of a reality. And maybe when Gen Z gets into top leadership roles there will be a larger culture shift, but for now–in my microcosm at least–choosing a full time WFH role would come with significant sacrifice. We did it thru covid and it worked ok when everyone was in the same boat, but we’re a much more efficient and connected team in person.

        1. Curmudgeon in California*

          I’m less than ten years from retirement. There are no realistic opportunities for advancement for me, I do not “benefit” from listening to people around talk about sports or other frivolities, and I have health issues that make working in an office more risky. No thanks.

        2. The Real Fran Fine*

          I have been full time, permanent remote for over three years (so, pre-COVID times). I was promoted twice in the last two years of being with my current employer, I’m currently being mentored by someone in senior leadership (before her, my mentor was a company VP), my last two promotion raises (within 9 months of each other) were 13% and 15% respectively, I make a six figure salary, I manage a fully remote team of my own, and I handle all of my company’s major external messaging. You shouldn’t be “100%” sure people like me are missing out because many of us are doing just fine in our careers, I can assure you.

    2. Antony-mouse*

      Yes! I’m quite young in the workforce, who the hell would I learn from if everyone else was out working from home? IM isn’t the same and I don’t get anywhere near the same level of connection as I do having a chat with someone in person

  202. Manders*

    I’m truly fascinated by this conversation, because I have one of those jobs that is completely, totally on site only (Covid laboratory science). But I will say that while I do indeed need to be at work every day, my boss is awesome and he allows me complete flexibility about my days/hours. I typically show up by 7 and I’m done no later than 2 and I’m outta here. I work at a university, so the pay is not as good as a private/public company, but the flexibility is great.

    1. Constance Lloyd*

      I love working from home full time and my work can be done just as well if not better at home. I would absolutely choose an in office but very flexible job over a WFH role with a rigid set schedule.

      1. Manders*

        Yeah, on the few days that I am able to review paperwork and write reports from home, I am always much more likely to nap. But I fully support those who love WFH and I honestly cannot figure out why we can’t support the workers’ wishes.

  203. Craig*

    I live alone so aside from the no commute benefit of wfh, I fully enjoy not getting colds and other illnesses several times a year. They (pretty much) made us all come in for a corporate celebration last month (2-3000 people). I was real careful but still got pink eye. Go figure!

  204. OwlEditor*

    My org opened up the office and if you come in a certain number of days, you get a desk, but if you come in only say 1 or 2 days, you’ll have to desk hop. Apparently it’s still a ghost town. There’s also a discount in the cafeteria. I plan on going back in office this fall.
    I don’t like working from home. I miss my big cubicle with all the space. I hate being home alone all day and night with just my cats. I only live 5 minutes away, so a commute is not a deal breaker. I miss the office but we’ve had a couple covid outbreaks, so I’m waiting. It’s mostly just my own anxiety keeping me home.

  205. JC*

    My office is hybrid and we haven’t had trouble bringing people back, really. We allow people to telework 5 days every 2 weeks, which usually ends up being more than half time with vacation days, travel, etc. Requiring in office 5 days every two weeks would feel a lot different. We lost just a couple people who wanted to be full time remote and refused to come back in person at all.

  206. Llellayena*

    What made me come back in was basically making work from home LESS attractive than working in office, but it’s not a thing that will work for everyone. I like being in office, I like having the people around me to bounce things off of. But I would also like some time WFH for concentration and limiting interruptions. Unfortunately, the new WFH policy (they’ve been testing a couple versions) is of the “we don’t trust you to be adults” variety. Inform the entire management of which day, leave your monitors on so anyone walking past can see what you’re doing, max of 2 WFH days in a week and a capped amount per year that is less than 2 per month. Oh and if you’re exposed to Covid but not positive you can come in and wear a mask all day or WFH (but only for 2 days of the week…). The hoops to jump through to USE the WFH are worse than coming in.

  207. Justin*

    I do find this whole discussion interesting. It seems there’s a few people here who were forced to come back and hate it, a few (like me) whose companies allow ultimate flexibility and within this group some choose to go in and some don’t, and some who WFH full time and will never change that.

    I wonder if the real solution – rather than a mandate one way or the other – is to solicit employee input and allow for the choice, with some protocols to make in-office time useful.

    (I personally don’t drive, hate car culture, can’t relate to all that, and love our daycare so having it near work is no incentive. But that’s me, and I live in NYC right above the subway, so.)

    1. Lore*

      My employer did pretty much what you’re suggesting–the office was fully closed from March 2020 until September 2021, and when they reopened last fall, it was clear that it was entirely optional, people could come as frequently or infrequently as they liked, and remaining fully remote from anywhere in the country was going to remain possible long-term. They’ve been surveying people regularly since then–something close to half the company wants to remain fully remote (including both those who have relocated outside the metro area and those who are willing to come in on an ad hoc basis); a small handful of people prefer to work fully onsite; and the rest are hybrid. Starting in June of this year, they asked people who intended to come in less frequently than once a week to give up their permanent workstations/offices, and now they’re shuffling people around to make most efficient use of the offices and better cubicles formerly occupied by those who shifted to remote, with hoteling and hotdesking stations available for those who need to come in infrequently. We have pretty sound Covid policies (mandatory vaccination, masking in shared spaces, upgraded ventilation, internal contact tracing). As long as I have a dedicated workspace, I’m really enjoying hybrid.

  208. Good Enough For Government Work*

    My office is two busses and a roughly two-hour commute each way, plus I am 100% not a morning person: nothing whatsoever is getting me back in the office on the regular. WFH has been revolutionary for me, because it allows me to keep the sleeping pattern that suits my body. My alarm doesn’t go off til 10 most days!

    If getting back in the office was mandated, especially if it was mandated to more than once a week, I’d simply get a different job.

  209. Menley*

    My company is currently attempting to pull employees from 2 days in-office to 3-days. However, we have multiple corporate locations, and some of our sites went permanently remote during COVID (the locations were permanently closed). It’s really difficult to justify to my team that I need them in-office more when every single meeting we have includes multiple people on Webex, regardless, because some of them are permanently remote and some of them work in our other corporate locations.

    People have discussed incentives such as entering into raffles for prizes, which I find laughable. I don’t know anyone who’s motivated to spend commuting time by the remote possibility of free tickets to an event. I do, however, know lots of people who are motivated by headhunters telling them they can jump to a fully remote job with a 10-15% increase in pay. The solution for those people is obviously to increase their pay to motivate them to come into the office – but the obvious solution is apparently the least palatable to upper management.

  210. Velomont*

    My company is a large multi-national which has stunning levels of reasonableness and flexibility to the extent that, outside of functions that do really require workers onsite to physically do the work, none of us have to come in. I am one of a small cohort of people who choose to come in for our own reasons, and none of them are team-mates or coworkers. On my main project team only I and one other come in regularly so, over time, I’ve met a bunch of people I otherwise would never know.

    1. Justin*

      Basically this. There seem to be a few more people at our HQ because, well, they seem to be friends. At my satellite office it’s me (I really just want to eat lunch in midtown sometimes) and this guy whose home is too loud for what he needs to do.

  211. Shelly*

    This seems really basic but we only had desktop computers in the before times, so everyone just brought their computers home during the pandemic and stayed there. This spring we got laptops, 2 docks each, and enough monitors that everyone has 2 at home and 2 at the office, so now most people come in at least a couple days a week because it is really easy.

  212. Mitford*

    I’m someone who actually enjoys having people around me, so working from home these past 2.5 years has been difficult, but what I don’t want to go back to is having someone sitting 12 inches away from me across a short pony wall between our desks. One of my fondest, faint hopes coming out of this pandemic is that employers will fall out of love with the big open plan spaces and let people have some privacy — and some distance — from their coworkers. I used to be sick all winter with the never-ending upper respiratory infection spread from coworkers who can’t or won’t take time off.

    Also, and someone said this earlier about hot desks and wanting a permanent place to put their stuff, this employer’s open concept vision is no space for personalization of your workspace because it’s so damn small. If you want me back in the office, please let me make it comfortable and welcoming for myself.

  213. spartanfan*

    My company leadership is primarily a big proponent of being the office and the culture that comes with having the staff in the office. We are one of the few companies it seems that is looking to expand our space within our building to accommodate the new hires we are bringing on board. The company has done a few things right, providing money to acknowledge the change in gas prices vs. 2021, they have brought in lunch twice a month for all employees (taking into account vegans, gluten free, etc), and have provided snacks/drinks for the first time.

    From a personal standpoint, I do not do well at home by myself. My personality thrives on in person interactions and I struggle a bit without those interactions. I lead a team that is mostly fresh to the workforce employees and I do notice a difference in the interactions of those in the office full time vs the one remote worker we have. The ability to provide soft development in a F2F interaction is way easier and more frequent. I try to keep the remote person as involved as possible, but if they don’t reach out they can get lost in the shuffle.

  214. aubrey*

    I’ve been fully remote since 2016 and nothing would get me to take a full-time or strict part-time (I’m okay to go to the occasional important meeting but no x days a week schedule) office job. Well, maybe enough money that I could retire in a year or two – I could tough it out for that, but it’d be a terrible deal for the company hiring me since I’m way less productive and between low-key and obviously miserable in an office.

    My company is fully remote and it’s amazing. I’m SO much happier, healthier, and a better worker. We actually have much better communication and a stronger team than in office jobs I’ve had, where most people wore headphones to try and drown each other out. Being able to hang out with my cats all day in my nice quiet house, not have to commute, not have to dress professionally or do makeup, not have to worry about packing or buying a lunch, not have to be surrounded by people all the time, not have to deal with sharing space with other people, saving so much money due to the above commute/lunch/dress factors as well as less stress-buying in general. It’s just invaluable to me.

    If I had some kind of financial crisis and lost my job and the market for my skills became super tight, I’d try freelancing first and if I truly had to take an office job I’d only do it for long enough to find something fully remote or get the freelancing up to a sustainable level. I’d change fields if I had to. Downsize if I had to. Move cities. Cut all fun out of my budget. It’s REALLY important to me.

  215. Lead Balloon*

    We grew during the pandemic due to a restructure but are just about to downsize to a much smaller office. I’m pretty sure this means that they are ok with us working from home most of the time (though it depends on the team as to what we’re being asked to do).

    They have provided breakfast cereal, milk, fruit juice and fresh fruit to freely help yourself to as a new thing since we came back, it’s billed as free breakfast but no one stops you eating it at other times. I’m not sure if it’s meant to be an incentive to come in or just a nice thing and a small help with the soaring cost of living at the moment.

  216. cucumber*

    Absolutely nothing would get me back in the office. I live 2.5 hours away and I’m disabled. I absolutely love my job, but if they tried to force us all back, I’d quit.

  217. anonymous in the library*

    I work at university (not in the US) that is very decentralized but also has an all stick no carrots approach to HR. For the first 1.5 years of the pandemic we were work from home but there were rumblings about a “vibrant on-campus experience” and the need to “return to normal”. No one was surprised when late in 2021 they announced that non-faculty peeps would have to return to work in 2022. We were surprised that they offered fairly generous WFH provisions (3 days WFH, 2 days on-site – providing that made sense for your job). The staff I manage were fairly happy with those terms but some units just didn’t come back. Instead of working with the managers of those units to get them to adhere to the policy, admin punished all staff by cutting back WFH to 2 days and adding a bunch of other ridiculous rules (e.g. all meetings must be in person)… needless to say in areas like IT, Finance and HR where jobs elsewhere locally are plentiful we are now hemorrhaging staff but admin won’t back down… we’ll see how vibrant the on-campus experience is in a few weeks.

  218. Liz*

    I would need a private office and a 32-hour workweek, plus flexibility to work from home with no consequences or drama if I need to schedule a delivery or a doctor’s appointment or simply take the day. One of the main benefits of working from home has been the privacy to make and take phone calls related to an elder care situation and to a health condition. I could not do that in my old office that was one giant cube farm plus one conference room. A private office would go a long way towards solving that problem. Since I can’t afford to live within an hour of the office, I’d also need a reduction in working hours (while retaining full pay) so I can maintain balance in my life. I’m positive I could be even more productive in four days a week anyway. It would suit my personal working style well.

  219. Patty Cake*

    Another story angle to consider is those of us hired full-time remote during the pandemic, with teammates who are being forced back in. Though not as painful as being forced back, it also sucks to have a perk that others aren’t getting. For no real reason other than luck with timing.

  220. Ptarmigander*

    Our company opened a beautiful new office a few months ago, with space for about 100 people. About 70 of the desks were assigned to people. On a typical day, about 3-10 people show up. Many people have never even visited to set up their assigned desks. I work here every day, next door to a department where I know people are required to show up at least 2 days a week. Of the 5 or 6 people in that department, one comes in most days. The others I almost never see. People here are just ignoring mandates, I guess. This department’s boss is in another state, and pretty much every team in my company is distributed all over the country, so no meetings occur or have ever occurred in person anyway. Personally I like working from the office, but I’m not required to.

  221. AceyAceyAcey*

    I’m being brought back in person starting next week, without any incentive at all. They’ve been readying us for this since March, made it clear it’s a condition of employment that our union won’t get us out of and even the ADA might not, and it’s in an industry where in person is overwhelmingly the norm (and we’re one of the last to go back in person), so no one’s really jumping ship that I can tell. I think anyone who was going to do so, just retired at the start of the pandemic.

  222. Anon for this*

    My very large company you’ve definitely heard of is taking more of a stick approach than a carrot one, meaning we aren’t being offered incentives to come in but we are being threatened with consequences if we do not (e.g., lowered performance ratings, compensation decreases, and potential termination). It’s the same across my industry (financial services).

  223. Kodamasa*

    I work in higher ed and am one of the few people in my division who is still able to work from home. If I was told I would have to go back to the office I would, but it would drastically change my quality of life. My anxiety goes from mild to severe when in-person, my gut issues are worse and the bathrooms are too far away, and I don’t have my dog around to break me out of spirals and keep me out of my head. I would, however, immediately start looking for remote work, though I know I don’t want another job in my current career but have no idea where to go from here. I would feel like I was stuck in a horrible place and I know my mental health would tank to the point where finding that new career would be virtually impossible. I’m honestly terrified of the day they decide my butt being in that seat is more important than my health because I know it’s coming.

  224. Doctors Whom*

    Honestly, I want

    – the HVAC to work consistently in the building (came in the other day and the AC in my new hire’s office was putting out hot air on an 85 degree day, we can’t control our office thermostats and some days it’s a sauna and some days it’s arctic)
    – to have food & drink available (we have a cafe that’s closed with no sign of reopening and the vending machines are never stocked – would love to periodically just be able to buy a cold soda or a salad without having to leave the building for 20+ minutes)
    – to have people stop treating the building like a dump zone (dumpster bins from office moves just left in hallways, carts of building supplies left in random places.)
    – to have our CEO stop bragging about all the boondoggle conferences he goes to while complaining that the rest of us don’t seem to want to be (sitting in the sweltering soda-free) office (dodging carts of tile and recycling) all day

    Put those together with guaranteeing me flexibility for a couple days a week at home, I’m good. (I am one of those people who does like to be in the office on the regular, but not every day.)

    1. CG*

      Oh gosh, yes. This! We are back in the office more than 50% of the time now, and yet they still haven’t reopened all our building entrances or the cafeteria or given everyone the tech necessary to use things like the on-site printers! Super, incredibly, outrageously low hanging fruit, guys!

  225. merula*

    My Fortune 500 company has been hybrid (minimum 3 days in the office per week) since March, but we haven’t seen everyone adhering to that, and there hasn’t been any enforcement or tracking on an individual basis.

    We have tried: masking and distancing requirements beyond what was required by law (didn’t work; people who preferred masking still stayed home and the people who were in generally didn’t want to mask), very early HVAC updates, required certification of no covid-like symptoms or recent close exposures without testing (seems to work moderately well), a free day of PTO for anyone who got vaccinated last year (appeared to work very well), and free lunch 2x week (definitely seemed to work based on lunch crowds).

    People who are enthusiastic about being back in the office tend to be leadership and early-career people, probably because WFH has had a more negative impact on their overall work. It is harder to effectively manage meetings and presentations fully-remote, and it’s harder to learn on the job when you’re not able to learn from overhearing others.

    People who have been more reticent to come back tend to be mid- to late-career individual contributors, who see that they’re getting more work done from home, are more likely to have enough space at home to not be working from their bedrooms, and feel pretty certain that they’re not going to experience professional repercussions from refusing to come in.

  226. Mrs. Badcrumble*

    My company already had a pretty good flex option in place before the pandemic that you applied for if you were interested. Since the pandemic, they’ve opened it up to all office-based workers and strongly recommend a 3 day onsite, 2 day offsite schedule, which is totally up to you and your manager to modify. They’ve done a good job with welcoming people back, vaccinations are required and there are clear policies about how things change if there’s a spike (meeting size limits, etc). Myself, I’ve never been great at WFH, and in coming back 2-3 days a week I discovered I was even worse at a hybrid model. (Apparently, I just need consistency. )

    Since I’m in the office all the time, I’ve seen a different problem — There aren’t many people coming in, but lots of folks still have fixed desks or offices. We densified the building a few years back and all the desks are assigned — new hires can’t have a permanent location even if they’re the ones coming in more. I’m interested in seeing how this plays out in the future.

  227. Beebee*

    So my job currently is fully remote with the option for people to be as in-person as they want. Here are some factors affecting that:
    – We were fully in person pre-pandemic so there is still an office space
    – Our work can easily be done from home 90% of the time. That small 10% is for client packages that have to be reviewed on a specific setup that can’t be replicated at home
    – Currently almost everyone is working remotely for a vendor we were hired by anyways. So if they were to come in the office, there wouldn’t be much point as the vendor is in a different city and we would Zoom them for everything anyways
    – I work in STEM and we are an office based job

    Mid-pandemic you couldn’t have got me to go into office. My job was VERY fast paced at the time and I focused much better at home, plus I didn’t feel safe going in person unless my company would mandate vaccines for everyone (which they couldn’t do at that point as most people, myself included, weren’t able to get one until late 2021). Also I had to frequently do overtime at this point and I preferred doing it at home because when I was done, I could just go relax instantly. Because my whole industry was remote, any job that tried to switch it up really before summer 2022 would have been a job I left.

    Now I don’t feel the same way. I caught COVID a month ago and that has lessened my fear of it (I wasn’t hospitalized but would have what you’d call a mild to serious case of it? I had every symptom except sore throat and had lingering brain fog for three weeks or so). Being inside for two years and having terrible news as my main source of information about the world for that long really made me so scared to do anything. It took me a while to build up to feeling comfortable going to restaurants, going to work in person, etc. It helped to take baby steps (ex only going to restaurants outside, only going to work half a day a week) before I really felt comfortable living as “back to normal” as I can be. Huge caveat that I’m not immunocompromised, none of my friends are, I live alone, everyone I know can be and is vaccinated. I live in an area where vaccination rates are something like 95%. I can imagine feeling differently if those factors weren’t at play. I also totally understand and respect that not everyone is at that point and wouldn’t feel comfortable doing those things — this commentariat tends to lean more COVID cautious than me and I get that everyone may not be at the same point I am.

    I chose to start going back in (currently I go about 1/3 to 1/2 the time) because now that my job has slowed down, my focus is awful at home. I just don’t get anything done in the afternoons and switching up the environment I work in helps. I enjoy the separation of my work environment and my home environment immensely. There are some nice perks that make me appreciate going in (snacks, lots of space, lots of sunlight) but to be honest my decision to start going back had nothing to do with my company. It had to do with my own mental health and my slow change from staying inside always to being more comfortable with risks. I can walk to my office and I also spent 1/2 of COVID working from home in a one room apartment with my partner which was horrible. I appreciate having more space and the quiet that comes with going in person.

    So what could a job do to make people go back in? If the work requires it (like truly does need people there in person), well that’s the answer. You provide a safe work environment, you listen to people’s health and safety concerns, and you provide generous sick leave and have coverage in the event someone can’t be there. You don’t pressure people to come in while sick. In the event of another COVID surge or some other disease outbreak, you work with people to make sure they feel comfortable and provide hazard pay.

    If the work isn’t necessary in person, I don’t really think companies should force people to do anything. I would have felt way differently had my company forced me to go in but because I got to decide, it made me not need any perks. The perk is flexibility over my own schedule and autonomy to decide what works for me. I think if they wanted to incentivize people to come back in, they should focus on the social side of things that people have been missing during COVID. I think people would be more likely to go in if every Friday at lunch there was a group event, or every Tuesday afternoon a catered coffee cart came through or something like that. Things that would guarantee some other people would be there to talk to but would be totally optional if commute, kids, or COVID risks made you not feel comfortable participating. I also think no matter what, all workplaces that can allow it should have an extremely flexible WFH policy. You’re sick? Your kid is sick? You have someone coming to look at a dishwasher? All of those feel like valid reasons to me and I don’t like hearing about companies that are now stingy about people working from home. If I get a sore throat, I want to stay at home to recover faster and not spread it around. Taking away the flexibility either means I unnecessarily burn a sick day or get others sick if I can’t afford to take an unpaid day and I don’t like either of those.

    Also for myself, it helped to fact check what I was being told about COVID. I have seen a lot of inaccurate information online that would sound terrifying until I’d look it up and realize data was misrepresented or exaggerated. It helped for me to check in and ask how I actually felt about what was going on and what I was and wasn’t comfortable with.

    So basically none of that has to do with work haha but hopefully it was an interesting perspective for someone to read!

    1. Beebee*

      Oh I will also say free food is a good motivator because groceries are so expensive now. I’d happy to cut my grocery budget by going in every day if my work had free breakfast / lunch items (but all the above still comes first, with food just making me go in more haha)

  228. Nathan*

    My company provides free, catered lunch one day a week. That seems mostly to work, but it’s hard to tell because my company is quite relaxed about in-person work so nobody’s keeping a headcount or anything.

    I actually come into the office two days a week because of a different perk: the fitness center (also free).

    If I had kids it might be a different story, but the cats are fine by themselves during the day so free stuff is enough to tempt me in!

  229. Fourth and Inches*

    My large, international company announced that everyone in the US would have to be on-site, full time last September. There were/are no incentives to get people to come in, just the directive. Results have been mixed mostly because no one is enforcing it. The EVP who made the directive doesn’t really have the visibility of what any of us lowly workers are actually doing. At my site, the unspoken rule has been that you have to work on-site ~3 days per week depending on your role.

    Though, I should point out that about 2/3 of the people at my site work jobs that require us to be on site every day no matter what (manufacturing), and we worked on site every day throughout the pandemic.

  230. Carolyn*

    Adding my voice to the choir! I’m a librarian at a college and required to work 3 days in the office (from mandatory 5 in the before times). When I’m remote I can do research, deep reading, record video tutorials, and work deeply without interruption. In the office, there’s a swirl of activity from students/people walking around that it makes it really hard to get this kind of work done. I run out of busy work to do the days I’m physically there and just sit until we’re allowed to leave…. All the work my performance centers on is the quality work I do at home.

