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?

iLikeGoats@kbin.social to Moving to: m/AskMbin!@kbin.social – 78 points –

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.

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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.

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.

Honestly this seems like a best case scenario to everyone except whoever has to pay rent on the office lol

Just to be a pedamt you mean the person paying rent to.....the person paying the rent should be happy they can downside and reduce it soon..

It is those receiving rent and those that those recieving rent owe loan payments to that are getting squeky bottomed on their investments.

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.

Still full remote. Don't miss the office at all, it's loud and antagonistic. Tired of people talking about me behind my back (in front of my face, but in a language they think I don't understand).

Some of the bosses and managers think I should be back in the office at least half time or so, but my immediate manager knows I still get all my work done and am way happier and more efficient at home, so he's in my corner and doesn't want me to give up more than a day per month or so.

Wow! That first part sounds awful! I think I would explore other options even if working from home.

Those people aren't from my department, so I haven't interacted with them in years now. There's no reason to let them spoil a good thing. A boss who's truly and fully in your corner is a rare and wonderful thing!

Tired of people talking about me behind my back (in front of my face, but in a language they think I don't understand).

Man, fuck that! Not only are those people rude, they're also stupid as hell.

@iLikeGoats I'm still fully remote but so is my entire company. They sold their office building during the pandemic and didn't look back.

Ditto, here. The building we were in wasn't exactly great to begin with. Them having an excuse to leave sealed the deal.

I will say from all that I've talked on WFH vs having to go back. Those that went back mostly have micromanagers. My job is mostly leave us alone and keep things running smoothly is all we ask and the other friend of mine who is still WFH is pretty much the same. But the three others that had to come back to the office, their bosses are folks that must have their finger in literally everything.

I know I'm just a few data points and largely not a trend thing, but if you strictly ask me, it feels that the folks telling their employees to come back are the kind that aren't exactly the greatest managers to be around in the first place.

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.

My org is also looking to right-size and find a much smaller HQ.

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.

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 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.

I have had 2 employers tell me to go back to work in person.

They simply didn't end up committing. The first job, they had us all coming in but didn't even open the cafeteria.

The first, I have no co-workers at the local office as I am in a different country than everyone else on the team.

I'll go back to work in-person if and when someone makes it really worth my while. Until then I get to use my own keyboard, mouse, and screens in a room that's exactly the right temperature.

I insisted for years that I would be more productive working from home.

Many people I worked with disagreed with me.

The pandemic proved me right.

I work for a fairly large organization that is mostly centralized but all my immediate colleagues are distributed around the globe. So, continuing work-from-home is not that difficult for me and no one is demanding my return.

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.

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.

This resonates with me for the times I have gone in the office.

@Vagabond

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

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

Was full time remote for eight years until this week when I got the dreaded email: "Your weekly in office average is below the company's expectation." So now I'm back 3 days a week.

It's not bad, but it's stupid. My whole team is on the opposite coast so I commute to sit in a mostly empty office and be on the phone all day.

I am a software dev. Me and everyone in my team are still fully remote. The team-lead has been backing this. Most team members would have very long commutes >1h per direction. There has been some pressure from middle management to spend time at the office. Not all teams are able to work fully remote and there is a sense those teams might envy the remote teams. But so far the software teams have been able to stay remote.

My partner is also fully remote (also a tech related job) and will remain so. Among friends and acquaintances a lot of people have returned to some office time even the other devs.

I do not think I will ever be full-time at an office again. I could imagine a job where if it wasn‘t more than 30 minutes (by bike or public transport) away I might go into the office once a week. More than that: please no.

I do have a very nice office at home. Not everyone does.

I'm in a very similar situation. My partner and I are very lucky to have a nice house and office space for each of us. I understand not everyone has that. :(

I have been full time remote since the pandemic and I know I'm in the minority when I say it's terrible. I don't have much social contact. I used to be able to walk over and directly talk things out with coworkers, shoot the shit, ask for a hand with stuff but it's gone. I smoke more weed, fuck off about the same amount but it's the lack of socialization since the pandemic that's killing me. I don't have much in the way of friends or family. I'm single, broke and just isolated as all hell. It's so hard to keep track of time or the days because nothing changes. It's hard to have a clear work/home divide when there's nothing to really denote it. My office and my studio apartment are the same place so the only real breaks are when I go wandering around aimlessly outside.

