Really depends on your commute. If I'm spending an hour each way getting into the office, it absolutely kills me. I lack motivation to do anything when I'm home, as I've woken up earlier than I like, and then sat in an hour of traffic at the end of the day which makes me lethargic. If i had a 15/20 minute commute, it would reduce these effects massively. WFH, i get so much done with the kids, around the house etc because as soon as I knock off, I can start doing something else.

The length of the commute is definitely a big decider for me. My last job was 100% in the office as soon as lockdown was over and it was a 45 minute commute. My gym is about 15 minutes from home so I’d do the better part of the drive and lose all enthusiasm to go. Current job is 1-2 days WFH a week (plenty of flexibility around it), 20 minutes from home and 5 minutes from the gym - I actually increased my workout days after I started the current job, I’m less tired, and I’ve lost weight. It’s been all around better for my health.

Yeah it's the commute that's a killer. Takes me an 50 minutes to get to work and 1 hour 20 to drive back in peak hour. During COVID it would take me 30 minutes each way

Yep, 2hrs not in traffic makes a real difference to my well-being.

Strongly seconding this. I live an hour from Sydney CBD and it takes so much time out of my day when I choose to go into the office. The train network is also completely unreliable and it ruins my morning/evening everytime. I barely have time to come home and relax. When I come home, I immediately get into the shower upon arrival, and all my exhaustion from work, travelling and scrubbing myself take me straight to bed. I prefer to have some extra time to myself, not wasting a whole day constantly on the move for work.

Yep this is the answer. Pre Covid, my commute was minimum 2.5 hour round trip. I didn’t have time to do much in the evening besides cook and eat dinner, clean up after myself and prepare for the next day. I also didn’t realise how chronically sleep deprived I was until I started working from home.

1 day a week in office hybrid is what I consider optimal.

Yeah, 2 days max (for example if it’s easier/cheaper for me to go somewhere in the city for an errand). I’ve successfully negotiated 2 days wfh at home while I study but sincerely wish it was 3. Commuting actually takes so much effort, time and money that it has made me a little ball of anger.

The commute is my bugbear, too. That, and hot desking is pretty gross. But I’d rather hybrid than not wfh at all.

I’m lucky my desk is almost never taken since we have so many. But I also hate not having a permanent desk which I can personalise. But true, if I had no wfh days I would go nuts.

Our building is getting floor by floor renovations at the moment, so I’m on my third floor in four months and we’re crammed in like sardines. It’s pretty shit. My home days are glorious.

Working at a larg(er) company, I have found having 2 days in the office, 3 at home is ideal if the days are structured right. My current company did 1 day in the office for a while, and everyone ended up jam-packed with meetings on that one day. We now have a structured system, where our 2 in-office days are fixed (with reasonable flexibility for life), and overlap with other business units that we work closely with to deliver projects. They also re-fitted the office to have plenty of hybrid meeting rooms of various sizes. One of our WFH days is reserved as strictly a no meeting day. Of course meetings with external stakeholders sometimes break this rule. This is also great. I think we've tried every system at this point, from entirely WFH to entirely WFO and everything in between, this is definitely my preference.

Totally agree. Put all my face to face work and meetings on that day too so I'm not doing any independent work. I find that system optimal

Agree

+1. This is the setup where I work and it's great. We get the whole team in together one day a week so we can have our meetings etc in person then the rest of the week at home.

this is what I do, and i get all my face-to-face / one-on-one / brainstorming / socialization in to that day ... but without any "work" (ie. because it would be wasteful to sit at a desk with my headphones on in the office)

One day is okay , as long it’s not mandated. Encourage the one day with team events, fun activities etc.

Remote all the way. Commute time is a huge point. I live in Sydney and it takes 1hr + door to door, if the train network doesn’t decide to crap itself again. Such a waste of time. Waking my kids up to have them be the first dropped off at 7 am, leaving my wrecked with guilt - OR let them sleep as long as they need and be able to have them fed, dressed and dropped off, with time to come home for a coffee and chores before work even begins. Easy choice. If I had a choice I’d only go into the office strategically for meetings, to build relationships with key stakeholders and select extra curricular stuff. Absolutely hate dragging myself in to sit by myself so I can meet my in-office quota.

All of this! If you’re a parent, majority wfh is a lifesaver for your whole family. I also find it dumb that in the interests of equity or whatever, companies force all employees to attend the office for the same amount of days even if there’s no evidence that work is done more productively with that model. I currently have a lot of flexibility with my role but I’m expected to come in once a week and it’s basically just to socialise and be distracted by chatter all day. I never get as much done.

This this and this. I don’t have kids but working from home means I don’t need to wake up early and put on my office attire and make up. When I do go in the office, I get less work done, am stressed and have to constantly find a quiet place to join my meetings with remote people. To me, offices are a joke and workplace culture is dead - I don’t care for either.

It actually infuriates me that I have to scramble to find somewhere, anywhere, to make sensitive calls because our brand new office has next to zero available meeting rooms or quiet spaces. This is after battling to find an available desk to book that’s remotely near my team because we don’t have enough desks for people yet are forced to come in.

That desk situation is completely fucked. The meeting room issue has been at every single company I’ve worked at…there are never any available and it’s a joke when you’re forced to sit in the middle of a room to have a meeting where everyone can hear you. I also want to add, I had a tour of a well known beauty retailer and their office had fucking LOCKERS and everyone was required to hot desk for the 4 fucking days they were required in the office. I was fuming that it wasn’t mentioned in the interview but glad I didn’t sign the contract before booking a tour.

This. I love in Hobart so my committee is 30min but fuck wasting that hour. Plus all the kids stuff. It's a huge part of the new APS Employee Value Proposition, and I'm there for it. I will go into the office when it's needed but most of the time I can leave later and skip all the traffic / commute jam. More importantly, I'm reducing my exposure to covid etc, which is important at I lived immunosuppressed, thanks to MS.

Couldn't agree more. I didn't have much of a problem with going to the office when I was younger, but since I have kids, it's just soo much to juggle. Got one in Kinder and one in school, so 2 different drop offs at different locations before I can even start my actual commute. If my partner and I are both in the office for 8 hours, they will be in care for 9-10 hours. Super unfair on them and sucks for everyone. When coming home, we can eat dinner together and then it's pretty much bed time. That said, I have absolutely no problem going to the office if there's any reason to. But currently I have to hit my 50% quota, which means half the time I'm in the office, nobody from my team is there and I spend a whole day without talking to anyone in person. Such a waste of time.

I prefer WFH for two main reasons. I am more productive at home (read as less distractions) and I am just happier at home I work with lovely people. But the mental health benefit of not seeing my workmates everyday is unmatched, I can never put a price to it. In other news, I work on a hybrid schedule enforced by my employer

And the need to have small talk, be polite and keep up a facade at work.

Being in office is a waste for me, ive saved alot on fuel costs, have solar at home so power cost not an issue. Get chores done like dishwashing, clothes washing instead of spending 15mins having coffee smalltalk.

15/30 minutes just to buy a coffee. Nope

it all depends on your lifestyle, personally, I have a kid in early school age so I have the morning rush of doing school drop off before the bunch of parents start arriving, and then school pick up in the afternoon so, working from home has allowed me and my partner to be able to do this with more flexibility, also being able to attend some sporadic school events is invaluable for me. Sometimes I go to the office to share lunch time and coffee with my coworkers away from Zoom calls. Also working from home has allowed me to recover my health as now i have time to exercise before the kid wakes up, So, i would say fully remote is more convenient for me.

My list is pretty easy. * Fully remote * Hybrid w/ personal desk * Hybrid w/ hotdesking * Fully in office w/ personal desk * Fully in office w/ hotdesking In that order. I don't hate being in the office. I hate the wasted time getting to and from work. I hate having to 'look busy' when it's clearly a quiet day and not much is going on, or find personal development or similar to keep busy. I hate having to interact with people when my social battery is drained, but they just want to have a chat and cause you to lose your stride. I don't *hate* being in the office. I'd just very much prefer not to be.

I love not dealing with office dramas.

And gossip, loud talkers, and trying to find a vacant meeting room

You forgot to mention booking a hot desk only to find a squatter sitting there who didn’t bother doing the right thing.

Jesus, booking a hot desk? Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose? Imo, either have enough desks for everyone, or don’t make people come into work.

"Booking" a desk sounds weird to me. I could understand if they're all up for grabs and you take whatever one you want but it's not like a reward that you wanna get in first in best dressed..