    Saving time commuting, not paying for parking, not paying for lunch or a water if I forget my waterbottle, not having to use gross public college restrooms, being able to be “off” with facial expressions and posture are all game changers. My weekends feel like actual weekends now because laundry, dishes, etc. get done in the time of my old commute. I’m a more rested balanced person, a better family member, and soooo much happier! I wouldn’t trade it unless I made at least 50k more. It’s truly not worth the money to give back that time.

  231. Anonymous Manager*

    I oversee a fairly large organization of analysts. 100% were hired while we were remote, and we were able to hire incredible talent that had I stayed local for I would not have been able to get. Our teams love these analysts, think they do a great job. Now we’ve been given guidance they need to relocate within the next year. It feels like an elaborate game of chicken between executives and the little guy. I’m happy to go in (I’m local, and could do great collaboration) but the all or nothing approach is going to hurt our company and impact the talent we can hire.

    It feels like people who make the highest salaries are out of touch with cost of living, costs of a big city, and care more about “culture” then productivity. The irony is–forcing the issue is negatively impacting the culture.

  232. J*

    Oh, man. I work at a very large university in a large city. It’s not going well.

    My employer began making moves towards bringing people back last summer (after deciding to reinstate on-campus classes for Fall). They encouraged most people to switch to a hybrid model (minimum 3 days on-campus), but as with many other operational decisions, they left specifics up to individual schools and departments, and as you might guess, it ended up being enforced to wildly different degrees across the University. Some schools made everyone come back 5 days, some schools didn’t make people come back at all or granted numerous exceptions, etc.

    I was one of the first people back (I was teaching on-campus in Fall; I’m also an administrator, so it just seemed reasonable to come in regularly), and it was an absolute ghost town for the entire academic year. Most days I was literally the only person on my floor, let alone in my department. That’s actually part of why I liked coming in three days a week – it was really quiet!

    Towards the end of this summer, though, it seems like the University was done with it. Under the guise of equity, they announced that central HR would decide how each position should be classified – in-person, hybrid, or remote – with limited opportunities for units to contest classifications. People were and are furious – on top of the sudden about-face, they blew their own timeline for making and announcing these classifications, and we all ended up getting notified about two weeks before the start of our semester (although ultimately schools were given some flexibility on timing for implementation).

    For better or worse, people in more flexible departments made some major decisions under the assumption they could stay remote – many people moved out of commuting distance (our salaries did not help encourage people to stick around in our expensive city on the chance they may have to go in soon). I’m not saying that was wise, but as a manager, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do when the deadline to return to the office comes and goes – fire these people?

    Meanwhile, I continue to diligently come in to work three days a week. I have had exactly five in-person meetings in a year of doing this. While I like the quiet office space, I can’t say with a straight face that there is a meaningful reason for me (or my team) to be here.

    I think if people were better compensated, or given other benefits, etc., the anger we’re seeing wouldn’t be so high, but as it is it really feels like the last straw for a lot of people. Turnover is VERY high across the University, even before this policy was announced. I’ve resigned myself to losing people over it.

    I’ll just wrap up with a big thank you to the people here who are posting what works – it’s giving me some ideas on how to make this more meaningful for my team, since I can’t change it.

    1. Antony-mouse*

      I have to ask about how students find you? When I was an undergraduate and needed to go talk to university admin staff, it was a lot less daunting to walk to the admin department and get pointed to the right person immediately and stammer out what I needed than to send an email to a random email address, hope I got the right person or didn’t get lost in an email thread of being passed around. I’m sure there are some admin positions that don’t interact with students, but I think across 6 years of university now I’ve spoken to nearly every admin staff in my college and department and had a lot of email interacts that would have been so much clearer and easier in person

      1. pamela voorhees*

        I can’t speak for every university, but based on mine & my friend’s experience, the students often aren’t there in person either. They come in for whatever required in person classes they have, and then leave. If the class has a Zoom option, around 80% of them take the Zoom option. There are students who prefer in the person question, to be sure, but they’re much more of a minority than you might think. It helps that during the pandemic, people got really good at responding to emails quickly and cleanly — so now if students email us, they’re much more likely to hear back.

  233. Frog&Toad*

    I work for a very small IT shop, very relaxed, < 10 people. Every time the owner would say (on a weekly Teams meeting) "So, who's ready to go back into the office??" excitedly, they would get…crickets. And then I would speak up with, "well, I really like my current commute better than the usual one" or something like that. A couple people would never speak up. One person goes in maybe 5 times a month. Honestly, it's a TINY space and I work best without people clicking pens/cutting fingernails/talking loudly on speakerphone.
    The outcome is that we're closing the office up next month! I'm taking home an office chair, a couple more monitors, and going to ramp up my home office. It doesn't hurt that the owner isn't even in town for half of the year, working from a warmer state. There was also loose talk about "cost of office rent going back to the employees", but I'll believe it when I see it.

  234. kbeers0su*

    Our organization was initially very small based on funding. In 2019 funding increased substantially, and hiring began in earnest at the end of 2019 into 2020. Then COVID. We’re a team of mostly remote folks (work from home, but travel within the region to do our work for our clientele). Someone decided we should also have regional offices to increase our visibility. That has turned into a huge waste of money. My regional office is in one of the three major metropolitan areas in my region. I have one team member who is 10 minutes away, but the rest of us are at least 45 minutes away. The big, fancy sign on our building is only visible to people who come to this specific location. Our organization has made no effort to try and raise our profile in any other way than this. So we’ve got an $11K annual lease for a remote/work from home team. When I pointed all this out to our recently assigned new leader, my boss’s defense for continuing to have these offices? It’s where the copier is housed and we only bought our team members black and white printers from home. Gee, how much money do you think we would save by just buying everyone a color printer? Or getting an account with each person’s local Staples/FedEx/whoever to do color prints? This insistence that a physical location is key to a successful business baffles me.

  235. STEMprof*

    What would bring me back? Discounted childcare (that is actually possible to get into), and less expensive parking or a shuttle to my neighborhood (the Very Large Private University I work at has a few shuttles, but for a place that says they care about sustainability, they could do far more)

  236. trcomments*

    Food. My office (law firm, part of a big international firm in a smallish major city) has been trying to get people back regularly since March. Some support staff are required to be in office twice a week, whereas others have been advised they should be able to come in if needed. Much of the non-legal staff and some of the attorneys have opted to work from home permanently (with some even applying for permission to move out of the commutable area). They serve lunch twice a week (Tuesdays and then pizza Fridays), breakfast once a week, a snack once a week, and dessert once a week. Non-pizza lunch days are the busiest in office. The only time I’ve seen more people in on a non-Tuesday is when there’s a party (retirement, welcome to new associates, etc.).

  237. MaebyNot*

    I already come into the office a lot (like 9/10 days), but what would make me come in more is a really nice space to work with people that I want to spend time with and cool technology available to me. Even with a short commute, I don’t want to make the effort to come in if it’s just me pretty much alone in a sea of cubicles listening to my neighbor talk to herself all day and unable to use a breakout room except to take a video call on a single platform (that external partners never use).
    My company has also been hosting lots of happy hours and communal snack times, which doesn’t necessarily influence my desire to come in (I’m already here), but is a really nice opportunity to meet friends who I wouldn’t normally work with…that concept of having friends here is what keeps me coming in.

  238. ADHDEditor*

    Living in NYC with no commuting options other than public transit, which isn’t requiring masks anymore, and an immunocompromised partner, nothing will make it feel safe to return to the office. But for what it’s worth, the things companies can control that would make a difference: salary increases, covering commuting costs, offering on-site daycare, and most important for me (and likely other neurodivergent folks), END THE OPEN OFFICE LAYOUT. Working in an open office was horrible for my mental health and productivity, let alone the risk of disease transmission.

  239. anon for this*

    Since before the pandemic, my physical health has declined, my mental health wasn’t great to start with, and I’m caring for an aging relative whose trajectory is also not upward. When I think about going to an office every day, it’s hard to believe I ever actually did it. I am much more productive from home–and despite the above, I am an outstanding employee.
    I can’t think of anything that would get me back to the office full-time except a serious prospect of being fired. I am willing to go in occasionally. Currently I’m in theory trying to do it once a week but am not very successful.

    1. same anon for this*

      I should add that I’ve been pretty COVID-cautious and have never had it. I’m not afraid of dying anymore but I’m very afraid of long COVID and/or bringing disease home to more vulnerable relatives. I mask 100% of the time at work and it’s uncomfortable and annoying. And for that reason I basically don’t eat at work anymore, which makes it a notch more unpleasant to be there.

  240. TechWorker*

    My company firmly believes in collaboration being important to our work – and I agree with it (difficult to express here I know :p). It’s also critical for training new grads that they are around other people with a low bar to asking questions (we did hire people fully remote when we had to, it was harder than normal and training went slower).

    They’ve mandated everyone come in on the same 3 days, and do what you want on the other 2. There’s been a few small pockets of resistance but overall people are back doing that now, including senior management. (Infact some senior mgrs come in 5 days a week). I think it works well because a) on those days we have a ‘busy office’ feel, it’s good for socialising etc and you can arrange meetings and know ‘most people’ will be in, and b) pragmatically it makes it a lot easier to track and to notice if people don’t show up. There’s no huge discipline involved, but it’s expected that you let your mgr know why you’re working from home if you need to on a day everyone is in.

    I know some people got used to full time wfh, but we’ve had this policy 6 months now, and the only folks who have left have gone to a competitor who demands 5 days in office. So no sign of a mass resignation yet.

  241. Been There*

    Consistency! Our biggest struggle with coming back into the office has been a consistent message. Our Executive Director is a lousy communicator under the best circumstances but so far our ‘back to office mandate’ has changed almost weekly – Everyone must be back every day – only certain roles must come back at all – this department will be there Monday and Wednesday and that department will be there Tuesday and Thursday – no more than six people at a time – wait, 8 people at a time – wait, no, everyone should be there Wednesdays – Everyone should work from home Monday and Friday – wait, and Thursday -but only until Labor Day – after Labor Day everyone should come in on Tuesday and Wednesday unless we schedule a Monday meeting… it’s just endless. We are all making our own schedules now because no one knows what we’re supposed to be doing.

  242. Adequate Archaeologist*

    Since 2020 I have worked in a couple of different job configurations ranging from must come in every day to (my current job) totally WFH. On the “must be in in office” end, there were things that made it bearable, like a decent work set up, natural light, and providing free snacks and drinks (it was a temp job, I was poor, and every cent that could be saved on buying food and put toward literally anything else was a win; also they were nice snacks like Fairlife protein drinks and fresh cut produce and Milano cookies). My co-workers were there to answer questions and we took a daily group snack break for social interaction. I ended up transitioning to WFH the rest of my time there due to personal reasons, but it wasn’t the worst in-office deal I’ve had.

    The opposite was when my last job required us to be in-office 3 days per week because it was important to the CEO who was in the next state over. I was put in a corner cube, in a room with no natural light, had a long commute because I was being so underpaid I couldn’t afford to live closer (even with two incomes!), and they demanded more in-office just as gas prices were skyrocketing. There were no snacks regardless of quality, and I was often the only person there. I was literally paying a minimum of $12 per day in gas to go sit in a windowless room and still have to communicate over email and chat. Some of my duties required me to be in office and I was fine going in office for those, but that also got irritating towards the end because it got dragged out and there were issues with people not returning equipment.

    Currently I’m totally WFH and if I have to go in for any reason my milage is paid and the clock starts when I leave my house. Occasionally I get sent on field work which isn’t really in office or WFH. Sometimes I miss the change in scenery, but I’m glad to be able to cobble together random food out of my fridge, snuggle my cats, and not have to drive 45 minutes each way every day. I’m more willing to work late or do extra because I don’t have to deal with all the logistics of staying late at the office (ex. feeding myself and cats) . I would willingly go back to in-office one or days a week if there was a legit reason or if it was a nice set up like my first example. But as things stand the benefits to me of WFH vastly outweigh the negatives.

  243. Ann O'Nemity*

    It costs me hundreds of dollars a month to go into the office. Parking, gas, wardrobe, and lunch costs are expensive, and they’ve all increased dramatically in the last few years.

  244. HIPAA-Potamus*

    Nothing, folks. Look at it this way: if it can’t be a buyer’s market, let it at least continue to be an employee’s market. For once, let us reign for the foreseeable future.

  245. Caroline Bowman*

    I’m right in the middle of interviewing and (hopefully) shortly to be entering the employed sector again after many years working for myself, remotely, AKA, doing what the hell I wanted, with no transport costs, so this is pertinent to me.

    What would get me to strongly consider a role that was hybrid rather than remote completely, is ease of commute, meaning a reasonable length of time (45 mins or less), AND that wasn’t prohibitively expensive in terms of things like parking. It’s all well and fine for somewhere to be 20 mins drive away in traffic, but if it’s very expensive to park there and public transport is very sketchy, it eats into salary noticeably, especially at average-salary type roles.

    The second thing would be flexible hours, so I’m very happy to come in on an agreed basis, but a hard start of (say) 8am is unattractive, when no role I’ve ever been in requires this as integral to the role. Happy to start at 8 from home, but from the office? Not so much, not on a regular basis.

    I think I’ve got very used to my time being my own and of course there will be compromises and balance to be found, but companies that take account of those things would be attractive to me.

  246. Incessant Owlbears*

    I found a WFH job during COVID and I plan to keep WFH forever. We do have to go in one day a month for team building, a monthly meeting or two, and team lunch. But that’s all.

    If management changed their mind and wanted us back in the office, I would look around for another job. Being able to WFH is so valuable to my work life balance and peace of mind.

  247. Thin Mints didn't make me thin*

    One of our offices is encouraging people to come back on Wednesdays and has decided to hold a pub quiz next Wednesday with moderately good prizes. It’s still voluntary, though, and I think someone needs to be told that “fun” events trivialize the business value of RTO, especially for those of us who found blessed peace in not having to be around people all day.

    1. JAnon*

      This is a great point. Doing non-work things to bring people in does not show us that it is beneficial to be there for the work and that won’t keep people going back.

  248. SdB*

    People aren’t staying at home at anyone’s expense, though. Different types of job have different needs. What’s happened is that a lot of office jobs (which aren’t all well paid, by any stretch) didn’t really require people to be there in-person, but it was the status quo, so it continued. The pandemic came along and made it really obvious to a lot of people that it was unnecessary, and that their lives are better this way.

    We *all* stand to benefit from this shift. Lower traffic from commuting benefits everyone. Any swing towards taking workers’ needs and preferences into account is a good thing. People who can afford to risk defying unnecessary orders to go back in can be the ones to drive change, allowing lower paid office workers to get the same choice to work from home without risking their jobs. Some people who struggled with in-office work for various reasons might well be able to flourish working from home. And lots of office-type jobs are open to just about anyone – if it becomes normal for even entry-level office jobs to allow WFH, then people in other roles where that isn’t an option can potentially choose to switch jobs to one that it is. Before, working from home was often only available to people in very senior or specialist roles, so it was much more unfair before.

  249. Carlottamousse*

    My small office gave us the choice to return to the office after everyone was vaccinated last summer, and I think having the choice really made the difference for me. I work a hybrid schedule (Fridays home & evenings home, rest in office) and have flexibility to work from home more as needed (appointments, child-care issues, etc.). Our newer employees mostly work in the office but also have some flexibility to work from home as needed. But we are all in the office most days, and I think we all see that it can be a lot easier to get certain things done, and train our newer employees, so I think for us, the benefits of being in the office exist and are visible. From what I’ve heard from friends, the companies that are requiring certain days back in the office and/or demanding return to work are having a hard time getting people back into the office with rigid policies. What I most appreciate is that I’m given the flexibility to determine when to be in the office or work from home and that they trust my judgment to figure that out in a way that works for me and the firm.

  250. Earthlyposessions*

    Give me a choice. Ask me not tell me. Whatever happened to being “pro choice”.

    EX level gov employees are forcing people into shared cubicles because they might be losing their own bonus on top of their 6 figures salaries. They do not care if out of 8 hour workday now 10-11 hours will be dedicated towards putting in a shift.

    My position requires basic security level why do I need to be in office, if you don’t trust me to be at home with “files”, don’t you think it’ll be worse at office?

    These top level will retire within next 5-10 years and they are going to leave us with messed up planet, bankrupt social security and our student loans which we could’ve paid off but had to spend on transportation and commute to work

  251. Green*

    My law firm does a different thing each day: Bagel Mondays, Tea time Tuesdays, etc. I have to go in one day a week and on my day they have ping pong. I’ve never played because … I’m working. They would have to offer me at least $5,000 more for me to agree to voluntarily come in more than one day a week. I don’t want to go into the office.

  252. JAnon*

    Not much. The job I had when all of this started kept talking about people having to go back, but then some people were allowed to move away and work fully remote and there was no standard or consistency to it. I was recruited for an opportunity based out of state for me, so I am fully remote with a better culture and compensation so I took it. I much rather travel out of state every once in a while than drive downtown. The culture at my new company is such that I have said if I lived there I may go in more but the work life balance of being at home is unmatched. Being able to do more life on the days I am not focused but then really get a lot of work done on days I am dialed in works a lot better for me.

  253. Sunglassesintheshade*

    Have been WFH for 6 years now, love it, and am feral now LOL There’s no going back except for a roughly once a month (about 9 times a year) 4 day visit to the ‘mother ship’ office in a different state. I know for a fact if I wasn’t WFH, I would have gotten a different job because there is so much drama and disfunction with the people who do work in the office (for multiple reasons), I wouldn’t have lasted.

    Being able to just do my job, avoid a lot of the various office personalities, and stay out of the drama is critical to me. There is *nothing*, including being laid off, that would get back into the office at this point.

  254. David R.*

    I started a new role full-remote during the pandemic, so I’m not planning on looking any time soon & don’t expect my workplace to try to push (unless they want to start budgeting airfare for my commute); but if a local company were to want to try to lure me in:

    Table-stakes (aka “what would make it feel like I’m not losing ground?”):
    * Actual COVID policies & changes. I want to know that you’ve updated your HVAC for sufficient air exchanges (especially in meeting rooms). Far-UVC would be nice, but I know that’s still early in places adopting it. Daily rapid-tests. Full vaccination requirement. Masks-encouraged (ideally required, but if the other policies are in place this can be loosened)
    * Commute time counts against hours worked. If I need to spend 45 minutes each way on a bus, that shouldn’t be coming out of my time.

    Enticements (aka what might make me want to pick you):
    * 4-day-workweek (32-hour, not 4×10)
    * Unionization

    Just because many people have taken to acting like the pandemic is over doesn’t mean those who still treat it appropriately are liars. We’re not out of the woods, and this is only going to be more important to build on as this likely won’t be the last one we face.

    1. StellaBella*

      I love this all but sadly in my country vaccines are not legally mandate-able. I love the ideas tho, thank you

  255. Ditto*

    I have WFH for almost three years now. To go back in person, I would require two things and if they didn’t happen I would look for a new job.

    1) A significant raise
    2) A reduction of hours (less than 40 hours a week)

    WFH allows me to do school pickup because I’m much closer at home than in the office. It allows me to start dinner earlier, do laundry and most importantly, see my small children throughout the day. I would need to start later and end earlier every day to make up for what I’m losing AND I need compensated for that.

  256. Sunflower*

    My electric bill has gone through the roof since WFH but I’d rather deal with it than go back to the office.
    I also haven’t been eating junk food everyday since people always bring in snacks before Covid.
    Easier to work overtime since I no longer have a 45 minute commute each way.
    I no longer get scared in the middle of the night when a thought pops into my head that I messed up. I can now check my work anytime.

    I think the only way to lure me back is a massive pay increase.

      1. Ditto*

        Completely agree. My electric bill has definitely gone up, and I’m eating so much better. I’ll take that tradeoff!

  257. Gary Patterson’s Cat*

    I realize I am incredibly fortunate to have the ability to WFH when many don’t have that available to them. However, I also planned for this through education, skills training, and purposely choosing a career path (marketing/communications) that is much more computer-based in general, hence it offered a better opportunity for remote working even before the pandemic.

    My take:
    Employers need to RETHINK what the office is for.

    Yes, the office can be best for high levels of collaboration and interaction, or training. But it has become a bad place for “deep working” or tasks that require intense concentration because of the introduction of open office floor plans.

    Flexible work allows for employees to mostly WFH, but come in to meet, plan, brainstorm, train, use specific equipment, or team build as needed. The office should be used as a “meeting hub” and client space, rather than day to day desk working.

    Companies can save money by reducing their real estate footprint, and employees save by reducing their commuting time and expenses. We all win by reducing pollution from autos and using fewer natural resources, many of which revolved around commuting somewhere.

    1. Mewtwo*

      This! I also made this point in another comment, but working from home more also has led me to spend a lot less money, which also contributes to having a smaller resource footprint on top of not having to commute.

  258. WingNWing*

    There’s exactly one thing that would work for me: having an explanation of why it works better to be onsite, and that means something concrete, not a vague fuzzy “group dynamics” or similar buzzwords. I negotiated hybrid work in 2002. My 2 WFH days per week were spent reviewing documents (solitary work that needed to be done uninterrupted, so perfect fit). Additional benefits included flexible hours even for onsite days, and considering my commute time for certain meetings to be part of my work hours.

  259. PotsPansTeapots*

    I’m entirely freelance and haven’t had an in-person gig since before the pandemic. I don’t want to ever go back to an office. Commuting, office politics, and bs performance metrics really sapped my energy and made me miserable.

    WFH works for my health needs and my general sanity. I have work/life balance for the first time in my adult life. I may take a traditional job again at some point, but it would have to be 100% remote.

  260. Alex*

    My last day at my job of ten and a half years is tomorrow. They’re demanding everyone come back five days a week, zero exceptions for any reason, starting after Labor Day. I was told that working remotely is completely incompatible with working at this company, that in-person attendance is essential every single day, despite having done it this way for over two and a half years, and in spite of the fact that pre-pandemic, entire weeks would pass without interacting with anyone in person.

    I got very sick, like three weeks in bed, with COVID in 2020 despite never going anywhere or seeing anyone because my partner is a healthcare worker and picked it up at work. I’ve had likely permanent long COVID symptoms ever since, so I’ve doubled down on keeping myself safe. I was told that this was not an acceptable reason to want to stay remote.

    So that’s how they’re handling it. The company has always run pretty lean, so it will be interesting to see how things will go now that the only person who knows how several crucial systems operate is leaving, particularly with a major event planned for the week after Labor Day.

  261. Down the rabbit hole*

    I switched companies when it looked like they were actually forcing us back into the office. After going two years without a raise, I’d moved 90 minutes away (without traffic) because of the cost of rent increases near the office.

    My previous employer is requiring 2 days a week in the office with a 3rd day at your manager’s discretion. The kicker is they have 1800+ staff for a building with 1200 seats and 800 parking spaces. I’m so glad I left even if the benefits were incredible.

    I now work permanently remote and I love it. I follow the companies on LinkedIn that have a fully remote business model too so I can stay on top of career opportunities that work for my lifestyle.

    I would only go back to an office if my finances were at crisis point but it would only be a stopgap as I would be applying to fully remote work until I landed somewhere else.

      1. Down the rabbit hole*

        I look at tech companies mostly and pull up articles on companies that are supportive of hybrid work to see how the higher ups really feel about remote workers. I also run job searches with location set to remote. If it turns out their job locations are actually legit then I follow the company and keep an eye on job postings that align with my career path.

