And frankly, if we’re going to hire someone remote, why would we not hire someone in India for $15 an hour? Or someone in Europe for $35? Remote work doesn’t make sense for most software positions
My anecdote is that my in-office colleagues are less productive than they used to be when they were WFH. Mostly less motivated to do the asynchronous communication parts of the job, like code reviews, and scrolling their phones at their desk more. Also cutting work hours short, often through long breaks with their jacket hanging on their chair.
As for why not India or Europe, that's been tried and failed for coming on thirty years now. Timezones, language, culture all make it much less cost efficient than it sounds like.
Where I work, it's entirely up to us whether to work from home or go into the office. People who choose the office are generally more productive in the office (e.g., because they are getting away from a crowded, noisy home) and people who choose to work from home are generally more productive at home (e.g., because they'd otherwise have a stressful commute that puts them on a bad footing every morning).
In practice, most people choose a mixture based on what they feel like doing that day and whether they need to have meetings, training, etc.
My supervisor strongly encourages working from home during crunch periods in particular because he has found that most employees are more productive if we take several exercise breaks throughout the day, and our office is not a great environment for that compared to our homes (for most of us).
He also likes WFH because employees have way fewer sick days. They instead have "sick hours" and then get back to work as soon as they feel up to it.
This x 100 ! We even have a gym in our office, and I was a member but hardly ever went, it was just too inconvenient and had no spontaneity. But WFH you can run off whenever you get the chance and sit smelly at your desk if you want afterwards, or cleanup and get a change of clothes, then return to your work.
It's only a job.
I'm three deep and over a decade into my career with them. They weren't a COVID-centric event.
That said, I sure hope the cultures are okay. Them and your cult.