Honestly, a much much higher salary. There are lots of things I'm going to have to deal with if I were to go back to the office; namely heavy traffic, transportation expenses, added stress, clothes (I mean, I'd have to use office-appropriate clothes whereas nowadays I have to be presentable only when I have meetings), food, waking up and preparing earlier than usual (sometimes up to 3 hours earlier!) and getting home late which gives me less free time, etc.

They're going to have to offer a really lucrative salary for me to even consider returning to the office.

Nothing. Quality of life of working from home cannot be replicated. Or the office would have to be in my street, which is pretty unrealistic

Absolutely nothing. No amount of money or threats or “perks”. I work in software and my entire career has been built on flexible, mostly-remote work; particularly creating & leading remote, geographically distributed teams. I get the best talent no matter where they are, and use tools like Slack to work seamlessly in real-time and asynchronously across many disparate time zones. This wasn’t some new thing for me when COVID hit, this is how I’ve operated for more than 20 years.

I don’t mind going places for specific purposes: visiting clients, classified/sensitive discussions that can’t be transmitted, on-site work (like installations, research, etc), or team-building events like lunches, dinners, etc… but under no circumstances will I waste my time commuting to some specific ”office” daily just because. I am an efficiency expert and I will not tolerate having my time or my teams time wasted by incompetent, out-of-touch multi-millionaires that don’t realize the 80s ended 30 years ago.

A couple of things:

• commute time counts as work time
• no open plan landscape office
• no 'clean desk' policy but the ability to personalise your workplace
• dishwasher and general kitchen stuff not being a 'shared responsibility' but someone's job.
• office being in a nice neighborhood with fun things to do after work or during lunch

My employer spent the past ~10 years de-personalising our offices, and now they wonder why people don't like to hang out in their sterile 'clean' building.

32 hr work week, a dedicated office with a door and all my Mac peripherals, a big pay increase, and benefits to cover child care.

The office being within a 30 second walk of my home

Compensation for the time and cost of commuting back and forth, paid meal, free coffee and snacks, and additional sick days from using public transport and ultimately catching more sicknesses.

And even then, it doesn't give me back the extra time I can spend with my kids.

Paid commute and a separate room.

As a minimum? Pay me for the commute. I'm only doing it because of management so they should compensate me.

Double my salary and we'll talk. Include my travel time in my working hours or I'll do it anyway.

But also I took a fully remote position to not have to deal with the return to office stuff so realistically nothing would get me back to an office.

Paid commute (time and expenses) and free lunch.

A valid reason for a start.

Nice try, Susan from HR!

An immense raise and a free hot lunch every day would be the beginning of negotiations

A few things that would help:

A 4 day work week with both ends of the day brought in to maybe 10-4 (sorry didnt mean 10-3). Things like going to the bank require me to either run during my lunch break or do it on a day off. 4x10-4 means i have a day and edges of days to do tasks i can't do on the weekend.

Unlimited PTO. If my tasks are done and I'm paid a salary there is no reason i need to sit around doing nothing. If more work is expected then I'd expect more compensation.

And lastly mandatory cost of living connected to inflation every year. My last job started during the pandemic. In 2 years the effective inflation rate was 15% and yet i was only given 3% over that time while getting good marks on my reviews. That means in that time i was paid a crazy amount less my last day than my first. I dont care about the actual number of dollars I'm paid but I'd like to buy the same number of eggs mext year as this year if I'm expected to do the same amount of work. This shouldn't be thought of as a bonus, but rather keeping my level of compensation matched woth my level of expectations for my job.

If the commute was considered part of working hours, and i am able to commute outside of rush hours for a clear benefit in productivity.
For example: start work at 9, commute to work at 10, be at the office for useful meetings or other collaborative work, return home at 2, and finish up work for the day.

My commute was, at best, 30 minutes each way driving myself. Public transportation would easily double that time and could easily be even worse.

Compensate me for that time at my full rate of pay or higher plus IRS mileage and I will START thinking about it.

My work environment also matters. Open floor plans suck ass and kill productivity. Pony up the money and give everyone offices with doors that close. My productivity at home is much higher because I am not sitting on a busy aisle across from a noisy meeting room.

I do miss being around people, I feel more isolated doing wfh. But the tradeoffs are pretty dismal against going back to the office.

I moved during the pandemic when we were all remote. But let's pretend I went back to the office near where I used to live.

I would expect it to be an inviting, colorful environment. Put effort into decorating . Give me an office with windows, and a door. Not a gray cube and off-white walls that feels like I'm going to die in it. Other incentives like a guaranteed parking spot would be fantastic. Maybe provide lunch. I think Google at least used to provide a great office environment.

I would also want more money because transportation is very expensive now. And it takes time. That's less time with my kids and to handle chores properly. Often cost saving chores.

Nothing. I would need to be compensated for my commute and honestly I would need a driver so I could work on the commute. And the salary I would need to justify working in an office I'm just not worth.

So any company willing to meet me here clearly has bad management so I don't want to work for them anyway.

Teleporter. (I hate commutes.)

Nothing. I refuse to go back.

3x base salary at least. No-thought commute, so maybe provide transportation for me. I currently live what is about 1.5hrs away each way now and there isn't a public transportation option.

Commute time should count towards my "8 hour work day". No distracting desk drive bys. Provided breakfast and lunch or an optional lunch stipend or whatever to cover if I go somewhere near the office.

Not sounding great for the company? It isn't meant to. It would be nearly impossible to get me to go back to the office, as it should be.

I'm not being unreasonable. I am at least twice as productive since working from home and even simple internal reports can prove that. I'm also 2-3x happier and less stressed, nothing can really replace that.

• More money
• A very short commute (like 10-15 minutes walking max)
• A shorter working day, like 6 hours.