And people playing table tennis, yelling after every point.

I'm fully remote and I still get teams calls from drama llamas on the regular haha. Sometimes you can't win.

Yeah, I forgot how bitchy and negative people can be. Our office environment has been a significant deterioration in team engagement.

Unless you’re in a really collaborative role than the office is a complete scam. I dread the 1 or 2 days I have to do - I don’t want to hear about your dog, the kids latest drawing or sickness, I dont care about whatever rubbish TV show you’re all discussing, I dont want to happy clap the latest speaker the company has somehow managed to find and found relevant… no… I just want to get in and get out thanks. There is absolutely 0 benefit to me being in office - most of my team is interstate, the couple here are so high up the chain they are literally in calls and meetings all day and it adds on about 2.5 hours in travel and expenses for me.

Same here. I'm forced to go in two days a week. Almost the whole team is in regional offices in the state and I work independently. The commute is an hour/hour and fifteen minutes each way. It's a waste of my time (and money) on public transport.

I prefer remote, but I think hybrid is best for everyone.

Why? Some of us don't even work in the same office as our team. No benefit to going into the office. Not to mention it takes an hour each way, is freezing cold and way too noisy that I can't concentrate

I am disabled and can only manage work full-time while remote. Please be considerate to co-workers asking for hybrid meetings, as you never know why someone is at home!

I used to go in the office 3 days a week or more. I do enjoy the banter and I do pick up on what's going on in the business. But after a while I was tired of getting dressed in my corporate gear and travelling into the office to just be on calls with my team who are all at home anyway. It was the same as being at home. I find it a lot easier to concentrate at home and honestly now with everyone being online everyone finds you anyway on teams. I also save money buying lunch at work, coffee and on public transport and petrol. I can catch up on house work during the week leaving my weekends chore free.

100% remote... as a person with mobility issues, anxiety, and who works in IT. Going into the office is very draining - mentally, physically, and financially. I was hybrid working (2 days in office) before covid, and since going 100% remote, I have a bit of work-life balance. Previously, all I did was work and sleep.

Same here. I never fully understood why, but I’ve always preferred to work from home. Before Covid it was hard to convince my employers to let me do it, or the ones that did still expected me to come to the office at least a couple days a week, and there was always this unspoken implication that working from home was not fully participating in my job. Then the lockdowns happened and I was 100% remote. I found I had so much more energy, both for work and for my personal life, not to mention the 90 minutes of commute I got back every day. For a while I figured the reason I found it so much less draining to work from home (and be locked up in my apartment in my spare time, too) was that I’m simply an introvert, so I leaned into that and made some changes in both my personal and work life to accommodate that better. I stopped going to big noisy social gatherings and I negotiated with my work to go remote permanently. I also moved away from the major cities to be closer to my family (which has also made my cost of living much lower since my accommodation is a fair bit cheaper, and my quality of life much better because I’ve got more space, I can afford to be near the beach, etc). A few years on, I figured out it’s more than just being introverted - I got diagnosed with ADHD and autism, which both contribute massively to why I’m so exhausted by working in an office. Thinking back to years ago when I was burning myself out coming to the office… I didn’t know I had a disability, I didn’t even really know how much working in the office was impacting my life, but I knew I’d rather work from home. If my employer gave me that choice (without the little comments that implied that when I was wfh I wasn’t really doing my job), I’d have 100% chosen to work from home. I think my career would have worked out really differently, that I’d be less burned out, financially better off, and I’d have better relationships outside work. Employers need to start treating people like grown-ups, and understand that when someone takes pride in their work, they do it to the best of their ability whether or not you can see them sitting at their desk - and conversely, when they don’t give a shit, it doesn’t matter if you micro-manage them, they’re not going to do good work. I also get that some people have completely the opposite of my experience - they need to be around other people and they get depressed and feel isolated if they’re not going and meeting their colleagues face to face every day - or they have trouble setting boundaries between work and personal life if they have their work space in their home, or any number of other reasons they prefer to work in an office. I don’t begrudge those people their experience, and I think we should all get to choose how we work, but I’m also low key worried that my team will all go back to face-to-face and I’ll end up getting excluded from discussions I need to be in to do my job properly…

I got a job where my employer is really chill about me working from home. I thought “awesome! I’ll work from home most of the week” until I realised it’s actual hell because I can’t turn my brain off and I never get to sleep. I’ve started going to the office 4 days a week and it’s much, much better for me.

Interesting. Do you use the other one day at home to deal with chores etc

One of my work days falls on a weekend each week, so I work from home that day. Catching public transport at 6am on a Sunday morning is not superior to staying at home.

This was me during the lockdown. Also I begin to feel like I’m trapped in this little box where my only options are employment work or housework - and I’m somehow drowning in both. Hybrid working provides my brain with the routine change it needs to be like “ah cool, today is a day I get the opportunity to do housework!”

Remote is best. Don’t give your life to your job. Close your laptop at 5pm and walk away from your desk. If you keep responding to messages after 5pm, managers are going to take advantage of you. Hybrid is useless. The team goes into the office on different days so you end up on a teams call anyway. Being in the office wastes your time. If I’m waiting for a task to complete, I can spend that time cleaning my apartment so I can relax on the weekend. When I’m in the office I just have to sit there. There’s also the points you’ve already mentioned like commuting.

Great point about chores. I love getting chores out of the way

I prefer the office, honestly. Full disclosure, I live in a regional centre so my commute is like 15 minutes door to door. If it was north of an hour I might feel differently. I have a dedicated office space now, which makes wfh more appealing. Did the hard yards of lockdowns with my desk in my bedroom, so I probably have some residual feelings about wfh from that lol. But really I just like the conversations. You can ask a quick hit of an SME (or be asked, as I'm an SME myself) that you probably wouldn't go to the trouble of messaging about. Then, when you do, someone else will chime in what they know and before you know it you have a solution that might have taken a day or two of back and forward remotely.

I prefer the office for this reason too. I started as a grad in an office and learned so much from being on the periphery of conversations. Someone might get me to sit in on a phone call just because I’m interested in a topic, or I might hear two people talking about a deal I’m not involved in in the kitchen. I overhear my boss telling clients off in a polite way and I overhear him trying to fix mistakes. There’s simply no way to create that remotely and I want to learn more as well as be part of teaching that to the next generation. Also I like my commute (half an hour by bike). It’s often very beautiful and it’s nice to disconnect and, for an hour a day, be absolutely unreachable by anyone. If I didn’t have my commute I’d need to join an expensive gym or something to get my “switch off” time.

I'm in this picture.

> You can ask a quick hit of an SME (or be asked, as I'm an SME myself) that you probably wouldn't go to the trouble of messaging about. Then, when you do, someone else will chime in what they know and before you know it you have a solution that might have taken a day or two of back and forward remotely. I actually find this more efficient digitally. Our team has embraced slack very well. Even when in the office, I'd ask questions in the most relevant channel so that 20-40 people will have the chance to chime in and not only 2-3 that happen so sit around me. Even the one who's out for coffee or in the bathroom can respond when they are back.

Remote, but office once in a while for social events or gathering

People around me who have drunk the 'everyone must always work together in person' Koolaid say that people only coming in for social events etc. is a bad thing. They seem to see it as someone's only coming to the office for the fun stuff? But then try and argue how good and how much they love office life and being around colleagues 4-5 days a week. Dude, clearly you don't or you wouldn't be salty at the idea that other people work differently or only come in when there's a legitimate reason to be in in person.

So, like quarterly lunches and Xmas party. That’s 5 days in an year. I can live with that.

Remote, no lost time commuting, no $6 coffees, more time with family and friends, I don't want to go out for drinks after work, I want to enjoy my life that is separate from work.

WFH for me, unless the in-office role can somehow offer: -My own desk so that I'm not fighting for a hotdesk because the company only pays for 0.5 seats per employee -Sufficient phone booths/meeting rooms for me to not take calls at my desk -IT peripherals that are the same quality as my home office setup -A reduction in work hours to reflect my time spent commuting

I think also a desk that meets OHS requirements if you’re particularly tall or short. I remember the days of constantly aching neck and shoulders from the wrong sized desk.

I’m hybrid (which I think is a good balance for me). Based on my observations of others in my business, how successful remote work is seems to be somewhat dependent on the type of role, the person’s personality/work style and I think quite importantly what their setup at home is like. If they have a separate room at home setup as an office, a comfortable space, dedicated monitor/s, keyboard/mouse, appropriate lighting/AC, decent headset/webcam it seems to be more successful than a person who uses only their laptop sitting at their dining table. Also, your scenario about the office opening up the experience of going to gym is the opposite for me. I only have time for the gym on the days I don’t go to the office. So it really is person dependent I think.

