I’ve been fully remote since 2018 and wouldn’t have it any other way. I can get chores and cooking done during the day, don’t waste time or money commuting, and I’m more available for both work and my family.
People keep telling me I should “leave my house” and “interact with people” but that’s always fraught with peril and disappointment
From a societal perspective I think we should be working in common spaces so we can be near people and learn to socialize. We’re losing second and third spaces. Fewer people having children also means less forced interaction and I fear we are heading towards a more isolated society.
Unfortunately, not everyone would lives close enough to comfortably go into an office, which leaves people burning 2-3hrs of their day just doing that. And all the commuting also impacts the Earth.
I do think the modern workplace isn’t really a good place for this either unfortunately. In my field at least it’s like everybody is a corporate mercenary. They’re going to come in, make no friends, do their jobs and then quietly leave for a higher paying position as soon as they possibly can.
Which is fine, but it’s a pretty poor place to get social nourishment.
Yeah, the normal office is not the place to make friends.
But I guess for a shared workspace for people working remote, it doesn’t really matter what they do or if they change jobs. You can make casual conversation with regulars at the water cooler or coffee bar without the weird forced interactions of working for the same company and “team building”. You’re both in this common space because you want to be there, rather than sitting at home.
I agree on trying to bring back some semblance of the other spaces, and I’m an introvert. But work isn’t ideal for that, not only because of potential turnover, but also the rule of thumb on bringing too much personal stuff into work that can backfire on you.
How about more work from home where it makes sense, giving more time back that was spent commuting, and a four hour work week with equal or greater pay. Make socializing possible both in time and income given.
Having your coworkers be your only social interaction is a recipe for being exploited.
Third spaces are fine but if you make me come into an office for teamwork I’m finding another job that doesn’t make me pay to commute and be away from home.
This is why I actually like my hybrid schedule which is two days in the office and three at home. 1 day per week in office would be enough most of the time, but the regular in person does help with feeling connected for a lot of people but 5 days is massive overkill.
I’m Team Work Where You Are Best.
Some people that means an office. Some people it means remote. The plan is the workers do the thing and get the money. A manager needing to see their ass in a chair to feel good about himself is a little creepy.
Home only.
Why travel to an arbitrary location to access equipment at a different arbitrary location.
Work from home. I’ve really worked very little in an office, I find it unnecessary for collaboration and much more distracting than working from home.
As much as I’d love to work from home, I can’t. I’m too easily distracted and work would be at the bottom of my priority list at all times.
I’ll happily support all of you home workers, but I can’t trust myself to do what I’m supposed to do during “work time”.
You should have the option always. If you can work without burning fossil fuels to get to a place of work, you should.
I’m 50/50. In my own job there are a lot of days where I am just sitting at my laptop doing drawings or inventory calculations or other menial bs. I try to work from home where I can, and it honestly is fine with me. If I do it more than 2 or 3 days in a row though I start to feel brain rot creeping in from too much sameness.
The rest of the time I am frequently handling supplier product samples, prototype test units, taking first article measurements, and doing other shop stuff for other people in the company. I can’t really work from home in those situations but it keeps my mind active and moving.
A mix, mostly from him (I get more done), but face-to-face is good for meetings and socialising (which is important to keeping a group working well together)
WFH.
Working at the office would mean buying a car, getting insurance, paying for parking and adding another 1.5 hours to my day. It’s not worth it.
Home only for me. I just find myself a lot more productive when I’m not distracted by everything else happening around me in the office.
Meetings are easier through Zoom when you don’t have to worry about the logistics of reserving conference rooms and managing AV equipment, even when you have to deal with the occasional person who forgets to mute themselves.
I save a lot of money not having to drive and pay for gas. I save a lot of time not having to spend 45-ish minutes each way on a commute. And I eat healthier when I have time to prepare my own meals, while I’m too tempted to buy fatty food from the office cafe for lunch or buy fast food during my commute when I feel like I don’t have enough time to cook and meal prep.
Hybrid, leaning towards office. At home I just can’t manage to manage myself.
You got the ADHD too? Inattentive type, represent!
Definitely from home. I have conditions that make travel difficult, and I’m a programmer by trade so there’s usually no good reason to be on site.
Office only, work from home is only allowed under very rare circumstances. Engineering for industrial manufacturing and if I worked from home about 80% of the questions I’d have would be answered by physically being there and watching the equipment run.
I have too much executive dysfunction to work from home. I need to be in the office, bored out of my mind, in an uncomfortable chair, to force myself to want to work.
Team hybrid FTW.
