Today’s work environment

[tvguy]

Not sure what "work" will look like 10 years from now.
My son works for the state and went remote during the pandemic and now his old physical office doesn't even exist anymore. The state didn't renew the lease because they discovered they have no need for a physical building.
That allowed him to move 400 miles away.
His wife was remote too, and a year ago she switched jobs. Her "office" is 2,800 miles away in New York City. She has to go back twice a year for in person meetings, and to be honest, they the company has to rent a venue for those meetings since the office they do have isn't big enough to house all the remote workers.

I live in the State Capitol, where the State is the biggest employer, and our Downtown area was dying before, but it is dead now. Most state workers are staying remote so all the restaurants and other businesses that support state workers are closing. And there is a huge increase in commercial real estate vacancies.

My former employer officially brought everyone back into the building in July 2021 except when there were covid outbreaks, then you could work remote. Some employees moved away, and just told the company that when they could no longer work remote, they were gone. Problem is, they can't find replacement workers willing to be on site. So for now they are putting those who are remote on 90 day agreements allowing them to work remotely, but they keep having to renew those agreements.

 

[firefly_ris]

I work from home, but I've been doing it for over seven years.

Same here: nothing to do with Covid or anything. My job doesn't require going to an office.

 

[wvjules]

I work from home one day per week at the client site and maybe one other day per week at my office. Otherwise I'll happily work at home until I'm told I *have* to go back to work. Then I might consider finding another job where I can WFH more often that going in the office.

 

[leebee]

I work for a University. We have to come in to teach, obviously, but everyone has been told to work remotely whenever they can. That is great for faculty who F2F teach for 3-5 hours a week, not so great for staff (I have to be here whenever lab is in session and set up/break down, so that's 36-39 hours a week).

 

[Magical2017]

I did not vote. I do both. I teach full time at a university. I teach in-person several days a week. I grade/plan at home on the other days. I would not want to teach virtually ever again.

 

[sasywtch]

My #1 ds Teacher so in person
my #2 dd Was working from home since the pandemic, she works for the state. They recently had her go back to work 3 days a week where she got covid within the first week back to work. Her boyfriend works for the same agency but in the mailroom plus other duties so he has always gone in 3 days a week.
My #2 ds works for the state. He solves problems on the phone for those businesses having problems with their taxes. He has worked from home since the pandemic. They tried them going back to work 1 day a week but covid cases became too high in their office so they put them back to WFH status. His job is perfect for at home since they can tell when he's working and when he's not. Friends that are managers are having problems with some workers that take off for 2 hours to go shopping or whatever. Those are the ones that ruin it for others.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I need to be onsite, so I keep fairly regular office hours. Just the nature of my job.

I have the ability to do some of my job from home but I usually do that work in the evening or on my day-off. I only work from home on a "regular" day if I am sick or need to be home to meet a repair person.

My DH was WFH 2 days a week precovid, went to 5 days a week for 2 years, and is now back to 2 days WFH. He was antsy to get back to the office for the socialization aspect but can do 100% of his job from home (his particular team/boss are scattered throughout the country - no one is local. He's surrounded by other teams in his office and has built friendships there). This is a good balance for him. We schedule repair people, deliveries, etc on his WFH days as often as possible so I can stay in the office.

 

[prairie_girl]

I go to the office more tham most of my co-workers, but I work from home sometimes. I am staying home today because I banged my toe up pretty bad yesterday and don't want to put shoes on. It's pretty bruised, but I don't think it's broken. I really hope not at two weeks exactly until a Disney trip! Anyway, they are about to start requiring two days a week in the office, but that's totally fine with me.

I’ll save you a trip to the ER…tape your toe to the next one and let it heal. That’s all they do for a broken toe.

Working from home is far from normal or majority.

It is very normal.

Been full time WFH since well before covid, Glad to have more WFH options career wise post covid. I realistically will not ever return to working in an office.

I’m WFH too. If I end up having to find another job, I will only look for wfh jobs. My days of going to an office/petrie dish are over.

 

[kdonnel]

I go in the office when I need to use some equipment that is there and I don’t have it at home.

I do miss the impromptu conversations and lunches.

 

[CynBeth]

Since the pandemic began most departments in my company went to working from home which looks to be permanent.

 

[BrianL]

I’ll save you a trip to the ER…tape your toe to the next one and let it heal. That’s all they do for a broken toe.

Thanks. I won't be too worried about it. It's not even the big toe. I've been managing with ice and heat and some Ibuprofen. I can bend it and put on shoes, it's just a little swollen and bruised. I'm just gonna take it easy on it for a bit.

 

[LilyWDW]

My job is 100% flexible. You can work from home, go into the office a couple times a week, or even go in all 5 days. Whatever works for you. Even if you do hybrid you don't have to always be in the same days week to week and can decide not to go in if you are not feeling up to it. Currently I am 100% remote because I don't live in the same state. I am moving closer to the office (same city) but most likely will stay pretty much fully remote, at least through the winter.

 

[MamaMermaid]

I teach high school so have been back full time in school since August 2020. Hubby works from home and loves it - I hope he never has to go back into the office!

 

[mrodgers]

It is very normal.

It could be normal in the pencil pushing universe of the workforce, but I do not believe the pencil pushing workers are the normal in the entire workforce overall. I see stats of 25% work from home. That is a low percentage.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Working and treating patients in a hospital doesn't really lend itself to teleworking too well (when you have to physically lift them most times), so no working from home for me.

 

[jrmasm]

It could be normal in the pencil pushing universe of the workforce, but I do not believe the pencil pushing workers are the normal in the entire workforce overall. I see stats of 25% work from home. That is a low percentage.

Pencils are so 2001.

 

[summerlyangel]

I'm clinical in a hospital, so no working from home for me, every lol

DH hasn't set foot in his home office in a few years, though, even before Covid. He has traveled to some tracks a few times this summer and has gone to the Daytona office 1x since covid began. He is 100% at home otherwise and no reason to set foot in an office. I can't see that changing at all. Lucky him!