I mean I hate my job and the work I do so that doesn't help but I'm losing my mind over here because of the isolation.

I'm with @kestel7, that sounds really shitty. I hope things get better for you. Even if you get another remote job maybe you can make enough to go to a shared workspace.

That sounds rough buddy, I'm sorry. I hope something changes for you soon. I could see working from home in a studio apartment getting pretty old pretty fast.

I'm technically hybrid, but I haven't been to the office in over a month. I only go in if there're important meetings.

It's going great. I'm super productive. I dont actually need to be in the same room as anyone to do my job. Also, I can play video games between tasks.

I like to write between tasks. Both fiction and little programs that continue to make my work easier via "automation."

Still 100% remote, and have been for over three years (software engineer). And even before covid, I was often doing hybrid roles. I work so much better remotely.

My current company is trying to press for "5% travel" to have people attend the idiotic on-site meetings, but they haven't forced me to do it

Might quit my job soon (for other reasons). I'm committed to staying fully remote even if it makes my job search harder (which it undoubtedly will).

I'm in a similar situation. Sort of "soft" shopping for a new job but nothing has really fired me up enough to make the change. And if I do, I am fully committed to being remote as well.

I'm in an interesting position on this... I do research as a grad student, my work can be done anywhere with internet but... I have been working in-person for the last year or two, and have been almost doing 80-100% in-person the last few months.

Partly because I feel more productive when being in an office. Partly because I use public transit & don't have to worry about traffic/parking. Partly because I get to communicate with my boss in-person about project ideas & stuff. Partly at the strong urge of my psychologist to have some human interactions & don't depress myself at home the whole day

There are a good number of research labs I know who are still doing 100% remote and it worked out fairly well for them too, so to each their own?

Totally agree. And actually, if I were in my early career, I would probably like to go in for face-to-face time too.

After Covid we have the liberty to work from home or come to the office as much as we want. Since we can make the choice ourselves, it is not as frustrating to go to the office as it was before.

Never went remote because my job very much requires me to be physically present. But I fully support those that can work from home; my commute was amazing at the height of lockdown.

Would you mind sharing what type of work you do?

I'm a CNC Machinist and QC Manager at a machine shop.

Nice! One of my first jobs in HS was working for a small, family-run machine shop. I got all the messy clean up jobs but liked the work overall.

Back to the office here. A 50/50 time split was better and allowed for fewer office interruptions to get things done (and there is a legitimate need to be on site 20-50% of the time). But the powers that be don't like not being able to micromanage badly in person, so here we are.

I bet they are also the same people that schedule a 1 hour meeting for an email that would be one paragraph.

My company transitioned to full remote during the pandemic, so we don't really have an "office" to go back to.

There are lots of pros and cons with remote vs. hybrid vs. in-office, but for me at least, the pros of remote work far outweigh the negatives. In a perfect world, I'd love to have one or maybe two days in-office for collaboration and to feel a sense of connection, but the key thing would be to get everyone on the team there on the same day. And it's a challenging proposition for a business to maintain a space that only gets used 2 out of 7 days.

That being said, my role and industry gives me a front-row seat regarding remote work trends. On that, I can say:

  • Fucking nobody wants to go back to an office full-time. Talent preference for remote roles is higher now than it was during peak pandemic.
  • The proportion of remote jobs has been gradually trending down since its peak at June 2022, but still represents the majority of jobs we're placing for.
  • As the number of remote jobs are decreasing, the number of applications they're receiving is increasing. Which makes sense since there's more competition.
  • The inverse is true for in-office jobs. We're getting more of those, and fewer people are applying to them.

