January 4, 2021 at 12:00 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Dread or Desire
January 4, 2021 at 9:07 am
Assuming COVID becomes a non-issue I'd say hybrid office work would suit me. Many of the people I work with are in a completely different office to me anyway so geographic location is largely irrelevant.
Even though I am happy in my own company there are limits and I breached that limit a long time ago.
There's also the thought that management skills and thought processes haven't evolved enough to ensure that home workers aren't at a disadvantage. The person with the bosses ear is unlikely to be a home worker.
What would be interesting would be where there is a choice of offices, which one do people choose to go to and why?
January 4, 2021 at 1:05 pm
I don't dread going back into the office, but I don't desire it either. I have gotten really used to working remotely 100% of the time and don't miss the frustrations of a commute.
I suspect that I will end up one day a week in the office and four days working remotely.
January 4, 2021 at 1:15 pm
So pre-COVID I had one day a week of work-from-home, and it was fine. Granted the commute some days into work could be trying (not length, or even slow traffic, but id10ts on the road,) for the most part it was fine.
I've discovered, now that I've been WFH 4-5 days a week, and not getting contact with other people by going out to lunch or dinner, that I miss the human contact side of working in the office.
I will not be surprised if our organization does go to a more frequent WFH arrangement, I could easily see up to 4 days a week with 1 day a week people being in the office (and probably everyone in the organization on the same day, to allow for org-wide meetings, etc) although I'm not sure I'd take advantage of a 4-day a week WFH. I might be happier with a 3-day or even just a 2-day a week.
Regardless, I think this is going to make for an interesting (but hopefully NOT as interesting as 2020!) 2021 as businesses and employees adjust to this change.
January 4, 2021 at 1:33 pm
I started working from home on March 12, 2020. Last year, I suspected that I will be working from in March '21. I am probably in Group 1c in line for the COVID vaccine which the state agency expects will start vaccinating in the spring through summer. Based on that estimate, I will probably retire before setting foot in the office.
January 4, 2021 at 3:34 pm
We started 4 days in office 1 day WFH several weeks before going permanent WFH for covid. We've been back on 4 days in office for the most part for a few weeks and that's probably how it'll stay. I take wednesday as my WFH day which breaks up the week nicely and my commute is maybe 15 minutes so i don't particularly mind coming for the benefits you get in person.
January 4, 2021 at 4:40 pm
COVID and WFH didn't change my life at all, as I'd already been WFH for 15 years prior to COVID. No office at all.
I don't live within a thousand miles of anyone that I actually work with, so going into an office would not buy me (or the company) anything tangible. Closest office is a brutal 3 hour drive away (on the far side of a major metro area), so it would be a considerable net loss for everyone in my case. And again, there's nobody at that office that I actually work with anyway...
Unfortunately, my company is *totally* eliminating WFH as soon as the pandemic is deemed to be over - including for those who have pre-existing WFH arrangements. They've been rather heavy handed about the situation thus far.
January 4, 2021 at 4:47 pm
About what I expected, and I think many tech workers are in the same boat. I do hope to go back, but no idea when.
January 4, 2021 at 5:12 pm
When my wife and I moved across the country two years ago, I ironically had to leave my former job because they refused to let me WFH, after I had already been doing so for over three years. A change in management (and a few bad apple employees) caused a clamp-down on that policy about six months before our move. My wife, on the other hand, kept her former job and is quite happy being remote now.
My new company, after the move, had not allowed WFH at all until COVID, and had to even scramble to get laptops for most of its employees. Fast-forward to nearly a year later, and we are doing quite well as a company - still expanding and had a blow-out 2020. Pretty sure the pandemic has opened management's eyes a little and that they will not rescind WFH later this year. They are not even talking about any decision until at least June.
Given the choice, I will opt for a day in the office maybe every week or two. Our office was open-concept and I don't miss that one bit. Our house is as quiet as a library and that works for me 🙂
One thing I have found interesting during this phase is sticking to the same five-day 9-to-5 (more or less .. okay, more..) WFH should allow four-day weeks, or, say, swapping a weekday for a weekend day - but no, nobody I work with has changed that routine. Neither have I. Not saying anything bad, just a curious observation.
January 4, 2021 at 5:25 pm
Prior to the COVID pandemic I was on WFH 3 days a week, 2 days a week in the office. Then, as of mid March, we went to 100% WFH. As of October 1, 2020 this was made permanent. While I do miss interaction with my co-workers in the office I definitely do not miss the drive to/from the office. Very happy to be working from home permanently.
