There are a lot of news articles about “back to the office”, but they recirculate the same bad ideas. Let’s provide some new ideas for the media to circulate. It may also have the effect of making the office less terrible.
I would like my work computer to do Windows updates lightning quick in the office. It currently takes weeks, in or out of the office. Stopping in for a day makes no difference, so there is no point. Now, if there was a point, I would go in.
What would get you in the office?
It would cost me at least 15 hours of free time a week in commute and at least $800 extra a month. Then there’s the physiological strain of being trapped in a car and that’s not good for my back and hips. Let’s not forget “Jane,” my obnoxious “I don’t like Trump but” conservative coworker who has loud and vocal political opinions that I can help but overhear because she sits in the undersized fluorescent lit cubicle next to mine in my dark, dusty, windowless office. No thanks. I’m much happier at home.
I never really left the office. I had a 6 week stint working from home and then we were recalled. I’m in public safety so we were directly involved in the pandemic response.
Nothing. I refuse to go back.
- Commute as part of working hours.
- Reliable public transit, with the monthly pass paid by work.
- Salary increase of at least 15%.
I feel all of these are relatively realistic and achievable by my workplace except for reliable public transit which is out of their hands. Thankfully they’re still remote first though there have been a few indications that this might change.
- 4 day work week
- 6 hour work day
- 120k min salary
- Lunch provided
- Home cleaning service provided though benefit plan
- I would need an office (no cube/open concept)
- Casual dress code
Not responding to e-mail when i clock out
Nothing. Been working from home for 4 years and wouldnt go back for nothing.
Okay, maybe if we had 2 pizza fridays a week.
Wait you guys are allowed to work remote full time?
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I work as an IT guy for a small business (6 people total) and I honestly prefer working in the office:
- it’s easier to focus, I’m much more effective than when doing work at home, despite 95% of my work being possible to be done remotely
- I like most of the 5 people I work with
- I prefer separating life and work: I go to the office, do the work, go home and don’t think about it until the next time I’m over there. I wouldn’t like to associate my apartment with the mundane tasks I sometimes have to do for work
Also the commute isn’t bad because I live in a well-connected district in a European capital. It’s a 12 minute door-to-door bus ride for me, I don’t even bother driving.
Honestly, a much much higher salary. There are lots of things I’m going to have to deal with if I were to go back to the office; namely heavy traffic, transportation expenses, added stress, clothes (I mean, I’d have to use office-appropriate clothes whereas nowadays I have to be presentable only when I have meetings), food, waking up and preparing earlier than usual (sometimes up to 3 hours earlier!) and getting home late which gives me less free time, etc.
They’re going to have to offer a really lucrative salary for me to even consider returning to the office.
A higher salary would be of help to cover additional expeses related to coming to the office.
However, we also need a nice office to come to that needs to be as comfy as the one home.
You know what? I never even thought about that. I agree 100%. That’s gonna be a tall order for companies, though. I mean, different people probably have different requirements to be comfortable.
That’s why the whole open office and/or cubicle farm office needs to die. Yes, it will take more investment, but go back to everyone actually having their own small office that they can make their own and make comfortable. This isn’t hard.
Not to disagree with your sentiment, but the economics of space and construction costs would be a hard sell here. Plus, many managers don’t think employees deserve comfort and privacy thus the push to return to the office.
Oh, I agree entirely. I didn’t mean to insinuate that what I was suggesting was reasonable and/or something they would choose to invest in. Just sharting out ideas over here. Cheers.
I currently have a pretty nice salary as a senior engineer. I make waaaay more than the average and I work remotely. But even then… I still wonder what it’ll take. Because right now, there are positions that double/triples that AND is remote.
Like a job that’s 200k remote versus 250k in-office? Pretty easy to pick.
Some quick maths suggest that the average citizen in Western countries spends an hour commuting a day. Which is 260 hours a year for a 5 day a week job, or about a month’s worth of 8 hour days.
So, in addition to all that other pointless crap you mentioned, add on enough salary to bring you one month closer to retirement every year.
Adding onto this, the ability to choose to not come in and/or come and go as needed. In 5 years I haven’t had my kids in day care and it’s important for me to be able to take them to school and pick them up.