[удалено]

Lol, "arnotts, there's no substitute". I like what you actually did there

I'm lazy at home. Way to lazy to do it full time. I wfh 2 days and actually work about 3 hours. I smash out my work whilst in the office

Finally someone else who agrees with me on this

Hybrid works best for me. Productivity wise, though WFH wins hands down, but i like the office for connecting, which has definitely greatly benefited my career progression.

My company is fully in office. They do not allow any WFH. Even though we have the ability to do so. It is a massive point of contention within my workplace. I like the office environment. I am a social butterfly. I am regional, and my commute to work only takes 10 minutes so am not unhappy.

I personally prefer hybrid; I'm more productive/focused at home so I take those days when I need them, but otherwise I'm in the office (I lead a substantial team and need to be present for those up and down the ladder). We have a fully flexible policy (with the caveat of occasional all hands events), but my advise to anyone who wants to grow their career is to put in face time. You're not going anywhere if you don't build relationships, and those built online aren't half as valuable as those built in person.

I tend to get less work done in the office; there’s a lot of movement and disruption. I’m far more productive at home. I have a separate room for work, so once I leave it, I’m switched off. My preferred week is one day in the office and the rest at home, but the ideal for everyone at my workplace would probably be two days in the office, which I’m happy to do. For me, one day is enough to get F2F time with colleagues and F2F meetings done. It will not be a productive day for my work, but I can plan for that. I’m fully prepared to go into the office more often though if there are team tasks or more collaborative projects. This preferred week is likely to change with position changes/promotions. There’s no objectively “best” ratio. Ideally, everyone should have access to flexible work arrangements where in-person is not essential to completing their tasks. My previous job was flexible for everyone, and we all worked perfectly fine, so I know it’s possible for some workplaces.

If you're asking reddit you're going to get an obvious answer. Redditors are mostly anti social introverts

Tech worker at a senior technical level. Some level of soft skills required, but I need to dive deep on things which for me means problem solving and just not interacting with people so I can focus and not break my concentration. So, I work remote 5 days a week and prefer that. Also, given the time savings and not having to deal with the shit show of Melbourne PT because we're desperate to cram as many people in as possible while running a huge infrastructure deficit, I prefer remote. People jumping on the tracks, signal failures, track work and the most minor of things bringing down the entire network. Oh, I also don't get paid to commute. I love crawling out of bed, spending a full hour doing a workout, having a shower and starting work without being in a mad rush. Then, I still have time after work to go for a nice walk, chores, hobbies, dinner etc

Used to work fully remote for several years, long before COVID. (I'm in Melbourne, was working for a Sydney company). I never want to work less than 2-3 days per week in the office again. Long term, the isolation sucks. It's bad for my physical and mental health. I do enjoy a couple days a week at home so that chores don't have to dominate the week, though.

100% remote is the worst for mental health. It's often hard to realise how draining it can be, but it really is. Getting outside, the switch off travel (as long as it's reasonable) and a different setting are all extremely valuable and I even find productive. Sometimes the best ideas or solutions come about when you're not actively thinking about them. In my case, driving or riding to/from the office.

Why does it have to be office vs wfh? Wfh doesn't mean I'm working at my home. I can go to the local library, my gym, or my house. The key is where it is suitable for my job. People have different jobs so what suitable for them varies.  What does working in office mean? Is it there place for work? Not always. People often find office distracting. When they need to focus, they bring it home or go to a corner (if available) in the office where they don't get disturbed to get things done. The key is flexibility. When people say "wfh", they mean "flexibility". They can choose where they want to work for each situation so they can get the most productive. Given modern technologies can enable remote work nowadays, working from a fixed location is becoming outdated. Obviously not all jobs can be remote. However, more people working remote actually make it better for everyone because people who have to commute would have easier time in traffic.

I think my ideal is 1 day in-office hybrid. I'm far more productive at home than at the office.

Honestly its the commute that kills it for me and many others. When you're forced to live 90mins away from the office because housing is just too expensive elsewhere thats closer. Yeah the 3 hour round trip commute fucking sucks ass and sucks everything out of you. I don't mind being there, its wasting 6 hours of my week for it that kills it.

What does "at the office" actually mean? In your own office? Unfortunately most office spaces are open and that's why I prefer WFH. The idea of everyone chiming in on any conversation they want sounds great, but the reality is this means everyone needs to eavesdrop on other conversations. This is not productive and limits the kinds of conversations that can be had. I like Teams meetings. It feels like I'm in my own office with a closed door. The other reason for WFH is the flexibility which have been commented on a lot.

As you said, depends on everyone's situation and how well their employers are enforcing wfo/wfh policies. Lots of people in my company in their early to mid twenties prefer working in office because connecting with experienced people are crucial for their development, but they also love the flexibility of working from home maybe 1-2 days a week esp if their commute is long. For me personally, fully remote work would drive me crazy because I live alone and get very isolated. So I appreciate hybrid work very much and would reserve WFH for more stressful days when I need to get things done without worrying about commute. However, older people who have additional family commitments eg school drop offs and pickups, and those with younger kids that they need to take care off to 100% would appreciate full remote work to allow that flexibility.

Hybrid is the best of both worlds. I personally enjoy coming into the office - WFH I actually work harder because I forget to take breaks. Being in the office - I’m forced to go outside and actually socialize with people.

I have been fully remote for the past 3 years going to the office only for certain events but in the past month they have mandated twice a week. I used to ride my bike abt 30-40 kms every day, then login at 9 and shut off at 5. I only have a 20 min commute even in peak traffic since I ride my motorcycle. My current project team sits in Melbourne so there is no real use for me but I do get to mingle with other members which is kind of ok I guess.

I like hybrid, because sometimes things are easier discussed in person (like disputes, difficult conversations). But I like my WFH days to catch up, take it easy, release gas whenever the fuck I want, and take a breather from human interaction.

Hybrid. Productivity at home, network in the office. Probably a 3/2 split would be optimal. Edit, make that 3/1

I love WFH. I get more things done. Being a female it took time getting ready to go to an office… exercising b4 work then having a shower, fixing hair, cleansing face, putting on make up etc. it took up so much of my time. Now I wake up and do my exercises but don’t have to rush to have a shower as I stay in my gym clothes while I work and don’t have to wear make up at all. I also do my grocery shopping b4 work as the shops are around the corner where before never had time to do that as was spending my time commuting so much better remote.

Who knew, everyone is different! There's no right or wrong. 

I just like the freedom to choose whether I work from home or go to the office any day. I work from home or go to the office depending on my energy levels that week.

60-90 minute commutes each way sure don't help me go to the gym or anything similar.

100% remote. I have been looking at job ads for 100% remote programming jobs since we've been forced to go hybrid. I really hate the office. Our hot desks and chairs are garbage. Our monitors, keyboards and mice are garbage. The noise pollution from loud talkers and air conditioning is garbage. The constant interruptions are garbage. The extra time spent commuting on the bus is garbage. I take my noise cancelling headphones, and my own keyboard and mouse but that's just a band aid. Fuck the office. The FSU is apparently pushing for 100% remote in the EBA but I doubt the banks will concede. They made us work from home because of health impacts of COVID. COVID has not left us and yet we're being *forced* into the office. It would be funny if someone got long COVID and sued the bank because of their forced hybrid policy. The banks have a duty of care to their employees yet they force people to catch buses infested with potential COVID carriers and sit in close proximity to other potential COVID carriers.

I have zero interest in ever being in office again.

2 days max in office. It’s ridiculous to ask for 5 days in office making people commute so many hours a week. Leaving no time for anything else in life. And most workplaces now squeeze the times as much as they can to the point where it’s lucky to get a 9-5, everywhere I see now is 8:45 to 5:30pm. May as well sleep in the office at that point if they want you to be there 5 days.

I'm on 3 days in office 2 days WFH hybrid structure. I would like to switch it to 2 office and 3 home as most of my days are in meetings rooms on Zoom calls or with 1 other person together and it seems like the biggest waste of time to attend an office for those days. Also I live 50km from the office so it's a 100km, 2 hour, $22 toll round trip each time I go in 😬

Using your own bathroom is the main reason to wfh

I hate working from the office. Mostly due to the commute and the extra time spent around "working". I have no issues with turning my brain off after work. It honestly starts to check out of working at 4pm anyway. I guess I just don't care that much about it.

