I know this will vary a lot, so hypothetically let’s say you currently WFH/work remotely at least 3 days a week. Your commute to work takes an hour max (door to door) each way. If you were given the choice of a 4 day week working onsite, or a 5 day week WFH (or as many days as you’d like) for the same pay, which would you choose?
WFH. Unless I also get paid for commute time. Then, still WFH. Fuck traffic. This way, I’m neither dealing with it nor contributing to it.
I can go to the store or get some cleaning done on my lunch break, and I don’t have to spend time driving to do it. Fuck traffic.
Same for me. Time spend getting to work is basically also work time, which is usually not paid.
For a “fun” experiment just calculate how many hours you are on the way to work every year:
daily_travel_minutes * days_on_site / 60
Divide this by 8 to see how many holidays you get by switching to a fully/mostly remote job.
Don’t just count the actual journey time either - you have to factor in any extra time needed to get ready, parking, getting to or from the train and bus station, and any delays or traffic. If google maps tells you your commute takes 30 mins, it’s taking you 45 at least.
Yes, I described that unprecisely. You basically have to calc the difference between a full remote day and an on site day.
I’m pretty good on commute time. It was a 5-10 minute drive or a 25-30 minute walk. I’ve stuck there for years because working for any of their competitors are in the area and I’d have to go straight to an hour each way minimum.
I wouldn’t mind going back in part time, if the hybrid office environment itself wasn’t so hostile to actually working, with sterile hot desks and everyone having loud overlapping conversations in their respective virtual meetings.
5 days WFH hands down.
And it’s not even close. Been wfh since 2014. “Life changing” is an understatement.
I feel like we’re at the point where WFH workers can work from home for four days for more pay.
I mean workers feel like that, but employees and governments don’t seem to. And the propaganda against WFH is still going strong.
I’m sure the masses of work from home employees really love that dream and you’ll struggle to have anyone argue against this popular pipe dream. I’ll try to be devil’s advocate to challenge the Lemmy echo chamber.
I personally don’t deserve more pay because I get “more done” from home. I deserve more pay because I’ve improved over the last couple of years. My managers dont bug me any less because I’m WFH, in fact if anything I am able to slack off more because no one is constantly watching me which is great for my health but bad for my “maximum potential” (I don’t care about max potential because I’m paid to do a job and I can do that job on 60-80% effort).
Between tasks on a workday I can do my clothes washing, play a new quest in my game, go for a run or watch an episode of the lastest program I’m interested in. These are the things I would do on my “extra day off” anyway so why not do them while you’re working now?
I think you have it all wrong, if I went back into the office then I would demand more pay because it takes more of my time. If you want more pay and less time, put in less effort at home.
Maybe I’m an outlier because I’m one of the few people who are happy with their salary and not obsessed with earning more all the time.
Not even a question for me: full remote or bust. The extra day off wouldn’t make up for all the time wasted just from the pageantry of going to and being at an office.
I originally wanted to go back to the office because I’m a weirdly social person. Eventually my work told us to come in 3 days a week. They told us “it’s the best of both worlds!” That’s when I realized that hybrid is actually the worst of both worlds. I don’t get to have a consistent daily routine. I have to constantly lug all my equipment back and forth between work and home. I don’t get a dedicated desk. Everyone is coming in just to take virtual meetings from their desk all day, so it’s really loud. I would rather everyone be at work 5 days a week than three, because then we would all be there, so meetings would be in person again.
My manager rebelled against upper management and had us just come in one day a week, and honestly, I think that’s fine. We just don’t get hardly any work done that one day. But we are seeing each other’s faces, which is what upper management wants. They say it’s good for team building and collaboration, and I see the merits in that.
Half the team still doesn’t even do that. I mean, one member of the team lives 2000 miles away from the rest of us. One has a newborn baby. One has kids that she needs to pick up from school at 3 every day. Another guy has worked at the company for like 15 years and just refuses to come in because he knows they won’t fire him. Another guy is 2 months away from retiring, so what’s the point?
My sentiments exactly.
So, even if the company wanted you to come in 3 days a week, what was stopping you from commiting to the whole 5 days? I don’t think a company would say no if someone wished to go to the office even more often.
We’re doing hybrid too where I work, but I still go in 5 days a week, even if that means there are times (generally Monday and Friday) when there aren’t as many people around.
It wouldn’t have any benefit if I personally did come in 5 days a week. I would still need to lug my stuff around because I still wouldn’t have a permanent desk, as the company doesn’t have enough for everyone anymore and doesn’t allow anyone to have permanent desks. People would still be loud on calls, because just because I’m in the office 5 days a week doesn’t mean anyone else is.
If the company’s policy was to have everyone come in 5 days a week, these issues would be resolved. But of course they would need to add more desks first. They ripped out a whole floor of desks for some reason, but I’m not sure why.
WFH for 5 days will still result in less time spent doing dumb shit I don’t want to do than RTO for 4. That doesn’t even count the pomodoro breaks I take where in the office I can’t do anything but walk in circles but at home I can start laundry or prep for dinner.
WFH every time, I’m not going back
Same. I have an interview with a cool sounding company tomorrow!
Good luck!
Thanks!!
Good luck.
Thank you!
