> Should I quit before or after returning to the office? > Consider going back for at least a week or two. Think of it as a test of your hypothesis. Humans ten

> Should I quit before or after returning to the office? > Consider going back for at least a week or two. Think of it as a test of your hypothesis. Humans tend to be really bad at predicting how they’ll actually feel. This is really bad advice for a lot of people. Especially tech people. 1. Currently you're working from home, and almost all the other companies you'd consider working at are also home. This means you don't need to take unexplained time off work to go into the city for an interview -- you're at home, your interviews are remote, and most companies have been willing to work with people to interview outside business hours, since everyone's home anyway. This is the time to look, not only because you have time and aren't commuting and coming home exhausted, but because companies are being more flexible with remote. Instead of fighting with your current company for a flexible remote policy, while you're stuck back in the office, you can work out a full or hybrid remote arrangement with a new company, as part of the terms of starting there. 2. At least for tech employees, this is a sellers' market, and you're the seller. Tech unemployment is around 1.2%. No matter what you're currently making, someone is going to be willing to pay you more to do it there. I've watched medium sized tech companies streamline their byzantine interview processes because they couldn't interview people faster than they were hired elsewhere. If you have good tech chops, it has never been easier to find a job quickly, and never easier to set your own terms and salary. The big tech companies are still being stodgy, and the small silicon valley tech startups still want to pretend they're big tech companies, but if you get your resume in front of a recruiter, they have small and medium sized businesses lining up to hire literally anyone they can. So if you're in tech, which is probably why you read Hacker News, this is not good advice. If your company isn't giving you real plans for coming back that you're comfortable with, throw your resume out there and watch companies fight to have you. They will work with you on those plans, and you're in a better position than you think you are for those discussions. Everyone's laughing at fast food places putting up signs saying "No one wants to work anymore" because people realized they didn't have to. We're a few months from some tech companies being in the same spot.