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Comment by xwdv | Hacker News Reader

90% I predict. There is little to no advantage of having an in-office work force for tech startups unless physical presence is necessary for the job. Managers can crow all they want about wanting to see asses in chairs but the data does not support it.

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Myself and many people I know can't stand permanent WFH and specifically seek jobs with offices.

Co-working?

That’s probably because the jobs you’re thinking of offer incredible offices.

How would you feel if the office was just cheap fluorescent lighting lit cubicles in some shitty part of town? Maybe a cat poster for some motivation.

Yeah, I suspect this is where a lot of the 'debate' is coming from. My experience is that Google/FB/etc... have (a slight) majority preferring WFO for at least 3 days, and other companies are overwhelmingly WFH.

I dunno, I went into one of these really nice offices most days a week for awhile after it reopened in the fall. But the novelty wore off and I haven't been going in that much recently. But I do think part of this is that it's still a ghost town, so it's not that much fun to go in there. But that will change eventually.

That's a fair point!

Yeah I think the steady state is that the number will very closely match the percentage of people that other remote vs. offices. I don't have a good sense for how that breaks down, but my sense is that it's over 50% that prefer remote, but not 90%.

Edit: prefer* not other

I prefer full WFH myself, but I think a lot depends on the family situation, too. Some people have small kids and it's hard for them to WFH, though people are more understanding if some little kid walks into an online meeting yelling about something these days.

Other people just like the structure of it or they have a good desk setup at work and not as good a place to work from at home.

I've seen people Work From Someone Else's Home. I think that would be the best of both worlds for me. I'd set up a second workstation in my 'office' for colleagues that are also friends.

This could be WeWork's saving throw.

Like Uber but for WeWork

I'd think that's more of an AirB&B at that point but yeah.

Same. I’ve been remote for close to a decade now. If I had to find a job, I’m not sure I could go fully remote. Sure, flexibility to WFH is great, but having no office at all is not something I want to continue doing forever.

How did you predict that number?

What data?

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