Yep. This is the answer.
And by much higher, I mean on the order of 100% raise as in double my current salary. Even then it’s be a hard decision.
Here in Brisbane Australia the lazy chuts want to work from home WHOSE GOING TO PAY FOR THESE COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS IN THE CBD?
THE ROWKERS SHOULD COME BACK EVERY DAYI PAY MORTGAGE. I’D LIKE TO USE THE HOUSE I PAID FOR.
Yeah, it seems short sighed to put the business at risk for real estate (losing talent). Sell the buildings and move on (sunk costs and all that.)
Paid commute and a separate room.
Ah yeah, I wrote that it should be within 10 minutes of my flat + seperate room but yeah paid commute (frome my home door back to my home door within 8 hours) would also be OK. I could try to work remotelly if I’m on a train or just listen to a podcast.
Absolutely nothing. I don’t think even money could do it for me at this point. Aside from all the obvious reasons to hate commuting and then sitting for 8 hours doing maybe 2 hours of work, I have never been healthier.
I have chronic migraines. Well, I used to(?). I haven’t had a single bad migraine in years. Yeah, I’ve still had a couple in the last few years, but they didn’t put functioning at a complete standstill. I wasn’t stuck in bed, hoping for death. The lack of artificial light is a big deal. The not having to stress myself out by commuting, then being stuck there is also another
On top of that, I eat 1000% better, easier. I can exercise instead of commuting. There’s literally no benefit to working in an office for me, but it has a metric fuckton of drawbacks.
How about a raise?
Read my second sentence. I literally couldn’t have spoon fed it to you any more.
That bunny attack though
Why do you have such a hard on for people going back to the office?
Trying to make people understand all perspective to avoid echo chambers. Reading this thread you’d think everyone will March hand in hand to wfm when reality is that everyone will cave at some point which is exactly what the post is asking( the answer is mostly for money though)
sitting for 8 hours doing maybe 2 hours of work
This is funny, and something I’ve thought about and talked about with coworkers a lot. When I first started permanent WFH at the beginning of COVID, I used to feel really guilty about doing random chores and stuff around the house during the workday. I felt like I always had to be “on” trying to busy myself or whatever, even if there wasn’t really work to do.
Over time as we have done a partial return to office and I realized I do even less work on the days we go in, I have done a lot of reflection on the way we used to work when we were 100% in the office pre-covid. My conclusion is that on any given day most people were doing between 1-4 hours of actual work, and the rest of the time was spent wandering around, bullshitting, taking walks, browsing the Internet, etc. And everyone thought that was just fine. But a solid half of most days was literally wasted doing nothing productive at all.
So these days I have shifted my attitude to one that is focused on getting my assigned work done, and being somewhat flexible on meeting times and when I can accomplish things. In return I don’t feel guilty if I need to mow the lawn or do some laundry during the day. I have a smartphone and I get notifications. If there is something urgent I’ll drop what I’m doing to handle it. If it can wait, I finish up then take care of it. It’s greatly helped my sanity and I think it’s improved my work, too. We do go to the office once a week or so but I honestly plan to get almost nothing accomplished on those days and consider it a bonus if we do get work done.
I typed out a long reply, and idk where it went but the highlights are
I saw the bullshit of it back in the 90s when I started working. I had MANY arguments with my boomer mother about it. Of course her opinion was shut up, put my head down, and do whatever they say, to keep my job. My opinion was fuck that fire me.
I have never had a job (for someone else) where I couldn’t 100% complete it, accurately in 2 hours a day, max. Often less.
I’m self employed now, and I have never been healthier, happier, or more mentally stable. I have two chronic conditions, that can be/are debilitating, which have never been better controlled. I know I can’t be alone on that.
WFH is 100% better for everyone, and those that WANT to go back to the office, should work that out with their employer. WFH has shown to improve ever metric on the workers lives, and not to mention the reduction in pollution and road congestion.
Higher salary, free lunch, commute costs covered. And should be hybrid instead of all five days in the office (Tues-Thurs).
A much better setup than my home one. A private office with sound dampening. Dual 4K+ monitors. A large wall mounted TV for casting training videos or collaborating. A coffee and desert cart.