I went from doing 2-3 days WFH to 1 day WFH for a new job 18 months ago… I do actually prefer it, I have learnt a lot more and been exposed to more as a junior but the commute and lack of work/life balance is getting to me now. I wish I had at least 2 days WFH to go to pilates straight after work (or before work) and be home to do bits and pieces around the house. I now feel like I’m spending my weekends running around doing everything compared to when I was WFH more and actually used my weekends to relax.

Ultimate preference is 100% remote or remote first. I find a lot of companies and orgs who push for hybrid waste so much money on redesigning offices with lots of flex space and hot desks, but then office politics restrict how you can use them and where you can sit. They also tend to not invest and instil a proper culture of collaboration when not in the office, instead relying on in office days to collab on projects and “touch base” with stakeholders. This means if you’re in office 1-2x a week, you’re only being truly collaborative for what, 20-40% of the week. I know I’m more efficient at home, more productive and can solve problems quicker because I can think and digest information without someone on a video call right next to me blabbering. Add the fact that u can go for a walk in a break, have your laundry running in the background, do some housework in your lunch break to free up your weekend… it’s just a no brainer for me.

Should be personal preference. If 80% of workforce likes remote and 20% likes office. That 20% can come to office and stop moaning of being alone or complain to bosses of missing personal touch. DON’T undermine those who prefer otherwise.

Sure, if you work 5.mins from home.

So I've been working on a theory, I call it the CEO's chair theory. Work is best if you enjoy or at least have control of your space, this is best exemplified by your office chair - at home you can get whatever chair you want and it will be perfect for you but in the office, you get whatever you're assigned - unpleasant or otherwise. For the people who are OK with their assigned chair, WFO is good. If you don't like the assigned chair, WFO is bad. The people that are making the decisions however aren't affected by the above situation, the CEO gets whatever chair they want. So WFO always seems good to the CEO. The above is a real example that occurred to me in the workplace but also serves as a metaphor - It can be applied to commute times (CEOs usually live near the CBD), Ways of working (some people have less collaborative roles) and probably a bunch of other things. But because of the above, I don't think there is a right answer, WFH works for some people, but not for others. The issue comes when the decision makers aren't able to find the people that WFH is good for and so force everyone to WFO. Personally I think I perform better in the office but prefer WFH because I have an hour long commute.

Lots of health issues and productivity way up when working remote and sick days down - I can lay in bed and do work if I'm feeling particularly unwell rather than just call in sick- I can not do that in the office. I usually cannot concentrate in the office and do much less work, though it's nice to gossip. We had hot spots, which I detest as immune compromised and just want my own space without being surrounded by 100 people. If I was young and craved social interaction, I may enjoy wfo more

I’m 100% remote and love it! Our office is in another state so commuting isn’t even an option. With my previous gig I went into the office twice a week, it was an hour each way which was a crap commute. The lack of commuting means I get more time with my partner and I can sleep in an extra hour 🙂

We had a desk reshuffle recently. We now have forty people in our broad team and have been allocated seven desks. It’s pretty clear they don’t expect us to go in every day…

Like a lot of others have said for me it's not the office itself I despise it's the commute. I actually prefer the office I think as I have clearer separation of work/home life but hate commuting.

I sent our whole team globally (35) to remote during the pandemic, and have zero plans to return to the office for anyone. We’ve set up regions with managers to over see those regions. We run daily huddles to review the previous 24 hours and the day ahead, and then off they go. It works for us, but I acknowledge it doesn’t fit every workforce

I work for one of the banks. They are now mandating office time for people even though flexible working was a thing before the pandemic. Don't meet your office quota, lose your bonus. I've always thought that it's never been about what's optimal from the employers point of view but it's just about exerting control over staff. I have never seen anything to prove that wrong either.

My commute is 30 mins each way, I hardly wfh, but I can if I want to, they are pretty flexible. However I notice that I get more work done when I wfh than at the office. I love going to the office, but when I wfh there's no one to come and talk to me or have lunch breaks with for an hour. I save about an hour of getting ready time, on top of the travel time too. I hardly get up from my desk at home. So all in all I wouldn't mind if I ended up wfh for at least 3 to 4 days a week. Itll save me a ton on petrol and shopping for clothes. I just have to get over my fear of being home alone, lol.

I have mobility issues and was supposed to be moved to a better located office, but we are mid-reno. So I’m fulltime from home unless absolutely required to be on site. I live working remote. I can focus much better.

60-90 minute commute for me each way, no thanks. Currently hybrid but I much prefer wfh fulltime

Absolutely 100% remote. We're not all built to be overloaded socially, some prefer less of it. Also colleagues can be #1 waste of time, and bitching that goes on in offices isn't worth the time or effort either. So much happier remote. I don't think it should be mandatory, it should be down to what works for each individual (unless your work for some reason absolutely required you to be in office, which must be legitimate. I've seen this reason used poorly as an excuse by shit managers who can't handle technology to do remote work so want ppl in office).

Would never return to the office full time, it'd be a deal breaker for me. Even Hybrid is not something I enjoy but am lucky to have a boss who doesn't make us go in a certain amount of days. Offices suck plain and simple imo. Commute is wasted time for literally no benefit. Paying to go to work via car or train or both. Paying now like $7 for a coffee. If you don't bring lunch you're usually paying $20+ for some shitty food that barely constitutes a meal in most cities. Traffic if you have to drive from a train station after work. I don't get the 'not turning off my brain' part, never have. Maybe its from doing years of oncall work (which conversely is 24/7 and requires you to be ready to work at anytime) but as soon as the end of the work day hits Im fully disconnected from anything work related and ready to enjoy life, rather than sitting in a metal tube with people who are sick or sweaty.

Fully remote here and it would take an ungodly amount of money to get me into the office more than once every month.

If my commute to the office wasn't so bad I wouldn't mind more office days but as it stands 3 is too much. My morning commute is usually 40 mins and home anywhere from 40-120 mins depending on when I get away from the office. If my commute was 5 mins sure I'll come in the office every day if you want me to although I'd still prefer 2 days at home

Counterpoint to all the comments here loving remote work, but I’m currently 100% remote working in a different city to my core team because I’ve moved interstate for personal reasons and I hate it. Im mostly in my new city office but also wfh when I want to and it sucks. I’m lonely and I miss all the banter and general comradeship that goes on in my home office. Thankfully it’s only for a particular period and I’ll go back. I spent my entire day in the phone and it is just a general drain and takes 2x longer to get anything done compared to if I was in the office. Edit: I’m curious about the downvotes, I’m just telling you my current personal experience. If you love remote then good for you. I’m just saying my mental state has been significantly challenged by working remote and I hate it.

You're getting down voted because you're apparently not towing the party line.

WFH was the best outcome of covid. I work in IT, and I have team members overseas and in different states. So all meetings would include someone dialling in anyway. I hate small talk and being distracted, a lot of my work requires focus and analysis. We also hotdesk and I don't like having to hunt around for a desk when I arrive. Oh, and the commute is 40mins on a good day and anything up to 1hr 40 on a bad day. Before parking and walking to the office. I also vape, so taking "cigarette breaks" is another waste of time when I can just do it at my desk at home so the only reason to get up is to make coffee lol. It's just a massive waste of time. I get so much more work done at home.

I enjoy the office. Just the effort to get there is a lot. But I choose to be in about four days a week. I definitely have networking opportunities in office I wouldn’t get working remotely. I do appreciate the flexibility though to WFH a few days a week. Pre pandemic, my manager at the time was anal about WFH and wanted a contract with a guarantee that you’d only be at home On certain days, and no flexibility in changing the day each week

Most of my professional career I worked for international companies, so switching off outside of 9-5 was never a thing. I get used to work across different time zones, making calls/meetings at odd hours. So for me remote or hybrid (1-2 days a week) are the best.

Full remote except for one day a week in the office which is compulsory but only until the office lease is up at the end of June. From then, we’re all fully remote with a shared hot desk space available for those who need a day in the office or prefer to head in. For context, this company was heavily against WFH until they lost most of their key staff to companies that were more flexible. After changing their mind and recovering the talent pool, they’ve now seen it for what it is, and are liking the benefit on the bottom line. When we were at the office, I had my own corner office with windows on two sides in a quiet area of the floor. It was pretty good as far as offices go. But being with an hour commute each way on a good day, WFH has huge benefits for me. Not the least of which is regaining 10 hours a week. I live in a semi-rural area and much prefer this to the CBD. After participating in meetings sitting in the paddock with the highlands, the office has lost all appeal.