In response to your question, I’d like to share my personal experience regarding remote work. I have been working entirely remotely for years, and given this background, I cannot imagine returning to an office setting, even if it was just for one day a month.
The primary reason is tied to time and quality of life. If my office were an hour away from my home - and in reality, it’s even further - I would be committing 8 hours a week just for commuting. This effectively means that in terms of hours, I’d still be tied to a five-day work commitment when considering the commute time.
But beyond the simple tally of hours, there are aspects of daily life and routine to consider. On the days I’d be expected to be in the office, I would have significantly less time to spend with my son. This would majorly impact our daily routine. We wouldn’t get the chance to have lunch together, and the management of daily commitments would become much more complex.
In conclusion, given my background and personal priorities, I would unquestionably choose to continue working from home five days a week rather than commuting to the office for four days. The flexibility and time saved from commuting hold invaluable worth to me.
Commute time for 4 days is typically more than 1 whole work day.
My commute would need to be 45 minutes or less, and even then half the year said commute involves wading through snow, so, no thanks.
Full time WFH is a big yes. Too many offices aren’t easy to commute to, to save money on rent. My last job did t even have a sidewalk to get there, the last 2 blocks to it were your choice of walking on the road itself, or wading through knee deep snow.
The commute time is kinda worse than work time, so the 4 days in the office are equal to 5 days WFH timewise. And I would still be missing out on benefits like cheaper lunch at home and wearing comfortable clothes, and not being tired all the time. On the other hand, I would always have 3 day weekends.
Yeah, count time getting ready and you’re easily wasting 1.5-2 hrs a day going to an office.
When we started wfh, most people picked up overtime and still spent the same amount of time devoted to work with a significant pay increase.
It’s a lot of time and effort everyone was just used to giving up for free. Why go back to it?
Especially since it’s 2023 and we’re still getting new COVID waves.
I would waste more time going to work four times in a week than I would get back by dropping Fridays. I’m never going back to the office.
Full remote.
I actually like going into the office ~2x per week. But tell me I have to and bump it to 4 days, I’m out. I also do not want my colleagues forced on site. My current ~2x/week is as productive as it is because the other people going on site now are there voluntarily and for specific reasons.
I don’t want to go in to the office. The pay doesn’t include the extra commute time, plus getting dressed up slightly nicer.
I live alone. I don’t have kids. Home is fine.
The office is loud. Often the wrong temperature. I get interrupted a lot. I don’t get as much done on the tiny monitor they provide vs the big ass 4k ones I have home.
Some people are really not great at responding on slack though. If they could get on my level that would be nice.
I’ve been WFH full time since early covid, so WFH for sure. My commute wasn’t even bad, my office is less than 10 minutes away.
I’m not a social person so there is no upside to going into the office for me. Everything to do with my job must be communicated by email so it’s documented, so it’s just a waste of time if someone wants to chat in person or on the phone about it.
Plus I don’t have to wear pants.
The one downside is my dogs seem to have developed separation anxiety since I’m around all the time.
I feel really sad for all the doggos that were bought as lockdown puppies.
4 days…WFH! 😅
Would you do that for a 20% pay cut?
I just did. I’m lucky that I can afford it. Although, because of tax, it affects my take home way less than 20%.
It’s wild really. I’m lucky, and most of my career I’ve been in the maximum tax bracket in my country. Also cause I’m lucky, I kept getting raises and bonuses, because I work damn hard and I’m pretty good at what I do.
The thing is though, I’m no better off in terms of my life quality for all that money. I live in a small semi-detached in a nowhere town. I’m incredibly grateful to have been able to buy rather than rent, but I’d still like to strive for a little more space, a little more privacy or a little more excitement. But the way property is, even though I’m earning well, it seems impossible. I’ve tried unsuccessfully 3 times in the last 5 years to move , and come to the conclusion without earning a considerable amount more than I am it’s impossible.
My basic needs were met long ago. I find ways to waste money here and there, but nothing to really work towards. I guess I could have kids, but this place is too small for a dog, let alone a couple of sprogs, and I wouldn’t wish this world on another generation. The only good reason to be earning more for me is to maybe protect the quality of life I have should I lose my job or the situation gets worse in general (inflation, climate change etc), and again it doesn’t seem like it’s much protection. I believe in the important of tax, I’d pay even more if I thought it’d be used for good, but with this circus in charge, it’d hard to imagine much of my considerable tax bill going to help people rather than ending up in the pocket of some corpo with a government contract.
Add to that, jobs seem to get worse and worse. I swear everyone I know, across multiple sectors, is burning out. Corpos and governments alike are treating people like garbage, working them to death then discarding them as reward. Profits go up. Nothing of value gets made. Everyone but the bosses gets fucked.
As for my job, I worked hard and gave it a lot. I’ve seen the company mistreat and discarded good people for years, while outsourcing to halfwits and grifters (and I can’t even be that angry at the grifters given what they’re paid regionally). It’s impossible to make a positive change, although I still try. But I hate it. The job grinds me down and takes everything.
I plan to work as little as possible, even if it means cutting back. I live in hope that it’ll mean I recover a little, maybe find some joy again. Not much hope, but worth 20%.
(Sorry for that becoming antiwork tirade. It’s been a shitty few years.)