I don't have a car, so if I have to go 'back to the office', I will have to use the bus, wake up earlier, and commuting (even with my current employer being 15' away by bus) is still 30 minutes out of my day that I don't want to spend. When I am at home, I can just stand up, play some piano to relax, or have a short shower. Things that help me calm a little bit that I can't do at an office. I also have a better setup than the setup at the company's office, so why bother.

To be honest, as long as companies open remote positions, I don't think I want to go back to any office whatsoever.

• 200k min salary (I'm currently paid 5 figures)
• 4 hour workdays
• 4 day workweek

And this is the single most important piece

let me go home when I'm done with my work

Double my salary, then we'll talk.

I went back to the office on my own. A long time ago. It should be noted that I like my bosses, peers, and my job in general (I mean it’s called work, not fun - but it isn’t miserable)

1. ability to build better relationships with everyone - it’s too easy to sling shit over email. Whole different experience actually talking to somebody - especially when one of you needs something difficult.
2. separation between work and home - I don’t like home feeling like the workplace.
3. remote work people are heading towards a future of being Bangalore’d. If your job is currently being split up into the part that needs to be local and a remote part - you’re only a few years away from watching someone overseas do it for 1/10th the cost. Be needed in person people!

I thought I’d love remote work, but I hated it.

This is a question about my past. What made me go back to the office was having not one but two little kids at home. The office is a much more quiet space.

The commute does not bother me much, it’s 12 minutes by bike, half the trip trough forest.

They are offering me a ~40% raise to be in a 50/50 system and I'm considering taking it so... Apparently, that.

Enough money that I can retire in six months. So idk, like, call it a cool $4M/yr and I'm yours in office for 6 months. Otherwise I guess MAYBE my same salary at somewhere walking distance where I only have to work 3 or 4 days a week at 8 hour days.

My mental health is just so much better working from home. The upside would have to be enough to balance that and realistically nobody is actually going to do that.

If it was very close, like under 10min bicycling, and if I had my own office room like the director/CEO has. I hate open plan offices with a passion.

I cherish my job a lot more (when before I was happy to switch every year). If companies want to retain good employees they’re going to have to adapt to the changes in the market.

Edit: guess I didn’t really answer, I agree with teleporter guy and private office guy. It’s ridiculous to ask people to return to a shared office.

I go in freely 3 days a week. I'm in a role that is focused on relationship building and collaboration (product management/leadership) and find I do much higher quality work when I'm in the office.

I still have enough solo work to do for the two days i am at home.

Having said that, I'm compensated quite well and enjoy the country driving to the office as it allows me to listen to audio books uninterrupted and decompress after work.

Oh, I immediately went back. I don't do well at home, I need to be at the office. Otherwise I'll just nap all day. Also, I like seeing people, I need that daily socialization with co workers in person.

I'll have to go with "a shitload more money." An extra 1.5 hours added to the workday in commute, less time with family, less healthy lunches, less freedom, etc. means it would take a large monetary incentive for it to even be a possibility. Twice my current salary, at least.

Honestly, I don't anything can be appealing enough. If I get desperate, then I would go back, but not really willingly.

My home office is great, I don't need to commute, i can cook and eat proper meals and generally enjoy my workday more.

Communting and wearing shoes everyday sounds meh.

I want my own desk with the same hardware I have at home. Booking a flex desk in advance, bringing all my stuff except the monitor, setting it up, adjusting the chair and getting a new problem with every new desk is a bad start for the day. Also having the same people around me, helps me to feel "home". But sinc I'm nonstop in MS Team meetings, there is no way for me.to interact with anyone in the office. So maybe reduce the number of meetings, they are useless anyway.

And I hate the coffee in the office, it gives me headaches.

I've already voluntarily started going to the office. My company does not require it, nor does it gain me any particular favors with the company for doing so - either in-office, full remote or anything in-between is allowed.

I've decided to do so because, frankly, our office is out of the world. The amount of free shit I get there on a daily basis straight up rules. The office staff puts on frequent events which I enjoy attending, I get to meet and interact with other people in person as opposed to sitting around in my apartment all day, I'm in the city near all the good food options. There's a whole lot of perks to going in to the office for me, and not a whole lot of negatives.

Some negatives and my reasoning around them:

• I have to wake up a bit earlier in order to get ready for work. This does indeed suck a bit.
• I spend more on food buying lunch from restaurants in the city as opposed to eating leftovers. I see this a bit as a plus, as I get to experience great food made by professionals every day.
• I have to spend some money on transporting myself to the office. It's not a whole lot - public transportation is excellent where I live - but I've mitigated this further by commuting by bicycle, which affords me some quality exercise on the commute, and some great podcast listening time.
• My less flexible schedule affords me less good opportunities for strength exercise. I'm still working on fixing this problem, but right now the bicycle gives me what I consider to be more than enough exercise, all in all.

All in all, I'm happy with my choice. I spent a lot of time working remote during the pandemic, and weighed the upsides and downsides, and going to the office came out on top in the end. I understand that this is not for everyone, and I think everyone that wants to work remotely should get to keep doing so. Hopefully others afford me the same respect in my choice!

An office I can walk to. I might even prefer that to a home office, because I find it hard to get away from work when it is always looking at me at home, even in my spare time.

An office where I have a say in how it is furnished and how it looks, together with my colleagues of course. Natural light, being able to sit or stand at my desk. "Please do not disturb" signs that people respect when I want to concentrate on my work. A place that is built to reduce noise, and that allows me to have it as cold or warm, light or dark, as I need it to be that day.

A place where I can eat and drink when I need to, and a place where I can lie down for a moment when it helps me recover from a difficult task.

Basically, make my workplace a place to live, because work is life, not a separate thing, and you go home to start living.