        I also keep connected to former colleagues and see what they have to say about the companies they work for. It’s helped steer me away from applying to ads that say fully remote when the CEO is about to pull everyone back into the office.

        Also, every 3-6 months I pull remote jobs that could be my next step and update my resume with responsibilities from the ads that fit my actual work experience. I double check any preferred certifications and if they seem worth the time I’ll get approval from my current employer to cover the cost of my enrollment. It helps me feel a little more prepared if there are layoffs and it also helps when asking for promotions because I can give my boss an idea of what that promotion could look like in terms of adding value for the company.

  262. Emm*

    I started a new job that’s full-time in the office this year, so for me I guess the answer is… needing a job! But I echo some of the things said above too. I was full-time WFH since March 2020 before that, and as a single introvert living alone, it really started to get to me. The office is where I have get most of my daily social interaction, and I feel way more connected and capable here than I think I would if I’d started this position WFH.

    Moving forward though, I’ll definitely want some hybrid flexibility in my next job. WFH has a lot of inherent benefits, like not having to commute, having a more flexible schedule, etc. And I did look at hybrid and remote jobs during my recent search, but having a separation between my work and personal lives is also important to me, and in my area I can’t afford more than a studio. So the simple practicality of physical separation is also something I strongly consider, and one reason I’m fine being back in the office now.

    1. Curmudgeon in California*

      My last two job searches, the first starting when my employer laid me off due to Covid reducing their income a little, were for 100% remote. People suddenly deciding that they were hybrid if I lived local to the office made me nope out of the interview process. I am now 100% remote, and there isn’t even one of their data centers within 50 miles of me.

  263. Introverts Need Private Offices*

    There’s nothing that can lure me back in except threat of termination, and that would be temporarily while I find a new job. I’ve WFH 2-3 days per week for years prior to the shutdown, and only went in on the days when I knew it would be very quiet. Since then teams have been rearranged and people are scattered across North America… at one point I was the only person in my country on my team. Who would have even known if I was in the office or not?

    My work isn’t pushing for people to go back but if they were, all other things being equal, the one thing that would tempt me is a private office. Nothing else would. It was the open office, cubicle hell that drove me to my former hybrid schedule and is the one thing that stops me going in even once in awhile now even though my office is only a 10 minute drive away and fairly empty.

  264. Nonny Moose*

    The amount of money they’d have to pay me for mandatory in-office would allow me to retire right now

  265. Steph B.*

    As long as an airborne pandemic is still raging, I’d need a serious commitment to maintaining a covid-safe office:
    -N95-level masks worn by everyone
    -Upgraded ventilation and openable windows
    -Portable HEPA filters or Corsi-Rosenthal Boxes
    -CO2 monitoring & live data publicly visible
    -Requirement that anyone who is out sick must test negative before returning to the workplace

    1. Kat Maps*

      Yes, hard agree. I had a colleague out with COVID a while ago and when they came back they said their most recent covid test was “negative enough”??

  266. Esmeralda*

    Oh yeah, we have the same issue. The PTB in our division have grudgingly, after our bosses fought very very hard for it, agreed to a 3(office)-2(remote) hybrid for this year. We had data that showed we were incredibly productive with 3/2, with 2/3, with 1/4, with fully remote (during the depths of the pandemic), and that our students still prefer virtual meetings — even on our in-office days, most students make zoom appts. But but but! the students!!

    Anyway, they finally agreed, but they get no gratitude for it, because they made it so frickin hard to get, AND they’re almost never around. They’re working from other states most days. Family reasons, which I totally get — it would be nice if THEY would get that we want the same.

    Every time they said no to hybrid schedules, we lost more staff. Everyone on staff is grumpy — we are all pitching in to cover the vital pieces of work, plus a good percentage of us are serving on search committees. (And that’s been no fun, because we’re getting fewer applications, and the really good candidates get lots of other offers where WFH or hybrid is not a stupid fight.)

    Personally, if they take away hybrid at the end of the year, I will retire, kick back a few months, then pick up a new fully remote job. I have one lined up. Less pay, but less hassle. Worth it, especially w retirement payouts.

  267. calvin klein*

    Most managers on my team moved states during the height of the pandemic, and switched to being remote full-time. This remote option was really only available/granted to specific managers or other senior members that had the right connections at the company. New hires or junior employees weren’t openly granted a remote option. Some new hires on my team relocated to the city the HQ is located, even though the office was closed at the time – and the rest of our team was remote.

    Now, management is trying to bring people to the office. They’re decreasing remote salaries by 25%. Some managers that have been remote for the past 2-3 years are now looking for work elsewhere, since they have new lives in new states, can’t move back near HQ, and don’t want a sizable pay cut. Other remote employees I know are taking the pay cut because they like the work they do, but are worried about mostly only new hires and junior employees being in office while managers are remote (considering most meetings will be remote anyways).

    Overall, morale is low. It’s one thing to increase in-office salaries, but decreasing remote salaries and providing no additional in-office perks is pretty bad.

  268. Angry socialist*

    Here’s the thing about the office: The bathrooms are small, dark, crowded, barely ventilated, and indifferently cleaned. Fixing that would help. Nothing beats pooping in my own bathroom at home.

    Additionally, getting me to go back would require counting my commute time as working hours, possibly more money, and absolutely a strongly-enforced mask mandate. It would also help if they upgraded the shitty office ventilation.

    Working from home, I can sit in an “unprofessional” position in my chair, or work from the couch. I can wear clothes that are comfortable rather than performatively professional. These things have increased my mental and physical health without reducing productivity. Why would I give that up? Even before 2020, a lot of our work was done by phone, internet, email, etc., because we collaborate with multiple sites across the country. There’s no point in going in to the open-office hell just to hear other people on speakerphone.

  269. Gail Davidson-Durst*

    I thought I would enjoy being back in the office three days a week, since I do need some human interaction beyond my family to be happy and healthy. Plus it can be awkward when my husband and I are both on calls and causing background noise for each other.

    But when I actually had to cram a commute into my busy mornings (which made my exercise routine evaporate), sit around all day in a mask, figure out lunch (the struggle is real), and then go out to a car that was 100+ degrees from baking in the parking lot all day, I was like, “Why am I doing this again?” I didn’t even get relief from dueling phone calls because we have an open plan office! And I realized I didn’t miss the conference rooms that get too much solar heat in the afternoon or have uncomfortable chairs or wonky A/V equipment.

    I’ve pretty much settled on working from home except for quarterly meetings, and joining some clubs to socialize with people who have similar interests, rather than trying to get that human interaction from random co-workers.

    To top it all off, we’re a global team anyway, and have multiple team members who were hired to work from home from several states away. It’s not like we’ll ever all be in the same room anyway. What’s the point?

    *Maybe* if they offered an office with a door, a covered parking deck, a 6-hour day, and restaurant-quality lunches on site, I would consider it. But that huge chunk of time lost to commuting and the inability to do household chores throughout the day would probably still be a deal-breaker.

  270. Gnome*

    I have been in the office (or the client’s office) at least once a week for most of the pandemic (excluding the first two weeks and when I was on quarantine).

    There are not a lot of people there, but what typically brings people in is when the work requires it or is much easier to do in person (virtual white boards are just not the same). I would like to have more people in more often, myself included, because it really is helpful in my field, but it would require more bus drivers, after school care, or other options that have disappeared since COVID related to getting kids to/from school. Nothing my employer can really do about that. That said, I would come in more in exchange for more training in areas I’m interested in learning, or better computer equipment (monitors, higher powered things). More interesting projects would do it too.

  271. ONFM*

    I work for city government. Our City Hall (the main offices for treasurer, public works, utilities, tax assessor, etc.) went almost fully remote in the fall of 2020. In Summer 2021, they tried to mandate all City Hall workers to return, and at least 50% of the staff refused. The city had been touting its successful remote programs, increased online offerings for billing, payment, remote office hours, etc.; the workers’ stance was “if it’s so successful, then we’re never coming back.” They couldn’t fire half of their staff, so they pushed that “mandatory return” back to…never. Most of the offices are still 50% remote on any given day, and the city policy on remote work changed to allowing 3 days remote, two in office. I have to admit, though, that no one thinks it’s working anymore. We have large populations who cannot do online billing, for example, either due to age or technology or access. We are required to have public meetings for certain activities. We are having an increasing amount of turnover in essential positions because people will not come to the office. I think this may be where the public sector’s historical unwillingness to embrace technology is playing out, to the detriment of the public we serve.

  272. Falling Diphthong*

    A huge factor with asking now, rather than two years ago, is that anything that’s been okay remote for the last 29 months…. can be done remotely.

    If it’s something like medicine or a lab or making things, then you went back long ago. If the company is just trying to lure specific roles back into the offices now… well, it does suggest they just like seeing those little heads over the cube walls, which is proof that people are working. (And not, say, reading AAM.) From upthread, they may just like knowing that the heads are hypothetically there while the top people all continue to be fully or mostly remote.

  273. MistOrMister*

    My office is currently allowing hybrid (3 days in, 2 days at home) and remote work. They have made it clear that hybrid is their preference and right now all new hires and staff who have less than 2 years at the company are hybrid. After 2 years employees are allowed to apply to be full remote or to come in 1 or 2 days. They offered the following incentives to be 3/2 hybrid: $1,000 bonus at the end of a full year of coming in 3 days a week, breakfast and lunch to be provided some days, raffles with prize giveaways or those who go in 3 days a week. We were told about the incentives in the Spring. 4+ months later, bagels were offered for a few days one week when they announce the incentives. There have been no other meals and no raffles/prizes.

    I picked the full remote option, so have been home for 2.5 years at this point. Overall I am so much happier that I can’t think of anything my current employer could offer me that would make me willing to go back in, either hybrid of 5 days a week.

  274. kittybutton*

    In my opinion, gimmicks like free food backfire because they present the image that being in the office is negative so they need to somehow make it palatable.

    If you want employees in the office, make it worth their while with actual benefits to their work and careers, not gimmicks. Many employers claim face-to-face interaction, mentoring, etc. but employees show up to an empty office with no culture. The value of being in the office needs to be clear to them in the experiences they have working with their team. Invest in a collaborative culture, and this issue solves itself (mostly. Of course some employees will still prefer other perks of being at home so either accommodate that or allow the employee to choose whether it makes sense for them to stay with the organization.)

    I recently read this: would you ask your spouse to go to the grocery store without a list and not to buy any groceries, literally just go to the grocery store? No, that would be insanely unproductive and maddening. But going with a list to get your shopping done, totally reasonable. Telling employees who prefer WFH that they must be back in the office when literally nothing is accomplished in the office that could not be done at home is just as crazy.

  275. Artsy Archivist*

    I work at a fantastic tech company with tons of office perks already and I would still need them to reimburse my travel costs and pay for noise-cancelling headphones in order for me to function as well at the office as I do when working from home.

  276. Clawfoot*

    My company is currently trying to entice us back to the office (they haven’t yet resorted to trying to force us). However, just about everyone is seriously reluctant to do so.

    Personally, I crunched the numbers. All told, when I WFH, I have about 6-7 hours of my day to do with as I wish. When I work at the office, I only have about 3-4 hours of my own. And those are my own, personal, unpaid hours that I’m giving up in order to work at the office, as it adds up between getting up earlier, going to bed earlier, time spent dressing/preparing to a higher standard for office work than wfh, a lunch hour I can’t do much with in the office except eat lunch (whereas at home I can do laundry, nap, work on hobbies, run errands, walk the dog, etc.), and all that.

    And you know what, even if I were paid for those hours, I probably wouldn’t want to do it. I’d rather have the energy and time back in my life than extra money.

    A four-day work week might get me to agree to come back to the office 1/week.

  277. EMP*

    My company is trying to have its cake (onsite only) and eat it too (flexibility to WFH if needed but specifically NOT hybrid or remote). In practice this means some people have worked out special circumstances with their managers to regularly work remote some days while others are bitter that they have to come in to the office and so and so doesn’t. There was a shake up last year (2021) when we officially went back to the office full time when a bunch of people quit in favor of remote-friendly positions, but it seems like those of us who have made it to fall 2022 are still here despite everything. Some work does need to happen on site but not all of it every day. It’s definitely hampering us when hiring but there’s a few people at the top who won’t budge. If and when I move on I am definitely going to look for hybrid if not fully remote.

  278. Hybrid worker*

    This is a timely question for me. I currently work a very high intensity job with challenging clients, the firm’s partners are non-stop people, but the pay, benefits and projects are great. Prior to the pandemic, I often passed out or puked from stress in the office. I credit WFH for being able to stay employed — I don’t have to be “on” all the time and the anxious environment is reduced at home, and I’m in the office 1-2 days a week.

    I was recently made aware of a “dream” job that’s hiring — more money, lower stress, much shorter hours, similar projects : but I’m not sure I want to apply because it’s in-person every day. Even a 20k raise and 40 hour workweek can’t really lure me into in-office work.

    So I guess, my answer is that the economy would have to turn a lot to push me to in-office work, and I’d probably return to calling in sick extremely often. It would be a bad scene overall.

  279. Danish*

    I would need:

    1) covid to be a lot more over than it actually is!

    2) a compelling reason why being on site was necessary, and no, “face time” or a nebulous and theoretical “you might collab better” don’t count as compelling.

    That said, at my current job being in or out is 100% optional, and I live very close, so some days I will go into the office just for a change of scenery. It’s only when my presence is mandatory that I’d start requiring good justification.

    1. zolk*

      Dead accurate, and I’m jealous – we have to be in three days a week right now so the bosses “can see (y)our smiling faces”. Gag me with a spoon.

      1. Curmudgeon in California*

        If I had to go in to an office I would be wearing an N95 mask, so there would be no smile to see.

  280. turquoisecow*

    I work part time and live at least an hour from the office so I wasn’t expected to come in most of the time even pre-pandemic, but if they wanted me to come in more regularly I’d need to see some actual safety procedures. They have stopped mask mandates so literally no one wears masks in the office anymore (I had to go in once and I was one of only two people wearing one). They’ve started to allow vendors to visit again and the vendors are required to be vaccinated, but the employees are not. I realize this is an unpopular opinion but I haven’t gotten Covid – nor has my husband or my two year old – and it keeps going around my office, and I don’t want to go sit in a poorly ventilated box (the AC has apparently be broken recently, so I know the ventilation system isn’t working) with potentially unvaccinated people who aren’t wearing masks. About the only thing they’re sticking with is not allowing large groups to congregate in the conference rooms for meetings, so everyone is doing Teams from their desks. But the office itself isn’t that big, so I’m not sure why they’re bothering with this.

    My husband works full-time remote for a large international tech company. Before the pandemic, he worked for a start-up which was bought out by this large company, and he would go into the office two or three times a week. Since the pandemic, the office he used to work at has closed, and he has yet to go into the new office (though he’s thought about it once or twice). His team is distributed – we’re in NY, his boss is in California, his grandboss is in VA, and his other team members are in Boston, Texas, and NY. He used to go into the office to meet with the one local guy, but they’ve been doing fine without that. They did meet for lunch once or twice. But his local office keeps having outbreaks of Covid as well. Husband is more cautious than me but we’re both wearing masks when in indoor spaces, and it’s not mandated at his office, although at least his company does require employees to be vaccinated (which they justify by pointing out that they do have contracts with the federal government). His company has started pushing people to come to the office but his boss and grandboss have both said that he shouldn’t feel obligated, especially since they wouldn’t be at the same office. I don’t know when he’ll feel like going to the office more regularly. I guess maybe when Covid cases are a lot lower?

  281. A non*

    I’m going to second the comments about coming in to collaborate and having to Zoom anyway. Frankly, there is little more frustrating than a call that is have Zoom half in-person. We have supposed “in office days” but they are basically ignored. Some of us are in different states, so they don’t come in, some have to go to client offices, so they don’t come in… then what’s the point?

    Right now, I’m on the fence. Part of me really wants to have regular work hours, be able to set up a schedule, and to know when the heck my coworkers are available to meet. Another part of me is loathe to give up the flexibility that came with the pandemic. I can run out to the store midday or whatever much more easily. And that pays real dividends for when my kid has a bad day and needs to talk, or whatever.

  282. Sans Serif*

    I don’t want to waste time and car expenses commuting. I like working in sweatpants and tshirts and don’t want to have to dress nicer for the office. I don’t like either packing lunch or paying for it when I can work at home and just walk into the next room for some food. I don’t want to sit at a cubicle just to have meetings with people in other cities. I can do that just as well at home. I don’t want to have to deal with distracting noise in an office while I try to concentrate.

    There’s nothing a company can give me that will change any of these, except let me keep working at home. I’m doing my job. My whole team is doing their job. Don’t try to fix something that isn’t broken.

  283. city extrovert*

    I do miss going into an office, and the one thing I look for is an office that I can easily commute into using public transit in 1 hour of transit commute stitching together multiple forms of transit.

    Instead, I’m looking at coworking spaces in the city that are commutable and hoping that I might be able to get some of that reimbursed (unlikely given how “close” I am to the real office) so that I can balance the social component and life structure component of “going to the office” with doing it on the terms that work for me and my life.

  284. CLC*

    My (large, international) company has never really made a big effort to get everyone back in– they kind of encouraged it for a while but it fizzled out sometime during last winter’s omicron surge. It’s officially a “hybrid” policy, but it’s been left up to individual managers to set parameters for their teams, and most people on my small team are still fully remote with a few going in every once in a while. I haven’t been in the office or done anything work related in person since March 2020. For a multitude of practical reasons full time WFH is best for me right now, and wrapping my head around getting dressed up and commuting and spending all day in the office for no real work-related reason after all this time seems impossible. And I don’t have to travel at all anymore– I LOATHE work travel. On the other hand, part of me really, really misses going somewhere else during the day and just being around other people who are also working, making little friendships, that feeling of total relaxation just from walking into your house at the end of the day and sitting on the couch. If the office environment were what it was pre-pandemic I would probably be happy to go in but choose to WFH much more often than I used to (my team has always had the flexibility). Unfortunately too much has changed that makes the office very unappealing. To go back in I would need:
    (1) a dedicated ergonomic workstation with the furniture and tech set up the way I need it– no hot desking
    (2) other people I actually work with and/or know in the general vicinity
    (3) no calls/meetings before 10am or after 4pm
    (4) a place to buy food, coffee, etc (suburban location off the highway)
    (5) guaranteed parking availability
    (6) a rule that employees *can’t* come into the office if they have symptoms of infectious disease (Covid or otherwise)
    It would also be really nice if we could eliminate bias around things like appearance and neurodivergence, but I’m not holding my breath for that one.

  285. NervousNellie*

    I simply hate working in an office. The noise, cheap lighting, distractions, etc, etc, mean I never really get to focus. And I hate packing a lunch in the winter. The office is a huge hassle. Working in one eats up an extra 2-3 hours a day in getting read, driving, decompressing…. ugh. It’s such a waste.

    But, if the company defined goals for office days, and evaluated their efficacy with metrics and really determined if office days were meeting the intention, I’d listen to that. “We want the Llama Grooming Products team to meet on Tuesday mornings in the office for their weekly meeting, specifically in person because we need to do product look/feel/smell testing, and we’re going to have a llama onsite for testing the new concept clippers, and Susan wants to present her hair sample testing results where people can feel the hair,” is far better than “I really want to see people in person.” No! Give me a good reason to go through the bother that is expected of aging women in public, the expense of a packable lunch, and the carbon impact of me coming in.

    And then, let’s evaluate if the office time was worth it. Maybe it was for Susan’s presentation, but the on-site Llama isn’t such a selling point because all of us in the Llama Grooming business, surprise surprise, have a llama at home that doesn’t mind being a test dummy. Maybe we also prefer to not just spend five minutes with the packaging, but use it at home to see if that shape is slippery when wet, or if the light colored packaging tends to get lost in the suds, etc, etc.

    I think for a great many companies, what they’ll find is that it’s cost effective to have quarterly in person meetings for the whole team, and maybe once a quarter face-to-face one-on-ones, but they can cut costs by ditching a large office, and instead providing a space for in team meetings and some break out rooms for those small one-on-ones. And that’s maximum. I think a lot of companies may only need one big in person meeting per team, per year, so with some judicious scheduling, they could use an even smaller space.

  286. Liz*

    What I’m seeing is that they are having an impossible time hiring decent candidates. I am seeing cynicism because everyone KNOWS that office days are not about collaboration or facetime, but control. I am seeing managers start looking for new jobs because they have unhappy staff AND can’t hire. BTW, that company is offering no perks or real flexibility and keeps changing requirements at a whim. I don’t know how it will turn out, because I just accepted a new job that will remain fully remote.

    1. Faithful Reader*

      ^^This! I saw a lot of this during my last few months at my previous job, also. I was thankful to join an organization with a more forward-looking perspective on flexible work arrangements.

  287. Faithful Reader*

    Last year, I left a job at an organization I thought I’d be retiring from in a few decades because the (cishet, white, male) leader insisted that we return in person. He couldn’t provide a good reason other than “we do our best work when we’re all together,” which was BS. I’ll add that this was not the expectation organization-wide, just in our department. (In fact, the stance of the broader leadership of our org was that if people could do their jobs remotely, they should continue to do so, and there were options for requesting accommodations, too.)

    I, my boss, and my boss’ boss all tried to advocate for a more flexible policy, and all three of us ended up quitting within about a year of the “return to office” mandate. (Did I mention that the “return to office” mandate STARTED in July/August of 2020, before there were COVID vaccines and when cases were still surging all over the United States?) As a matter of fact, my boss’s boss was effectively forced out of their job — our “butts in seats” leader told them that if they didn’t find a new position, he would find a reason to fire them.

    My boss and I lasted a few more months, but not many. My boss left in August of last year and I left in September — basically, as soon as we could find new jobs, we gave our notice. Before I left, I continued to try to advocate for my team and find a compromise, and when I brought up the desire folks had to continue to work remotely, it was framed to me as an “equity” issue — that since there were people in our department who couldn’t do their jobs remotely, that it was only fair that everyone be required to come in the office. (I’ll mention here that with some investment in technology and/or outsourcing, it would have been possible for EVERYONE to work remotely, but our leadership truly chose to die on the hill of “return to in-person work.”)

    Ironically, I was exposed to COVID during my last week at that job because our **HEAD OF HR** was a notorious anti-vaxxer and refused to take precautions. I was not infected, thankfully, but that experience alone was validation that my decision to leave was the right one.

  288. Bitter at Work*

    I wish the comment section of this site cared as much about other types of workers as their “need” to sit at home to do work. There’s benefits of remote work, heck, I’d love it. But these conversations are filled with people hiding the plain reasons (it’s convenient and you can do less work) behind safety, posturing, etc. Meanwhile, I commute 30 minutes each way to work specialized retail. I see hundreds of customers each week. No masks, and there never was an option to make money from home. There are no catered lunches, subsidized childcare, or travel pay. Watching my friends whine about once a month meetings where they needs pants is painful. I’m underpaid and the job isn’t easy, but I love it. And it’s a job that needs to be done, in person. Much like healthcare and hospitality, these jobs can’t be done on your couch. I just always wonder here–are people aware of this GIANT class divide permanent remote work would create? I already deal with customers taking work calls and meetings (“sorry, I’m at work!”) during our 1 on 1 appointments and more customers during off hours. We’re ridiculously understaffed because of the above. Of course, this is also on my employer to pay better. But what I want to highlight is that remote work becoming the “norm” would never be the norm for everyone, deepen these divides, and continue creating a servant class. And it’s already hard out here for us, but all the conversation are about the people who want to stay at home and how to do it. What about us?

