I am still working full-time remote. There are definitely some social aspects of going to the office I miss, but I really don’t miss the commute or the shitty office politics. Overall I feel I am still more productive from home and happier overall.
I’m practically full-time remote, though technically hybrid. But unlike the “x days at home, y days in the office” hybrid, we’re wfh unless we have a reason to be in the office together for collaboration, which actually is helpful. So in reality, I go in a day or two every couple weeks or so. No complaints on my side.
Same scenario for me. We have some weird system to reserve a desk, that a lot of people mostly ignore. I’ve tried to reserve a desk a few times and all but once, some asshat was already sitting there. I didn’t feel like being confrontational so I just went home.
LOL! My org is doing this as well. The couple of times I’ve been in I just plopped myself down in a conference room without booking it. No one was around to complain.
Sounds like a lucky excuse tbh. 👍🏿
Honestly this seems like a best case scenario to everyone except whoever has to pay rent on the office lol
My thoughts exactly!
I don’t even know about that. Since not everyone in the company needs to be in the office at the same time, they can downsize to a smaller office without making it too uncomfortable.
Just to be a pedamt you mean the person paying rent to…the person paying the rent should be happy they can downside and reduce it soon…
It is those receiving rent and those that those recieving rent owe loan payments to that are getting squeky bottomed on their investments.
@iLikeGoats I’m still fully remote but so is my entire company. They sold their office building during the pandemic and didn’t look back.
Ditto, here. The building we were in wasn’t exactly great to begin with. Them having an excuse to leave sealed the deal.
I will say from all that I’ve talked on WFH vs having to go back. Those that went back mostly have micromanagers. My job is mostly leave us alone and keep things running smoothly is all we ask and the other friend of mine who is still WFH is pretty much the same. But the three others that had to come back to the office, their bosses are folks that must have their finger in literally everything.
I know I’m just a few data points and largely not a trend thing, but if you strictly ask me, it feels that the folks telling their employees to come back are the kind that aren’t exactly the greatest managers to be around in the first place.
Still full time remote. I do miss the face-to-face contact with my co-workers, but do not miss my 2 hours a day bus commute.
Prior to the pandemic, I had a couple of co-workers who were already full time remote and everyone was allowed to work from home a couple of days per week. But during the pandemic we recruited nationally, so there’s no way my company can put the WFH genie back in the bottle. They’re currently talking about right-sizing our office needs and building collaborative spaces; another sign we’re not going back.
My org is also looking to right-size and find a much smaller HQ.
That right sizing has the financial markets running scarsd. Just like the 2008 home.mortgage securities crunch…the commercial property mortgage securities are about to tank and they were sold as much more secure than even how they faked the '08 mortgages.
That correction is going to be a mess. My company headquarters are in a medium-sized US city. We own (and used to occupy) two downtown office building, a mid-rise and a high-rise. Right now both buildings are mostly empty, with little prospect of them being occupied in the near future.
Been full-time WFH since before COVID hit, worked remote at that job for three more years, left, and now have a new job where I’m 100% remote as well. It helps that I work in IT, and the company HQ is 2000 miles away, but I would have a difficult time entertaining the idea of going back to the office.
Like others have said too, my OLD company has so many people working remote now, that they are selling off their beautiful campus and looking for a smaller property to house the 10% of users still left working on-site.
I just worked this last week from home as I was sick… losing my mind! But that could also be because I couldn’t leave the house… lol I don’t know how you all do fully remote!
Personally, I love it. No one is watching over my shoulder planning my day but me. My office only cares that I complete my work on time. I get to figure out how best to do that.
Ahhh I got you. That makes sense. I guess my job is much the same way, except I get to do it in an office lol
Still full remote. Don’t miss the office at all, it’s loud and antagonistic. Tired of people talking about me behind my back (in front of my face, but in a language they think I don’t understand).
Some of the bosses and managers think I should be back in the office at least half time or so, but my immediate manager knows I still get all my work done and am way happier and more efficient at home, so he’s in my corner and doesn’t want me to give up more than a day per month or so.
