Moving to: m/AskMbin!

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.

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.

@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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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 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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

I'm fully remote, in software development. It's very helpful for me to be able to pick up my kids from school, and get back to work while they do homework. I used to have an elaborate system orchestrating pick-up and transportation to a daycare service.

Lots of small software companies have taken a remote-by-default approach the last few years. That means job openings are often not limited by geography. I'm working for a company that doesn't have an office on my side of the continent. For companies that means they can throw a wide net to pick up people with very specific skills.

I think the downside is that mentorship becomes difficult. An all-remote company I worked for before the shutdown said they found it only works well for senior-level engineers or above. I learned a lot of what I know from the guy who used to sit next to me at my first job. I'm not sure if there's a good replacement for that for new devs. There is still collaboration in my current job, but it's limited by the friction of video calls, and timezone mismatches.

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'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.

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

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 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.