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Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

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Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#831

Post by stemlord »

spookieboogie wrote: post #62

Nope. My previous employer tried this in ~2021 with the intention of demanding a full RTO as soon as they possibly could after decades of being a cubicle farm. I immediately left for a company that adapted to remote-first and never looked back My commute time has turned into workout and cooking time, (as expected I'm in the best shape of my life,) my only coworker is my spouse and best friend, I get to live closer to…

I'm so jealous, I cannot get SHIT done at home. Can't focus nearly as productively without the cold clinical and fully equipped office enviornment.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#832

Post by intended »

pc86 wrote: post #280
intended wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The median age here would be 40s.

Based on what?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5536734

Based on that.

And this - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2322031

Which has more links to older surveys. Thus 40.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#833

Post by slikrick »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #753
spookieboogie wrote: post #62

Nope. My previous employer tried this in ~2021 with the intention of demanding a full RTO as soon as they possibly could after decades of being a cubicle farm. I immediately left for a company that adapted to remote-first and never looked back My commute time has turned into workout and cooking time, (as expected I'm in the best shape of my life,) my only coworker is my spouse and best friend, I get to live closer to…

>my only coworker is my spouse and best friend TBH that's the part that scares me. I feel this is yet another avenue of socialization that is closing down in modern young adult life. People kept saying that the best place post college to meet friends is at work, and now some industries are going the direction where work may not even have coworkers in your area. So where now if you don't drink? Hope to hit it off in s…

get a local hobby

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#834

Post by screwturner68 »

brewdad wrote: post #721
screwturner68 wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a study about that and there was a direct correlational between the size of you home and your desire to return to the office, people with small apartments enjoyed the office much more than those with larger houses. I'd also guess that the people with larger homes live father away from work than people with smaller homes so a longer commute comes into play.

That makes total sense. My house is about 1900 sq ft over two levels. During lockdown, my wife converted our guest bedroom into her office. My HS aged son did online school in his bedroom and I basically had the entire downstairs. Our cats moved around throughout the day depending on their mood. This would have been much more uncomfortable in a smaller 2BR apartment and almost unmanageable in any space smaller than t…

I've been WFH of over 20 years and my wife has been WFH for 10, we live in the city so our living space is smaller than most ~1100sqft and we've worked within 10 feet of each other for a decade. I do have a small office but I only go into it when I have an important customer call and I want to put everything on a bigger monitor than my laptop and I expect to do a lot of talking. Aside from that she's usually on one end of the couch and I'm on the other, with the two fat cats sleeping in between.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#835

Post by johnnyanmac »

slikrick wrote: post #833
johnnyanmac wrote: post #753

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>my only coworker is my spouse and best friend TBH that's the part that scares me. I feel this is yet another avenue of socialization that is closing down in modern young adult life. People kept saying that the best place post college to meet friends is at work, and now some industries are going the direction where work may not even have coworkers in your area. So where now if you don't drink? Hope to hit it off in s…

get a local hobby

That is currently video games and graphics programming... Not a lotta people interested in my area I guess. Or its simply not "local" since you xan do online collaboration/competition these days.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#836

Post by fennecfoxy »

I don't think having our own office was the problem. The problem was that entire industries were set up around selling and buying space in office buildings, roads and public transport routes had to be expanded over time to keep up with the demand of commuters.

And the pandemic blessed us with the opportunity to say "for what?"

The only reason to make employees work from an office when they could work fine remotely is so that they can be micromanaged - it's just a needless waste of building space, public transport capacity, employee time commuting.

I totally agree that it helps to have people come in now and then though, I think the social part of working with other people is still relevant to us as hoomans and it's useful to have everyone come in once every x to get to know each other, in jobs where you're working in a team.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#837

Post by fennecfoxy »

gureddio wrote: post #445
Roark66 wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My vaguely populist take is that the pandemic, WFH/remote and hybrid gave the mass white collar class a taste of what the C-suite has had for years.. flexibility. Exactly. I've been working 100% from home since 2017 (3 years before covid). I'd rather take a 50% paycut than go back to the office. Don't get me wrong. I did enjoy my life when I lived 15 min walk /5 min on a bike, from my job in a city. Before I got tha…

I feel like in the UK, some of us got WFH in lieu of a pay rise

We go WFH but understandably not really any sort of payrise as our industry was heavily affected/repressed by the pandemic. I agree we should wfh where possible though; it's a complete waste of public transport/office space/bad for environment otherwise.

Would be nice to see some level of turnabout for everyone that banded together to weather the storm, though.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#838

Post by the_watcher »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #30

People who like WFH will never want to return to the office unless perhaps the office is a 5 minute walk from home (they may be forced to, but they won't want to). For many people the time and cost savings of avoiding a daily commute cannot be offset by a nicer office. Those who are happy to return to the office in general are those who do not like WFH and prefer more contacts and a change of scenery. A nicer office…

I like WFH for a lot of reasons, but the "I'm more productive" part of my claim is entirely related to the torture chamber that is the open floor plan office. If I had a private office, I'd no longer be able to honestly claim that I simply cannot be as effective in the office as at home.
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