    1. Colette*

      I disagree.

      Yes, it is true that not all work can be done from home. Retail workers, restaurant workers, surgeons, physio therapists, childcare workers, valets, hotel staff, etc. cannot work from home.

      But having people who can work from home go in to the office doesn’t change that – and doesn’t make people who do go in to work servants (?).

    2. Faithful Reader*

      I want you to know that I see you and I want to acknowledge your point. You’re absolutely correct, those of us with the option to seek out and choose remote work have a level of privilege that not everyone has and it’s critical that we recognize that. One of my former direct reports wrote a self-congratulatory piece about quitting to become self-employed and one of the things I found most troubling was their complete lack of recognition that not everyone has the resources/ability to do what they did.

      I would argue that not all of us are “hiding plain reasons… behind safety, posturing, etc.” For me, I would’ve died if I had contracted COVID before vaccines and Paxlovid became available. Now that we have vaccines and Paxlovid, I’m probably just looking at some time in the hospital. At the same time, I share your concern about the divide you describe, but my instinct is to lay the blame for that at the feet of capitalism, which is where I think it belongs.

    3. HereKittyKitty*

      I think it could deepen the divide in some cases, but not all cases. This is obviously a problem that intersects in a multitude of ways. For example, I have several disabilities and my quality of life has significantly improved through work from home. I know many other disabled people that have more opportunities to work and have a better quality of life now that remote work is offered more widely and is more accepted. People with disabilities intersect with lower-income households. I also know queer and trans folks that have experienced way-less harassment, microaggressions and mental health issues due to working from home and it has helped them stay in roles longer and has given them more opportunities to move up. That’s another group that often intersects with lower-income. I have friends that work as customer support agents and get paid hourly that love remote work and would have seriously struggled to afford gas to drive to work if that were in-person.

      I’m more than happy to acknowledge that permanent remote work has downsides- some low-income people may not have reliable access to the internet, for example. There are certain fields where remote would be impossible as well, like the ones you mentioned.

      However, I don’t know if remote work is the /thing/ that will cause the class divide. Or is a major factor in divide. There already /is/ a remote servant class that exists. As stated above, I’ve seen the opposite in some cases. I think there are other, more sweeping solutions that would prevent that from happening. Universal healthcare, for example, or infrastructure for reliable internet and digital literacy. A higher minimum wage and more pay across the board. Scaling back the 40-hour work week. Childcare subsidies would work wonders as well.

      I sympathize and yes, I imagine it’s annoying AF to hear people whine about going to the office when others do not have a choice. But I’m just not sure if that burnout is coming from remote vs in-person. I think it’s coming from the lack of everything above. I also don’t think in-person equals servant class whereas remote equals non-servant class. Just ask anyone that does customer service and call-center type work. Or even marketing, HR and other business work that can be remote and is often severely underpaid and overworked- and even lacking benefits!

    4. Alice*

      It’s not fair for anyone to be exposed to an airborne virus like SARS-CoV-2 at work.
      That said, I want you to know that some people are advocating for safe workplaces for everyone. At the macro scale, there are initiatives like https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2022/03/23/lets-clear-the-air-on-covid/ And https://ozsage.org/media_releases/creating-safe-workplaces-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/.
      I would love it if Alison hosted an open thread for people to share their lessons learned about making the in-person work environment safer. The goal should be for everyone to be safe, not for everyone to be equally at risk.

    5. Sans Serif*

      I totally agree with you about privilege. I am lucky to have a job that I can do remotely. But I don’t think people whose jobs require in-person attendance become a servant class. Their jobs are not less important because they have to be in person. Heck, health care (for instance) is one of the most important jobs in a society. And I don’t think most of us are hiding anything in plain site. Yes it’s more convenient, we’re all saying that straight out. But I don’t think most are doing less work. Companies know whether you’re getting your work done. I’m actually doing more since being at home because I have less distractions and probably use some of that commuting time for work when needed.

    6. Mid*

      But this is misdirected anger. You should be mad at *your employer* for not offering perks, for not increasing pay, and for not making sure employees are safe, not mad at the people who are advocating for those things at their workplaces. Your company should be providing childcare subsidies, free lunches, and whatever other perks that best support employees. Your friends getting these perks aren’t preventing you from getting them, your employer is. There aren’t a finite number of people who can get free lunch at work, nor are there a finite number of people who deserve safe workspaces.

      And if your workplace isn’t treating you fairly, you should remember that there are more workers than bosses, and there’s a reason why we’re seeing record numbers of people and workplaces unionizing.

      Also, the class divide has long been here, and remote work is not to blame, nor is it widening it. A lot of things are factoring into this, and remote work is in many ways a better equalizer (allowing for single parents to work more hours, people with disabilities to work more easily, people to face less discrimination and microaggressions, etc.) I’ve noticed that I’m much more comfortable with my gender expression and seeking more gender affirming care because I can work from home and not have to deal with comments about my body and appearance.

    7. Generic Name*

      How can those of us who are privileged enough to be able to work remotely help you? I mean that sincerely. I care about people. When my local grocery store’s workers went on strike, I shopped somewhere else. I do not cross picket lines. I told my friends about the strike and asked they stay away too. The strike lasted 10 days, and basically nobody was shopping in the store. The company eventually offered a contract the union wanted to sign. This is the kind of collective action that matters. What can we do for you?

    8. Parakeet*

      You came onto a post that was specifically targeted at remote workers who would like to continue to be remote workers, and now you’re complaining that it’s full of remote workers who would like to continue to be remote workers. AAM has had other posts focusing on on-site workers, so I infer that you read the comments on, and commented on, this particular post because it makes you feel superior to guilt remote workers (a category that already existed pre-pandemic, though it was smaller then) about being remote workers.

      The issues with your working conditions, as you acknowledge yourself, are on your employer. Not remote workers. I absolutely think your employer should subsidize childcare and commuting and have a mask mandate! Not sure what that has to do with remote workers. If anything, these benefits becoming more normalized, and workers gaining more power in general, ought to help, not hurt.

      This idea that remote workers are all in high-paid positions doing work that society doesn’t really need, needs to go away. My previous mostly-remote job was in domestic violence direct services, which is not exactly a field known for high pay, low stress (especially during the pandemic, which made things even harder and more dangerous for a lot of survivors in a multitude of ways) or extra opportunity to accomplish less just because you’re working from a different worksite than before. I’m glad to have avoided the stressor of needing to be on-site during the height of the pandemic! I also had some stressors that most people in most fully-on-site jobs (there are some obvious exceptions here, hence the “most”) don’t have. Which are part of the nature of that work, just like having to be on-site is part of the nature of some other kinds of work. And while I might have complained about some things that are part of the nature of that work, I wouldn’t have gone and complained about how nobody’s paying attention to me in a discussion explicitly aimed at people who work in very different types of settings.

    9. covid virgin*

      I hear you and I sympathize. I am fortunate to be able to work remotely, and I recognize that. I also want to do my part for people like you who do not have that option.

      My way of protecting you is to reduce my own exposure to covid, whether from co-workers or from irresponsible oversocializing / pretending covid isn’t a thing. I hope I am never the person who has covid and exposes someone who didn’t have a choice to interact with me for their job.

    10. Curmudgeon in California*

      But these conversations are filled with people hiding the plain reasons (it’s convenient and you can do less work) behind safety, posturing, etc.

      I so love coming to the comment section and being essentially called a liar.

      What is it about “Covid isn’t over”, “high risk”, “disabled”, “immune compromised partners/roommates/parents” that is “posturing” to you? Do you just not believe what people are saying about their own lives and physical and metal health?

      Also, how is forcing white collar knowledge workers back into the office going to prevent “… continue creating a servant class.”??? Hint: It won’t. That class divide was already there before the pandemic!

      What white collar people working remotely does is reduce traffic and alleviate crowding during their non-work hours. They can make an appointment with you in the middle of the day, rather than queue up on the weekend.

      I’m sorry the job you do can’t be done remotely. But making me go in to an office won’t make your job suck any less, and would make mine suck more.

      I feel absolutely zero guilt that the work I do can be done remotely. I worked my ass off to get where I am, and all the attempts at guilting me into an office fall on deaf ears.

      1. The Real Fran Fine*

        +1, especially your last paragraph. I feel that so hard as someone permanently remote with several underlying health conditions that could lead to permanent disability for me if I ever were to get infected with COVID.

    11. Anonny NonErson*

      My husband and I work for the same company.

      His role required in-person attedance (legit – vast majority has to be done on site), and mine is now fully remote when it was in person pre-CoVID.

      We are at about the same level of responsibility, and make about the same amount of money – we just have different jobs. We are managers.

      I get the anger and discontent about not being able to work from home if you want to; but the truth at least in our situation is that the career path he took – even in the same company! – is a role that requires in person work, and mine doesn’t.

      What I’m getting at is that he would be solidly qualified discussing the issues and rewards he’s had working in person all this time; and I would be solidly qualified discussing the issues and rewards I’ve had working remote. That doesn’t make one better than the other.

    12. anonforthis*

      I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to WFH for selfish, convenient reasons outside of not getting COVID but…how will more WFH widen the class divide? If anything, it could potentially counter the urbanization trend. I don’t know for sure…but it’s an over generalization to say that more WFH will definitely do “X”.

  289. Morticia(she/her)*

    I became self-employed just before the pandemic. Honestly, nothing could convince me to return to the Hellscape that is the open office. I left an entire industry because of that.

  290. HereKittyKitty*

    I’m at a large company that has divided folks up into work-from-home, hybrid, or in-office. Hybrid was minimum 4 days a week. Each time “return to office” was scheduled we’d have many people quitting, including people who had been in roles for decades. They often quit without notice as well. We lost a lot of knowledge within the company.

    It’s been really wishy-washy. It seems that many departments have just made up their own rules. I had a friend that interviewed with our company for a different department and was told it was remote only by the direct manager and in-person only by the director. I’m technically supposed to be in 4 days a week… but I come in once or twice a week at most. Nobody is really looking or paying attention, and my manager nor my department really cares. I’ve been told I may get remote permanently in writing if I ask… so I’ll go that route soon.

    I’m in a sea of empty cubicles whereas everyone else has an office. Sometimes they don’t even know I’m there unless they run into me going to the bathroom! I’ve gone entire days without interacting with anyone! Nobody I work with day-to-day is in the office. They’re remote… so it makes no sense for me to be there. Even when multiple people are in the office we don’t meet in person because nobody knows who is where and it’s just easier to join zoom than figure out how to connect it to screens and other technology to meet in-person and with remote people.

    Meanwhile, the up-top people are… weird. They keep talking about how great it is to be together though nobody is actually together. Soooo many empty cubicles everywhere and they’re talking about tearing them down and making “collaborative spaces.” They keep searching for ways to “connect” but… I don’t want to connect. I don’t want team-building games, donut days, or chain-food catered lunches. I just want to get in and get out and go home. I think everyone is feeling the same.

    I’m not sure what would bring me back into the office. I would pop in more if I had a shorter commute and there were no requirements to go in, to be honest. I wouldn’t mind a “come and go” environment and would be willing to come in for major meetings. Otherwise, I’m staying home. I get so much more done.

  291. industry CPA*

    I’ll never again work in an office full time. This is partly due to the nature of my work, and partly due to my unique background that is highly desirable.

    I’m in accounting – corporate accounting and more recently external financial reporting. My job often requires extremely long hours around close cycles, and slows down in between those cycles. Working from home gives me the flexibility I need to be able to: sleep, shower, eat real food (not takeout), spend time with my family, and survive during the crunch periods. And it also gives the the ability to “coast” during the slow periods by being available for the things that will come up but take care of a few personal things during the day when it’s slow.

    Add that to the fact that I don’t have to put on a bra, and it’s really a win-win.

    I currently live about an two hours away from my office (we had to relocate so my husband could do a graduate degree) and go into the office once a month, sometimes for a couple of days before report issuance on a quarterly basis. I think I could maybe go in one or two days a week if I lived closer to my office – I do miss the social aspects. But more than that is a hard pass for me.

    It’s not the money – I made good money before working remotely. It’s that the quality of my life has improved exponentially. I used to see my children for maybe an hour a day after commuting and then spend my weekends running errands and dealing with household logistics. Now, I can put them on the bus in the morning, see them come home after school, and be present for them. I can be involved in their classrooms. I can stop by for lunch. I can throw a load of laundry in, unload the dishwasher, start dinner, or pick up a curbside grocery order on a break. I’m not spending my “free” time stressed about the logistics of running a household while working a demanding job, I actually have the balance to do both without running myself absolutely ragged. By not commuting and dressing for an office, I’ve gotten at least 12-15 hours a week back. That in itself is HUGE as a working parent.

  292. Clefairy*

    My office has been really great- only certain roles are mandated to come in, and it’s only if there is a specific reason they need to work in the office. For instance, new hires within a certain range of our headquarters are required to train in-office to help them build relationships and give them easy access to their trainers/fellow trainees. IT because they maintain and work on stuff that is physically in the office. The gal that mans the front desk because…she is manning the front desk. Some members of our front facing teams if they aren’t hitting their numbers (basically if they are proving that they can’t be effective from home) but once they get themselves up to par, they can work remotely again. Other roles have the option to work fully in-office, hybrid, or remotely. It’s very flexible.

    I think the main thing here that helps this work is my company is great about being transparent around the reason why certain roles need to be in office, and those reasons actually make a lot of sense. Like, maybe the people working in office wish they could work remotely, but they understand why it’s not possible.

  293. Bethie*

    I recently interviewed for a position with 2 day a week in office mandatory. I am with state government, where many people work from home. I did not move to the second round, but honestly, it would have taken a 20k raise in salary for me to do it. My son’s school doesn’t start until 8:45 am and he gets out at 3:45 pm. With after school sports right now, I could be in the office (downtown major southern city, lots of traffic) but once that’s done? No way could I be in the office before 9:30 am and Id have to find someone to pick him up. Right now I WHF 5 days a week, hit the gym when I want, get my kid when I need to, and I don’t have to spend $100 a week for gas…

    Our new hires dont live in our major city bc we can work from anywhere in the state. Several employees moved out of the area due to cost of living, and I dont see us ever going back into the office 5 days.

  294. Not One of the Bronte Sisters*

    My job involves reviewing and coding electronic documents and I do it on my own laptop through a remote connection. We have frequent meetings on Teams. When we worked at the office, we were all packed in together like sardines. In a post-Civil world, which isn’t here yet, I can’t see people being willing to do that again and I can’t see my employer asking us to. Also, I am concerned about the safety of the subways (I live in Manhattan). I don’t love being paid a good bit less per hour though. I don’t think I’m worth any less, and my cost of living has certainly gone up.

  295. Anon Techie*

    I’d love to see a balanced article with views from employees who want to go to the office to balance out the anti-office viewpoint – could we have a post for that view on another day. I know so many people who are unable to get a job because they don’t want to be fully remote – either a desire to be hybrid and work with their team in person or because they are unable to get their work done from home. Or are only doing remote because their team refuses to come in so they end up spending the day on zoom even when in the office.

  296. zolk*

    My department is split across two buildings a 15-20 minute walk apart. All the bosses work in building A. Everyone else works in building B. To try and make sure that we’re coming in, they’re not incentivizing us – they’ve started telling us Boss 1 or Boss 2 will be at building B on certain days.

    Aside from that just making everyone more resentful and angry (amidst a slew of other issues I’m not sure they’re cognizant of), the additional problem is that this means people who have dedicated solo offices where they can work mask free are coming to sit in solo offices people in building B have been using to stay separate from immunocompromised coworkers (or people with kids, or immunocompromised relatives or…). It’s incredibly thoughtless.

    Also the reason they’ve given us for wanting us back in the office? “We miss seeing your smiling faces!” Not helpful; patronizing.

  297. Office Rat*

    I work at a state agency where we were told we were “hybrid” now. There is no definition of this and my team’s manager has taken to extraordinary lengths to get us all back in the office. Mandatory one day a week for certain assignment teams, requiring anyone that misses a budget to work in the office. It was to the point of making our team meeting day at a park, so there was no wifi, and no online meeting TEAMs meeting options, just to force us all into the office. She’s also an anti-vaxxer.

    My wife has medical issues and so do I. I FMLA’s and got an ADA accommodation to work from home. I am over her and looking to apply to a different team because she’s the only one in our area of the state forcing this. If I wasn’t sure I could move to a different team, I would start looking for a new WFH job.

    1. Covid is still a thing*

      Curious how you were able to successfully get the ADA for WFH? If you can point me to some resources, would be very grateful. My doctor claims Kaiser won’t allow him to dictate to my employer WHERE I should perform my work – can only “strongly recommend.” /smh

  298. Hannahnannah*

    My company has opened offices, but has allowed people to choose if they want to stay remote. As we hire a more distributed workforce, I think our company has less leverage for asking us to come in to the office. For me, I’m staying remote indefinitely. I’m not sure I could go back to work in an office after 2+ years remote. The things I like about working from home would be hard to make up for in the office: No commute, more autonomy over my time, more focus at home — fewer interruptions, better coffee at home!, I can treat my medical issue and food sensitivities more quickly and efficiently at home. My team and colleagues utilize Zoom, Slack, email, and other tools to stay connected while working remotely, and it’s really smooth. We also get together in-person a few times a year for lunch.

  299. An Australian In London*

    What would get me back in the office, happily and without any resentment? I’m honestly not sure it can be done, but here goes:

    – immediate market review of all salaries, paying a minimum +25% over any comparable workplace or job that allows 100% remote, reviewed quarterly – basically the salary equivalent of retail price-matching
    – CoL increases a minimum 2.5% over official inflation rates, adjusted quarterly or more often if official figures are released more often
    – commute time is paid by the hour on top of my salary
    – 100% mask mandate in the workplace, no exceptions for any reason, go somewhere else to eat, with serious consequences for those who don’t (i.e. exposing one’s nose or mouth in the office treated like exposing one’s genitals). Yes, I’m aware some people can’t physically or psychologically wear masks. I’m uncompromising on this: they should not be present in workplaces where even one other person must share air with them.
    – serious cultural change re. presenteeism and coming to work sick, backed by all of the org changes required to make that work (enough sick leave and other leave to be effective, plus serious consequences for anyone coming into work sick once economic pressures to do so are fully relieved)
    – change from the top that the times have changed and right now workers are in a greater position of power than perhaps has ever been the case. No more “you are lucky to have a job” but “we are lucky that you have chosen to work here”, said in actions not just words.
    – (UK-specific) engage me as a contractor properly through my own company, enough of this employee-for-tax-purposes-but-not-for-benefits-or-rights-purposes rubbish
    – I don’t actually want a pony but something of that sort of order of magnitude sounds about right. A new top-of-the-line laptop and phone every six months? Perpetual part-time grad school until I decide I’m done and really don’t want any more Master’s degrees? (I have two so far and am eyeing three more.)

    I say all of this from the POV of someone who’s work can and should be done remotely, and is demonstrably more productive when I am, and whose workflows do not in any sense require a physical presence. When one of my clients forces me into their workspace all of my meetings are done on webcams and headphones from our desks. I am the only person wearing a mask. There are never fewer than three and usually more like eight people loudly constantly coughing on the floor of 100. On my first day in the office they make jokes (?!) about how quickly new starters catch COVID there.

    It’s possible I have some feelings about this.

  300. Susan Ivanova*

    I feel like such an outlier; I would not go back to my previous job until they *do* start having work from work, because they were terrible at work from home. Other than the half-hour team zoom meetings and one-on-ones, I had no interaction with my manager. He didn’t know what other teams I was working with, and I didn’t know he didn’t know. You can’t see a group of people walk past to a zoom meeting and realize they don’t know that you should be in their meeting too, because we were way too insistent on keeping secrets even from fellow employees.

    Work has all the tech tools and internet access I need, home has cable “business” which I’d hate to run a business on. If I wasn’t lucky enough to have a spare room to make into an office, it would be even worse.

  301. John*

    My quality of life is too important to me to accept working in an office again. A company would either have to pay me an exorbitant amount of money – enough to retire after a few years – or have some other dramatic benefits to make up for it. Maybe if it let me live in an amazing locale or provided other opportunities I couldn’t find any other way, for example. In practice, I doubt that’s realistic, so I expect I’ll be working from home the rest of my life.

  302. Wilbur*

    My employer hasn’t forced people to come back but have mentioned they believe in person meetings are important and they think people will come back eventually. I think that might be true, but I can’t see everyone come back 5 days a week.

  303. Delta*

    Honestly? Probably nothing.

    You might as well ask “what could an employer offer to get me to do my job while sitting on a step stool rather than a chair?”. I can do my job better from home, I’m more comfortable, and I have better balance.

  304. Employed Minion*

    My company is not offering ANY incentives. There has been a ‘casual’ requirement of 2 days in the office for a year now. Corporate recently announced a 3 day in office requirement ‘going forward’. It has not been enforced yet but the boss made it clear it IS required.

    People are slowly leaving as they take their time to find better opportunities.

  305. ArtDeptAnon*

    My company decided that instead of incentives or pay increases or anything positive, to set a firm date for all of the employees in my department that had been “temporarily remote” since the pandemic with about 8 weeks of notice to return the day after Labor Day next week.

    Having been classified as permanently remote since 2016 because of some fairly extreme personal circumstances, I didn’t pay too much attention to this edict. So I was pretty stunned last week when they called to lay me (and only me) off because they decided they wanted zero exceptions to the new policy.

    Turns out letting a long time, high performing, single mom go is not going over well with my former coworkers. More than one has let me know they are also now looking elsewhere.

    1. Mid*

      That’s an awful way to treat someone, ArtDeptAnon. They should have, at minimum, made it clear that you weren’t exempt from the policy, even though it makes sense for you to have been exempt from the policy. I’m sorry you’re dealing with that, and I hope you find a wonderful new job.

    2. J*

      That is absolutely terrible. I’m so sorry. The way employers have treated workers with so little empathy is a huge part of why I want to stay remote. They talk culture but apparently your workplace’s culture was taking away your job for daring to be remote successfully for 6 years.

  306. fifteen minutes of indiscriminate screeching*

    my office has just mandated that hybrid employees need to be in the office 3 days a week. this is not going to happen for me, largely in part because my team provides almost 24/7 product support and for any one of us at least a third of the work week is spent either working nights or on weekend.

    i didn’t actually mind going in to the office, but it was better when it was my team coordinating it amongst ourselves, rather than getting a blanket 3-day-per-week mandate from up above. now i’m just bitter about it!!

  307. Cedrus Libani*

    My husband and I do computer-based stuff. We were on-site in the Before Times, but could just as easily WFH, and we did that for a solid 1.5 years. Now our (different) big tech companies are pushing for at least 3 days a week in the office. That’s been met with grudging compliance at mine, and is being outright ignored at his.

