personally I go to the office every day even though I have a long commute. I hate working from home. Mandates for RTO don’t universally make the job worse. Of course I acknowledge it does for some people but not everyone.
This to say a thing: it's not viable stating "allow those who want the office or WFH individually decide", it's simply too costly for a company, that's why office spaces are often crowded, because being larger cost much more.
So, if a company decide to go remote it MUST go remote PERIOD, if a company decide to have offices it must use them, there is no point in Zoom-in from the office because some coworkers are at home or abroad.
Long story short it's about time to admit that the need of the office is essentially ended, and for certain activities where it's still a thing there is no hybrid option. Companies mandating RTOs prove only to pursue external interests maybe of some inside the company against the interest of the company itself.
That’s nonsense. My company pays 25x more for my salary than the office space that houses me. Increasing the cost, or decreasing the utilization there is not going to move the needle.
At least, not considering how much extra salary would be needed for me to accept working in an overcrowded office.
You don’t have to be pedantic about it to see that it’s fairly irrelevant in terms of cost.
- office (rent or property)
- furniture, including all safety equipment
- energy
- surveillance
It's just 1/25 of the salaries? It's very hard to believe... No balance sheet I have ever read is near that dimension.
Beside the fact of why the office anyway, because even if it's free why keeping up something useless in the modern world sound very strange to me. Why making absurdly big costs to keep up the city now that with globalisation (since '80s) and remote work the city have exhausted all it remaining reasons to exists it's really a mastery for me. The sole explanation I have is to support the large slice of population who refuse to evolve.
If you can resist checking emails after your commute I'm sure that with some self discipline you could also do it without the commute. You're basically admitting that there is no good reason or expectation for you to be working after hours anyway.
When I predominantly work at the office, I can kind of compartmentalize my working mindset to that place. When I leave, I'm done, finished, checked out. Laptop closed, in a bag (or even left at the office). It takes actual effort to return to that state.
When my office is just another room in the house, it's far easier to be stuck in that work mindset. The computer is all set up, it's just a quick password away to getting back exactly where you were when working. It's easy for me to think about a problem I was working on and easily slip back into it. Not so if I need to go grab my backpack, clear off a space for the work computer, hop back on, etc.
During COVID I was in a small apartment. My office was my living room. It felt like I was just always in the office, always working, never at home.
I can see how this can happen, but at the same time it seems like there's such an easy fix: just stop doing it.
But it may actually be a form of addiction, so maybe eaiser said than done. I could probably say the same thing about someone who wants to quit smoking but can't. People that smoke typically enjoy smoking, though, so they probably don't actually want to give it up, they only try to stop because they know it's bad for them. This may be the case here as well: maybe you have a hard time disconnecting from work because you actually want to work.
I'm WFH and I have absolutely zero problem flipping the switch at the end of the day, notifications off, done. I didn't sign up to work nights and weekends and it's not something I want to do, so I'm simply not going to do it (unless it's an emergency).
> it may actually be a form of addiction
For me it absolutely is. It is pretty much telling a drug addict "just say no." I get a lot of enjoyment out of many parts of my work. It gives me a lot of pleasure fixing some REST endpoint or optimizing some problem. Given the opportunity my mind will just keep chewing on the problem at all hours of the day when it is a problem I like. It is a dopamine rush to get that thing working. And since its work, there's actual deadlines and what not, real customers waiting, so even though I mentally know I shouldn't let those things affect me personally, emotionally it is harder for me to step away especially when I'm literally sitting in the same chair at the same desk with the same keyboard and mouse I'd use to solve those problems instead of tinker on my own projects that are far more nebulous.
In the end with my office at home set up primarily for work, personal projects take a back seat. With work at the company office, my work setup stays primarily there. My desk at home is free to be littered with my halfway done projects. Breadboards, soldering irons, all the various parts I'm toying with, etc. can take up the whole space. When I get home, that's my space, not their space.
> you actually want to work
Yes, I actually do enjoy what I do most days of the week. There's always the overhead and paperwork and what not that isn't the fun parts, but actually digging in to solve a problem is one of my favorite things to do whether that be at a datacenter or in the cloud or on a car or motorcycle or plumbing or an embedded device or a radio or whatever. Getting paid to be able to work on cool problems is practically gravy on top for me.
And FWIW, it also cuts the other way at times when I WFH. Sometimes my mind wanders and starts thinking about the personal projects at home. Let me go check on this thing, maybe I could just slip out and spend a few minutes trying to dial in the new irrigation controller, I probably need to check the chemical levels in the pool, that glue on the rocking chair repair is probably dry now let me move that along, I should really look into that leak on the wet bar drain, it'll only take a minute...suddenly it is an hour later.
If it was such an easy fix you wouldn’t be having this discussion about them going into the office I imagine.
For what it’s worth, I completely relate. If computer is sitting in the place I’ve just been working from the whole day then I’ll walk by and automatically start again.
Also, while I'm lucky enough to afford a whole room of my home as an office two little kids can still end up being quite loud and interruptive. It's nice having a dedicated space to have some quiet on my work schedule.
Plus, free gym for exercise, free tea/coffee, free AC/electricity, there's a free bike share if I drive in and want to ride through the nature preserve near the office or to the restaurants or other parks nearby, meetings in person when we're all right near each other seem easier, free car charging, etc. There's a lot of amenities in the office for me as well.
My commute is only like 2mi from home. It's a 15 minute bike ride. It's not like I'm spending a ton of time and money commuting. If there's something important for me to go to in regards of the kids it's not like I have to hop out for over an hour; the pediatrician is like 10min from the office, the library is closer than that, their school is across the street from the library, etc.
I get not everyone has great amenities, I understand some people have like half-hour commutes or worse. Everyone has their own math to do on if coming in is good or not. But it's not like having kids is instantly a remote work is better.
Whenever I do take the trip to the office, I spend on average 1.5 hours less time with my 4 year old. This is why I will always refuse to work in an office for as long as my services and talents are marketable with WFH arrangements.
I don’t have the space, time or incentive to set up a home office in the place I live. This unfortunately means all the stuff around me become distractions. I find it harder to sustain long work sessions at home.
I miss having quick chats with coworkers by their desk. Sometimes I hit an issue and all I need is a 30-second talk with the dev 2 aisles over. And it’s mutual: I find these quick chats great for helping folks out and keeping myself in the loop. Instant messaging is not an adequate substitute.
And lastly this is tied to my work and company policies but usually I can only access test hardware at the office, due to logistics or confidentiality.