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1 in 3 Remote Workers May Quit if Required to Return to the Office Full Time

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  • Feb 22nd, 2022 12:20 pm
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Mar 29, 2008
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craigslist123 wrote: Do you feel lazier when you WFH, if so how do you over come it?
I don’t. I roll with it. As in roll right back into bed for a nap if I get a chance. :)
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Aug 31, 2017
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craigslist123 wrote: Do you feel lazier when you WFH, if so how do you over come it?
The opposite for me. I sometimes take 20 minute naps in the afternoon and refreshed and ready to go. Go out for a walk or run. Hit the gym. Listen to music. It sucks more now because pandemic has everything shut down. Before I would go work at my favourite coffee shop in the spring/summer - now that's a boost for creativity for me being out in nature.

IMO everything is going up and demanding people waste their time (after losing so much time you will never get back thanks to the pandemic) unnecessarily return to the office is just asking for low engagement scores and turnover. Yeah, the first couple of weeks/months may be cool to see everyone again, but then people start to take off the rose coloured glasses ("collaboration") ... All those quirks and ironically lack of collaboration and in office politics resurfaces lol.

Hopefully we don't have to wait for the next pandemic to change to 3 or 4 day workweeks lol

Do Chance Meetings at the Office Boost Innovation? There’s No Evidence of It. Good article in the NY Times next time your boss tells you they miss that water cooler chat lol What works for one doesn't work for everyone.
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Thorkell wrote: I took the train to pick up my equipment and check out my new office. I counted 2+ hours of my life that got wasted towards walking, waiting, and train. I also had to drive to the stop lol. Why do I have to go through this much trouble to "collaborate"?

The train also takes a whole 3 minutes to fully stop at the union. I can get up at 8:57 and be ready to rumble at 9. I remember taking the 40km bullet train ride from Shanghai's airport to the main city right before the pandemic which completed the whole trip in 8 flickin minutes. Give me my commute time back and I'll glady come into the office.

The 8:57 rollover is so much more efficient, productive and better for the environment. If we get Omicron part 2 I will celebrate.
Yup if I have to head back to the office that's 3 hours of transit. Even manager are saying I improve so much when working at home (Work in tech support) Mostly I am a lot nicer and more paitent on the phone. Well yea I don't have to get up 2 hours early to make it to work and if I have to cover a shift I don't have to get up at 5am. Of course my mood is a lot happier.
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Prior to Omricron, many employers were making hard pushes to get people back in about 3x a week.

When things settle back down, they will push even harder. Even my work which was quite sanguine about it before went into this "it's time to get back in... Reconnect". It'll be hybrid but if manager calls you in, You have to go in type thing. This is because there is a new long-term plan the company wants employees to get into.

You may be a veteran, 'irreplaceable', but I think companies will want to make sure everybody shows unity. Top leaders want to make up for this lost time.
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For my workplace, they decided switch to a cheaper, smaller office space - implying that it was going to be a hoteling system. I got access to the floor plans for the new space, and there's literally enough seats for everyone lol

I'm pretty sure we'll be going back to the office a few days a week at the beginning, but leadership has the option and capacity to force everyone back for the full five days (and they probably will)
When given enough time, all threads on RFD can and will go off on a tangent.
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at1212b wrote: Prior to Omricron, many employers were making hard pushes to get people back in about 3x a week.

When things settle back down, they will push even harder. Even my work which was quite sanguine about it before went into this "it's time to get back in... Reconnect". It'll be hybrid but if manager calls you in, You have to go in type thing. This is because there is a new long-term plan the company wants employees to get into.

You may be a veteran, 'irreplaceable', but I think companies will want to make sure everybody shows unity. Top leaders want to make up for this lost time.
We had a brief exchange earlier in this thread where you brought up cheap money driving the current job boom. With rate hikes incoming, and tapering of QE I think that will change the power dynamics against workers and pile on further to the return to office. There are the tech companies that have committed to WFH, but I now think that’s going to depress wages more than anything.
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civ@uw wrote: We had a brief exchange earlier in this thread where you brought up cheap money driving the current job boom. With rate hikes incoming, and tapering of QE I think that will change the power dynamics against workers and pile on further to the return to office. There are the tech companies that have committed to WFH, but I now think that’s going to depress wages more than anything.
NOTE Bank of Canada keep the rate the same this morning.
A lot of unhappy people if everyone is force to back at the office.
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Jan 29, 2010
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craigslist123 wrote: Do you feel lazier when you WFH, if so how do you over come it?
I did in my previous job where I didn't have as much to do and was very experienced in the job. I was super comfortable and didn't feel like work was work.

My new role is more senior so there's a ton of new stuff that I need to do and team to manage. I'm actually excited about work now, but the downside is I get a bit of stress about work sometimes now.
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Aug 22, 2011
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NORTH YORK
aeba7 wrote: For my workplace, they decided switch to a cheaper, smaller office space - implying that it was going to be a hoteling system. I got access to the floor plans for the new space, and there's literally enough seats for everyone lol

I'm pretty sure we'll be going back to the office a few days a week at the beginning, but leadership has the option and capacity to force everyone back for the full five days (and they probably will)
So why not look for a new job if that happens?
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NTWKid wrote: So why not look for a new job if that happens?
It's definitely an option, but I'm pretty happy with where I am now. Healthcare is in pretty bad shape - moral is lower than hell, and people are leaving like crazy; I've managed to use that to negotiate two promotions in the last two years and land myself some high profile projects.