    My grand-boss has explicitly said that it’s a “use it or lose it” situation – office space is expensive, and if we don’t start using it again, it’s likely that the powers that be will decide we don’t need it. That’s the vibe from his upper management too. They’ve said that people who stay remote will have their office space reassigned, but that’s not much of a threat when you haven’t seen that office in years.

    Things that have made it work better at my place:

    1) That grand-boss is coming in. Her butt is in the seat; she knows when we’re there. His upper management is nowhere to be seen.

    2) We have informally decided to make Mondays the day everyone comes in. For a while, we had a schedule set up to minimize the number of people who had to be in the office at the same time – better for social distancing, but otherwise, that’s the worst of both worlds. You have to put on your outside pants, do your regular commute, and then you walk into a nearly deserted office where you can’t actually do any of that impromptu hallway chit-chat that’s the (valid!) reason anyone would bother with a physical office for a knowledge work team. When there’s critical mass, it’s much easier to justify dragging yourself out of the house.

    1. Allison Wonderland*

      Interesting. Everyone seems to be different on this. I actually prefer going in on a day where there won’t be a lot of people there. That way I can still have some chit-chat, but not be overwhelmed by all the noise and activity. Offices are so loud! Also, Monday seems like the worst day to have to go into the office. I need to ease into the week and sleep in a little that day. :)

      1. Cedrus Libani*

        But if I want quiet with a small side order of companionship, I can get that at home. =) No kids, just one other nerd typing away in the next room, and some cats to pet during boring meetings.

        I do see a lot of value in the low-friction interactions that happen when you’re occupying the same space. You’re waiting for your lunch to heat up, so you start a conversation. Or you happen to look over and see the new person about to make an expensive mistake. Yeah, you can still interact online, but you have to intentionally set out to do it – and much of the magic happens when you don’t know what you don’t know, but someone who was eavesdropping in the break room does know and can help you. That stuff actively pulls you away from what you’re supposed to be doing that day, but it’s still valuable.

        That’s why I like hybrid work. I don’t need to be interacting every day, but it’s great to do it sometimes. I do wonder what the dominant form of hybrid will be 5-10 years from now; offices are expensive, and those who pay for them hate to see them empty, but even 2-3x/week is more office than most people need. Maybe some sort of co-working time-share where largely remote teams get a day or two a month to converge and talk shop.

  308. Allison Wonderland*

    Well, I’m only going back because they told us we are now required to be in the office two days a week. I haven’t protested, since two days isn’t too bad, and we can pick our days. But they eventually want it to be three days, so I guess I’ll see how things are looking when that time comes. I don’t want to do three days, but I don’t really want to look for a new job either.

  309. Lady Blerd*

    The pandemic made me realize that even though I am an introvert and I initially loved the idea of working from home full time, I did in fact enjoy the human contact that I get from coming in, I got to experience the high extroverts get the first time my cubicle mate came in. And frankly my job is better done in office because we are not paperless after promising this for two decades so it’s better for me to be in the office to stay on top of that.

    That said, my current motivation to go in the office is having a gym on site and getting an hour a day to work out but I have a personal incentive to go to the gym. It might be a perk for some people like it is for me.

    Bonus perk: Not being micromanaged for my office hours but I am salaried so I’m paid no matter what. I am not a morning person and not having to stress out because I’m 10 mins late is one of the many reasons why I’m not in a hurry to let go of this job.

  310. nora*

    I functioned well as WFH, but work closest with several people who don’t. My team’s communication and rapport were fine pre-pandemic, and fine when we were all WFH (just some technology struggles for some). But now, we are doing a weird hybrid thing as a gesture of accommodating flexibility, but the impact has been no one talking to each other in either format. Rapport within the team has plummeted, everyone is frustrated, and inefficiencies abound. “Oh, you’re working on that? I was too and I’m halfway done,” or “Wait you didn’t do that? No one did that? Who was supposed to do that?!”

    My org also didn’t have great experience in hiring and onboarding remotely prior to Covid. We experienced some shock as Covid hires adjusted to the full suite of their position duties when they were transitioned back to in-person. Now we’re in a period of pretty uncomfortable coaching with people who, frankly, in prior years would be terminated by now, but the candidate pool for positions has been slim lately and we’re on a pseudo-hiring freeze. This aspect is above my pay grade; I don’t manage anyone.

    I’m pretty frustrated, honestly. Things are tense and sloppy and it’s hard to watch.

  311. Purple Cat*

    I worked on-site full-time my whole career. Until the pandemic hit, and then we were home and then hybrid. At that company there was nothing that would have gotten me to go back full-time because the work got done without being in the office. One or two days in the office to connect was just fine since the bulk of my responsibilities were with people in different offices/countries. I left that job for one which is fully on-site with limited capabilities to work from home (for now). It’s a business with processes built on paper and conversations and that’s impossible to replicate from home. We’re working on changing those things, but for now I’m fine coming in every day because it truly is a business need.

  312. Cool Tina, Train Conductress*

    My OldJob completely botched their new universal WFH policy this year, considering they wanted (and expected) most people to choose to return to the office at least on a hybrid basis.

    Y’see, they announced that full-time WFH staff would get reimbursements for phone, internet, and snacks, plus a monitor set-up and one-time home office reimbursement, while hybrid and on-site employees would get…nothing. They had all that in the office, after all! And you had to give 30 days notice to change your status.

    So of course all new staff chose full-time WFH to get the home office set-up, and everyone who’d been at home during the office closure saw zero incentive to change that.

    Senior staff didn’t consult office managers or any junior staff on what might incentivize people. They’d for some reason expected 75% of people to choose hybrid or FT on-site just for its own sake–all in Top 10 Worst Commute cities! 80% chose full-time WFH. 3 people chose FT on-site, two of them partners (whom I seriously doubt have actually been showing up 4 days a week). And there’s no going back cuz this was part of the union contract.

  313. RB*

    My company has not succeeded in getting very many people to come back, only a handful out of a company of about 400+ staff, but that’s because they revamped the entire office during the pandemic, going from regular assigned cubes to hot-desking/hoteling, and no one likes that. Even people who come in every day don’t get their own cube. And because the office is so empty and you don’t know where your colleagues will be sitting, or if they’ll be there at all, even the people who’d like to come back aren’t doing so.

  314. goddessoftransitory*

    I’ve been reading AAM for quite a while and finally feel the urge to chime in!

    My position seems to be pretty unique, in that I went to work during the entire pandemic and still do, and HIGHLY prefer that to WFH.

    Here’s my reasons:

    1) I live six blocks away from my work and can walk there in ten minutes. (My husband works the same job and we sit next to each other when we have the same shifts.)

    2) My workplace has A/C; a real blessing these past two years.

    3) My main reason: I am a CSR that answers phone calls and takes food orders. It means a lot to me that customers are NOT calling me at home. We live in a one bedroom apartment and having to take calls from there would mean the person not working would have to crouch in either the living room or bedroom for six hours at a time and not disturb the other. The cats would have to be entertained or locked in the bathroom the entire shift. It gets boiling hot in the afternoons due to the sun sitting basically on our deck.

    And most importantly; this is my home. My private space. It is not where I want to be dealing with any callers and their problems–I would never be able to relax or feel any sense of privacy. I would feel invaded and outraged dealing with complaints while sitting on my couch.

    This isn’t a job where you can walk away for ten minutes; you have to be on the physical phone and ready to talk to people the entire shift. (Obviously we get breaks and such, but I mean it’s not a setup like office work.) I don’t want to do that in my living space.

    We do have several CSRs who do WFH and really enjoy it–they have much longer commutes and it makes much more sense for them to set up at home. They all do their jobs well and there’s no slacking that I’m aware of. So it’s not that it’s impossible per se, but it would be an impossible set up for me.

    2. Jules the 3rd*

      They probably also have more space. My husband and I live at the edge of our city and were able to buy a 4br house 20 years ago. We now use two of them for home offices, and they are far enough from the kitchen / living room / each other that we don’t have to worry about background noise.

      Your setup makes sense to go in to the office.

    3. Curiouser and Curiouser*

      Yeah, one of my biggest issues WFH was I just…never turn off. I might be able to take a mid-day break I can’t take in the office, which is nice, but I couldn’t distinguish well enough between “on” and “off” because I was in the same place all day long.

      So to answer the initial question – I feel like my answer is: emphasize the benefits of WFH for your actual workforce and listen to their points in response and target your ‘incentives’ to what they need. Our company requires daycare if you WFH, so that’s not always a selling point, but there are definitely things that are for us. What works for your specific workforce?

    4. Antony-mouse*

      + 1000!

      I don’t want to be working from my home. I don’t have enough space and I don’t want to be bringing my work into my home space because it’s my home

  315. Posilutely*

    A colleague suggested yesterday that the huge energy price increases in the UK have been deliberately engineered to drive people back into the office so they don’t have to pay to heat their houses while working from home. I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist myself but it’s an interesting one. Certainly when it was very hot in the summer lots of people went in to take advantage of the air conditioning in offices (most homes here don’t have any).

    1. An Australian In London*

      Is anyone in the UK heating at the moment though??

      This past summer has driven the point home that everyone needs to stop thinking of the UK as a cold place.

  316. F**k you, pay me*

    I have be anonymous and a bit vague lest I torpedo my career in a niche field, but earlier this year I was offered a job in a Top 10 city with notoriously hideous traffic, incredibly poor public transit, and sky-high housing/rent costs. As in, my rent would’ve tripled, and at best a house would cost at least $750k for a starter home. $850 to $950k is more likely for something middle-of-the-road. Toss in that the boss expected being on-call 24/7 but had to be in the office every weekday from 9 to 5 (worst possible commute) so I’d basically have no choice but pay $500/mo (at least) in parking AND sit in the car for roughly 90 minutes a day. The job would’ve been a $35k increase in salary, but I would’ve LOST about $30k/yr in actual income AND had a huge increase in crappy work environment.

    I turned it down and told them what I would’ve needed to be worth it, and they were shocked to the point of being offended. I’m like, what did you expect? It’s not like you don’t know how obscenely expensive it is to live in this city. And I would have no choice but to relocate.

    Glad I took a pass. There were a bunch of other quiet red flags (in a technical field, with 200 employees, they had barely 3% of the staff as high-level technical/support staff…when the industry standard is 6.5%…and were utterly unwilling to address this despite my repeated attempts to bring it up) but the utter disconnect from reality on the salary vs WFH made a hard choice into a much easier one.

    1. F**k you, pay me*

      I suppose I should point out: there are ways of doing this particular job that can be done almost entirely remotely. There’s definitely on-site infrastructure (computer servers and devices like that) that sometimes need on-site attention, but a lot of it can be done from anywhere…IF your specific company has made it a priority to do so. For example, my current job has allowed me to make it a priority. And to do it that way for years. And when COVID hit I looked like Nostradamus to a lot of people; our transition to WFH was actually pretty painless, all things considered. I go into the office about once a week, on average, to work on something that can’t be done remotely, but it’s very ad-hoc.

      In fact, my biggest on-site project was to tear out all the old cubicle infrastructure and convert the existing office spaces into hoteling spaces, and also extra conference rooms. So when employees needed to meet in person (again, almost everyone in the company does do that, but it’s very ad-hoc) it’s a much more comfortable and productive experience.

      This company in question that offered me the gig? Not only did they NOT make it a priority but seemed to go out of their way in the opposite direction; having workflows and systems that ONLY worked when people were in-house/on-site. In some ways it’s understandable, and I can’t really explain that without giving out too much identifiable information. Let’s just say they could’ve taken COVID as a chance to learn some flexibility…and they really didn’t.

      They also dumped a lot of the “handholding tech support” for employees (who, to be frank, should be required to be a lot more tech-savvy than they usually are) onto the position I was offered and the two other people in the department who would’ve reported to me. That alone is another reason why the chronic understaffing was a red flag for me.

  317. Jules the 3rd*

    My employer (Fortune 100 tech co) made a big deal out of having people work from the office about five years ago, two years before COVID. They required employees be able to work from a central office at least three days a week. A lot of people (including my Very Good Manager) were laid off because they refused to move back – the company had been ok with remote work for over a decade, and the employees had settled in their remote locations. These layoffs skewed older, so the company has to continue to push ‘work from the office’ as proof that the layoffs were not age discrimination.

    The company started asking people about returning in April 2021. They sent surveys asking about vax status, mask comfort, “what would make you comfortable returning?” My team sat in a giant call center (100+ people), and my seat was on the main aisle near the primary entrance. I regularly had people stopping to chat near my cube. My response on comfort was “not sitting with 100+ people breathing on me.”

    The company opened the center to voluntary returns for vax’d employees, requesting people wear masks. They’ve had multiple cook-outs and office events with free food. I have not been back, and as far as I know, neither have any of my team members. At least one spent a full year a thousand miles away from our office space.

    This week, our employer announced that the teams formerly seated in the call center were now assigned positions in new, smaller, recently renovated rooms. They had another free food event to dedicate the space. I didn’t go to that either, though I thought about it. But driving 60 minutes (round trip) to see execs in person just isn’t a good use of my time, and the free food doesn’t pay for the gas.

  318. Bow Ties Are Cool*

    Nothing could make me want to go into the office. At all. All my work is with teams spread across the country, so there is literally no reason for me to be in a specific place to do the work, as all “collaboration” is on Skype/Teams anyway. Which is why we were positively encouraged to WFH before the pandemic.

    What could make me release 50% of the incandescent rage I feel at being forced into the office 3 days a week anyway, despite all logic and the precedent mentioned above? A private office (so I’m not sharing germs and noise with everyone), the right to wear whatever the heck I want while I’m there (hello, t-shirts and yoga pants!), and counting my commute as part of my 8 hours.

  319. KuklaRed*

    I’m struggling with this now at a new job I took 2 months ago. If I had stayed at my previous company, I could have remained remote permanently. However, I don’t think I had a good future at that company. The new position came with a 40% salary increase but also a mandate to come back to the office in a hybrid schedule – 3 days in, 2 days at home. The reasoning for this was that I am a people manager and need to be in the office for this. But I have 13 people reporting to me and one 3 of them are in the same location as me. The rest are on the opposite coast or several hundred miles south of me. So no matter what, I’ll be continuing the Zoom life. So why do I have to go in? How do I conduct 1:1 meetings when we are sitting in an open space? (Think a WeWork set up.) And what’s the point of making me get up at the crack of dawn to haul in on the train and then the subway?

    I don’t know. No one seems happy about this.

      1. KuklaRed*

        Yeah, no. I checked. The rule is people managers cannot be fully remote. The CEO of the company has a real obsession about this. If it was up to him, we would all be back in the office full time, no exceptions. It hurts our recruiting efforts, because several of our competitors (including my former company) are fully remote and can recruit from all over. We are limited (except for some sales positions) to people who either live near one of our 3 offices or are willing to relocate.

        We haven’t started the hybrid mandate yet. It was supposed to start next week, after the Labor Day weekend but they pushed it to January 9, 2023 because of the Covid surges and the new variants. I’m hoping they push it again, but we’ll see.

        1. An Australian In London*

          I saw a company (can’t now remember which) crowing on LinkedIn that they were on a hiring spree offering 100% WFH and poaching staff from their competitors who still required office work.

  320. Santiago*

    My office nominally wants people back in the office, but it needs to put the legwork into coordinating which days people are here so that they align. Relaxing the dress code would help – it adds an hour to my day to doll up. (I’m a lad – relevant because I imagine even women may be more impacted by this.) Also – I will do most things for free food.

    1. Santiago*

      One note of interest – my employer sponsors local transit, so that the frequency is decent and I don’t pay a dime. That’s a huge part of me not mentioning gas – I don’t pay it anyways.

  321. TherapyCat*

    We had everyone come in over a year ago. Thought it would go terribly. It didn’t. A couple factors: It’s a niche job, valid security reasons for in-person work (please trust me here; telework is truly limited), leadership had been in nearly the whole time, and high vaccination rates. There were a few months of grumbling. Some still mask, including the gentleman with the actual gas mask. The grumbling went away within a few months and operations/communication are faster. We are losing people to telework options elsewhere, but not at the rate others on this site seem to deal with. We are struggling with morale, but in-office work is almost never cited either in formal exit interviews or informally. People reported being bored during telework. We are also still dealing with developmental training delays, but much improved with being in-office.

  322. StitchIsMySpiritAnimal*

    I live in a red state, worked for the state government, and I did actually return to the office when we were forced to because politics appearances example blergh blergh blergh. I put in my notice after only a few days back because there was so much crap I no longer saw a reason to tolerate, but I would have been willing to stay under the following conditions:

    *Enable me to replicate the practices that made me more productive at home. For example, I focus better when I have music on over my headphones. (Music helps me focus, headphones help me block out ambient noise.) Our office had a policy that we could not listen to music over our computer, and if we brought in a separate music player, we couldn’t wear headphones. Other examples: taking 5 minutes to walk or exercise if I find myself hitting a brick wall on a task or having a kettle in my cubicle for tea.

    *Pay us a lot better. We weren’t making living wage for our area to begin with, the commute almost guaranteed an annual fender bender, and the 90 minutes a day I saved made a sizable interest to my quality of life that I’d have to pay to get back.

    *Alone time. For the most part, I adored the people I worked with, but I’m an introvert and even being around friendly acquaintances drained me more than I’d realized. All the areas to go out at lunch were fast food, and staying in the building meant eating in the break room with no way to escape gossip and chatter. Even designating a ‘quiet room’ would have helped immensely. I went out for a quick walk when I could, but it’s often hot and/or raining here.

    *Control over my workspace. (please don’t quote this bit) In the same vein as above, I did have a couple of coworkers who were incredibly negative. They were also very loud talkers. I’d sit there and seethe while the pair made fun of every case they got. I wasn’t allowed to move to a different cubicle. At least at home I can keep other people’s crap away from me.

    *Relax the dress code. We never had the public in the office. There was no one to impress. Let me wear my jeans and sneakers with a reasonable blouse.

    1. StitchIsMySpiritAnimal*

      One more general thing: I have ADHD, and working at home generally meant that I could make my own accommodations. In my field, there’s still an awful lot of stigma about mental health, and the little adjustments that make me more effective aren’t worth the bias I’d have to deal with.

    2. TherapyCat*

      Ooo, yeah. We went from business / business casual to “dress for your day.” That helped. I’m in management and wear jeans and a blazer most days.

  323. Mostly-lurker*

    My company is closing the office in my city, so I guess that tells you how the return-to-office effort went. We had the whole building before the pandemic (but not at capacity), consolidated to one floor in 2021, and just learned we aren’t renewing the lease. A number of people moved farther from the office while we were remote and others set up such a nice home office they didn’t want to switch. I came back because I had the option of being hybrid and it felt like they were supporting what worked best for me.

  324. Constable George Crabtree*

    My office has been pretty successful in getting people back in, and I think it’s due to a number of things:
    1. Hybrid and flexibility – very few of us are in every day, and although we’re required a minimum of two days in each week without special permissions, the clarity around getting those permissions and help acquiring them makes folks a lot happier with our management, and happier to come in if they’re needed. Out-of-region remote work is easy to get permission for, and flexible schedules are totally normal. Management has built up a lot of goodwill this way, and people feel like they can make what choices work for them in their work environment.
    2. Subsidized transit – We’re located in a city with decent public transit that has now been entirely subsidized by the company, which has reduced commuting costs to $0 – a huge deal in the face of inflation and rising gas prices. Add that to the reduced electric costs when spending days in the office, and the money saved really stacks up fast. This is real, direct financial help for a lot of us who need it.
    3. Transparency – when I first joined this company, I was taken aback by how frank and transparent our all-staff meetings were, directly addressing concerns straight from the CEO’s mouth about staffing, budgets, salaries, WFH plans, everything. It makes us feel heard, validated, and respected, and it gives us answers we need, even if the answers are “we don’t know yet, it depends on XYZ, but this is how we’re working on it.” We can make more informed decisions, and again, during a terrifying time of uncertainty, it’s built up a lot of goodwill.
    4. Covid protections – our office took/is taking the pandemic very seriously. Beyond mask and vaccine mandates, our HVAC and filtration system were upgraded to near-sterility, CO2 monitors were placed in gathering spaces, hand sanitizer and disposable masks line the walls, and we have several full-time cleaning staff that are constantly on the move. So we all know that this is a safe place to work, and that the company cares about keeping us healthy.
    5. Great coworkers – probably the biggest factor in getting people to come in is that we all like each other! It’s a functional, professional office filled exclusively with friendly, smart people that enjoy working together, and managers that care deeply about cultivating satisfaction and integrity in their staff. So yeah, we like to come in so we can meet face-to-face or get coffee together.

    Most of these are more about how the business operates, having spent years earning trust and creating an environment where we feel appreciated and looked after. People can really see through flimsy tactics designed to benefit the company by getting us in the door – we’re in the office now because the company has taken steps so that being here will benefit *us*.

  325. Daria grace*

    In addition to all the obvious stuff about flexibility, expense reimbursement and covid safety people have probably already mentioned a stack of times for me the option of quiet working space would be a big one. Between getting used to the quiet at home, colleagues who’ve forgotten manners about not talking loudly in open plan spaces, people taking zoom meetings at their desks and residual long covid brain fog, the office is a noisy, unpleasant overstimulating nightmare too much of the time these days

  326. Scary Monster, Run Away!*

    At my current company, there’s nothing that would get me back in the office. (Well… I GUESS if they doubled my pay… but that won’t happen.) Being gay in my current office (which constantly talks about “Inclusion and Diversity”) just isn’t great. Nobody ever told me I shouldn’t be there, but I’m not exactly treated like part of the team either. So working from home has insulated me from the common remarks in the office like calling me “someone who lives an alternative lifestyle” or lunch conversations suddenly going quiet when I say “my husband” and all the brogrammers suddenly realize I’m gay and have no idea how to act. Then I never get invited to lunch with them again, coincidentally…. Oh then the guy who implies that LGBT people are threats to his young daughter (the unspoken implication is that LGBT people are pedophiles – he is VERY conservative).

    So for me a lot of it is based on what the culture of the company is. If I felt included, and not constantly like the tolerated-but-we-wouldn’t-miss-you “other”, I’d be more enthusiastic about working in-office. But in my current situation, hell NO.

    1. The Real Fran Fine*

      I’m sorry you experience that. That’s awful, and I’m hearing a lot of minorities from various different groups say that shit like this is exactly why they love remote work and will never go back in any office if they can help it. The micro aggressions (and sometimes full out aggression) are unreal in many workplaces.

  327. LabRat*

    Honestly nothing. If my current job were to require coming into the office I would immediately start searching for a new job. I told someone recently that I would rather do customer service calls at home than work in my field in an office. I transitioned to WFH at a new job during the pandemic and my employer is in another state so I’ve never been to the office and may never be.
    I am going back to school to get my M.S. in a tech field that’s exciting to me and has a lot of WFH options. I’m trying to get lots of different experiences at my current job so that if I lose it I can have an awesome resume that will let me WFH always!

    1. Baby Yoda*

      Same here LabRat. Would start looking, because my job can be fully done at home (and done better because it’s quiet) and we’ve all been doing it for over 2 years now. I don’t miss the commute and while the catered lunches twice a month were nice, they were not enough to make the drive/stress/noise/time-suck appealing again.