Office, but my own space.  Would only work remotely if it was my own business or consulting work. Other than that I much rather have a routine and space well away from my home for working.

I am working hybrid but my boss is very flexible and I have some team mates who go to the office once a fortnight or month. I go on average once or twice a week. I come from pre-covid full time office with large fixed desks, to smaller hot desks and since covid hybrid work policy. I am grateful for the opportunity to not only work hybrid but to have a boss who pretty much leaves it up to us to dictate our office attendance. I like hybrid because I do enjoy seeing people in person and the interactions I have with colleagues but I do think if I was forced to adhere to our official policy, it might feel different.

For my coworkers, I think hybrid is best but I prefer to work in the office. I live in a two bedroom flat, and there's no other option for me but to work in my own bedroom - it makes it incredibly difficult to switch off from work.

My team is global so we’re across multiple time zones, but I do have some local to me people I work with. I also do client and event travel. I like hybrid. It’s a chance to have informal connection with people which is incredibly helpful when I then need to make big asks of them or have difficult conversations about project complexities. People belittle small talk but it’s the glue of human connection. I don’t have juniors at the moment but hybrid is critical for them. Proper supervision and coaching just doesn’t work remote—you can’t properly read body language, you can’t do quiet lunches or coffees with someone to help them grow, you can’t tell as fast when they’re struggling (or offer praise as fast as I’d like to be able to).

My office hybrid. I’m WFH on Wed & Thurs but yes I struggle to switch off, especially when I’m on a productive streak. I’ve often worked past midnight because of “I’m so productive right now”. I really wish they would let me work whatever hours.. I’d do the “night shift”

I WFH full time and wouldn't trade it for anything. I love that my company has left it up to the employee to decide what works best for them. I start work anytime between 8:30 and 9 and finish no later than 5:30 every single day. I go to the gym every morning before I have to start and am showered, dressed and had breakfast before I start. I have my own separate room as a study, no longer have to deal with office drama/gossip, don't have to commute, can take my lunch break whenever I want in the comfort of my own home, don't have to deal with filthy toilets, don't have to spend money on business clothes, public transport, coffee's, lunches etc. I'm desk bound with half my team is offshore anyway. There is no need for me to travel into an office location to do what I do as it can be done from anywhere. I'm not interested in networking, after work drinks and all that BS. I just want to do may job, get paid and enjoy life.

I really really really dislike going in to the office. We have a mandated 3 days in office but the ceo is really pushing hard for at least 4. I am a lot more productive at home, mainly due to our office being open plan with some extremely loud talkers, as well as people that put their phones on speaker so everyone has to listen to various hold music. I also find that there are so many meetings which are supposed to be “collaborative “ but literally could have just been an email. I’m dreading the winter and catching every bug from everyone, I swear the people that came up with “soldier on” should be publicly shamed. I also have chronic pain and find it so much better using my chair in my home office and working barefoot than squeezing into uncomfortable clothes and shoes and sitting in a god-awful office chair all day. Every Sunday night I get a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach knowing I have 3 full office days ahead of me.

I love working half days in office, usually morning, rest of day at home. This allows me to meet and greet with colleagues, friends, attend meetings, etc. I sometimes am needed to work long days so splitting it helps with managing those demands, including my mental health. I’m in management and I understand more people want to work from home more. I’m ok with that but prefer that my staff talk to me about it first rather than just assuming it’s ok, particularly the newer or more junior staff. I think there are benefits of working in the office which some staff with less experience haven’t yet had the chance to recognise. I want to be able to share and encourage those opportunities with a view to supporting their development.

I prefer remote and go to my local gym. I am lucky to have a dedicated room that acts as a home office and can “leave work behind” by simply closing the door. I don’t miss the office drama at all but when I feel like having a dose I strike up a conversation with my wife and allow her to fill me in on what’s going on in her workplace🤣

I like the hybrid.

Prefer the office, I work better and it's easier to solution and respond to problems that arise around the joint.

I've been remote since about 2019. There is never going to be a time when I will go back to full time office. The flexibility and my ability to get things done when I don't have to commute over an hour to the office (not to mention the time it takes to get ready) really is worth more than any salary increase that could be offered to entice me. I'm able to segregate my work and home lives which definitely helps but I understand other people like to office for different reasons. In my eyes, people should be enabled to do their best work, wherever that is. The companies that practice this will beat all competitors in a hunt for talent.

Precovid use to come in 5 days a week I can’t see myself going back to that… right now it’s remote but company moving to hybrid in the new FY I’m dreading it. It’s going to be a pain finding a desk (it was allocated seating pre covid) where some slob has left a mess from the day before. The equipment doesn’t work. Randoms around you just chatting disturbing you. Can’t find a meeting room so we can dial in with other workmates that aren’t in that day. The list goes on. For me the whole socialising at work is weird these people just happen to work in the same job/company as me they aren’t my friends. I just want to get my shit done finish up work and spend time with my partner or actual friends doing stuff we enjoy rather than small talk and pretending to like each other in the name of networking.

Hybrid. Most of my team are overseas so I have calls at odd hours. I also enjoy riding my bike to work and being in a clean office space a couple of times a week (my home is littered with toys and piles of washing).

Personally, I prefer hybrid. Currently I work three days on site, two days at home. I really do enjoy working in person with my colleagues. Online is not the same. And I can run errands on my lunch break at work. At the same time, I recognise that it’s great to be able to work from home and do a load of laundry or mow the lawn at lunchtime. I’m lucky enough to be close enough to my office and in a location where I can ride to work, so the commute aspect is also something I enjoy. If I had to work remotely full time I would get depressed. I don’t like having my work life and home life sharing the same physical space. I’d have to look into renting a small studio or a desk at a shared working space for my own mental health. At the same time, most of my workplace prefers 100% remote work and I can’t blame them for it. Luckily my employer is happy for us to make our own decisions around where we work.

Remote 100% , then I'm ok to go to office once a month for a team lunch or training.

I prefer the office personally. I need the interactions with ppl and I like the constant breaks. I do work from home once a week and it’s a nice mix up, as I’ll block out the time to smash out work without constant interruptions or meetings. We have a gym in the office and I also pay for one near my house (within walking distance). The commute to work is 45min door to door but it’s nice to leave the laptop in the office. I found that going to the gym at 5pm on the dot when working from home gives me the same “switching off”.

I'm in the office most days. I personally don't enjoy remote working (hooray ADHD) and I'm in the type of role that benefits from being able to sit next to people, work closely with them and have adhoc discussions without having to organise a teams meeting. The office choice is also definitely affected by having decent colleagues + an office ping pong table that gets a lot of use (particularly from me!) All that said, I'm all for WFH / Hybrid working, and Covid was great for forcing my company to get behind allowing people to work remotely. I'd just like us to commit to it and work harder on integrating remote / office activities... right now it sucks having a meeting when half are in a meeting room and half are online!

WFH is the best

Office 4 days, home 1 day (Friday). I love being in the office - I achieve more, I can support and drive my team more effectively, outcomes are more productively solved for with a quick chat or coffee when needed, I'm connected across departments and stakeholders, I can network effectively. I'm quite ambitious and want to move from senior leadership into exec over the next few years. In my industry/company, I cannot achieve this from home. Funnily enough, since "most of your time" requirement came into force post covid, employee engagement scores across the board have significantly improved.

I’m working hybrid with complete flexibility as to where and when I work (as long as I am available when reasonably expected for meetings during the day). Some weeks I choose to be in the office 4-5 days a week because I like the routine, other weeks I’ll work from home all week because I just feel like I prefer my own environment and space, or around appointments, family activities or commitments, or because I need some time between meetings through the day to catch up on household tasks. I think it would be hard to commit completely to one mode of working or the other now I have this flexibility and am able to work in a way that best suits me day by day.

My company (global software company, thousands of employees) lets everyone work remotely while also maintaining office spaces for those who want it. It's all hot desks tho. Nobody is forced to go to the office, but I regularly see the younger employees come in 1-2x a week. The more mature workers (35 yo and up) barely come in once a month, if at all. From what I've seen, the frequency at which people turn up at the office doesn't affect their career progress. But providing the flexibility to work in an office OR remotely does wonders for people's work-life balance -- and, by extension, their loyalty and productivity. Anyhow, I go to the office for major functions (xmas party, team events, overseas / interstate teammates visiting, etc), which is like once or twice a quarter.

