re: The future of the 8-5, M-F, daily work commute?

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Depends on what you do. I can see how someone who practices tax law may not need in-person interaction or support. I don’t know how litigators are fully remote when courts are increasingly ditching zoom.

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While having some kind of office presence with support staff is necessary from a client acquisition/payment perspective, nearly every true litigator I know would prefer to prepare for major hearings and trials outside of the office. It’s just too hard to dive deep into an issue when you’re constantly interrupted by subordinates with questions, client phone calls, etc, etc.

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Move closer to your job

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I hope you’re not also one of those “there isn’t a housing issue; people just need to move to less desirable areas and buy cheaper house” people

It doesn't matter if people work from home or from the office--you all are posting on an internet forum on the clock, whether it be from your couch or your cubicle.

You are such a cool guy manager!!!! I bet people love working for you being a big tough guy like that!!!!! I promise you.

At some point, employee performance has to outweigh going into work for worthless zoom meetings.

Maybe it can even be incentive based depending on career path.

1. Some jobs simply don’t work remote, but many can, and should be.

2. The jobs which become fully remote are extremely vulnerable to outsourcing to South Asia.

3. Many justify in-person work just to justify their own positions or sunk cost of commercial real estate.

4. Some workers are not productive remote, but some are. It basically comes down to whether someone is internally vs externally motivated. The externally motivated worker will work (or appear to work) only when someone is watching. These workers are completely unproductive remotely and barely produce anything in person. They probably shouldn’t have jobs, but they create a lot of work for middle managers to coach and identify.

5. Internally motivated workers will work regardless of where they’re at.

6. Personally, I am less productive remote. Granted, I work in a field where I have to talk to my coworkers frequently to bounce ideas and check work. I like having some compartmentalization between my work life and home life. With that said, I also have a relatively short commute.

7. I find my home to be full of distractions. As a result, my preference is for a hybrid approach so that I can easily work from the road or home if I want to, but also come into a physical location away from my home when I want to/need to.

8. I like the ability to, on a long road trip when I’m not driving during the day, to plug in my laptop and a wifi hotspot and do my work. This saves me from using my precious PTO which I have so little of. I also like that I won’t be punished by an airline f$&king up my flight home. I can just plug my laptop in by the hotel pool or in the airport and work there instead of being docked an extra day due to a screwup that wasn’t my own.

None of these would be as big a deal if offices worked 4 10’s and offered 3-4 weeks of PTO standard instead of 1-2.

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It seems this business model is going away. Especially with office workers.

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Sort of. The data is sparse but what I've been able to find indicates that pure WFH spiked during COVID but has dropped fairly continuously since then. What's increased is the use of the hybrid model (offering a mix of in-office and WFH hours).

The biggest issues I've seen with pure WFH are with jobs which require a high level of in-person collaboration (like with my wife's job of rescheduling flight crews who get sick, time out, etc) as well as those workers who just suck at self-managing (meaning they stop getting their work done in a timely manner).

For me, WFH was freaking awesome. Not only did it give me a lot more focus for getting my job done (fewer interruptions by people stopping by my desk with random questions/issues) but we ended up getting a lot fewer calls due to so many of our users having to be a bit more self-reliant and not using as many work resources (mainly printers/copiers).

Nobody really cares if I come to the office every week, but I go in a day or two most weeks. I just get tired of being home all the time.

Then you may not value a good employee.

I've have a employee that requested to continue wfh and it was granted because he is an absolute monster and his numbers back it up.
I've had others that were required to come back in to the office . They were not happy but I can show them their numbers in office and out.
I would take a complete team of WFH if they all were as productive as the 1st employee.

My job requires 24-hour availability to address field operational issues. I do not understand the difference between me answering the phone at 2pm while seated at my desk versus 2am when I am awoken. If an office presence is essential, then I shouldn’t be able to answer field questions outside of normal business hours.

That being said, I value the hybrid work model. A traditional office venue is needed, at times.