  328. ProofreaderReads*

    I’m envious- a lot of this talk sounds like the employee can refuse to come in to the office. If I tried to refuse, I’d be fired and I am not financially secure enough to take that kind of blow and look for new work. :(

  329. Caleb (He/They)*

    As someone suffering from long COVID, there’s nothing that could get me back in the office full time because a combination of long COVID + a disability I already had (but that COVID significantly worsened) has left me too disabled to work in an office 5 days a week. I need a lot of sleep, which is best gained by being able to sleep until 10 minutes before I clock in; I need the ability to manage my chronic pain, which is best done with hot showers throughout the day and the ability to work from bed whenever I need; and as I now have less time than abled people during which I’m capable of being active, I need to maximize the time I do have, and spending an hour a day commuting is a horrible use of that time. I’m lucky compared to a lot of disabled people in that I’m able to work full-time, but I’m only able to do that if I work from home. No amount of free lunches or pastries in the break room can make me stop being disabled.

  330. Daria grace*

    One of the few major advantages of being in the office is that I can more easily get help from coworkers on trickier cases. However, when the company chooses to massively overwork and under resource teams it’s much harder to take advantage of that benefit

  331. Boof*

    I think #1 there has to be a GOOD REASON to be in person! I’m a physician, I most definitely need to see people in person; some visits can be remote but there is a huge difference. However, I’ve got some time that is administrative/charting/meetings/etc – really no reason to be in person. I only physically go in on days when I need to see people. If they wanted me to come in in person for a meeting, IDK, that’s an extra hour of my time (~20+ minute commute + parking, walking around, resettling, etc) there better be a good reason for it or it better be optional
    I’m also trying to lose all the weight I gained with pregnancy and stuff so free food isn’t much of an incentive either.

    1. Boof*

      … sometimes a quiet office with nice computers can be an incentive to come in if home gets too chaotic, but that’s going to vary by everyone’s home situation. IDK, maybe a free on site gym and showers might be more tempting, then I could get a twofer, but that’s going to vary from person to person

  332. CanadianMama*

    My company had us come back in April but how often was approved by the team leads. A couple of weeks ago HR sent an email that it is now mandatory that every employee is in the office for two days a week. Almost immediately there were a rush of people looking for other work or asking for significant raises. A few of these people were already going in more than twice a week, but we’re insulted by it being mandated.

    For me personally, I had a long commute before the pandemic, but my company moved this winter to add another 30 min commute each way. Plus parking near work costs $20 a day, plus gas and lunch. I’m looking at $400 a month just to go to work and get LESS work done than at home.

    I will never return to full time in the office. I would rather quit and look elsewhere than be forced back into the office to appease my manager’s need to micromanage. If, however, they gave me a salary increase to cover the extra costs PLUS inconvenience, I’d be reluctantly ok with going twice a week. Any more than that and I miss my kids growing up, and that just won’t happen.

  333. Product Manager*

    Our EVP is IMO flailing a bit over this. He just mandated that all early career engineers must come in three days a week for collaboration and mentorship. But everyone senior to them doesn’t have to come in. And some of these juniors were hired being told it was full time remote.

    We were told months ago there would be a three months warning, and that they were looking for average time in office, but it could be worked around what made sense for your team. And in my role that’s still true — if anything no one is expected to go in at all unless there is some kind of collaboration/planning exercise anymore. But this EVP got hot under the collar and demanded this be strict, three set days, every single junior or mid career engineer, no exceptions, and starting in *3 weeks*. It went out to crickets.

    I anticipate these things:
    1. A couple people will do it until they realize no one else is
    2. There will be lost of talk but no consequences for people who are disobeying
    3. Some people are job searching right this moment
    4. They’ll realize it won’t work and rescind it in three months
    5. Some people will leave anyway out of irritation.

    To get me in office they would need to:

    1. Have meaningful, enjoyable, weekly collaboration with other team members, but all my team members are senior to me and live in other states.
    2. Be within walking or cycling distance.
    3. Still be flexible/at least hybrid.
    4. Have good conference spaces and a minimum of cubicles, because I’m going in to whiteboard stuff and not sit on a video call all day.
    5. Have clear visibility to leaders that know me by name and are there as much as I am.

    If someone wanted to demand I go in, I would ignore it until they either fired me or told me they would fire me (ideally the second), and then look around. The boom market gave me and my partner a large safety net, and I could afford to not go back to work indefinitely if my partner kept working and for a good four months if neither of us did and we still chose to pay for very expensive day care. I also rely on the belief that my niche is so in demand, that a year out of the workforce would do nothing to harm my hirability. I also have close contacts who would be very likely to hire me into their organizations.

    If being out a year would make me difficult to place, if our financial situation meant I needed continuous income, and if I did not have a strong network with enough experience in a niche field to know I would always be in demand, it might be different. But I’d still be job hunting, and at most playing nice by showing up to the building in the meantime.

  334. KatsMeow*

    My org was determined to get everyone back in the office 5 days a week and finally agreed to a 3/2 office/home hybrid when it was apparent that people were leaving and good job candidates withdrawing their applications. Needless to say, there are those who don’t come in 3 days. It’s the kind of thing that is permitted or enforced by a manager, and the different department managers have different ideas of what is acceptable. I do think that people who have face time with upper management, even if it’s just to say good morning, will probably benefit in the long run (opportunities, promotions, etc.) since those are the folks who feel that physical presence matters, but we shall see.

  335. It's Me*

    Our C-Suite is staunchly pro-office. We’ve been hybrid with the option for deferment, but there have been strong rumblings that the deferment will go away for good and everyone will be required to return partially to our office, requiring remote folks to move back to our high cost-of-living city (in a notoriously underpaid industry, to boot.) Never mind that we’ve been making record profits for the past two years. Funnily enough, many of the rah-rah extrovert pro-office people have ended up deferring, because they keep catching COVID. Weird.

    Literally nothing can get me to return on a strict schedule. I live locally (within an hour’s commute), so I’ve come in on an ad-hoc basis for necessary circumstances (mailings, usually.) It’s always the worst day of my week, and it’s not something I want to endure for over 120 hours a month, presuming a two-day in-office schedule. The health concerns, long commute, strain on my schedule, unpaid hours out of my day, financial costs, inability to concentrate in an open-office floor plan, and many, many more reasons mean I am unwilling to sacrifice to do my job MORE INEFFECTIVELY so some middle-aged white man in a suit can feel a smidgen more powerful from his within-walking-distance downtown apartment or second home in the Hamptons. (See: Record profits through the WFH years.)

    I’m too risk-averse to quit on the spot, even in the current job market, but I’d start looking the moment deferment rolls back.

    1. It's Me*

      Actually, no, I changed my mind: Pay me well over market rate—a 50% raise—and I’ll consider coming in two days a week.

  336. Ping*

    Late last year, started a new job that was a step up in my career. My prior job before that was made remote permanently and I really enjoyed it. The new job? It required 5 days a week in the office and was a 45 mile commute one way. But I looked on the bright side and made it a priority to move closer so the commute wouldn’t be so long (both time wise and distance wise).

    It was a big mistake. The job ended up being a disaster in multiple ways. I will spare you the details, but the final nail in the coffin was that we were told we needed to start coming in on the weekends regularly. Meaning that I would have to commute 7 days a week. This also was announced right after a major COVID outbreak in the office. I ended up quitting without notice that same week.

    Granted, that wasn’t the main reason I left, but it was a major factor. I did not end up moving because I couldn’t find a place that was much closer. And in no way was I going to tolerate commuting 90 miles a day 7 days a week. Five days a week was bad enough.

  337. Lily Potter*

    After hundreds of responses, most of which day “There’s nothing you can do to make me come back, and I don’t really understand why I should need to”, I’d like Allison to give equal time to the other side. I’d imagine that there are managers in the commentariat that could articulate good reasons for wanting their employees back in person.

    1. amethyst*

      I mean, anyone can comment on this post. It’s not limited only to people who haven’t gone back yet or don’t want to.

      I am a people manager, and I have no real reason to want people back in the office. The sole exception, perhaps, is for folks who are newer to the team. It’s harder to onboard people remotely, partially because so much of what new people learn is absorbed via observation and simply being around the more experienced people in the office. It’s also harder to meet and build relationships with folks remotely, especially if you’re not particularly outgoing: you have to intentionally set up meetings with people rather than serendipitously running into them in the hallways or finding yourself physically in the same meeting room a little early. I’m introverted myself, so I especially worry about my introverted newbies because I know it takes that extra effort.

      My team has a lot of stopgaps in place for this, though, most of which we had in place before the pandemic. We have an internal morale team and each individual sets up meetings with new people when they come; it’s also just really normal and common for most people on the team to reach out to the new person and set up some time to say hello and get to know them better. Everyone also gets assigned two folks to help them acclimate: a person who got hired relatively recently but has been around for at least a year, and a more experienced person, and those folks set up weekly meetings with the newbie to help them adjust. We also have to create a list of people the newbie should reach out to as part of our onboarding process, and those people are automatically emailed letting them know that a new person is starting and will ask them for a meeting soon.

    2. pamela voorhees*

      I’d disagree, since I don’t think two sides need equal time if the sides are not equal. If there are 500 posts saying “I don’t want to come back” and 10 saying “I want people back”, then it’s fair to spend the majority of time talking about how people don’t want to come back. Giving equal time to in person and remote makes it sounds like equal numbers of people want to come back and don’t want to, when it’s looking like that’s not the case.

    4. Alice*

      I mean, I want WFH and I would love to read that post. I’ve been waiting for my managers at six levels to articulate good reasons to come back in person at the cadence they want, and what I’ve gotten is:
      Because working in person leads to more empathy with colleagues and without empathy we can’t make progress on DEI.
      Because we want our department spaces to “feel vibrant” to potential internal clients who walk through them (even though the actual internal clients prefer to meet by Zoom 87% of the time – that’s more than a year’s worth of data from actual internal customers btw, and internal customers register for our online training sessions at a rate more than 2x the rate at which they register for our in-person training sessions). Also, my workspace, although not private enough for me to do calls/online workshops easily, is also not visible to visitors walking through the department.
      Because my manager likes to drop by and see what I’m working on and offer to help – the same manager who replies to about 50% of my emails and reads my monthly report weeks after submission (at which point half the requests for help are outdated).
      Because in-person meetings are “more effective” – I think our meetings in any modality would be more effective if they had agendas distributed in advance, and not just “item 1, announcements; item 2, round robin.”
      Because WFH is “not equitable” when some people’s roles require in-person presence.
      So, yes, I would love to read that post.

  338. Natalie*

    I’m a teacher, so we’ve been back for over a year. But in my case, my job really can’t be done nearly as effectively from home. Yes, some students were successful with virtual learning, but they weren’t the norm.
    I feel like that’s the real incentive for me, though. There is an actual good reason to do my job in person. If I did something else, and felt like the only reason I was being dragged back to the office was because someone else wanted it that way, I would resent the heck out of that!

  339. amethyst*

    I work in tech, and my company was one of the ones that declared that people could theoretically work from anywhere but in reality kind of wants people to come back to the office. Rather than incentivizing people for coming back, they’re really trying a mix of cajoling and low-key threats (i.e., if you don’t come back over a certain percentage of time, you lose your physical office – which makes sense, except the way that they are tracking whether you come back that often is kind of creepy and has pissed many people off).

    I’ve asked some of our leaders why they want people to come back. It’s primarily vague worries about our inability to properly innovate and create cutting-edge new stuff if nobody’s in the office jamming together on whiteboards and talking in the hallways. But my company shipped several big, lauded products when everyone was working from home and earned record profits, so not only does this explanation feel hollow, it’s kind of…insulting.

    I currently work from home about half of the time, and honestly, I’d probably do a little less if I didn’t want to keep my office. I think the only thing that would get me to come back full-time is if it were required (either explicitly or functionally). I work in one of those tech companies that embraced open offices, glass walls and doors, collaboration spaces, etc., all in the name of “innovation.” The result was that it was pretty difficult to concentrate when I was in the office: I was constantly interrupted by people when I was trying to get work done; I had to actually *hide* and not be in my physical office if I want to get any sustained work done. Even though there are fewer people in the office now, this is still true when I am physically there. I essentially have to prepare for the days I’m in the office to be less productive (I tend to schedule most of my meetings on those days). I’m also an introvert, and while I really love my coworkers and genuinely enjoy spending (some) time with them, it is so nice to be able to recharge at home in between meetings and have lunch privately and all that (not to mention throw in a load of laundry!).

    1. Yellow Flotsam*

      My personal experience has been that it was really easy to maintain existing strong relationships. So I still had those brainstorming sessions with the colleagues I chatted to frequently. But, I lost the incidental contacts and formed no new relationships.

      I used to have people drop by with ideas or questions, some of which lead to new projects. That didn’t happen at all during WFH. Even small side projects largely hibernated, as the regular incidental contact that kept things bubbling away disappeared (not helped by high workloads).

      I can understand the worry that innovation will be hampered by long term WFH. Especially if those products you shipped were the result of innovations/planning/wild ideas that occurred from informal, in person, interactions that happened pre-COVID.

      I also think there needs to be genuine consideration for how you build relationships where people will do that brainstorming etc with new employees if everyone is remote. I’ve only ever initiated a conversation with a stranger through chat/calls etc if there was first a work reason to do so. But I always say hi to a new person I meet around the office.

      That is not to say that remote work cannot work! But I don’t think it’s as simple as saying, we have teams calls and chat groups, so no need to have in person interaction ever again.

      My expectation is that many roles will move more towards flexible/hybrid than true WFH where you don’t have to come “in” at all.

      I’m thinking specifically of the job roles I’ve had where some WFH is possible (across 3 industries, but all with an innovation/group work component). Your own industry might mean my experiences really aren’t relevant!

  340. Caitlin*

    Have a really really good reason why it’s necessary or a good idea, and make that clear to your team. And still offer hybrid as much as possible.

    I can only talk about this from a more junior employee’s perspective, but some reasons I like/don’t mind being in the office three days a week:
    – More chance to interact with colleagues from other teams, and build relationships
    – I have a small amount of physical filing I need to do, which is necessary to be in the office for
    – Meetings in person are often less painful than meetings online, and I have my team meetings and my on-on-ones with my manager on in-office days
    – Less hassle with technology!

    There are some people in our workplace who choose to be in office full time because their home life is too distracting, and a few who work almost fully from home (including a heavily pregnant employee!). So really, I think the key is to offer a genuine hybrid arrangement, assessed to each employees needs and job requirements. Our office does have set days for who comes in when, as there isn’t enough space for everyone to have their own desk and some are shared (yay rapid expansion!), but that’s a reasonable and explained requirement.

  341. Noping out*

    I am 2 months away from hitting my next vesting point for my 401k. Once I do, I will be leaving my job – 3 days in office/2 remote – to find a fully remote role. I asked to come in 2 days, remote for 3 (seemed reasonable!), and they denied it. So I am biding my time. They are going to lose a great employee.

  342. Jack Straw from Wichita*

    Being able to bring my dog to work. You might think I’m kidding, but I can’t be the only person who adopted a dog over the past 2.5 years (or had one already) that has become very used to me being at home.

    My case is more extreme because she has severe separation anxiety that we’re working through, but figuring out where she will go when I’m at work is truly the biggest and most significant worry I have about going in-person. It makes my chest feel tight and literally keeps me up at night. When we got our return to work email this week, and my boss told me that she was going in once a week but it was completely up to me what I did, I cried actual tears.

    FWIW I am going back 1-2 days a week because my spouse can WFM one day and she can go to a relative’s house the other.

    1. Plumbum*

      Being able to bring the dog would make me stay for a full day – at the moment when I go in it’s only for half the day. We’ve had the dog since 2018, but my husband’s commute changed from 10 minutes to about an hour one-way when he changed jobs (lab work, can’t be done from home) so he can no longer pop home at lunch time to let the dog out. My commute is 20-30mins depending on how the buses are running, so my hour-long lunch break is plenty of time for a walk and a one-way commute, but not enough for going home and coming back.

      Though if I were able to bring my dog other people would be able to bring theirs, which would probably make mine an anxious, disruptive wreck. Better for everyone if we both just stay at home.

  343. IAmExcessivelyFondOfACottage*

    Context:

    I work for a global tech company. Teams are often spread across the world. In my case, my boss is in Europe, I’m in the US and my employees are all over Canada.

    My company’s leaving the return-to-office decisions to each manager. My boss is leaving it up to us. I’m an extrovert who loves working with people in person. My drive’s not terrible, so I try to go in once a week to get out of the house and see real humans.

    I would be ticked if I had to go in more frequently just to sit on Zoom calls with people in other locations, especially when time zones are involved. I like having the flexibility to take my early morning calls with Europe at home and go into the office later in the day, missing traffic.

    Things that would maybe make going in frequently more tolerable:
    – Free parking. We pay $10/day.
    – More than enough conference rooms/phone booths. (I’d prefer an office with a door. I’d even settle for a cubicle with walls. We have what are basically tables with monitors on top – no walls, no partitions, nothing). You can’t take a call from your desk without the entire office hearing it.
    – Designated desks. We’re hotdesking right now. That means we bring in our own computer, charger, mouse, mousepad, keyboard and headset. We have to set it all up and arrange the monitors, desk and chair every time we come in.
    – Local teammates. We started hiring in lower-cost-of-labor markets during the pandemic, so now teams are globally distributed. I think we work just as well as colocated teams do, but it lowers the incentive to go in.

  344. Kelli*

    I’ve been back in the office for about a month now. We ‘get’ to work from home 26 days a year.
    I’m salty because I am still on zoom for 92% of meetings…with people sitting 5 feet from me. 3 people on my 10 person team live in other cities. And other than meetings, it’s a pretty solitary job.
    But, I knew when I was hired in July of ’21 they’re quite anti-remote full time. They’ve had trouble hiring because of it, but they’ve dug their heels in and that’s what it is. I can be salty all day, but I still have to go in.

  345. Rogelio*

    Part of my reason for quitting my job in June was because they were throwing us back into the office and masks were no longer required. They did this as my entire team, spread across three states, all had come down with COVID. Your point about leadership ignoring safety concerns really spoke to me–our company’s grand plan was to offer cupcakes on Fridays, and when that didn’t work started removing work from home days until they were all but gone. The town halls where leadership dismissed safety during a Q&A were really disappointing. Lots of people just refused to come in, or quit (like me). I love my career field but I’m not risking my life and health for it.

  346. nnn*

    I’m a die-hard remote worker, but what would make the difference between me trying to make it work rather than quitting on the spot is whether the in-office requirements reflect actual needs, as opposed to being completely arbitrary.

    For example, how much of the work actually needs to be done in the office? Does it actually need to be done on a schedule vs. whenever it’s most convenient for each individual? Do people actually need to be in the office all day on the days they go in?

    Before the pandemic, I was in a role where we were allowed to work from wherever we wanted, but we were required to come into the office whenever we got a certain type of assignment that needed to be done with equipment that was in the office.

    So on days I had to work in the office, I’d wake up at my work-from-home wake-up time, go about my morning routine while keeping an eye on my email, then get on the subway when I was ready and head into the office. I’d stay in the office until I was done the in-office task, then I’d go home. As long as I delivered the task by deadline, it didn’t actually matter what time I did the work, so I was able to minimize stress.

    This worked for me because it made sense based on the actual work we’re actually doing. But if the employer had said “Some tasks need to be done with the equipment in the office, therefore you need to work in the office once a week,” that would have been arbitrary and would have driven me away.

    Also, what does collaboration look like in your organization, both in general and in specific use cases? Most of the time when I have collaboration-intensive work, it’s actually best done with everyone in their own quiet spaces, and a Teams chat open for questions and brainstorming. People check the chat at a frequency that works for them, and we all have the quiet and focus we need to do our actual jobs. Being forced to work around a table would just slow things down and produce a worse product.

    Also, focus on creating win-win scenarios! Do you have people who prefer to work in the office or who don’t like working from home or who like the occasional change of scenery? Shift the in-office work to them! Do you have people who would cheerfully odd hours or overtime if they could do so from home? Shift that work to them!

    1. nnn*

      And I forgot to add: if you want people in the office, make sure the physical environment reflects people’s actual needs – especially those needs that are better met at home!

      Do people have actual quiet and privacy they need to do their jobs? If everyone needs quiet and privacy at once, can that be made to happen? Do people have control over their lighting and ventilation? Is the office just as COVID-safe as people’s homes?

  347. Jonquil*

    I don’t think there’s much anyone can do to make me want to go back (I am being forced back at least partially by my employer, but i’m resisting as much as possible). I had a baby in mid-2019, and returned to work in March 2020 so I’ve not really had experience of what being a working mom was like pre-pandemic, but I will say that when I’m forced to be in the office due to my employer’s hybrid mandate my days are just SO SQUASHED.

    From the moment I wake up to the moment I get in the car, most of my time is taken up in feeding, cleaning and preparing a 3yo for the day. I get a few minutes to get myself ready while my spouse (who works from home FT) dresses the 3yo and does her hair. From door to desk via childcare drop-off, it is 45 minutes (I’m lucky enough to live close to work, but once you factor in parking and conversations with educators etc). I’m rarely at my desk much before 8:45am and I feel like I’ve run a marathon once I get there. My kid is small, and gets tired doing long days in childcare, so the latest I can leave the office is 4:45pm, to minimise the impact of a hungry, tired toddler. In order to work my full hours, that means no more than 30 minutes for lunch/errands/a moment to myself during the work day. Once we’re home again, around 5:30, the marathon starts again, with dinner needing to be on the table around 6, kid in the shower by 6:45 (I shower with my kid, because it’s the only way I can find time to shower most days) and settling for bed at 7:30. At 8pm, my spouse and I enjoy the only hour or so of the day where we get to be humans. We use it to watch TV and get some exercise, before collapsing into bed to rinse and repeat. Noting that my child’s ability to sleep through the night is not fully embedded yet, so at least once a week I will lose an hour of sleep dealing with her in the middle of the night.

    Compare that to working from home, where I can dress in some joggers, dispense with makeup, and lose only about 20 minutes to daycare drop-off. Because we only have one car, WFH days are the only days my spouse and I can share drop offs and pick ups, so they mean I can usually work a little longer, and I can also start prepping dinner while spouse does pick-up, meaning the evening routine is just a little less stressful, and kiddo gets a few more happy minutes playing with us. I also enjoy the opportunity to shower alone, eat a much nicer lunch than I could in the office.

  348. Wondercat*

    My company (fortune 100!) has required us to go back to the office 50% of the time, but parking costs $300/month. It has made all of us resentful. Covering that cost would go a LONG way towards making us happier to go back.

  349. Kate*

    I’m an earlyish career new hire at a large government agency that is trying to get people back into the office. People don’t want to come back, and I get it — traffic is terrible, many colleagues have caregiving responsibilities, and hybrid meetings are worse than virtual ones. But I selfishly wish people would come in more often! I feel like so much of the day to day work builds on a rapport that was built when everyone worked together 3+ years ago, and I haven’t had a chance to make those same connections. I could see pushing for remote work when I was settled in my job or had different responsibilities at home, but as a newbie that would be hard. I actually go in 4 days per week instead of the required 1, just to try to get more face time.

