Many companies are definitely not comfortable with the current WFH environment. They are telling employees what they want to hear while the labor market is tight. However, if/when we get a recession you will start seeing a lot more people go back to the office. A friend of mine works at a mid-size semiconductor company. They were having trouble hiring people and keeping their existing employees, so they hired remote and allowed people to work from home. However, their executive team feels the labor market is shifting and they just mandated 2 days in the office. Yes Snap is abandoning their offices but they are struggling and can’t afford to pay rent. I wouldn’t want to work for them even if it was full- time remote.
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Just a brief diversion… You may understand but, from the sh*t that I occasionally read on Nextdoor, so many in my area (West LA) do not. It’s really bizarre. I want to (metaphorically) slap them (the people on Nextdoor) to ask, “WTF are you thinking???”
At any rate, to keep me somewhat on topic, I’m self employed (and I’m my only employee), but my work heavily depends on predictable quiet, so I still keep an office not too far from where I live. The WFH shift was nice, in that regard, b/c I was able to give up a 2nd office lease in another part of LA County (and nothing pleased me more than telling that horrific landlord that I was not going to renew my lease).
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I probably am in a different situation than most. The vast majority of people, at least in the office I was in, at my company worked from home at least one day a week prior to COVID. I worked from home two days a week, and I had some friends who were full-time telecommuters, due to location (some people live in Illinois, some in California, etc.) or because of kids.
Now, the entire company worldwide is on a hybrid model. There’s no set requirement to be in the office, and it’s more by group and/or manager. My office in particular was probably going to close/shift back to the city anyway, so they closed it at the end of 2020. My group and everyone in my office are full-time telecommuters. We can go into the office in Times Square when we want and just reserve a desk.
The company as a whole is extremely flexible. We can work from wherever in the country we want for 8 weeks per year, and 4 of those weeks can be in another country, so long as you have a work authorization there. For the US and Canada, we’re switching to unlimited vacation next year. Now, if we could get a cost of living adjustment, it would be awesome!
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Ah nice, it split off.
Interesting. I haven’t been working professionally long enough to experience a recession. But it sounds like “fear” is the tactic they’re relying on to get people back into the office. I wish companies would just come to grip with reality and understand not all job roles need to be in person. Instead of this emotional push to get people back in because “they miss the old company culture”.
My company and department likes having “Jack-of-all trades, master of one” engineers. I’m the “master” of structural analysis, but occasionally have design and testing projects. So 80% of the year, its structural analysis on a computer. The other 17% is design work (on the computer) and 3% would be testing physical parts (in-person). The 3-days per week in-office or whatever certainly doesn’t support that. It’s a waste of gas, time commuting and my personal life to come into work and gain nothing.
Thanks to the mods for making this.
I used to be hard core “have to work in office” but like many, Covid forced remote work and then we learned to use technology and collaboration tools to make it work and it actually improved communication.
Granted, some teams/departments should be in office but there have been many days where I see them not doing anything anyways (not my team) so the company is just paying for extra overhead. It’s up to management to make sure everyone is doing what they should be and if not, you use the same procedures to enforce performance as if they were in office.
I know when my team is slacking off so if they complain that I’m making them work more to meet deadlines I gently ask them if going into the office would help. So they know what’s up. And I do think they are paid under scale so this flexibility keep them happy.
Now if only upper management understood this new dynamic. They had to lose a percentage of quality staff before they realized they need to be more open to remote schedules.
They still would prefer in-office but they just downsized several locations so they also know the cost benefit.
It’s going to be interesting to see what Elon does with Twitter’s remote policy.
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Semi-related but this weekend I spoke with someone who is working on building out Amazon’s HQ2 in Arlington. Amazon got a lot of money to create 25,000 high paying ($150k+) jobs in Northern Virginia and are building a large physical presence in the area. But there are now question of how many jobs they are going to create in area. The pre-covid incentive package didn’t envision remote work. Virginia obviously isn’t going to pay $22k for a remote worker. The question is how many days a week does that worker need to report to the office to count as a “job” created in Virginia.
This guy’s thought was Amazon is likely to miss some.of their hiring numbers and therefore forego some of the incentive thresholds because it wasn’t worth paying hires more or getting lower quality people that would be required to get everyone into the office.
How does this relate to Twitter 2,500 miles west? I think it’s the same dynamic. Top tech talent is still in hot demand. And most of them don’t want to be in office five days a week. You either need to pay employees more or accept less qualified applicants if you want them in office 5 days a week.
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No one wants to commute 5 days a week anymore. Why would they? The savings in time with being home with loved ones/children. Savings of personal time and having the extra time before/post work and the money not spending on gas/transportation.
I work in finance (not client facing) and there’s absolutely no need for me personally to be in my midtown NYC office. I’m saving $300 bucks a month by not paying NJ Transit by not having to go in/out of NYC but more importantly ~2hrs a day in TIME.
There are a lot of people in and around the Tri state area that have 1.5-2hr commutes EACH WAY and pay hundred of dollars a month in bus/train passes. Etc
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Turning slow mode off since this topic should not be incendiary.
NO DISCUSSION ABOUT HOMELESSNESS. We have a thread for that.
Edit - not directed at you @TheBigTuna. Just replying to last post.
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boomers: “but think of the office culture you are leaving behind!!”
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I can smell that copier right thru this screen.
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Yep, and faint odor of a dirty Mr Coffee.
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Those pictures remind me of the one big plus for WFH… you get the privacy and sanitation of your own bathroom.
I’m one of those people who really dislike public bathrooms… especially for the more “extended visits” so this removes that out of the equation entirely. I know people may not want to discuss this but on my team we’ve talked about going up or down several floors to find a less used bathroom. 
Another is also related to Covid, but now our increased number of Amazon deliveries are more secure. As soon as they arrive we get our Arlo alert (or dog barking at delivery truck alert) and I bring them inside. Makes the porch heisters sad.
One con, gardener day… they always seem to know when my important meeting is and rev those lawn mowers and trimmers to the max during a call.
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I work in manufacturing so there is not much WFH. However, where I am at in NC, the commute isn’t bad. I find myself getting more distracted on the days I do WFH, so I feel like I do better traveling to work and keeping personal/side business seperate
This ties into my original post. In less urban areas work from home isn’t quite as popular and one big reason is commuting. Whereas thebigtuna might be spending 2 hours a day and 300 bucks a month if he had to commute, you are probably spending much less time and have free parking.
I’d be somewhat less adverse to going back to office if it wasn’t an hour drive during rush hour (to go five miles) plus 200 bucks a month to park.
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My company evolved into a full whf company even before the pandemic. We have the buy ins from all the executives so it is much easier. My team is all over the country, it’s fine if you have people you trust. I have had people I didn’t trust and it was tough to babysit them.
Honestly, and that’s very cheap too given I’m relatively close to NYC. Most folks are paying $500-$600 on a bus/train monthly , then parking at the train/bus stop etc
Lunch nowadays in the NYC will run you $15-$20 and that’s for a sandwich/salad etc.
Wow would I want to jump over crackheads at the port authority or Penn Station while I can sit at home, eat a home cooked meal, listen to music and browse thru LH in the comfort of my home.
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if it was costing me $200 a month to just park I would be way more inclined to find somewhere with free parking or WFH. I definitely see this as a regional thing, my commute is 25 min to go 30 miles and free parking.
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I don’t know, I actually kind of miss the commute of a regular day job but then again I also had a reverse commute (going out of town when others are coming in)
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