this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
156 points (80.0% liked)

Asklemmy

43984 readers
1046 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

There are a lot of news articles about "back to the office", but they recirculate the same bad ideas. Let's provide some new ideas for the media to circulate. It may also have the effect of making the office less terrible.

I would like my work computer to do Windows updates lightning quick in the office. It currently takes weeks, in or out of the office. Stopping in for a day makes no difference, so there is no point. Now, if there was a point, I would go in.

What would get you in the office?

(page 3) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

i would go to work if

castro-stuff

this was the boss


train-chad

this was the commute


stfu-terf

this was the uniform


sleepi

this was the work










jk i'm service industry i never got to work from home

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Quadruple my pay and keep everything else (responsibilities, flex hours, unlimited PTO, etc.) the same.

[–] cloudy1999 7 points 1 year ago

It would cost me at least 15 hours of free time a week in commute and at least $800 extra a month. Then there's the physiological strain of being trapped in a car and that's not good for my back and hips. Let's not forget "Jane," my obnoxious "I don't like Trump but" conservative coworker who has loud and vocal political opinions that I can help but overhear because she sits in the undersized fluorescent lit cubicle next to mine in my dark, dusty, windowless office. No thanks. I'm much happier at home.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been remote for over seven years now. I can't think of anything that would get me back into the office - why would I, when working remotely works so much better for me?

If I were these employers, I'd want to step back and figure out why it's so important to have people back in the office. Assuming they can find good reasons, work from those. For example, if it's about some employees actually preferring to work from the office, what kind of hybrid solution can you set up to make them more successful? How can you connect those who are remote and those who are on location? And so on.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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!

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

TLDR: I would friggin' love to be back in the office for a couple days a week. Would probably never do onsite every day for any boss but myself again.

I've experienced both pure remote and hybrid remote, as well as existing for about 45 years in a world where remote work was a mythical thing you heard about but only saw on television. Even at the time that my office was 1.5 hours drive each way, I absolutely loved when I was a Sysadmin and spent three days a week at home and two at the office.

Covid came and I got full time remote for close to two years and I really did hate it, especially since when it started I was in the first couple months of a new role I had been promoted to with no experience - had I not built up a lot of love from my employer in the previous role (the promotion happened for reasons, basically I had scripted my job down to nothing at all so it was kind of a freebie for them) I would have busted out but they basically let me coast and learn whatever I could for the duration, before going under.

Had I been able to be in the office and work alongside my new teammates in that role, I would today be much further along in my career arc. I'm still doing okay, but it would have been so much better to have been in the same room with them. And as it happens, my current job is also fully remote and my employer is great but based in a different city, so at the moment unless I move halfway across the continent I'm stuck fully remote. And I like my employer, have no interest in leaving, and I think they like me, even in my current state, so probably I'm stuck there for good. Boohoo lol.

I do realize that my problems are non-problems, in actuality; I'm doing fine. But if I had my druthers I'd be going into an office and standing around the coffee machine for small chats and eating the free croissants they give out on Wednesdays. I'm not very social and those little interactions, from which one had a constant "gotta get to work" excuse to dip out at will, were just the perfect level of socialization for me, really. Going to the office is not remotely all bad, really.

But I also remember being power tripped on and micromanaged by various scumbags, so when I see these corporate fuckwits demanding everyone just make things like they used to be, I know what they're trying to do, so in the end I think if the job is doable remotely, it's up to the individual whether they want to go in, and in the long term employers are just gonna have to figure out how to handle that equitably. One instant thought I had was, pay a premium for onsite roles, or for hours done onsite. If it's really that crucial to operations that will be a sound strategy, just the cost of doing business.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A self driving car (or a personal driver, not a bus)

I could just modify the thing to sleep in it. Sleep through the commute

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I would literally have to be kidnapped and dragged to the office against my will.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Stepping outside my bedroom would get me back to the office, since my living room is the office

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I never left the office...

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm only required to go 4 days a month (supposedly once a week).

I go almost every day anyway. 15 minutes of subway (Buenos Aires' Subte) and the office is more confortable than my very small department anyway. Also, nice lunch room, refrigerators with fruit, nice coffee and even when it's open floor, the number of people is still reduced and not (too) distracting.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Walking distance from the office. And doesn't mean I'll relocate to a 1 bedroom apartment just to be next to the office.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

A job. Please, lol!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I find this really interesting. I’m based in the UK and in what is classed as an essential job. So during all of the COVID isolation period I was still going to work, in the same office doing the same thing. I haven’t had a period working from home for a very long time and the idea, whilst appealing in some ways just doesn’t fit how I work today.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Higher salary, free lunch, commute costs covered. And should be hybrid instead of all five days in the office (Tues-Thurs).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Money. Lots of it. As in double.

[–] rebelsimile 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Exceptionally flexible working hours (so I don’t have to go in or leave during rush hour) along with an exceptional increase in pay and a commitment that time in office would actually be used for productive time (any meetings can be done remotely and often are done with remote members anyway).

Actually, as I think about it, the only thing that would lure me back to the office would be an open door policy related to being there, where I’d see myself there maybe 5% of the time. shrug

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Double the salary, with a company car, 4-day week, and office kittens.

Honestly, I might just come in for extra cash and the kittens…

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Regularly? Nothing. I go there to access material most of the time.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Teleportation technology

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›