January 4, 2021 at 8:56 pm
I'm going to try and continue on with full WFH if they will let me. If I do need to go in I would prefer just one day a week in the office, maybe Wednesday's. And I definitely won't be going back into the office until I can get the vaccine.
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we travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us
Don't fear failure, fear regret.
January 4, 2021 at 9:18 pm
My employer operates in multiple countries, including New Zealand, where they have been able to reopen their offices after a period where everyone worked from home 5 days a week. They give people there their choice of working location. Many have chosen to work more days a week from home, and some have barely revisited the office, and appear not to miss it.
Given the choice, I would certainly be at the never or rarely end of the scale. I'm fortunate to have a quiet dedicated work space at home, and I don't miss the open-plan office or the commute one little bit.
January 5, 2021 at 12:05 am
Before the pandemic, I was working from home 3 days a week. My commute is a 90 mile round trip nightmare (Boston traffic is a thing of legend). I'll stick to full time from home if they left me. Maybe checking into the office a couple of days a month. The only thing I miss about going into the office was our "if you mess something up, bring in a cake". It was a fun event and brought the team together. We'd share the leftovers with others in the office and it made for good will. But is a slice of cake worth a 90 mile round trip when I have a bakery 2 minutes from my house? Maybe not.
January 5, 2021 at 2:11 am
I dread returning to the office. It offers me nothing at all. From the office I must put up with interruptions, distractions, and annoyances. I'm one of the few in that minority you spoke of, Steve, that totally love WFH and don't want to ever work in the office again. I'm so glad to not have the hellaciously long commute I did when I had to go to the office. When I'm in the office I don't go to see anyone. No one comes to see me unless they want to interrupt me, sometimes with pointless questions. All meetings I attend are virtual and have been for 5+ years. And it's even more so now because we've got team members living on the opposite side of the US from us, so all meetings must be virtual out of necessity. I will say that I'm fortunate not to have young children, so don't have to put up with that frustration that I'm sure many here do. And that makes it easier for me to say that I'm quite happy WFH, permanently.
But I'm not so naïve that I think it will always be WFH indefinitely. What I do hope they'll do is open new offices nearer where I live. And for me it has the added advantage that I'm not having to work in what has felt like a sardine office cubical environment next to support techs, who are on the phone constantly, etc. I've heard that some companies are considering haivng satellite offices, by getting rid of some of the office spaces they currently have. I imagine that would be especially attractive to high rent office spaces, such as in NYC and Silicon Valley. Why not open satellite offices around, closer to where people live?
I know that this is off topic, but I'm wondering how businesses like the state department I work for, will handle things like pensions and so on, with the changing work environment? I realize this off topic, but it is a consequence of the changing workplace/space. The state I live in has had a pension for its state, county and municipal employees since this state became a state, over a hundred years ago. So, they basically recruit from local talent, obviously. But this pandemic has opened management's eyes to hiring outside of the state. Currently that out of state talent is all-contract workers, but I can see that evolving into permanent, full time employees. How do you offer pensions to someone living 1500 miles away? Especially, given the fact that our cost of living is, relatively speaking, so much lower than in many other places? I'm sorry to go so off the rails here. I do think that we're living in unexpectedly disruptive times, which I don't think we've even seen how disruptive it will be. It's both extremely exciting and scary at the same time.
Rod
January 5, 2021 at 2:49 am
I know that this is off topic, but I'm wondering how businesses like the state department I work for, will handle things like pensions and so on, with the changing work environment? I realize this off topic, but it is a consequence of the changing workplace/space. The state I live in has had a pension for its state, county and municipal employees since this state became a state, over a hundred years ago. So, they basically recruit from local talent, obviously. But this pandemic has opened management's eyes to hiring outside of the state. Currently that out of state talent is all-contract workers, but I can see that evolving into permanent, full time employees. How do you offer pensions to someone living 1500 miles away? Especially, given the fact that our cost of living is, relatively speaking, so much lower than in many other places? I'm sorry to go so off the rails here. I do think that we're living in unexpectedly disruptive times, which I don't think we've even seen how disruptive it will be. It's both extremely exciting and scary at the same time.
I think it will actually be fairly easy for state governments to deal with. You want the pension, you live (primary residence) in the state, period.
Imagine the outcry, from the voters, to say nothing of the in-state employees, if a state gov't started offering / giving a pension to out-of-state workers?
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