Dreaded commute to the city is keeping offices mostly empty
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Re: Dreaded commute to the city is keeping offices mostly empty
#2Re: Dreaded commute to the city is keeping offices mostly empty
#3The closest I can afford to live to my job is about an hour each way. Having my 8 hour day be a 10 hour day is unappealing.
Re: Dreaded commute to the city is keeping offices mostly empty
#4If you live more than 30 minutes away from the office, and it's self-evident that your physical presence isn't necessary to accomplish your day to day, I don't see why someone wouldn't refuse to come back excepting a few days here and there for a fun communal activity with your team. Especially if they have children.
Re: Dreaded commute to the city is keeping offices mostly empty
#5If you live more than 30 minutes away from the office, and it's self-evident that your physical presence isn't necessary to accomplish your day to day, I don't see why someone wouldn't refuse to come back excepting a few days here and there for a fun communal activity with your team. Especially if they have children.
people don't even want to come back for mandatory fun
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220517-the-death-of-m...
Re: Dreaded commute to the city is keeping offices mostly empty
#6That's one reason for sure, but even if my house was a 10 minute walk from the office, I'd still rather only go in for meetings. At home I have my own private office with a nice view. I have a nice set of speakers and can play any music I like. If I want to go for a walk, I'm in a quiet suburban neighborhood with hiking trails nearby. The kitchen is always stocked with snacks I like plus freshly prepared healthy lunches (prepared either by myself or my wife). My dog spends most of the day in the office with me.
At the "new" office, no one has an assigned desk, so I have to take everything I need with me to my desk and pack it up at the end of the day. My company is distributed so I spend half the day on zoom meetings with people in other offices... and even with relatively few people in the office it's already hard to book a room for a meeting. There's enough background noise in the open office that I keep headphones on most of the time while I'm at my desk. We do get free lunches at the office which is a nice perk, but food is prepared off-site, so menus tend to be designed around food that stands up to this model of food that can be prepared hours ahead of time.
My commute is less than 30 minutes (one-way) and is a pretty pleasant drive.... it takes an hour out of my day, but it's not the primary reason I don't want to go to the office.
Re: Dreaded commute to the city is keeping offices mostly empty
#7If you live more than 30 minutes away from the office, and it's self-evident that your physical presence isn't necessary to accomplish your day to day, I don't see why someone wouldn't refuse to come back excepting a few days here and there for a fun communal activity with your team. Especially if they have children.
obviously they wouldn't refuse if they want to keep their job... return to office will be a very convenient way of laying off people without saying you're laying off people. remember an economic slowdown is underway for 2 quarters and will last for quite a bit more.
Re: Dreaded commute to the city is keeping offices mostly empty
#8With high cost buildings in NYC it would seem companies would be happy to sell their billion dollar building and make like 2 small satellite offices closer to where the people live -- one say in eastern New Jersey and one in Brooklyn when you need to meet with clients or have big meetings or for the people who need to have a workspace away from home and save a ton of money having a large percentage of the company work from home. If it ends up being a competitive advantage, then you can imagine a wave of it happening.
Re: Dreaded commute to the city is keeping offices mostly empty
#9If you live more than 30 minutes away from the office, and it's self-evident that your physical presence isn't necessary to accomplish your day to day, I don't see why someone wouldn't refuse to come back excepting a few days here and there for a fun communal activity with your team. Especially if they have children.
obviously they wouldn't refuse if they want to keep their job... return to office will be a very convenient way of laying off people without saying you're laying off people. remember an economic slowdown is underway for 2 quarters and will last for quite a bit more.
From people I've talked to the job market in parts of the tech industry still seems to be red hot. Everyone is having trouble hiring.
Re: Dreaded commute to the city is keeping offices mostly empty
#10Employee opposition to commuting ... may require investing in housing, highways, public transportation and other infrastructure necessary to reduce commute times.
Yet another benefit for investing in housing and public transportation. Based on my proximity to public transportation, too, I have many job options close by, so I'm not likely to get stuck in a bad spot.