    1. Alice*

      Hi – no idea if this might apply to your situation, but FWIW – I have a “mentee” (not a direct report) who is in your situation. Hired during the pandemic, early in their career. They come in to the office more than required, and they offer to organize in-person team lunches, so I think that they want more in-person interaction to build relationships.
      This person rarely wears a mask in our shared office. When they do wear a mask (I don’t know why they sometimes do – maybe they have a recent exposure or have symptoms?), it’s a cloth mask that doesn’t fit very well, instead of the free N95s that our department provides.
      I honestly can’t figure it out. They know that four of the six people in this shared office are very risk-averse, in at least three cases because of the employee or their household having higher risks. And yet, the early career colleague often doesn’t wear a mask and the rest of the time wears a mask that works less well than other options that are available to them for free.
      We even have access through our employer to free-to-us on-demand PCR with a fast turnaround time; if they wanted to make us more at ease with their mask-wearing decisions, they could say, “hey, FYI, I test myself weekly so that I have a better chance of picking up an asymptomatic infection before passing it to other people in the office.”
      Like I said: no idea if your colleagues are like me, or if you are like my mentee. But if there are people who are at high risk, or who want to avoid bringing COVID home from work to high risk people, or even people who are not at a particularly high risk but who don’t want to roll the dice on Long COVID brain fog – you will get much better results in terms of relationships building if you take safety in to account. Practical ideas:
      Invite them to have a coffee chat either online or outdoors, instead of in the break room. Or go for an outdoors walk with them.
      Show them that you take the risk of asymptomatic/presymptomatic transmission seriously, by wearing a high-quality masks when you are sharing air with them and by taking advantage of whatever testing is available to you.
      Do not come in to work with symptoms.
      Tell your colleagues what you told us – but focus on “let’s build rapport” instead of “let’s share air in the office more.” They probably want you to succeed, and will be willing to change what they are doing to help you. But be clear about the real goal. You can build rapport remotely, or outdoors, or wearing high-quality masks.
      Final thought: my early career mentee is really smart and generally has great interpersonal skills. I do not know why they haven’t realized, or haven’t acted on the realization, that some of us fear their cavalier attitude towards COVID will lead to workplace transmission that leads to serious illness, life-changing disability, or death among our high-risk colleagues and household members. I try very hard to provide the same mentorship and feedback and help that I provided people in similar roles before the pandemic. Maybe I have gone too far in that respect; pre-pandemic, I would probably have said something if I noticed that my mentee was doing something that alienated coworkers…. But I’ve been using all my workplace capital to get my workplace to offer staff free N95s and improve ventilation; I can’t start an interpersonal spat. And, honestly, I already vulnerable about having disclosed my health issues and the health issues of people in my household, to no avail.
      I hope this perspective is useful to you. Good luck.

    2. anonforthis*

      Are there other junior people in your team/org you can organize the occasional in person social or happy hour with? This is something my coworkers and I do and it’s great! It’s actually more informal than seeing people in an office and we do a combination of talking shop and non work related things. I do think the one thing virtual work doesn’t do is build in person relations if that matters to you, and the happy hours help us do this while still enjoying remote work flexibility.

  350. Blobfish*

    Literally nothing would entice me back to the office, but thankfully my employer is not requiring it. I don’t work too far from my office, but my role (workplace training/assessment) changed from an entirely in-person role to an entirely remote role when the pandemic kicked off.

    My employer downsized their office space at the end of 2021, giving away the lease on two floors of corporate offices in the central business district, and remodelled their remaining office space to make it more conducive to occasional in-person work once restrictions eased. There’s plenty of open plan desks and collaborative spaces, as well as small quiet rooms for people who need privacy for short phone calls or meetings, but none of the spaces are suitable for the sort of work I do, which usually involves at least 90 minutes at a time of me flapping my gums. Not appropriate in an open office space. Part of this remodel meant that the dedicated room we used to use for in-person training was re-allocated for a different business purpose, so I couldn’t even use that space for silence and privacy so I could facilitate training.

    So there’s no business purpose for me to regularly go to work in the office. Once a month I do a week of work in one of our branches so I can keep up the skills that I teach people, but other than that, all my work is online these days.

    I’m lucky enough to have a private office space at home, and a job that doesn’t bleed into my personal time. I have time in the mornings and on breaks to do little jobs around the house like putting the washing on, or vacuuming up the cat litter, which frees up my evenings from those sorts of chores. I get out of bed 30 minutes before work starts and I don’t have to wear uncomfortable corporate clothing.

    So I guess with all that said, the things that would get me back into the office would be being able to eliminate my commute, have someone at home to do all the daily chores, let me wear leggings and slippers around the office, and give me private space to do my work.

  351. Other Alice*

    I left my job after we were required to come back to the office full time in 2021 and my grandboss came in while knowing he was positive. I found a fully remote position and I am very happy where I am. However I am still friendly with a few people from my old job. I know they are losing good people and are having trouble hiring. They are offering free lunches now, but it doesn’t seem to be working. They are also claiming in their job postings that there is “possibility of flexible hours and remote work” but it’s not really true.

    My current job tried to get people back in the office before I joined, but there was so much push back they immediately backtracked. We have monthly office days instead, which everyone is much happier with. I personally wouldn’t care if I never saw my coworkers face to face but I appreciate that my manager prefers to keep in touch. The office is still open and some people go in every day, but it’s entirely voluntary. There was a survey at the end of Q2 (top leadership keeps hoping to bring us back in office) but the overwhelming majority prefers to remain remote so the status quo will persist.

  352. Antony-mouse*

    I’m going to add a differing opinion to one I’ve seen on this thread. For context, I worked in person for 1.5 years before going remote part-time to go back to university, in an industry that is generally 99.9% in person for good reasons, and I recently got myself on the property ladder with a very small space. I’m also an introvert.

    Nothing would entice to me to continue being work from home. There’s so many things I miss about the office. I miss my friends, I miss the structure, I miss knowing what’s going on, I miss having an input in the work rather than just having things assigned to me, I miss knowing the big picture of how things are working, I miss the little networking that comes with being able to say good morning to my grand-boss or casually ask him if I can help with something when a direct email would be weird and out of place.

    Also, I don’t have a space to work from home. I would need a massive income jump to be able to move up in the housing market for work from home to be feasible for me. I currently don’t even have space to have a desk anywhere. If I were to work from home, it would only be on one laptop on my bed or my couch. Added to that, I need to mental shift between work life and home life of arriving at a place and then leaving it.

    1. Yikes*

      I completely understand, but know that you won’t find much support in this forum. It has been decidedly anti-office, with a particular vitriol for those forced to be in person all this time. If you bring up going into the office as a normal part of a work experience or express the slightest bit of anger at being the person holding it together for everyone safe at home, chaos ensues.

  353. RebelwithMouseyHair*

    I’m currently a freelancer, but I do apply for jobs now and then when I see that it’s well paid and interesting. Now, my job requires very little interaction with others, it’s very rare that I even need to speak to anyone on the phone. It’s also perfectly quantiable: it’s very easy to gauge my productivity. All in all, the ideal job to perform from home, all I need is a laptop and an internet connection.
    It’s amazing how many jobs are in-person only. Some grudgingly say maybe I could partly WFH once I’ve “proved myself”, as if they’ll have someone standing over me as I work for the first three weeks or something.
    I would actually prefer a hybrid setup were I to work as an employee again, but it couldn’t be for whole days. I got a dog just days before the first lockdown, and he would have trouble being on his own.

  354. Banana Justice*

    Our company is trying to threaten your bonus pay out if you don’t show up at least twice a week. However, because of location, even folks within ten miles of the building take an hour to get in and out. The ones that returned already were the ones itching to return. The rest of us show up for two to three day events only. People who are thriving at home are loosing their minds. I’m one of the few that for my remote status 100% written into my job description at the beginning of the year. But I’m waiting for that to be revoked. I moved and will not move back. Ultimately, they want seats filled so they feel like the money spent on a new building was worth it. It was not.

  355. Em*

    My job wants people to come back to the office, but they’re scared of pushing too hard because people are NOT happy about it. They recycle the same tired “justifications” in an attempt to entice people back, and they’ve not come up with any new incentives post pandemic. Usually I hear these ones:
    1. “The coffee is good at work!” It’s not good, and there is only sweetened nut milk or that weird stabilized milk that doesn’t need to be refrigerated, ofc 1% not whole)
    2. “There are snacks available in the kitchens!” The “snacks” are usually unripe, out of season fruit deposited 1x per week, enough for 10 people maybe.
    3. “In person work leads to collaboration and brilliant ideas! Random hallway chats are inspiring!” Besides the obvious bs here, which is that I’ve never been inspired when doing white people smiles to my colleagues as I pass them in the halls, the reality is that a lot of us work mostly with people in other locations anyway, so going to the office for me means a constant chatter from everyone in our open office holding teams meetings from their desks, because there are only 2 call rooms in our “neighborhood,” with dysfunctional monitors. I wear sound cancelling headphones pretty much my entire day, and have teams calls just like I would from home.

    If I were to be enticed back to the office, I would need a four day work week, actually flexible hours, several more weeks of vacation time per year, my own office/quiet workspace, and my public transport paid for. Free breakfast (with actually good coffee) would also be wonderful, because it would mean I could just roll out of bed, wash, dress, and leave. While I’m dreaming, I’d like to have fitness costs covered, because right now I swim laps over my lunch break because I live very close to the pool, and going to work would put the kibosh on that.

  356. HikingBoots*

    The only thing that could get me back into the office is more time off. Commuting time comes out of my ‘free time allowance’ yet we all know this isn’t free time for me to use as I please. I’ve proven I can work from home effectively, my clients are international and don’t require face-to-face in-office meetings, so if the company is going to decide to take away x hours of free time away from me that I’ve had for a few years now by forcing me to commute then I want my working hours reduced by x hours with no loss of pay.

    Luckily I’m in a role where work from home and flexibility are valued by the CEO and COO so being forced into the office isn’t currently a question for me.

  357. Yellow Flotsam*

    Initially it was mandated you had to be in a certain number of days each week. For a while it was pointless, as we had to distance, and had so few staff around that you spent your time largely working through online meetings masked and isolated. All of my work tasks were also online.

    Then as things opened up more, and restrictions relaxed (not in US the COVID situation has been vastly different here) and our main work functions returned to the office many have chosen to work mostly in the office. The mandates might still be in place but nobody has mentioned anything in a while. As more people come back, there’s more incentive to be there yourself – all the benefits of attending the workplace are returning. Plus, all the work tasks that could not be done properly remotely are on again.

    We had a lot of flexibility pre-COVID, and for us that has remained (not true of all employees, but most I work with). Incentives have been minimal – free coffee, morning teas, a pizza lunch or two. I’d say they’re still ahead on what they would have spent on me in pre-COVID times with free food for meetings/events etc.

  359. I'm Staying Remote!!*

    I still live close enough to my office that I *could* commute, but whenever I’ve been inside the building lately I’ve just been like… why the eff am I here?? So, the only thing that would bring me back is a reason to go in– like meetings/brainstorming/training sessions that are easier in person. Even then I wouldn’t stay and work a full day. In terms of socializing, I think having a quarterly get-together, like an in-person happy hour, is absolutely plenty for me and my coworkers. Anything more is overkill.

  360. Feline*

    My office has struggled to bring people back.

    Things that weren’t working to bring people back:
    Strict masking and vaccination requirements. Dropping all the masking and vaccination requirements. Taking a survey about work from home and then insisting that most employees *really* want to come back to the office. Upper manager sending lots of emails to employees about how she is coming into the office with her puppy and how much FUN is that? Upper manager responding to inquiries whether the office had implemented a pets at work policy that no, no one can bring pets to work. Officially ropening the office with great fanfare and cookouts and come meet the upper manager’s puppy! Management saying returning twice a week was voluntary. Severely reducing the square footage of the office so employees who did return wouldn’t be the only ones on their floor. Saying returning twice a week is strongly encouraged. Line managers clearly being pressured to get their reports in, so they insisted the “strongly encouraged” messaging from upper management actually said “required,” which it didn’t. Enacting a reserve-a-desk system that makes it clear that the reduced office space does not include enough seating for 40% of the location’s employees to be in on a given day, so the return twice a week edict is literally impossible to enact.

    The results of this effort:
    Employees perceive upper management as misrepresenting the results of surveys. They have less trust in their direct managers, who demonstrably lied to them about the contents of emails they received from upper management. Employees can see that there is only roughly 10% capacity for the location’s employees to have desks at a given time, so they hesitate further to return.

    What would get me back to the office:
    I don’t think anything that will realistically happen would get me back to the office short of unemployment and running low and savings. I live in an area that is against masking and vaccination, and I live with an immune-compromised partner. If my hard-line red state magically turned blue, I could see the situation changing. But it’s not going to. My mental health and ability to control my environment to help function through ADHD are so much better at home. Even without a pandemic, quality of life considerations will keep me firmly WFH.

  361. Jack Straw from Wichita*

    This isn’t a direct answer to your question–but can you PLEASE dispel the myth that all the extroverts are dying to come back? I see so many articles/podcast/news bits talking about how extroverts must want to come back, it’s unhealthy for them to be alone, blah blah blah.

    First, I’m an extrovert and it’s simply not true (for me); I love WFH and get more done that I ever did in an office (even when I take time to switch the laundry or unload the dishwasher during my workday).

    Second, our society (not just our workplaces) is designed to accommodate extroverts. WFM is one way to level that playing field of the loudest person in the room (sometimes literally) getting the attention. I’ve enjoyed getting to see my introvert coworkers absolutely shine in ways they didn’t and couldn’t pre-pandemic/wFH.

    1. Mewtwo*

      As someone who considers myself a shy extrovert, the stereotypes about extroverts and how they’re different from introverts fascinate me. As an extrovert, I would prefer to get my social needs met in NON-work situations, and I’m sure I’m not the only one! Extroverts don’t automatically love going to the office. Also, not all extroverts like being obnoxiously loud and demanding attention. I am reserved and prefer to interface with people in other ways, and the fact that so many workplaces reward obnoxious attention seekers is a huge flaw of traditional work culture.

  362. Pleasantly surprised*

    Reading these comments makes me realise just how well my managers are dealing with this. We are required to be in at least two days a week most of the time, but there are exceptions (if you have the slightest sniffle, even if you tested negative, you stay away from the office. They are generous with the exceptions- e.g. I was allowed to extend a visit to my family abroad by working remotely for a week. Being so generous with exceptions as long as the job gets done generates goodwill. We agreed as a team to set a team day when we all come in on the same day once a week for at least a team lunch. We agreed the day together as a team, and are free to choose whether to come in for the whole day, or just part of it. I often come in first thing and time what time I leave to a train mid-afternoon. If work allows, I can work slightly less hours on a day I come in and make up for it another time. If the day is slow (not common!) I leave the office and just check emails later for anything that has come in since I left. The second day of the week is our individual choice and can change from week to week (with the expectation that we are reasonable and consider business needs as well as our own preferences).

  363. Remote life*

    My office has definitely struggled to bring people back. Technically everyone is supposed to be back, but many just… aren’t going. Everyone came back a couple days a week for a while and then it trickled back off, aside from the positions that truly need to be in the office to be efficient.

    Personally, I don’t think anything could get me back to the office in my current job, because there’s zero reason for me to go. My company has many offices across the country; no one else from my department lives here, and there’s no one here that I interact with regularly for work. When I did go in, I packed my food, drove 45 minutes, paid for parking, walked to the building, to sit by myself and attend virtual meetings on Teams, and then drove an hour home. Literally no point.

    No one has talked to me, but others in the same position have been told that, though the company realizes there’s no reason for them to need to be in the office, they need to come in because it’s not fair to people who need to be there to do their jobs. None of them listened, and there haven’t been any consequences.

  364. Ruby*

    My company has not listened to employee feedback about our physical office EVER, so I don’t expect them to start now.

    – about 4 years ago, we switched to open office & hotdesking, to near universal hatred. The PTB have no interest in changing anything about it (I’m guessing they still have their own offices).
    – they replaced the staffed cafeteria with automated cafes with frozen meals and snacks.
    – for decades an on-site childcare and gym have been top of the wish list on every survey, again those in charge have no interest in even considering it. Before anyone calls me entitled, the company DOES have those things at our other locations, just not mine.

    I can’t think of a scenario where I’d want to go in to an open office unless there was literally no other choice.

  365. Manufacturing engineer*

    I work for a large manufacturing company as an engineer. My role currently requires me to be in-person most of the time, which is fine: it’s part of the job, and I have decent flexibility.

    Our Corporate Headquarters office building is a ghost town. The execs really want to bring the office workers back, at least part time, but it’s a losing battle! The company realized decades ago, when they built the Headquarters building, that these office workers didn’t need to be tied to manufacturing or any specific location. Now with telework, most of them prefer to work from home.

    I’m not sure what carrots or sticks the company has used to try and get people to come back. I know they tried to hold cultural/ diversity events at HQ over the summer, but it didn’t really work because (1) nobody is there and (2) many of the guests of honor weren’t comfortable gathering in person given the company’s (extremely lackluster, but legal) COVID protocols.

    (Note: the majority of our company’s workforce are manufacturing workers and direct manufacturing support; most of them have been 100% in person through the entire pandemic. It’s probably just 10% of the workforce who’s still mostly remote. Obligatory reminder that the remote work conversation mostly applies to the elite, privileged few, and I say that as a person who’s had the privilege to work remote through most of the pandemic.)

    1. Manufacturing engineer*

      I should also mention that COVID is really going around, and a number of my coworkers have got COVID from attending in-person work meetings (unmasked, of course). Eek!

      Fortunately, office people who have COVID or a known exposure typically work from home for a week or two, as it should be.

  366. SEM*

    I work in a finance/banking environment and all the client facing people have been required to come back at least 3 days a week. Some of the other support functions (like myself) are only mandated 2 days a week in office.

    However, several entire departments in support function have not returned. It seems management for those departments is not pushing it still. (They rarely come in, if at all) it’s been frustrating for morale across the teams, even though their roles don’t seem to require it. Seems like their managers are more concerned about retaining them and letting them WFH which seems fair enough

  367. Teapot Wrangler*

    My work are actually being very sensible about letting people work from home some of the time but things that seem to work:
    – Free lunch
    – Drinks
    – Nice environment (meeting rooms, places for calls)
    – Not being too precious about arrival and departure times on in-work days
    – Desks bookable in advance, cleaned well regularly and people only sitting where they’ve booked
    – Reasonable amount of space to leave stuff at the office

    I quite like being in the office if there’s other people around so I make sure to book in-person meetings and my team all try to be in together about once a fortnight

  368. 653-CXK*

    When the pandemic began in 2020, I had no choice but to work from home. We could come in once per week, but there were strict health protocols put in place to prevent the spread of the disease to our vulnerable seniors. I was coming in weekly for a half day until I got COVID back in September and didn’t return until December. Since then, I’ve been coming in to the office sporadically – my boss is fine with it, but other departments have been sending passive aggressive emails stating that the mailbox is full – what they don’t realize is that mail is the very lowest priority and is done when all my other work is finished. (And people do joke that

    On the other hand, coming to work is a break for me. As much as I like the convenience of having a three second commute to my portable desk and laptop, the commute by bus and the walking to and from bus stops serve as decompression from stress. While I can work just as easily in the office as I do at home, working five days in a row from home can be just as stressful as working five days in a row from the office. Breaking up that time is helpful.

    My company is flexible enough to allow work from home, but if they said “please come in a 2-3 days per week” I’d have no problem with it. They would not have to offer incentives and in return I would not have to put in conditions on how I would return.

    1. 653-CXK*

      Arrgh…forgot to complete a thought.

      (And people do joke that when I do show up to work, it’s like an Elvis or “Where’s Waldo?” sighting.)

  369. UKUK*

    Late to the party on this one and it may well have been mentioned above but I’m in the UK and actually seeing more people *want* to return to the office because it means they’re paying less bills at home. The cost of energy (mainly gas and electric) mean heating a home as we go into winter throughout the whole of the workday is an increasingly unattractive prospect. I’m seeing people with the attitude of “come into work and let someone else pay to heat the building”. Depending on petrol prices it will be interesting to see which wins out: cost of commuting or cost of being at home more?

  370. I would prefer not to*

    I hear people say companies are saving money from home working, and could downsize the offices. But in ours, we have a need for more meeting rooms, because lots of meetings/calls are still virtual. It is much harder to sit at your desk having video calls than phone conversations, and consequently people need to pop into meeting rooms every time they have a meeting or a call. Yet there aren’t enough when lots of people come in.

    The organisation says they’ll look at increasing the rooms with a redevelopment but only when more people come in. That seems really fair but also it leaves those of us who do come into the office in a bit of a tricky spot with all our meetings.

    1. Manufacturing engineer*

      This is interesting to me! At my workplace, everyone’s in cubes, and we all just take Teams calls from our cubes. Everyone has a headset, and there’s enough factory/ ambient/ white noise that you can’t really hear other people’s conversations. Admittedly most of our calls are without video, because Engineers Hate Video apparently.

      But yeah, it’s a whole cube farm of hundreds of people, and half of them are on calls at any given time.

      Good luck to you though – I hope you do get more private spaces for calls! It is certainly nice.

  371. pamela voorhees*

    At my old company, our CEO was out for medical reasons, and so leadership collectively decided they could do whatever they wanted. One member of the leadership team moved 18 hours away, to a completely different time zone, and let all of his direct reports move away too… while our leadership team member got very irritated about this, and mandated that all of his direct reports had to come in or get fired. He didn’t show up himself, of course. He has immunocompromised family members. But when reports pointed out they also had immunocompromised family members, or were compromised themselves, he told them they made it work before hand, so they needed to make it work now. And when we pointed that Leader X was eighteen hours away and totally remote, our leadership team member angrily responded that he shouldn’t have been able to do that… but he didn’t have the authority to make him come back, since they were peers. He just had the authority to make us all come in. So that’s what he did.

    Anyway, they lost about 30 – 50% of the workforce in about six months. Including me! I have a new job, and now I’m only required to come in for team meeting day (and even that is loose). I will never, ever go back to places that require fully in person work.

  372. Bookworm*

    I straight up quit about a year and a half ago when leadership began making noises about RTO. It was presented as a priority with no initial guidelines (they were preparing them, but we were told a return would absolutely happen after Labor Day last year). Had they presented safety guidelines and a standardized remote work option (leadership continuously refused even though it was absolutely possible and people had asked about it for years). That was a place where nothing would bring me back.

    I don’t think there’s much that could bring me back to an office now. This is a trade-off I’m willing to make. I’ve found all of the “traditional” workplace expectations of being in the office, doing the happy hours or informal networking events, etc. have been completely useless and I don’t bother with them. I am aware that this is frowned upon but ultimately I really want to be left alone to work and that’s all.

    I doubt I could be identified solely from the vague details here, but I’d prefer not to be quoted. Thanks and I look forward to reading the post/article/etc.!

  373. Quickbeam*

    I got to retire last year but I worked for a company that built a *huge* main office complex 20 years ago. It’s like the Magic Kingdom for office workers. Subsidized meals, dry cleaning, 24/7 gym facilities, lush landscaping, covered parking, etc. They were sure everyone would want to come back for all the amenities. They did not read the room. A huge % wishes to stay remote. At this point it’s all begging, pleading and the beginnings of negative consequences for failure to return.