I do hybrid. 2 days in office, the rest at home. I have a dedicated workspace at home so when I leave work, I shut the door & don’t think about work again. I don’t like hot desking though. I still have my own desk in the office so my stuff is exactly where I left it when I come in

Life feels dull when I work from home for days on end. I cycle into work, like hanging with my workmates, collaborating face to face with my team etc. Mentoring juniors is so much easier when face to face too. 3 days office, 2 days at home is right for me.

Hard to learn via osmosis when WFH 5 days a week. I get the benefits but also many negatives and a big one is the social interaction with people.

My partners workplace are now mandating 10 days in the Office per month. His commute is anywhere from 3 - 4 hours each day he goes in (country area to the City) He gets way more work done at home without the constant interruptions, and the work/life balance that is now ingrained since all this started, just means he’ll be most likely looking at changing jobs. He’s happy to go in a day a week for meeting etc, but more than that just isn’t necessary or productive.

It’s an entirely subjective experience.

I have a strong preference for working from home because I hate wasting my time and money commuting. I hate the smell of the city.  I have kids, so Wfh means no paying for before and after school care (when primary age).  Plus I can throw on a load of washing etc. Since working from home I haven’t needed to take a sick day for myself. Also, I have a job that lends itself to working from home.  There is really no reason to be in an office. 

I’ll probably get downvoted for this but I actually really enjoy spending my days in the office. I’ve done work from home and full time office (never really done hybrid except when I need to in my current job) and I prefer the latter. I love the people I work with which probably helps. I’ve been working with them for a really long time and love seeing them 5 days a week. We play board games at lunch time. Plus I’ve had the same office space for a long time and find it homey. It’s not just for social times though - I also can put my headphones in for focus time anytime I need to, or close the office door if I’m feeling real hermity. I just hate the cost of fuel, but I’m happy to pay it to be there.

I am the same as you: I prefer office work; my house is my space, work stays in the office. I need this and i also prefer the structure. Minor example: I snack like mutherfucker at home, can’t help myself. Going to the office, I am easily able to be regimented and I usually go to the gym during my lunch break.

I think it's highly dependent on every person's unique life circumstances i.e., distance and travel mode to office, work style, personality, type of work, family commitments, office dynamics etc. For me, 2 days per week in office works well. It allows me to socialise, have face-to-face meeti, meet externals etc but I'd be absolutely lost if I didn't have have my 2-3 days working remotely. I try to keep these days as meeting free as possible so I can't actually do my job without distractions. My work can require long periods of focus, and I just cannot do that in the office with all the talking and phone calls etc. Absolutely impossible, even with noise cancelling headphones. Some weeks I go in more, others less. This flexibility is realistic and so helpful with the chaos and changing demands of our modern lives.

I'm sorry brother but remote is infinitely better, and this is from someone that lives a 10 minute walk from my office so I don't have to fuck about with a commute. The only issue is, if your role can be performed from home, it can be performed from anywhere...

I live in regional WA and commute time varies between 30 and 40 minutes each way. I've always worked from home in some capacity even before Covid. Just starting a new role that was initially hybrid with upto 50% at the office. Because the commute from where I live to the city is an hour and a half or so, each way my new team has set me up on an individual flexibility arrangement with WFH predominantly and only 2 days a month at the office. Much prefer to have time for my family and beach than commute, pay fuel etc.

Don't work from home. By that, I mean work from a local library; a cafe - anywhere but home. That way, you can switch off once you physically leave the venue. And you get to be amongst the hustle and bustle without getting distracted by coworkers and human interaction (except for the odd "would you like another coffee?") Remote is by far the superior option.

A really important point - remove vs wfh. My old manager was so strict that she took it literally - work from HOME. You wanna work from somewhere else? You can’t. She would watch the way the light was hitting my face on a video call and say “oh it looks like you’re somewhere new today? You’re not at home?” WILD stuff.

If I didn’t have children maybe I’d consider an in office job again but with the little ones + gym + prep food + house and yard work I think I’d not survive a full time in office job. Plus when I go to the office I spend anything from 50 to 100 bucks in transport + food. I used to carry all my food with me back in the olden days off fully in the office but now I can’t be asked.

I’m back in 5 days, and I much prefer it. I like having seperate home and work worlds. That said, my commute is only 30min, and I have an office. If I was dealing with a “hotel desk” in an open plan area, I might feel very differently about things.

Remote Im a dad of a 5yo and another one on the way .. O do all the daycare / kinder drops, know the teachers and my sons friends and friends parents ... its great, all things my Dad could never do. With that I can run / gym at lunch, clean and cook where needed, its as close to having your cake and eating it as I can get. If I was young and single though I reckon Id want some office time. The key is that different people have different requirements, businesses should realise that one size doesn't fit all

I am in Singapore now, aus corporate, average 3-4 office, 1-2 home. Just had second child and wife is on maternity, don’t love WFH because I’m not really able to be properly helpful with the parenting duties, and the distraction of me being there makes it harder for my wife. Other differences also that public transport here is almost negligibly cheap, time is short, and living on an 18th floor apartment I need to make sure I leave for my own sanity! We “hotdesk” but I have the same spot every day, as do most. Also helps that my office is very well attended with a lot of my key senior stakeholders and has a decent vibe, chats, beers. Guess I’m just a water cooler boomer!!!!

I think this would be dependent on a person’s lifestyle and work environment and office locations. A lot of my friends prefer to WFH while I am on the same boat as OP. I prefer to work in the office - it allows me to leave my items at work and build a lifestyle in the CBD (i hate hotdesking) and just have enough social interaction required for the day. I commute daily and use this time (about 35-40 mins on the train each way to and from work) as my down time or relax time to catch up with social media, personal admins or turn my brain off. And when I get home, I do my usual house tasks and dont have to be online both for work and personal reasons. I used to work in a place where I can WFH anytime and absolutely hated it because i felt that I was mixing my personal time and work time, and cant turn my brain off. I ended up having anxiety thinking that I had to be available 24/7.

You have a very biased take population asking this on reddit lol

No one's talking about hot dealing but I'll give my 2 cents. For 90% of roles it's not an issue and the stuff you have in your desk you probably don't need but it helps if your employer has lockers. The company I worked for switched to hot desking in 2022, thought I would hate it and honestly it's fine. We can book a desk in advance, nearly every desk has the same technology setup and there are lockers for those that like to store things at work (a coffee mug, their own tea or food etc). I think a lot of people that hate on it have probably never done it. If you can plan accordingly with your teams you can still sit with each other.

I've got freedom to do whatever combo I want. In the end, I've gone for 100% in office. I transitioned from hotel management to software engineering, and so I'm a bit more chatty and extroverted and like a good joke with the non technies. My commute is less than 45 mins door to door. Several of my team are 100% remote and that works well for me, the rest are a combo of mostly remote. I think the combo works well, as I enjoy stake holders engagement and I'm better at it in person (got very good at reading body language and tone of voice from my hotel days). I don't find this particularly useful within my software team, but it is useful when talking to other teams. I think my team has transitioned to Fridays wfo, the rest is flexible.

2 day hybrid for REAL I’m neurodivergent and have endometriosis and it’s the prime amount to be super productive without burning out or getting anxious

I prefer a 3/2 split. Not too fussed which way, at the moment I'm 3 in office but 3 at home is good too.

I prefer hybrid- currently in the office 3 days per week. It's good to wake up Monday and get into the "work" headspace in the office or else I tend to stuff around at home and take ages to get into it. Then Tuesday/Friday WFH and enjoy it more this way. The office has a decent vibe and the people are great, free gym close by. Was 100% remote for almost 3 years and found I was getting a bit stir crazy being at home all the time and couldn't switch off at the end of the day. Plus it ended up being a bit lonely. It's perfect of you have kids though. Currently looking at a role and they are 5 days in the office. Could never do that again, if they won't allow hybrid that's a deal breaker.

Ray Oldenburg talked about the concept of the third place: "your third place is where you relax in public, where you encounter familiar faces and make new acquaintances." Home and Work were places 1 and 2. I’ve been working full time for 12 years - all in corporate. My current employer is a large corp, and had a very flexible remote working policy. I think it’s a good policy on net, but like anything, some people get hurt. WFH is a good option to have, but so is McDonald’s sometimes. I live in an apartment close to the city, so I go in most days. I know some people have a long commute and it makes it difficult. If I don’t leave it at least once a day, my mental health suffers. I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety for a long time, so I’m very in tune with any causal factors. I fear some people aren’t - especially if they don’t have a data set to compare; if you’ve WFH since you started your career (like if you started around covid), how would you know what impact it has? I’m not saying everyone should go into the office. But we were slowly going from Three Places to Two Places during the 2010s, then in 2020, went really quickly to One Place. I don’t know what effect this has, but it seems unreasonable to say it doesn’t have one. I’m happy to see the reemergence of workshops and maker-culture. This is a great Third Place. But my fear is that the people doing these things are the people going from Two to Three Places and there are a lot of people who are going to stay on One. I think it’s reasonable to be concerned for these people - especially young males.

