How many of you are still working full-time remote and how is it going? If not, why not? Was the decision made by you to go back to the office or did your employer decide for you?
I am still working full-time remote. There are definitely some social aspects of going to the office I miss, but I really don't miss the commute or the shitty office politics. Overall I feel I am still more productive from home and happier overall.
ho ho hoooooo boy. My company forced some of us to choose what schedule we wanted coming back to the office. They sorted this by job titles. I just so happened to be one of the few jobs they were forcing to come back. I work in IT and I work with developers and project managers mostly in my day-to-day. I love WFH and I'm really not a fan of driving 20 minutes each way out of my way to go to an office and do things that I can do from home just fine. But the board is a bunch of super old dudes who demand that we do it because of the company's traditional values and culture. So naturally I chose the lowest requirement of days in the office that they offered. Get this, though. When it was first pitched to us that we were being forced to come back despite most of our peers getting to WFH, they said it was to encourage in-person collaboration. Motherfucker, the people I collaborate with daily (the aforementioned PMs and Devs) didn't come back! They are all WFH! I don't collaborate with a single person in the office ever!!
And to add to all this, the board has now been giving out hints that they aren't happy with how many of us chose the lowest number of in-office days for hybrid schedules, they expected us all to voluntarily opt for higher number of days, and they want us all to strive to come in more. Again, god dammit, why would you give us a choice of days if you already had a target in mind of what you'd prefer us to do?? Just make that target a requirement and deal with all of your employees hating you for it. Seeing the numbers of how many people don't want to be in the office should make you realize that you fucked up making us come back and be more lenient, not force us with an iron hand further into a schedule we all opted to avoid. Fucking insanity.
Sounds like all the old dudes were feeling lonely and just wanted some company. I will say that you are lucky to have a 20 min commute. When I was going in daily I, had a 90 min commute on public transportation. Yuck.
That's true, I can't complain too much. It's literally one straight road the whole time too. If nothing else, it's nice getting to listen to music and podcasts
That's the dumbest aspect of the whole thing. Most of my meetings are still online and people won't come in for an in-person meeting even if they work in a building a few hundred meters away. Coming to the office is 100% pointless for me.
And to add to all this, the board has now been giving out hints that they aren't happy with how many of us chose the lowest number of in-office days for hybrid schedules, they expected us all to voluntarily opt for higher number of days, and they want us all to strive to come in more.
Going to just leave this here. It's amazing how on point that fucking movie is.
Wow that's really on the nose. I've had such similar conversations with higher-ups. Where they're kind of telling you off but technically you haven't done anything wrong, you just haven't bent over backwards like they wanted
Still full time remote. I do miss the face-to-face contact with my co-workers, but do not miss my 2 hours a day bus commute.
Prior to the pandemic, I had a couple of co-workers who were already full time remote and everyone was allowed to work from home a couple of days per week. But during the pandemic we recruited nationally, so there's no way my company can put the WFH genie back in the bottle. They're currently talking about right-sizing our office needs and building collaborative spaces; another sign we're not going back.
That right sizing has the financial markets running scarsd. Just like the 2008 home.mortgage securities crunch...the commercial property mortgage securities are about to tank and they were sold as much more secure than even how they faked the '08 mortgages.
That correction is going to be a mess. My company headquarters are in a medium-sized US city. We own (and used to occupy) two downtown office building, a mid-rise and a high-rise. Right now both buildings are mostly empty, with little prospect of them being occupied in the near future.
I just worked this last week from home as I was sick… losing my mind! But that could also be because I couldn’t leave the house… lol I don’t know how you all do fully remote!
Personally, I love it. No one is watching over my shoulder planning my day but me. My office only cares that I complete my work on time. I get to figure out how best to do that.
Been full-time WFH since before COVID hit, worked remote at that job for three more years, left, and now have a new job where I’m 100% remote as well. It helps that I work in IT, and the company HQ is 2000 miles away, but I would have a difficult time entertaining the idea of going back to the office.
Like others have said too, my OLD company has so many people working remote now, that they are selling off their beautiful campus and looking for a smaller property to house the 10% of users still left working on-site.
I'm practically full-time remote, though technically hybrid. But unlike the "x days at home, y days in the office" hybrid, we're wfh unless we have a reason to be in the office together for collaboration, which actually is helpful. So in reality, I go in a day or two every couple weeks or so. No complaints on my side.