    My point is that I don’t think there is anything they can offer to get my former colleagues back to the cube farm.

  374. I would prefer not to*

    One thing I’ve definitely appreciated with home working is that whole days aren’t lost through contagious things you can basically work through, while feeling/looking gross, like a cold.

    Also, period pain agony and misery! I love being at home during the Period Week of Doom. I can wear comfortable clothes, get a hot water bottle, have a quick lie down if I want one… but still get the basic work done.

  375. I would prefer not to*

    I feel that home working facilitates a more outcomes based approach to work. It is harder for people to perform stress and busywork, and just get ahead by people skills alone. (Although people skills are, of course, important!)

    So keeping that culture would help encourage a return the office. Reassuring people that we aren’t going back to judging you based on whether you were here from exactly 9-5 or who stepped out for lunch early or who stayed latest etc.

    (I did move jobs during the pandemic, from one which was very activity driven to one which was very outcomes driven, so this is only my experience, I don’t know if there’s any evidence that this is the case more widely.)

    Also, so much energy in the office gets lost on navigating how to deal with difficult, annoying, loud, weird, rude, silly, chatty, racist, homophobic, giggly, gossipy or smelly (etc) colleagues… from leaving a kitchen mess to telling sexist jokes to picking their teeth loudly to going on about diets and calories, there is just so much energy that gets sucked out of people in many workplaces. Being at home means all that energy can go into work.

  376. nm*

    My office has a membership deal with the gym next door, and 2 friends of mine in other departments like to have lunch together. These are the only two things bringing me in.

  377. Loafs*

    Nothing! I expected to be paid a competitive salary, full benefits, generous PTO and never come in. Not joking. I did everything 110% from home for 2 years and proved myself. I’m an adult and don’t need to be babysat.

  378. Janeric*

    Really good Covid protocols, like it’s still 2021, and some air filtration solutions like it’s 2025. (And information on those things being readily available)

  379. Cpt Morgan*

    My desire to be able to pay my mortgage was very effective at convincing me to go back into the office when the CEO required it. I’m loling at the idea that some offices resorted to bribes. Didn’t know they had so many millionaires working for them.

    1. cheeky*

      It’s curious to me that you think Millennials are calling the shots, but at the same think you must not be able to.

  380. cheeky*

    I am now a hybrid worker, but will not on my own free will go back to the office because of safety concerns. My company essentially gave up on any covid mitigations, and pushed to have people return to the office as hybrid workers at the beginning of August, holding big (but voluntary) celebrations all over at company offices. What happened? Big spike in covid cases. I was forced to go to the office a few days after the celebrations, sat in a stuffy conference room for 4 hours, and walked out infected with covid, along with half of the people in attendance. Unless and until my company puts infection mitigations in place, I will not step foot back into the office.

  381. Baska*

    I’m back working from the office full-time and really wish I weren’t. Honestly, the only reason I came back is because our building re-opened, and part of my job is reception. Obviously this part of my job got shelved while the building was closed for a year and a half of the pandemic, but there’s not much I can do to push back against it once the building is open again. If I could get away with continuing to work from home forever, I absolutely would.

  382. iiii*

    For the people who want a reason to go in: if management stopped bleating about “culture!” and said instead, “we need a quorum of experienced people in-office as a resource for new hires,” would that be a good enough reason? How about if they added “senior” to your title and gave you a pay bump?

    It would be enough for me, but I live five blocks from the office and don’t have any relevant health issues, so I don’t know how typical I am.

  383. Melbournian cyclist*

    I live in Melbourne (Australia). The state government here has recently rescinded the advice that “if you can work from home, you should work from home”. I think that’s a little premature – we’re still seeing over 2000 COVID cases a day in the state; it seems like nobody’s doing anything to mitigate the risks; it’s downright scary. (I had COVID, about two months ago. It’s not fun.)

    If I have to go back to the office, I’d be willing to accept two days a week, maximum. Reason? It’s approximately 70 minutes in on the train, and about the same coming back. There’s no way that I would drive – too stressful, too expensive. I don’t want to deal with the plague rats on the train for two and a half hours – sure, I’d wear a mask, but far too many won’t. So I’d cycle. It’s a 90 minute bike ride from my home to the office, and then about two hours from the office to my home. 3.5 hours of exercise at the cost of about one hour extra commute? Yeah, that works for me. But I only have the fitness to do that twice a week, maximum. (At least for now. Working on it. But even once I have the fitness to do it five days a week, I’m not sure that I’d want to.) The company at the office would be nice, and would provide a bit of motivation to come in, but.. well. Yeah.

    If they want me in more often than that, I’m going to start looking for a job that’s closer to home, with a shorter commute. Sure, there are ways to fill in time on the train, but even so, I’d rather be able to allocate that time as I want, rather than being forced to do that. I’d comply, but only for as long as it took me to find that new job.

    As an added bonus, because of the time I’ve been at that job, I get long service leave. That means that if I leave before I’ve taken that time off, I get paid out. Nine weeks’ salary, thank you very much. (Plus any annual leave that I have accumulated but not taken.)

  384. Jedi*

    My office just made it mandatory to be in-office at least 3 days/week. One of several reasons they struggle to hire people.

  385. Mr. Bob Dobalina*

    My company announced a hybrid schedule for employees with jobs that permit that, unless a different schedule is worked out with one’s manager. Some employees have roles that require work in a lab on a daily basis, but other employees (like me) are solely desk workers. But in reality, there hasn’t been any strict adherence to the hybrid policy by the desk workers, and I don’t hear about any enforcement either. My company has multiple worksites and a handful of employees that are out-of-state remote. At any given moment, a fair number of desk workers are working remotely since everyone is picking their own hybrid schedule or coming in at their own convenience. Because of these factors, there is never a time when all employees will be physically in the same place at the same time. So the virtual meetings must continue! Even if I went into the office in person, I would still be staring at a computer all day with the occasional Zoom meeting from my desk. Same thing I do working at home.

    I told my manager that I wanted to continue working fully remotely. I have been doing that for 2.5 years and have clearly proven that I can do my job fully remotely and be successful. My manager agreed. But in fact, it’s now a deal breaker for me. I will not agree to go back into the office – not for any reason. There is nothing that my employer could do to make me start commuting again. If my company wants to terminate my employment over that, they sure can, and I am prepared to accept that consequence.

    My requirement to be remote has nothing to do with COVID. It is primarily about the commute. Before the pandemic, I would leave for work in the morning, and get home about 13+ hours later. I work long hours and have a long commute. If I can get a ride into work, it is 1.25 hours each way on a good day. When I take public transportation, it is 1.75 hours each way on a good day. I am so DONE with that commute. Nope, no more.

    The funny thing is that before the pandemic, I was very against remote work! I never worked remotely and was suspicious of people who worked remotely. Then I was forced to go fully remote when the pandemic started. It took several months, but I finally settled in and became a complete convert to remote work. I experienced how much better my life was without that horrible commute. Also, in my home office, I had privacy, quiet and lower stress, something completely lacking in the office setting while sitting in a little desk in an open floor plan. My office doesn’t even have assigned desks for hybrid workers, and no one has a private office.

    I also want to add that every time I see people refer to this caricature of working in pajamas at home or slacking off at home, I am annoyed. I get dressed in regular clothes every day to work remotely. Yeah, I am wearing pants! I am really working a normal day, I am just doing it at home. I don’t work flexible hours or have an odd schedule – remote work doesn’t necessarily mean flexible hours. I routinely work 9 am to 7 pm at home, and I am really, truly present, at my desk, working during that time. But I do have more *flexibility* for appointments, deliveries, plumbers, etc., which is very valuable.

    1. The Real Fran Fine*

      I, too, get dressed for work in clothes I would have worn to an office (exceptions being on days where I’m not feeling well – then, it’s yoga clothes) and do my makeup almost every day. The whole working in PJs thing may be true for some people, but those of us who are usually on video calls? Probably not so much.

  386. Tree*

    I have a four hour commute, so I’d need a higher salary to support the higher cost of living near the office, and relocation support. I’d also need for our office to have cubicles instead of open plan because on the days that I do come in, I have a lot of trouble focusing on my work because of the background noise, even with headphones on. I’d also still need for all meetings to be online, because I can follow 99% of what I hear if the words are coming into my headphones with noise cancelling but only about 20% of what I hear in person if the words are just bouncing around the room aimlessly.

    1. Tree*

      anyway, I’m lucky, my company let us choose whether we wanted full time remote, hybrid, or to come into the office everyday and I said full time remote and negotiated with my manager that I’D come in about once a month for socialising / team cohesion / networking / if there was some important reason and there was no issue with it: everything’s great, they’re happy with my work, i’m happy with my work.

  387. Crazy Plant Lady*

    I was one of those people who was super excited about going back at first. But when I started going in and realized that working from the office now means sitting at my desk with headphones on for 6-7 hrs of calls a day, I basically stopped going in. Very few of the people I have meetings with are going into the office so even when I do go in I’m essentially working remotely from a less convenient, less comfortable location. When we’ve tried to do hybrid meetings, the technology makes it difficult and we end up all sitting in the same room with our computers. So going into the office doesn’t cut down on screen time at all and only very slightly increases my human interaction. If others who I have meetings with were to start going in more, I would be more likely to go in.

  388. Kindling*

    I work in a tech role for a business with lots of physical processes. HQ is in a major city, the production sites are a few hours away. My company thought about bringing back everyone, but softened that stance substantially. Now we come in to HQ every few weeks, and plan a production site trip every few months. I’m always up for the site trips, because I learn something new and useful every time. I don’t find the HQ trips as beneficial. The amount of distractions makes me less productive, and my team is great at collaborating online. The biggest benefit is being able to write all over an entire wall when we’re trying to figure something out. That said, the company has done a good job of making the office a nice place to be. Good coffee, lunch is catered, and the office space includes rooms for many different group sizes. No childcare though, which I know has some coworkers staying home or going home earlier than they otherwise would.

    I love what I do, but living near HQ or most of the sites would drive me crazy. Staying remote most of the time is a must for me. I’d be looking for other jobs, even at a 60% pay cut, before I’d be looking at homes in that area. If the job was somewhere near where I want to live and the job market was exceptionally slim, I might be willing to go hybrid.

  389. Late to the Party, But...*

    The topic of being forced back into the office is complicated (almost like the number of ways the cause to working remotely is in the first place), so I think I want to split this reply into two parts.

    ——–

    The first is very directly addressing the question itself:

    I would feel much safer on-site if we stopped allowing constant masklessness and found a way to robustly mandate (and scale to accommodate) that everybody get tested regularly. Stop having higher-ups talk about how COVID is “endemic” and not a “pandemic” any more. What bare bones notifications we get (when someone bothers to test or notify in a compatible way) needs to stop taking so long that the notifications literally advise close contacts to mask until [insert date the notification finally went out].

    At least where I am, any claim that there are still precautions in place is a flagrant lie. The only “precaution” we have left is that vaccines are “mandatory” (unless you have a god, or just don’t feel like it). Sure, deaths are down, but they’re still happening and the charts suggest happening at a multiple the daily rate of the flu (pre-COVID flu numbers, as those went way down when many of us bothered to take precautions).

    And sure, most folks who get vaccines and boosters are not dying, but the numbers on who got boosters when don’t inspire confidence that the behavior matches the confidence that everyone must be safe. Also, I’m under 50, and this new vaccine revision will be the first booster I’m eligible for since last year. I keep hearing about how booster effectiveness fades after like 4-5 months and that’s why everybody 50+ keeps getting re-authorized for more doses, but these are doses that I don’t get the protection from (spare any older colleagues who do get those boosters are less likely to infect me).

    Add to that how we’ve so normalized pretending it’s not there that nobody bothers to get tested any more, or only take a rapid test moments before large group gatherings (not our weekly meetings or anything like that), and there’s basically no way to reliably measure the actual presence of COVID in the community at this point. We can’t simultaneously pretend it’s over and claim we have robust precautions in place, these are fundamentally opposed ideas.

    ——–

    The second part to my response isn’t exactly what I need to return safely, but does tie in:

    I want someone to find a way to measure whether the stresses that extroverts experienced during COVID are basically a mirror of the passive stresses that introverts get to constantly feel during “normal” times, just sharper and more sudden. A lot of folks want to pretend COVID is fully over for reasons pertaining to in-person interaction, and it seems I can’t escape side-chat during meetings about how nice the meetings are where people see each other (at least the ones I’m in remain remote for now), and it feels like people are measuring a completely unrelated factor to determine if COVID is enough under control.

    I realize I have a horse in this race, what with being not an extrovert and all, but it looks like we’ve got a great opportunity to pry a ton of information out of this regarding how much the working world is truly purpose-built for extroverts? I realize there will be exceptions, but I bet when measuring large data sets there could be a clear trend showing who works better on-site vs at-home and who’s extroverted/introverted.

    To more directly tie this back, I think the point I’m getting at is the question of whether back in the office is the correct stance for all workers? I realize that a ton of positions functionally mandate it (though we seem to have also found plenty in the past few years that truly don’t need it too), but if we have a system that fundamentally rewards extroverted-ness and that influences who’s at the top, and the top is where the orders to come back are coming from regardless of tangible need, then I can’t help but wonder if COVID has given us a giant window into how we can make work better for a chunk of the population that may have historically just been under-acknowledged?

    ——–

    So, some parts of my response are that we need to stop not taking this seriously any more and we seem to simultaneously try to pull in the cautious by talking about precautions while bringing back the unconcerned by calling everything over (spoiler: it’s not over). The two ideas are definitionally in conflict, and those of us who would prefer to not participate in the spread of a sorta-still-pandemic-ish infection (and maybe contribute to a new variant that isn’t as polite as Omicron about killing fewer people?) can totally see what’s happening when workplaces try this.

    The other parts of my response are the question whether going back in-office is truly the right thing in all cases, and a call to reevaluate that. While the situation that led to working from home was sudden and forced and this did give some leeway that influenced perception of it, we do have some positions that show this is way more effective than working on-site used to be. So, I guess the parts of me that don’t say “We need more testing and tracing.” about going back to the office would ask “Why do we need to go back every single day?”, recognizing that some positions mandate this while asserting that fewer positions do than some employers would claim.

  390. AM*

    I’m happy to show up on days when there are important meetings if most people will be there in person, so long as it doesn’t happen too often.

    I’d be more willing to go in on other days if there was flexibility to go for a few hours and thus be able to skip rush hour traffic.

    I used to work a hybrid schedule and it was frustrating that it seemed like the days I came in never overlapped with other peoples’ office days so it felt pointless. I’d be OK with showing up 1-2 days a week if it was the same day as everyone else.

    I would also like to see offices taking covid safety seriously – requiring vaccines, not letting people who have been infected come back to work until they’ve had a negative antigen test, generous sick leave, and having specific metric thresholds for things like masking and potentially closing the office. My spouse has a job he can’t do from home, but his office has free antigen tests at work, which is a great idea.

  391. Mewtwo*

    WFH is here to stay. Not for every job, not for every individual (I understand that people have varying preferences), but in the end of the day, it will be another consideration of job seekers alongside compensation, organizational structure, and company culture.

  392. PersephoneUnderground*

    I miss the office… Even when I’m there I miss how it used to be, because it’s very quiet and empty when I go in now.

    General unplanned socializing, like after-work happy hour with other departments, just can’t happen anymore. I’m adapting, but it takes planning now to do things that could be spontaneous before. My office is open for anyone who’s vaccinated to come in, but it’s still very quiet. We do have more people come on the days we have free breakfast events because the point is to socialize a bit.

    1. PersephoneUnderground*

      Adding one thing that I figured out recently: I really want to go back, but even I have only been in a handful of times. I think it’s just… It took a long time to learn and establish entirely new work routines and habits. So now it’s as difficult to go “back” as the transition to wfh was in the first place.

      I have to remember how to commute and what to pack etc., when it used to be automatic and easy. And when the (very nice) office is mostly empty when I get there anyway it’s hard to sustain the effort to change my habits back. Hybrid might actually be harder because it’s a different routine on different days, too, so whenever I try hybrid so far I end up just skipping the days I meant to go in because they’re more up-front effort than sticking with the status quo.

      I think having buddies I know will be there and expect to see me might help, because I have only managed to go in on the days I plan so far when someone is expecting me.

  393. Remote Worker Bee*

    I started at my current employer in April this year. During the interview process, my company asked me to be in the office 2-3 times a week, however, in practise people come in more of their own volition. Some people come in once a moth, some prefer every day. Some employees have moved across the country during the pandemic and the commute would now be impossible, others are taking month-long trips away (for example to visit their family abroad) and are working from there during that time. There’s not been an open discussion about the topic at all. Instead, all my colleagues seem to make their wishes known in a more subliminal fashion by enthusiastically liking LinkedIn posts that promote remote work. None of the managers have said anything and I suspect that secretly, they’re in favor of this development as it means more flexibility for them as well.

  394. Nails*

    I’ve written about this here before, but in our office just before the pandemic, the office was first-come-first-served hotdesking in an open-plan office. We were told how flexible and resilient this would make us, how collaborative it would be, etc. Instead it just created a really unpleasant (but freshly carpeted!) working environment. It’s a bit like a school cafeteria but long, low and dark.

    Now you have to have your headphones on permanently to block out, say, the shrill tones of a complaining senior manager floating over several banks of desks. Also, the work itself is only “collaborative” for higher managers or social purposes, because individual contributors at the lower paygrades are supposed to do a lot of work that involves putting your head down. So it’s hard to strike a balance of reaching out and being social with people of your own paygrade, when you KNOW that your peers are stressed/busy/trying to focus, and not really open to public “random bonding” conversations – especially not right in front of their manager. It’s why I find online chatting more effective for random social pops – they can choose how to manage their own interruptions, and you’re not constantly bothering stressed-out people in front of their boss!

    Prior to the pandemic, hotdesking was first-come-first-served, and when it was overbooked, you simply had to work somewhere else. The hotdesking has now changed to a booking system, which is better, but the building is still pretty empty. It certainly isn’t going to reach the capacity they renovated for. And I’m glad, because it was really uncomfortable when the desks were all full – they were a bit bigger than schoolchildren’s desks but not much, and even now it’s hard to fit water bottle/purse/travel mug/notebooks/reference materials/writing implements onto them without spilling onto the neighbouring empty desks. (Oh, you obviously can’t have personal items at your desk at any point, or have “your own” desk – you carry everything with you and have to book a different workspace fresh every day. It’s considered inefficient of you to need physical items anyway – after all, managers float around perfectly happily all day with just a tablet, or a coffee purchased from a coffee shop in a throwaway container; why can’t you just spend $$$ on coffee and spend all day in meetings? that’s what leaders do…)

    There’s lots of evidence that shows that open-plan and hotdesking environments are stressful and unproductive. Combining them into two was never going to make individual contributors jump for joy. We don’t expect, say, university students to study on an open floor of 200 people, and everyone agrees that airport waiting rooms are distracting and stressful, so why is it mandatory to spend your working life in an unproductive space? And the whole “you don’t own your desk, you never did, it’s immature of you to want your own space to work in” attitude really soured me on it, especially now that they’ve switched to “you LOVE your desk, come BACK to your desk, don’t you MISS your desk?”

    In my previous role, prior to the pandemic, I had a hybrid role. We have to remember that this did NOT used to be such a polarizing, politicized thing: I simply got my job done at home AND in the (comfortable) office. So, this isn’t a case of me being workshy or using the pandemic as an excuse. I previously used WFH very effectively for focus work, and the office for collaboration, and did very well with both.

    I really don’t think it’s me. I’ve been made to feel like it’s me, and that I’ve suddenly become a terrible worker, and that’s actually affected my mental health over the past two years; it’s like a form of gaslighting, where I constantly have to remind myself that I’m actually a good, willing worker. Senior management are trying to make office-resistance out to be a shameful personal flaw, but when I look back at my work history, I GENUINELY see a person with a clear pattern of using hybrid effectively/productively before I changed roles.

    This particular job just does not offer a productive or attractive in-office environment; I hate the dishonesty around it; and I hate how the managers love the office and it’s set up for THEIR working needs, but the workers don’t love it and it’s not set up for OUR working needs. So all of the pressure and manipulation around it, trying to make it out to be something that’s “better for me”, makes me more resistant and disengaged. Because of this, despite appreciating the values/strategy and the actual work itself, I am currently open to new work (including remote, hybrid and in-office positions). I regret leaving my old post, even though it was the right move for me at the time. I miss the sense of pleasure I used to have at going into the office, sitting down at my very own space, and looking forward to the day.

  395. StephCG*

    I work for a company that operates in the US and Canada – our office workers have been remote for 2.5+ yrs now due to Covid. They are forcing us back to 3 days a week after sending countless surveys to employees asking about work life balance (the majority of which preferred WFM – the productivity of employees showed that alone). Their great reason for it? To combat rising attrition rates. I don’t know what genius came up with that but the steps they’re taking are only going to make it higher.

  396. Underpaid Non Profit Drone*

    I work for a non profit and throughout the pandemic, I was required to come in to an empty building once a week because donors were still sending us checks through the mail. (Even though the post office lost at least a quarter of them.) When things opened up last fall, upper management told me I needed to start coming in five days a week. I negotiated down to three days, on my own schedule, about three hours in office. That’s almost equal to the time I spend commuting. Everything else I can do from home. If they start making noises about five days a week again, they’ll have to replace me.

  397. Jane*

    My department was fully remote through the pandemic; in that time we hired employees who lived locally but trained remotely, and once fully onboarded, continued to work remotely. We also hired a handful of employees out-of-state in that time. We returned to a hybrid model at the start of the year. Most local employees want to work remotely, and at this point it feels a bit unfair that’s not an option, considering we have so many fully remote employees. They’ve put quite a few constraints around in-office schedules and behavior, which causes more frustration for everyone since they’d rather work from home and save the commute anyway. It personally takes me over an hour (sometimes more) to commute to the office, and in the end that really equates to a cut in pay. I also find I spend my days at home catching up from my days in office because it is a very distracting environment.

  398. Tara*

    I’m so late to this party but just found out last week that my company has mandated we return to office for 50% of our work time if we are within 50 miles of an office. I am livid, I was hired as a remote worker during the pandemic, chose my living location based on being remote, and have been living the past two years WFH. I am 45 miles from an office and have basically been told there is no flexibility in the policy. I just did the math and financially this is going to cost me around $1000/month to be in the office 2 to 3 days a week. This doesn’t count the 2 hour commute, the lost flexibility of being able to accomplish items at home and the loss of quality time with my kids and my spouse who works a night shift. We won’t even be ships passing in the night, I will probably not even see him as I will depart before he gets home, and return home after he has already left. Needless to say, I am not pleased. I have already started looking for new jobs which also sucks because I LOVE my manager & peers, feel that the organization has great benefits, and in general is a great place to work BUT mentally and financially, the enterprise has been inflexible in accommodating alternate work options when they don’t work for us. I don’t wish additional work on my coworkers but also hope that the attrition the organization sees opens their eyes that this decision was the wrong one.

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