Wow! That first part sounds awful! I think I would explore other options even if working from home.
Those people aren’t from my department, so I haven’t interacted with them in years now. There’s no reason to let them spoil a good thing. A boss who’s truly and fully in your corner is a rare and wonderful thing!
Tired of people talking about me behind my back (in front of my face, but in a language they think I don’t understand).
Man, fuck that! Not only are those people rude, they’re also stupid as hell.
ho ho hoooooo boy. My company forced some of us to choose what schedule we wanted coming back to the office. They sorted this by job titles. I just so happened to be one of the few jobs they were forcing to come back. I work in IT and I work with developers and project managers mostly in my day-to-day. I love WFH and I’m really not a fan of driving 20 minutes each way out of my way to go to an office and do things that I can do from home just fine. But the board is a bunch of super old dudes who demand that we do it because of the company’s traditional values and culture. So naturally I chose the lowest requirement of days in the office that they offered. Get this, though. When it was first pitched to us that we were being forced to come back despite most of our peers getting to WFH, they said it was to encourage in-person collaboration. Motherfucker, the people I collaborate with daily (the aforementioned PMs and Devs) didn’t come back! They are all WFH! I don’t collaborate with a single person in the office ever!!
And to add to all this, the board has now been giving out hints that they aren’t happy with how many of us chose the lowest number of in-office days for hybrid schedules, they expected us all to voluntarily opt for higher number of days, and they want us all to strive to come in more. Again, god dammit, why would you give us a choice of days if you already had a target in mind of what you’d prefer us to do?? Just make that target a requirement and deal with all of your employees hating you for it. Seeing the numbers of how many people don’t want to be in the office should make you realize that you fucked up making us come back and be more lenient, not force us with an iron hand further into a schedule we all opted to avoid. Fucking insanity.
And to add to all this, the board has now been giving out hints that they aren’t happy with how many of us chose the lowest number of in-office days for hybrid schedules, they expected us all to voluntarily opt for higher number of days, and they want us all to strive to come in more.
Going to just leave this here. It’s amazing how on point that fucking movie is.
Wow that’s really on the nose. I’ve had such similar conversations with higher-ups. Where they’re kind of telling you off but technically you haven’t done anything wrong, you just haven’t bent over backwards like they wanted
Love this movie!
That’s the dumbest aspect of the whole thing. Most of my meetings are still online and people won’t come in for an in-person meeting even if they work in a building a few hundred meters away. Coming to the office is 100% pointless for me.
This resonates with me for the times I have gone in the office.
Sounds like all the old dudes were feeling lonely and just wanted some company. I will say that you are lucky to have a 20 min commute. When I was going in daily I, had a 90 min commute on public transportation. Yuck.
That’s true, I can’t complain too much. It’s literally one straight road the whole time too. If nothing else, it’s nice getting to listen to music and podcasts
they boil the frog slowly
I have had 2 employers tell me to go back to work in person.
They simply didn’t end up committing. The first job, they had us all coming in but didn’t even open the cafeteria.
The first, I have no co-workers at the local office as I am in a different country than everyone else on the team.
I’ll go back to work in-person if and when someone makes it really worth my while. Until then I get to use my own keyboard, mouse, and screens in a room that’s exactly the right temperature.
I insisted for years that I would be more productive working from home.
Many people I worked with disagreed with me.
The pandemic proved me right.
I work for a fairly large organization that is mostly centralized but all my immediate colleagues are distributed around the globe. So, continuing work-from-home is not that difficult for me and no one is demanding my return.
Was full time remote for eight years until this week when I got the dreaded email: “Your weekly in office average is below the company’s expectation.” So now I’m back 3 days a week.
It’s not bad, but it’s stupid. My whole team is on the opposite coast so I commute to sit in a mostly empty office and be on the phone all day.
What?!?! 8 years and NOW they call you back. I’m sorry!