Like anything with supply and demand, I think that working remote is becoming an incentive/benefit that companies are offering. They're aware that folks will take less money to work remotely. On the other hand, companies offering only in-office jobs are somewhat deluded in the fact that they believe they can offer similar compensation to remote roles, restrict their talent pool to a limited geography, and somehow hope to compete for the same top-tier talent. I will say that because of that decreased competition, it provides more opportunity for talent willing to accept in-office work.

That is some really great insight to have for a job seeker!

Fucking nobody wants to go back to an office full-time.

As someone that strongly prefers working in an office, this makes me sad. I do my best work when I’m surrounded by other people doing the same kind of work as me. Coworking spaces and body doubling on Discord don’t work the same (and one of those is $300-$400 a month to boot). I realize I can’t make my coworkers come in. But god damn do I wish they had any desire to work in person. I haven’t seen most of them in person in 3 years, and half of them are within walking distance of the office!

Still full-time remote. The traditionally California-based company I work for is now spread out across the US - not sure how they could even reel that back in.

Full remote. Can’t imagine going back to an office at this point. There are good days and bad days with distractions. It takes a decent amount of restraint to not do random tasks around the house.

takes a decent amount of restraint to not do random tasks around the house.

Surprisingly, this really isn't an issue with me. Even when both my partners and our son are at home, I tend to be able to focus as long as nothing is actively going sideways. My problem tends to be the opposite most days - I get so caught up in what I'm doing that I forget to do normal things like eating.

I find this amazing. Sometimes I get into a zone but it never lasts a whole day.

I’ve been full time remote since 2015, after ten years in an office. I don’t miss a single thing about it. Not the oppressive fluorescent lights, not the smells from the microwave, not the bullshit small talk, not that one coworker who wanders from cube to cube talking all damn day, and especially not the commute. Not a damn thing. I would never go back.

Still full time remote here. Actually, I'm in the office today for a going-away party for a coworker, but I generally go in once a month or so for town hall meetings and that's it.

Full remote after the pandemic and I won't ever be back in an office except if they fly me in for a team building week.

I'm still remote. The company forced everyone to go back 3 days a week, but it was too big of a pain for me with child care being an issue (3 year old and 5 year old). So I applied for permanent WFH and they are sitting on my application. The CTO told me that the heads of the company are not giving permanent WFH for anyone without a medical reason. He did say that he would extend my return to office date until next year, though, so at least by then my 3 year-old will be in preschool.

All in all I'm considering leaving for a permanent WFH position. The work-life balance is just way better when you have small kids.

I wish I had had that option when my kids were little. Hope you find something you enjoy.

Software engineer here. Been WFH since before COVID, now in my third WFH position. My current company let go of the leases on all its offices. There would be a mutiny if they tried to make us come back.

We've hired a very geographically diverse team over the past couple years so most of us wouldn't even have a location to work from, even if the company hadn't let go of its leases.

I'm fully remote with the exception of a monthly departmental meeting. Remote working worked really well for the majority of teams, so we just never went back into the office. I'm in the Finance department and most days don't need to interact with colleagues to get my work done. I don't think I could go back to being in the office full time now. I enjoy the peace and space I have at home. Sensory issues are much easier to manage. Also, my dog is here and sometimes she just needs scritches and a snack, so obviously I need to be here to ensure her needs are met!

Love it.

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.

Made by the company. 3 days in the office. Not my preference because traffic is nuts, but on work from home days the cats get in front of my keyboard.

I feel you about traffic. If I had to drive into work I don't think I would ever make it to the office before closing time.

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 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.

Wow! Where in Japan would you go to farm? What type of farm are you thinking about?

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.

I'm still working remote, although the company has been going down the 2,3, now 4 days back in the office route. Luckily, my office was closed so they can't push us in yet, but it'll be a matter of time as the CEO is a believer in the collaboration etc etc that doesn't reflect how people are actually working.

It's a bit comical when some of the exec discuss it. There isn't enough office space for all the people, so the ones forced back are hot-desking and having a terrible time of it. The plan is to reduce the amount of offices, so the issue will get worse. A lot of people are on calls for a lot of the day so this just makes the whole thing a mess where you unpack all your stuff, jump onto calls, pack all your stuff again, then leave. Rinse / repeat. The execs acknowledge it but still pull all the synergy / collab / culture stuff.