I don't even know about that. Since not everyone in the company needs to be in the office at the same time, they can downsize to a smaller office without making it too uncomfortable.
Same scenario for me. We have some weird system to reserve a desk, that a lot of people mostly ignore. I've tried to reserve a desk a few times and all but once, some asshat was already sitting there. I didn't feel like being confrontational so I just went home.
LOL! My org is doing this as well. The couple of times I've been in I just plopped myself down in a conference room without booking it. No one was around to complain.
I started a job during the pandemic that doesn't even have an office in my province so I'm not going back to the office. I'm super happy about it, I can't even picture myself being in an office anymore. I have so much more free time without having the commute and being able to do chores while on the clock
I’m mostly in person but I’m at a college and they are big on making sure people are there for the campus environment, even though many of us don’t actually interact with students. But I also have my own office and feel like I can focus better in my workspace setup there, and communicate with people best when I can stop by their office to ask a question, so as it is now I do prefer it.
That said, with my kids’ ages and how many remote jobs are available now, it still may make sense in the next year or so to look for something that offers more remote time so I can keep childcare costs to a minimum. They are old enough that they aren’t distracting, can get their own lunches and snacks and entertain themselves while I work, but not old enough that I could leave them alone while I head to the office all day.
Looking back, I wish I had the WFH option when my kids were young. I used to get up at 4am to go to the office while my partner would take morning shift, getting the kids up and off to school, etc. I would then be back in time to pick them up after school and take afternoon/evening shift while my partner worked. Life then would have been much easier now.
Technically hybrid but have been full remote for the most of the year thanks to a neck injury. Commuting on the train wrecks me from my neck jostling around.
I've been remote over four different roles with my current organisation and have had zero reason to ever set foot in the office.
I'm still nearly 100% remote. We have like two events a year we need to show up at in person.
I would change jobs again if this changes; my goal is to move out to the countryside in another 2.5 to 3 years and do some small-scale farming and such, and there are really no IT jobs in the Japanese Countryside that are anywhere near what I do now in terms of interesting content, competent management, and pay.
That's the debate; I need to find a place that my wife (who hates snow) won't be miserable. She also doesn't drive, so it would be better if she did not have to get a license. I'm currently looking from Ibaraki prefecture up through the southeast of Iwate near the coast (far enough away from tsunami, close enough that we don't get snow).
My plan is to grow nearly 100% of the fruits and veggies we eat. This obviously won't work for things that just don't grow in the climate we end up in.
I'd also like to have chickens (at first for eggs and later meat birds).
Maybe pigs in the far future, but I legally have to have them butchered at a proper abattoir by Japanese law, so I need to work all that out.
For rice, the hope would be to trade with neighbors for other things.
Flour and stuff I would still have to buy because I'm not going to be able to grow wheat in any meaningful way.
Our studio is still allowing remote work. I’m one of the freaks that likes to come in and see everyone (I’ve been working with some of these people for almost 20 years).I miss seeing everybody. I don’t like working remote myself. I wish more people were coming in. But I understand the appeal of avoiding the commute.
I go in twice a week, because I find being able to talk to people face to face both quite productive and I'm an extravert who likes company. Plus, I'm in London and I actually enjoy the 45 minute cycle.
That's cool. If I tried to ride my bike to work I would probably get run over in the first couple of miles. I'm jealous of cities that have nice bike paths.
I'm fully remote now. During covid I was working somewhere else. They forced everyone to go back to a hybrid model, where we were expected to share small workspaces with three or four other coworkers with a rotating schedule. There was no reason for someone in my position to be in the office. It was not ideal. After a few weeks I ended up putting in my notice and found another fully remote position. It's wonderful. I love working from home.
I'm still full remote.
On a very rare occasion, I might have to go into the office, but otherwise I'm working from home.
During covid I learned I really enjoyed working from home, so I talked about it with my employer.
At first I only got day or 2 at home per week, but eventually I was allowed to work fully from home.
I used to work on secure sites for defence work. Honestly, not going to go back for that stuff any more. No more travelling and all the headaches that comes with.
Fully work from home now. Any job that expects me to work in an office is not a job I will even bother to interview for.
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