Who is back in the office? (Boston, Waltham: house, school, vs)

[r_p]

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

I don't know how all the commuter rail patrons do it. Even if only 2 days/week, I can't fathom building my life and schedule around a locomotive's schedule just to have to sit in a downtown office. Also, if there is a delay or issue with the rail service, what do you do about getting back to kids who are at daycare? No thank you! I don't think any amount of green could entice me enough to become a regular rail rider or to report into any downtown office.

I take the train two days a week and find it comfortable and stress free. I am more productive at home but enjoy the office as well especially the social aspect. I also like walking in the city during lunch and evening hours and would often walk to the next nearest station (e.g., Back Bay instead of SS).

[mdovell]

Where I was was virtual from the start of the pandemic until sept last year. Then it was hybrid. Then omnichron hit around december and we were back to 100% remote for a few months and then back to hybrid. There were already talks before covid of having one day wfh so this isn't that far off. Hybrid is two days on and two in and supposedly fridays are "cleaning" which I know is BS at this point.

[OutdoorLover]

Not me. My company is a pharma in Cambridge and I work from home 90+ percent of the time. Now and then, I need to go into the lab to look at some instruments, robots, sample bar code printers or just the lab logistics... also about once a month, some meetings they want to do in person. I can't deny that it's helpful to get some facetime now and then, but living 38 miles away, I would really not like to go back to being in the office 4 days a week. Working in research informatics, it's not necessary.

[robr2]

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

Crazy her company would even expect that just to sit in on zoom meetings. Yes, the horrible traffic will quickly change anyone's mind! Why bother if you can work from home and most of what you are doing is zoom meetings. If someone has to go in a few times a month for team meetings or whatever, I totally get that but on the regular just for zooms?

The expectation was that more of her team would return to the office and she was also itching to get back to some sort of social interaction. To be fair, zoom meetings don't take up her entire day - she taps keys and pushes paper most of the time.

At first, she was sitting in her team area with a few other people from other teams somewhere on the same floor. It was recently decided that those coming in would all consolidate on a couple of floors and that the other floors would be repurposed. She can still go in and "hotel" a workspace if she feels the need to get out of the house.

[lrfox]

I'm kind of amazed people have experienced being asked to come in just to sit on Zoom meetings. For us, the in person component is almost entirely to get people face-to-face again. That's where I think the real value of in person work lies. The idea of forcing people to come into the office only to have them get on the same Zoom meetings they could join at home seems unsustainable.

Originally Posted by r_p

I take the train two days a week and find it comfortable and stress free. I am more productive at home but enjoy the office as well especially the social aspect. I also like walking in the city during lunch and evening hours and would often walk to the next nearest station (e.g., Back Bay instead of SS).

We have several commuter rail riders who actually work on the train. As part of the hybrid flexibility at my office, they are allowed to include their commuter rail trips as part of their "work time" (i.e. if their train ride is 1 hour each way, their 8 hour- work day breaks down to 2 hours on the train, 6 in the office). I wish that was an option when I was doing the long commute.

[msRB311]

I have been surprised that more companies haven't embraced more WFH.

I will again say that in my world it seems to be the women that try to WFH as much as they can and the men are the ones who want to go back to the office. Sadly it seems to be men still ruling the corporate world.

[mdovell]

From what I've been hearing from others is younger generations actually want to get back to the office. However once you deal with people that have a house, drive a car and have kids forget about it. It's like the difference of driving at age 16 vs 45. Freedom vs a chore. There's so much that can be done at home..laundry, dish washing, cooking, yard work that it takes it away.

[bricka]

Before covid I was in-person, but i could work remote 1 or 2 days per week if i chose to. The company has officially transitioned to a hybrid model where they recommend coming in 3 days per week, but in reality it comes down to what your team does. My manager never goes in, so I never go in.

Unless your work requires you to be there (doctor, lab tech, etc) i truly do not understand the need to go back into the office more than 1 day per week (if that). The time in office is now basically used so that you can hang out with your team, get lunch, and just general see people in person. if you are doing your job then it makes no sense to have to go back into the office.

if your company is making you come back in the office just do work on excel spreadsheets, write memos, take zoom meetings, etc... then your standing at your job may be more about appearances/optics than it is truly about production. I've found this to be the case with many of my friends who work in finance. it's more about appearances than actually producing efficiently, so they're all required to be back in the office every day of the week, even though i know for a fact they don't need to do any of that stuff in person.

[NewfieMama]

Thanks everybody for responding, this is insightful. I feel like many of us have had similar experiences--we were remote, there was a plan to move to a hybrid model last fall, Omicron hit and put that on pause, and now this year there is more momentum to get back into the office.

I've actually switched jobs throughout all of this because the opportunity to work remotely more often expanded employer options for me.

[bricka]

Originally Posted by mdovell

From what I've been hearing from others is younger generations actually want to get back to the office. However once you deal with people that have a house, drive a car and have kids forget about it. It's like the difference of driving at age 16 vs 45. Freedom vs a chore.

this is a great analogy