- a view of gardens in my back yard and that of the neighbor behind me.
- privacy in which to do some bodyweight exercise if I'm bored or stuck on a problem.
- the ability to not wear a shirt in the summer unless I'm on a Zoom call and absolutely must turn on video.
- the ability to prepare and eat fresh homemade meals with my wife, even if we just make sandwiches together.
- the ability to do laundry during the day (I carry the wash to and from the basement and swap it between the washer and dryer; she folds).
- not having to share a bathroom with strangers
- I don't need to wear headphones all day to drown out noise from my coworkers.
- I have cats to keep me company when I'm working.
- I don't spend nearly as much time driving.
- I don't buy nearly as much gasoline.
- I've all but eliminated my consumption of sugary drinks and fast food.
- I've lost over 100lbs of body fat and gained 10lbs of muscle mass.
- I've reversed my type II diabetes.
- CATS!
I'd give all of that up if I went back to onsite work, and for what? Half a desk in an open-plan hellscape? Inane conversation with coworkers who don't give a fuck about me unless I make a mistake that makes their jobs harder?
Managers pushing for workers to "return to the office" don't have workers' interests, needs, or desires at heart. They just miss the sense of control they had from being able to walk around and look over people's shoulders. If my employer insisted I return to onsite work, I'd quit.
I don't get paid enough to drive at least half an hour each way and still have to do Zoom calls because half my team is in another office on the other side of the fucking continent. You don't get paid enough for that shit either. None of us get paid enough for that shit, and we should stop tolerating it.
Businesses can either go async or go out of business. It's the 21st fucking century and managers need to get with the program; they need us a lot more than we need them.
This is critical advent that we cannot make concessions on, even Hybrid is not useful for most roles; what should be agreed upon (if necessary) are re-negotiated pay for those who do not go back into the office. I think most have seen their productivity increase during WFH that talent retention will be a bigger threat when remote first businesses are still growing.
Moreover, it should be noted how hypocritical most of the largest advocates of supposed environmentalist based corps are on this, including Elon's stance, because it goes to show that its a merely lip-service when it disrupts with business as usual--and likely lots of external investments like real estate. The sheer amount of needless energy consumption is jaw dropping when you see what it takes to maintain such a system, and this is at a time with rising gas prices.
This is something that should come down to whether in office roles are mission-critical and if they are they should reflect a better pay rate/TC for those than cannot be done remotely: that is how efficient Markets are supposed to work and in regards to this supposed 'labour shortage,' threatening people with layoffs/firing is not the move that sends any confidence: hence why Tesla took a hit after that email was leaked to the press.
This really is the dealbreaker. An "open floorplan" space is not an "office".
I imagine there'll be a clear schism and office-centric workplaces and remote-workplaces will separate. And then we can see how it all shows up in reality.
Such companies will have a smaller talent pool to draw from, and such talents will also be more expensive.
