There’s an often overlooked part that you could call the “extrovert factor.” There’s always plenty of coworkers that thrive in group settings. Some number, maybe most, middle managers are extroverts, and when forced to work the way the average minion does, they suffer. It’s why they became middle managers in the first place. Their productivity suffers in isolation too, so when converted into a wage slave, they can’t complete with less extroverted people. Unfortunately they’re better situated to promote their own success, getting by in people skills while more competent people get screwed.
Extroverts also seem to suffer in productivity during WFH, even if they aren’t managers. They are stuck in a situation that hurts their functionality, offsetting the statistics. If they actually broke down WFH productivity by job description, I suspect that the extrovert/introvert factor will be a huge determiner of productivity.
Optional office hours seem the best fix, but the corporate attitude of obsessively monitoring the workers to be sure they’re not wasting time and therefore money is another factor that makes these companies want to favor their preconceptions. The confirmation bias kicks in and then we have to listen to them focus on it.
There may be some accuracy in your analysis about the causes for differences in preferences, but a broader issue might be the poverty of opportunities for meaningful social interaction outside the alienated relationships of the workplace.
The only negative of going in for me is the commute
That’s a pretty HUGE negative. Calculate how much time is wasted by your commute, calculate how much your transportation costs are, and then use that info to recalculate your compensation.
For me, commuting is aprox 1 hour each way (I’m only 27 miles away, but traffic is bullshit), and it costs me about $8 per day (that’s the cost of driving to a nearby park&ride and taking public transportation the rest of the way into the city & back). That’s 44 lost hours of free time EVERY MONTH, plus $176 lost out-of-pocket each month just to commute (this is based on an average month with 22 work days). And don’t even suggest I move/live closer to work, cost of housing grows exponentially the closer you get to the city.
I don’t understand how anyone can be in favor of commuting in to a job site if it isn’t absolutely essential for the type of work being done.
I don’t mind going in once or twice because when I was pure WFH, the lack of human interaction started to drive me a little crazy. Course, I’m also single which doesn’t help.
Some may have relatively pleasant commutes, but a problem with employee choice is that some will exercise the choice to make them effectively as scabs, limiting the options of others by making them appear as less valuable to the employer.
It would be best if workers as a class seized the newly opened opportunities to build community close to their own residential neighborhoods, helping to begin challenging the imposed conditions under which the workplace is so dominant a locus of social interaction.
If only the people who wanted to go in went in there'd be practically no commutes. There'd be a lot less reason to have an office, but people can self-select jobs for that, too.
It’s rare, but I’m the same way. It helps that my commute is 10 minutes in a relatively small city and there’s next to zero traffic due to the small size and hours I work. If I had a horrific, or even mildly annoying, commute then I’d feel very different about it. I’ve turned down higher paying jobs because they required a 45min-1hr one way drive through shit traffic… And that was in 2018 and again in 2021 when that company had already forced everyone back into the office. They’re huge on “you must be in the office” and COVID didn’t change it for them.
I like to have the physical distinction of “office is for work, home is for not work”. But, I also love the option of work from home. Planning to leave early for a long weekend? WFH that day so I can hop in the car as soon as I’m done. Dentist appointment at 0800? WFH for the morning, drive to dentist, continue on into the office afterwards.
I know I’m lucky with my current convenient commute… I couldn’t handle what a lot of people do and if I was in that position I’d maybe go into the office once a week if at all.
As in: Both partners in a marriage will have to work at least two jobs each to pay the rent for the one-bedroom apartment and will still need to go to the food bank in order not to starve. And people wonder why they have no kids...
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