Edit: chatted with the boss today, and we're looking at 1 day a week for our team (for now)
When given enough time, all threads on RFD can and will go off on a tangent.
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Jun 11, 2016
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Had a team meeting and manager stated the government will be giving companies incentives to recall their employees to the office with the goal of boosting local economies.
As for myself, there is absolutely no business reasons to be on-site other than using the overpriced cafeteria.

Added expense of travelling to work (rising fuel costs), 40hrs a month idling in traffic, 2 hours of sleep less per night, less family time and less overall happiness.
I can see depression rates going up...
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civ@uw wrote: We had a brief exchange earlier in this thread where you brought up cheap money driving the current job boom. With rate hikes incoming, and tapering of QE I think that will change the power dynamics against workers and pile on further to the return to office. There are the tech companies that have committed to WFH, but I now think that’s going to depress wages more than anything.
It's funny, when I mentioned unlimited money printing, many people here had no clue what I was talking about. Now seeing it in the pricing of goods, it makes more sense, and the risk of a decline is more apparent with money contraction (i.e. job market mirrors housing market).
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KravenHead wrote: Had a team meeting and manager stated the government will be giving companies incentives to recall their employees to the office with the goal of boosting local economies.
As for myself, there is absolutely no business reasons to be on-site other than using the overpriced cafeteria.

Added expense of travelling to work (rising fuel costs), 40hrs a month idling in traffic, 2 hours of sleep less per night, less family time and less overall happiness.
I can see depression rates going up...
Still early days, but look at Facebook/Meta. They're basically trying to pivot their business and being really impacted by changing industry trends. I bet pressure to get people in will increase significantly as it's hard to change a business in unison when people are disjointed.

Now you can say "well, they'll go to the competition". But over time, every business and industry matures. Lifecycle for tech is shorter. Sometime a victim of its own success like Shopify facing alot of fraud in its businesses, supply chain issues.

Leaders at the top fret over long-term trends and will get into a "we need all hands on deck" type approach.

There will always be innovators allowing that work freedom, but as employee pool continues to increase, money supply expansion benefits are reduced (including inflation), well known businesses are still impacted, it won't be a straight easy line many people expect regards to WFH for their whole life.
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Unity. Employees just need to stay firm. Learn from the stock market, hold the line amongst the volatility lol. Say no to permanent in office if it's not ideal for you. Nothing changes unless we all band together.
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Feb 7, 2019
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It’s almost a year since the article was published, I’m interested to find out how many people actually quit.
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MyNameWasTaken wrote: Unity. Employees just need to stay firm. Learn from the stock market, hold the line amongst the volatility lol. Say no to permanent in office if it's not ideal for you. Nothing changes unless we all band together.
Hard to do when you feel you may lose your job if you don’t comply. In a world where inflation is kicking folks in the ass, keeping a job is mega important.
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I hope soon we can go back to the office to work. I don't feel comfortable wfh.
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I had to go in to the office this week and again got reminded of how much of a waste this thing is. The train had to stop for like 10 minutes because of a freight train. No movement.

For those that commute by Go train, how bad does it get in the winter?

Had to stop again because of another Go train on the side or something. 15 minutes gone.

My anxiety led me to leave early that day, and I still made it at the same time as the later train lol.

If there was no such thing as the corona, I wouldve raised eyebrows for being late with everyone in the office.
But I have never been late working from home.
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Not surprising, especially given that a lot of people don't get paid enough. WFH saves a lot of time and commute headache and money over time. For mothers, they sometimes can even avoid paying for daycare, which is expensive.

I like conversing with people so being at the office itself doesn't bother me. It is more of the time and money waste. If on average I can make at least $30/hr after-tax for the commute time, then I wouldn't mind. That isn't the case however, so I like to work from home. I work from home about 60-80% of the time.

Also without WFH, a lot more people would have to relocate, which has all sorts of its own problems.
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FirstGear wrote: Not surprising, especially given that a lot of people don't get paid enough. WFH saves a lot of time and commute headache and money over time. For mothers, they sometimes can even avoid paying for daycare, which is expensive.

I like conversing with people so being at the office itself doesn't bother me. It is more of the time and money waste. If on average I can make at least $30/hr after-tax for the commute time, then I wouldn't mind. That isn't the case however, so I like to work from home. I work from home about 60-80% of the time.

Also without WFH, a lot more people would have to relocate, which has all sorts of its own problems.
I don't think very many people would have to relocate. The employees that worked for companies without WFH before Covid would already live within commuting distance so no need for them to relocate. Relocating really only affects anyone hired from when WFH started and only if they live too far away. I don't think too many companies that have always said that WFH will end for them would hire people too far out of their area. Companies that did hire out of area will most likely be keeping WFH.

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