I'm moving to a new fully remote position before the RTO is enforced. It's hard to beat not wasting hours a day and thousands a year on commuting by train. I get to actually attend my kid's school events, take them training, spend time with them.

synergy >

This, and silos, are my two most hated office words. Hope you find something you like!

I've been remote since 2016. It was unofficial until 2019 when they closed a number of offices globally, including my home office, and moved those they were keeping to official remote designation. They've not asked those remote workers back but anyone that was in-office prior to COVID-19 does have to go in at least 3 days a week.

I am full time remote, and I will never go back as long as I have my say. It's so much better this way, for so many reasons. The freedom I have is not something I would want to give up now.

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.

Still fully remote, working a job some 2000 km away from me. The whole company is remote first now, and it's been pretty good.

I do find the volume of zoom meetings to be unacceptable, though. At first, people really seemed to get that you could have the equivalent of a "quick chat" over Slack or whatever, but they eventually moved on to impromptu zoom calls, or shadow dropping meetings into my calendar to talk about something in camera that can be discussed in chat.

It drives me bonkers.

After 3 years fully remote and isolated, tough, I do kind of wish I could go into the office like ones or twice a month, just so people could see me as a real person, and to have group meetings.

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.

Can I ask what country/city you are in?

In a large metropolitan area in the Mid-Atlantic region of the USA. The city itself has a decent bike program but not the wider area

Had my company write me being full remote into my contract next negotiation cycle.

That way they can’t take it away.

Still happy being remote. So much more flexibility. Sometimes I take an hour break and take a nap. Completely impossible in office.

Heh, my old job had a nap area adjacent to the employee breakroom. It wasn't a typical office though, it was in the medical industry with long and divergent shifts.

I'm technically hybrid, but I haven't been to the office in over a month. I only go in if there're important meetings.

I’m doing all right. The company I work for was bought out by another company and they have begun slashing hours and tightening the reins across the board. I’m looking for a new job but I definitely wish to remain a remote worker and won’t be quitting until I have a new position lined up. It’s not easy finding a new job in this U.S. economy however.

Weird situation right now. Everyone is working fully remote, but can go to the office whenever they want.

I actually go to the office most days cause no one else is there and I get a really comfortable place to chill out and work in.

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.

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 got forced to go back three days a week. I grew resentful and started working less efficiently out of spite, then I asked for more money and got denied, so I quit.

Found a new job a month later, 30h a week for only ~10% less pay than I had with 40h, so 4 day work week and 90% WFH. Somehow I enjoy going into the office now though, maybe it‘s the AC, maybe cause I work less, maybe cause I‘m not forced to do it. So I‘ve been going in most days.

Full time remote but management want us to be in 2 days a week. I work with a team from another country and will never meet them in person but the middle management wants to see me once a week. I check managers calender and choose one day unless I'm having lunch with some other college.
Totally worthless decision. 40min commute.

Software dev

I've been working remotely for a foreign company for 9 years already. Best decision ever. (Disc: married, with children)

My employer forced us back to the office Tuesday through Thursday. The person who made the decision is a VP who works 100% from home. My office of only ten people are already "remote" from the home office across the country. We worked fully remote for two years during the pandemic with no issues.

Required to go in 3 days a week. The 2 days at home are unsurprisingly my only productive days.

Mid-pandemic I changed gigs to a 100% remote gig out of state, so they really can't force me to come back to the office when it's a 20 hour commute to a place I've never been!

On a more serious note, my gig may expect >40 hours/week (which I rarely give more than 2-3 at most), but they're at least 100% on the idea of remote collaboration. They downsized the office for this reason and give people the option of coming in, but only people that actually have to physically be in the office to do work are required to go in.

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 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.

Glad for you. Sounds like your office took a reasonable approach.

been fully remote since 2008. It was fun to watch everyone else learn how to do that :)

My team is hybrid, but I try and be in office most days! I’m lucky that my manager doesn’t mind if we do work from home when things come up.

As long as the work gets done, that’s what matters! Which is how I honestly think it should be.