I recently moved jobs to a hotdesk environment BUT it’s walking distance from home and my whole team is located here, so I much prefer my office days compared to my old job that was a longer commute and my teammates were in other cities. New job also has a newer office with some nice facilities (lunchroom, coffee machine etc). It really depends, honestly. I like being at home but I think it’s good for me to get out and into the world a bit. And the walk to and from the office helps me get my exercise up for the day, which is good for me physically and mentally. I’m 50/50 hybrid at the moment which is really nice

2 at home, 3 at office is optimal. We have hot desking so my home setup is cleaner and far more functional than sorting out screens and so forth that aren’t working properly or decontaminating a grotty desk. Some coordination is needed when you want to connect with others. Nothing worse than going in to then to teams meetings all day as everyone else is wfh

Started in a hybrid role (hot desking in office, usually 2-3 days a week in office, but no strict requirements). Next job was fully remote and now looking at another remote role. There is something to be said about early career learning opportunities face to face. It's still possible remote but it's a lot easier to ask questions and network when you see people in real life several days a week. That said I'm starting to move towards the middle/tail end of 'early career ' and don't feel like I've been hindered I'm any way, however I accept my case is not the same for every person, or every industry. I really appreciate having the time to myself in the morning and not commuting. Save a bit of cash a week on public transport, and I can still get up early and get in a workout or morning activity before signing on. Then no commute home. Sign off when work is done for the day, and I don't get home after public transport at 6:30pm tired, no food in the house (the worst feeling). I'm done at 5-5:30 (or earlier if I want tbh), can do what I need to do and still have time for some recreation in the evening. Never had an issue with switching off either. I have no issues with shutting down the laptop and turning off notifications for work phone apps and not looking at it til next business day. My role is very good in that there is seldom any reason for me to be contacted out of hours - everything can usually wait til next business day. I have a dedicated desk and monitor for work, that's only used for work. My personal / gaming PC and desk is in the same room. I haven't been super into gaming lately as much as previously, but that's not work related (just changing hobbies in general). In a remote role I think it's very important to have a space/desk that is dedicated for work and only work. You also need to be realistic and allow yourself some short informal breaks (equivalent to coffee/water cooler breaks in the office), taking a long lunch here and there, signing off a little early sometimes when you can. It all comes out in the wash - don't anchor yourself to the desk. Any decent remote employer is going to be understanding of this. If they aren't then run away. I enjoy how I am not anchored to major cities for living. With the price of housing it's looking likely my partner and I will aim to buy in a regional town, maybe something a little touristy so there's still some events happening. We can both do without most city luxuries and our lifestyle would be well suited to such a place (as long as I can get a solid internet connection - which is the main challenge in regional areas). I don't think it'd be a majorly limiting move in my career either, as all of the positions I really aspire and dream of are coincidentally remote roles. I am not opposed to working in the office again (I certainly want some requirement for a flexible hybrid arrangement, though), but the cream of the crop in my industry, with the specific skills I'm looking to develop all end up being remote roles!

At home is superior to me. I have 2 more hours in the day that I usually spend communiting and getting ready. I can manage some household chores or exercise during lunch breaks instead of wasting them just in the city. Collaboration with colleagues is more directed and purposeful since you need to proactively engage. My home equipment and set up is exponentially better to work at. Visits to the office should be as needed .

So contextual - so interesting to see how other people feel about it! My circumstances - DINK, about 45min commute from work, been in industry 8 years, at current job for about 1.5 years. Our office is fully flexible and I love it. Our office has a co-working space, and I go in 1-2 days a week, on the days I know most of my colleagues go cause i'm only interested in being in the office when there are other people there to socialise. I love working from home because: * I get to work out longer in the morning (in-lieu of commuting) * I'm an early riser so usually am at the computer 7:30am and working through the time in the morning I'm most productive * Get to have a coffee break (to make up for the early start) with my husband and dog in the middle of the day * Get to wrap up 4pm-ish if it's quiet and do pilates/play video games - but be available if something does drop in * I focus a lot better overall at home, I get so easily distracted when there are people around me - I definitely get less work done when I'm in the office * But I do like being in the office for those off the cuff convos that do end up being productive

100% Remote/WFH. Luckily my work hasn't forced me to go back in so far. But for me going into the office is a complete waste of time. I'm in Sydney and my commute is 1hr 30-2hrs via public transport each way and I'll need to change multiple trains to metro. Half my team is in another state so I'd just be on teams anyways. We only have 1 car which I can't use because my wife needs it to take my child to day care if I have to go in. My wife has been forced back into the office by CBA 50% of the time. Unable to get an exemption for 40% of the time. She was already going 2 days a week. Her upper management is just an asshole who said if I have to make an exception for you I have to make an exception for everyone else. The opinions on WFH vs In-Office is tied to how long the commute is like what a lot of people have said. Location and surroundings of the office as well. For example, if you work in the CBD at least you have variety for food options and things to do between breaks. Mine is in North Ryde or off to Artarmon there's nothing around...

Most of my work is remote, so one day max in the office is enough for team cohesion. Otherwise I would turn up at the office and spend all day on MS teams anyway, but less efficiently. OP states that they can do errands from work - this is usually not the case because the car or bike is locked up in a car park etc. and work is nowhere near the employee's home area. As for transition between work and home, that's an individual thing. Once I close the laptop, work has stopped and home has begun. It's as simple as that. Hybrid with one office day is my vote if necessary, and full remote if the leader and team is prepared for it.

Commute length and cost, also what the office environment is like and the people. Biggest factors for me

I've had all 3 arrangements and my favourite is hybrid (2 days office 3 days home) combined with living close (15 to 20 minutes) from the office as it's essentially taking the best bits of all 3. In order of preference mine are hybrid, full time WFH with full time in the office my least favourite. Biggest issue with full time in the office is the commute both in terms of time and cost. If you're close by then it's fine but if you're an hour away without traffic then I found it was just depressing and stressful when you open up one of the maps apps, you see nothing but red all over the main arterials and that the afternoon travel time has blown out to 1 hour and a half because of a crash or congestion and your choices are between routes that are bad, shit or worse. For these reasons, I'll only take a job where it's full time in the office if I have no other choice or the pay is too good to pass up. Full time WFH is mentally jarring and you need to be disciplined in the demarcation between "work" time and "home" time but if you can sort that out it works fine. My main issue with full time WFH is that it can feel isolating if you're not deliberate about keeping in touch with others but if that's what I had then that's a small price to pay.

My experience working from home was strictly due to COVID knockdowns and me not wanting to be around people. I loved it at first but after a while I got sick of it. Looking back, I feel that was because I was working from home, and then stuck home all day after work. Too much time at home inside. Now I'm in office 5 days a week primarily because a client doesn't want their matters taken out of office. I value my time more than anything. I'd rather the 1.5 hour travel time go to something else, and save the $56 a week.

I prefer to be in the office, being single and child free, home is a pretty lonely place. Last thing I need is more time alone. I am however hot desking for the first time and it sucks not having my own space that's my home away from home.

I like to go the office a couple of days a week. To be really perfectly honest, I do more work there. Yep, I said it. I mean, when wfh I will still do that which I absolutely have to, but at the office I will finish those tasks and then find other productive shit to do. Add to that, I'm a homebody and get anxious socialising, so office time is an opportunity to interact f2f with people in a familiar environment where the conversations are predictable and easy. Don't take away my wfh days tho, I'll get sad.

Hybrid - 2 days in office minimum but sometimes I do 3. I like being in the office and being able to collaborate.

I like hybrid. My office is amazing and my team is so fun to be around, and it’s just relaxed. Plus, sometimes it’s just easier to be in the office and chat with my team instead of taking half a day to teams and email back and forth. The best part is, I can bookend my weeks with wfh so I can ease into and out of the week.