I am a software dev. Me and everyone in my team are still fully remote. The team-lead has been backing this. Most team members would have very long commutes >1h per direction. There has been some pressure from middle management to spend time at the office. Not all teams are able to work fully remote and there is a sense those teams might envy the remote teams. But so far the software teams have been able to stay remote.
My partner is also fully remote (also a tech related job) and will remain so. Among friends and acquaintances a lot of people have returned to some office time even the other devs.
I do not think I will ever be full-time at an office again. I could imagine a job where if it wasn‘t more than 30 minutes (by bike or public transport) away I might go into the office once a week. More than that: please no.
I do have a very nice office at home. Not everyone does.
I’m in a very similar situation. My partner and I are very lucky to have a nice house and office space for each of us. I understand not everyone has that. :(
I’m technically hybrid, but I haven’t been to the office in over a month. I only go in if there’re important meetings.
It’s going great. I’m super productive. I dont actually need to be in the same room as anyone to do my job. Also, I can play video games between tasks.
I like to write between tasks. Both fiction and little programs that continue to make my work easier via “automation.”
Never went remote because my job very much requires me to be physically present. But I fully support those that can work from home; my commute was amazing at the height of lockdown.
Would you mind sharing what type of work you do?
I’m a CNC Machinist and QC Manager at a machine shop.
Nice! One of my first jobs in HS was working for a small, family-run machine shop. I got all the messy clean up jobs but liked the work overall.
After Covid we have the liberty to work from home or come to the office as much as we want. Since we can make the choice ourselves, it is not as frustrating to go to the office as it was before.
I have been full time remote since the pandemic and I know I’m in the minority when I say it’s terrible. I don’t have much social contact. I used to be able to walk over and directly talk things out with coworkers, shoot the shit, ask for a hand with stuff but it’s gone. I smoke more weed, fuck off about the same amount but it’s the lack of socialization since the pandemic that’s killing me. I don’t have much in the way of friends or family. I’m single, broke and just isolated as all hell. It’s so hard to keep track of time or the days because nothing changes. It’s hard to have a clear work/home divide when there’s nothing to really denote it. My office and my studio apartment are the same place so the only real breaks are when I go wandering around aimlessly outside.
I mean I hate my job and the work I do so that doesn’t help but I’m losing my mind over here because of the isolation.
I’m with @kestel7, that sounds really shitty. I hope things get better for you. Even if you get another remote job maybe you can make enough to go to a shared workspace.
That sounds rough buddy, I’m sorry. I hope something changes for you soon. I could see working from home in a studio apartment getting pretty old pretty fast.
Still 100% remote, and have been for over three years (software engineer). And even before covid, I was often doing hybrid roles. I work so much better remotely.
My current company is trying to press for “5% travel” to have people attend the idiotic on-site meetings, but they haven’t forced me to do it
Might quit my job soon (for other reasons). I’m committed to staying fully remote even if it makes my job search harder (which it undoubtedly will).
I’m in a similar situation. Sort of “soft” shopping for a new job but nothing has really fired me up enough to make the change. And if I do, I am fully committed to being remote as well.
Back to the office here. A 50/50 time split was better and allowed for fewer office interruptions to get things done (and there is a legitimate need to be on site 20-50% of the time). But the powers that be don’t like not being able to micromanage badly in person, so here we are.
I bet they are also the same people that schedule a 1 hour meeting for an email that would be one paragraph.
I’m in an interesting position on this… I do research as a grad student, my work can be done anywhere with internet but… I have been working in-person for the last year or two, and have been almost doing 80-100% in-person the last few months.
Partly because I feel more productive when being in an office. Partly because I use public transit & don’t have to worry about traffic/parking. Partly because I get to communicate with my boss in-person about project ideas & stuff. Partly at the strong urge of my psychologist to have some human interactions & don’t depress myself at home the whole day
There are a good number of research labs I know who are still doing 100% remote and it worked out fairly well for them too, so to each their own?
Totally agree. And actually, if I were in my early career, I would probably like to go in for face-to-face time too.