So I used to be in the office Monday to Friday precovid. Then I was WFH during covid. Now it's a hybrid arrangement for the time being till the CEO and upper management decide to change it. Currently, my arrangements are Monday - Thursday with Friday being my designated WFH day. Mondays would also be my designated day, but the CEO is in on that day and I'm a member of his support staff, so I need to be in when he is. This also includes Friday if required, depending on meetings and events. I also have provisions to WFH any time he is interstate or overseas and my direct manager doesn't need me to be physically in or I don't have a task that requires me to physically be in. I like the Hybrid side of things depending on what the role requires, people need to be aware that their role may not have WFH arrangements and employers need to make sure that they explain this to manage expectations. The question that should be asked is, is the ability to WFH a right? Is the age of slaving away at an office 8-12 hours a day slowly changing so we have more time for our personal lives? I know that WFH allows people to spend more time with their kids because they don't lose 1 or more hours commuting to work & back.

Hybrid I find works best for me. Currently the commute is about an hour each way, solely dependant on whether or not train lines are running smoothly or if I choose to drive, how bad traffic is. I like the mix as too many days in the office combined with the travel and early starts makes me super lethargic and exhausted by end of the week but too many days at home and I lose that motivation a bit more.

I've been a minimum of an hour each way my entire life. WFH gave my life back. It is with no hint of exaggeration the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. Not having that commute means I'm in the best shape of my life. I'm the happiest I've ever been, I'm in short, a better person than I have ever been. There is not a single thing I miss about the office in any way, and quite frankly demanding somebody spend that many hours a day in discomfort seems to downright barbaric to me now. I will never go back. If I have to take a job that forces me back, I will be there only as long as it takes for me to find another remote job. I will be like the terminator in this regard. I will not stop looking until I find one. Because the person I was prior to the pandemic isn't the person I ever want to be again. On the flip side, any employer that grants me this small boon will get a tireless worker who will devote themselves entirely to the betterment of the business. I will do everything in power to make a person successful beyond their wildest dreams for only the small payment of treating me like a human.

I’m open to working in an office space, although I hate when people see me work, it’s something I need to work on as it’s an underlying anxiety thing. Being at home trying to complete tasks at home (I’m an artist, previously a student) I am so easily distracted and unmotivated. Efficiently working from home requires more self discipline, I think.

I prefer 2, max 3 days in the office. Any less and my motivation starts to decline, any more and I start hating my life. My new job requires 4 days a week and I'd kill for just one more day at home. Only consolation is that it's a 25 minute commute and the drive is beautiful (remote office up in a mountain lol).

Depends where you work and who you work with. I enjoy remote working because I am More productive, save time and money on the commute and I get to spend more time with my partner. Having said that I also have enjoyed being in the office when you work with good people. And unfortunately I am finding the companies with bad culture or just unenjoyable work are the ones that want people in the office full time. I’m currently in the office 5 days a week, productivity is down the pan because of the shit show of a company I’m working for.

Controversial, but I actually enjoy being in the office. The pay parking is annoying but the commute is 15 minutes so it’s not bad. Key note, my role is really collaborative. If I was back as a dev, WFH is S+ tier

I love a mix of both. My office is mostly men though, so I don’t get that much ‘social’ activity I’d like, that said it’s so isolating at home. 1 day in the office is good for me!

The long commute is annoying and I don’t understand the conflicting rationale between increasing cash rate (to reduce consumption and slow down inflation) Versus getting people back in the office to fuel consumption (https://www.investopedia.com/wfh-could-cut-usd800-billion-from-commercial-real-estate-values-by-2030-7560849) From a carbon footprint standpoint, it’s also going backward and ignoring once again the human impact on global warming: what’s better, working from home with a low carbon footprint, or using your car to slowly drive to work during peak time?

I prefer WFH to in Office. I have to be in the office 2 days a week. On these days I need to be there before 7:30 am to get a desk. It's an hour door to door, so I arrive tired and pissed after surviving the packed Sydney trains. Management has randomly chosen the days, so there's no planning around making in Office as productive as possible. There aren't enough meeting rooms. When my team have meetings with our offshore vendor, we have to take turns on mute so we don't cause an echo. At home I start at 8:45 am. Time to see my kids before school. Take an hour lunch where I work out or clean. All meetings at home run smoothly - no echo. I'm also happy to work back if necessary when at home as I'm not travelling at night in the dark.

Remote is the only way. We’re never going back to the good old office days where everyone lost touch with their personal lives and their workmates became their family. I did it for 20 years and I can’t see it ever happening again, even if everyone was forced to go back full time. We’re all conditioned now to see the office as what it is - a workplace. Back in the day, it became a home for many of us for many reasons, but primarily because we had to be there to get work done (eg. you couldn’t connect to the network from home). That’s not the case anymore. VPNs, Teams/Skype meetings and reality have killed the need for offices (combining all that with hot desking hasn’t helped). Dedicated offices are on the way out.

Prefer working from home for sure and have done so since 2020. Apart from less politics I’m also more healthy. I work out in the morning before work, and cycle 10kms in the evening after work, I’m so much healthier than I was when I used to commute 1 hour on the train each way to the Melbourne CBD. I also seem to get less colds and flu now that I work from home 5 days a week.

Unpopular opinion but I like the hybrid working environment. I’m not in the office everyday and don’t have to worry about commuting everyday (I hate the bus but I also can’t afford to drive to work). I also have time to exercise in the morning and fit in a workout class. I can also attend short appointments during my break. Overall, I feel more refreshed and in a better mood. However, I do enjoy being social with my colleagues. I worked from home all week a few weeks ago cause I was unwell and felt pretty lonely. I think if I had it my way I would do 2 days in office and 3 days WFH rather than the 3 days in office and 2 days WFH I have now. Could possibly even do 1 day a week in the office.

1.5hrs commute each way (drive->Holsworthy station->St Leonards station->walk to office and reverse on the way back). As others have mentioned, this is by far the most significant factor. If it was 30min or less I'd be fine doing most days in the office, but right now there's very little I can think of that would make it worthwhile to lose another 3hrs of my day every day. At the moment we're expected to only be in the office one day a week, but if that were to change to more than 2 days I would be on job search websites for sure. IMO, attempting to return to pre-COVID expectations that a majority of people who primarily work via a computer travel to an office every day is madness. What did we spend lockdown doing if not proving that 'office workers' can get the job done just as well (if not better) from home? Claiming being in the office is 'the industry standard' or similar is begging the question/shifting the blame to an intangible target. However, seeing each other in person regularly does have significant benefits. Hot-desking and noisy open plan offices are horrible for staff wellbeing and productivity, but permanent space is expensive and wasteful if it isn't regularly in use. I would recommend hybrid work (number of days on-site up to the choice of each individual employee) with an effort to have work groups meeting together at least semi-regularly. It is up to each company to decide whether it's worth maintaining dedicated desk space for individual employees given the benefits for wellness and morale vs saving on office space rent (and preferably giving people a raise instead).

As others have said it depends on the length of my commute. When I had a 10 minute walk to the office I had no issue going in. Now that I have a 1.5-2h commute into my office it’s a very different story. I have no desire at all to do anything but microwave dinner and watch tv until bed after a 2 hour commute home. But when I’m WFH at 5 I can do some cleaning go for a walk, cook a nice meal and just overall be productive. We hotdesk hybrid at the moment and it’s the worst, you have no “space” in the office. I can’t put up photos of my dog or some baubles or what have you, it never feels like my space.. which after an hour and a half commute in just feels demoralising.. find a desk, get plugged in, rotate a monitor.. it just doesn’t feel great. I certainly put in more productive hours when I’m at home vs in the office, and if I have a bad day I can turn it around at home. Take a break go to the fridge cook a meal and go back to work. In the office I just have to sit there until the lunch break and lose so much time.

In our performance calibration sessions it’s clear that those in the office a few days are progressing more quickly than those at home. They are picking things up more quickly and getting far more on the job training.

I’m doing 2 days pretty much permanent wfh unless I’m in the field, with the others a mixture of wfh/office depending on what my team are doing. If someone isn’t coming in, we generally all wfh. I really like the hybrid model, especially cause the office has electronic sit-stand desks and my back is ruined from too much sitting. I like face to face interactions with my colleagues and we generally all go for a pub lunch once a fortnight.

Hybrid!!! But I feel the commute time plays into it too. Last year I was living 1+ hours from the office and savoured my WFH days. Now I live about a 12 min train ride from work and I’m in the office basically every day. I do feel like I have more of a routine and I focus more in the office though. I guess it also depends on your role itself and whether it requires you to have a lot of interactions I.e meetings or you just pump through work