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From my experience, these kinds of hybrid policies with mandatory "X days in office" are the worst of both worlds. A mandatory "X days in office" means that du

From my experience, these kinds of hybrid policies with mandatory "X days in office" are the worst of both worlds. A mandatory "X days in office" means that during the office days everyone is running and on edge trying to do all their "office" things so you don't get all (or even most?) of the benefits of an entirely on-site company: "Culture" and watercooler chat doesn't really happen if everyone's schedule is packed and they are on edge from having to commute, find a desk, etc. Those things only happen naturally if everyone is in a comfortable routine - it's not something you can force to happen and especially not by forcing people to go through a stressful and aggravating experience beforehand. Equipment and desk space is a problem. You have to lug around equipment, which might be a problem if you rely on anything beyond a small laptop, and plug it in/set it up every time you arrive at the office and then do the same when back home. Hot desking is a bit of a pain as well if people don't even have permanently assigned desks. This ultimately means people may be constraining themselves and not operating at peak comfort/efficiency just to avoid having to also carry equipment (that would otherwise make them perform better). Transport is also a problem - because you don't commute daily you end up paying full price for transport - most "season tickets" won't help as those only work out cheaper if you actually commute daily. It's also more stressful and disruptive to commute only some of the time as opposed to daily where you can fall into a routine and tune out some of the annoyances. Even when it comes to the uncomfortable truth that some employees might be slacking off when remote, hybrid (as opposed to full on-site) doesn't address that either, since they can not only still slack off during the remote days, but the above annoyances would also eat into their productive output in the office days when they aren't slacking off. Furthermore, the above annoyances reduce the output of the non-slackers too, which outweighs whatever small productivity benefit they might gain from forcing the slackers to work during office days. Pick full remote or full on-site (with reasonable exceptions - most jobs wouldn't care if you occasionally need to work remotely) and stick to it. Hybrid combines the worst of both worlds and is ultimately just there to introduce some "pain" back in the typical employee's life because it's uncomfortable to the higher ups that grunts got a significant boost in both quality of life and finances (as they no longer have to live near the office) and enjoy a perk that used to be exclusive to the elites.

RestlessMind 3y ago
From my personal experience and that of my friends in SV, hybrid with everyone in office for 2-3 same days, is the best experience. I don't have to commute every day. My team can do focused uninterrupted work on their WFH days. We can have team discussions, deep dives or 1:1's on RTO days which are far more conducive for the interpersonal communication.
- ghaff 3y ago
  In my experience, going into a downtown office for customer visits every now and then, dropping down to a couple days a week really does open up commuting options. The approximately 2 hour door-to-door time wouldn't be sustainable on a daily basis but really isn't that bad for a couple days a week. I'm remote anyway and everyone I work regularly with is in a different city but if everyone/most people were local I really wouldn't mind having scheduled team days.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- smsm42 3y ago
  As a remote worker, given the choice I'd probably choose to go to the office 1-2 days a week and work remotely for the rest (I worked like that before and it was fine). Occasionally, being in the same room is very helpful. It's not worth firing someone who is physically so remote they can't go to the office, but with all possibilities open, my experience shows the hybrid model is the most efficient overall. In reality, the possibilities are not always open, so one has to find the model that works best for the particular team.
  - illegalsmile 3y ago
    > In reality, the possibilities are not always open, so one has to find the model that works best for the particular team. This is what's up. My team is distributed across all continental US time zones and as such many of us don't share a central office. I have one person on my team of 11 that I share an office with and we barely share any projects. They ask us to come into the office once a week but what's the point? They do nothing to encourage teamwork. Gone are the days where we'd have company wide lunches that promoted conversation, unity and employee cohesiveness. Now they offer us food trucks once a week? Not company paid for of course but rather the employees footing an over priced mediocre meal in the name of convenience. I really don't know what management is thinking. End of the day, the people that want to be in the office are in the office and those that want to wfh are wfh. Companies need to shift expectations and priorities at this point because while they can push for office, and that's fine, the culture has changed dramatically. I offered my employer numerous tactics to promote teamwork and cross-team engagement and they're doing none of it. In-office isn't working and they're doing nothing to fix it but rather trying to force it to work.

RestlessMind 3y ago

From my personal experience and that of my friends in SV, hybrid with everyone in office for 2-3 same days, is the best experience. I don't have to commute every day. My team can do focused uninterrupted work on their WFH days. We can have team discussions, deep dives or 1:1's on RTO days which are far more conducive for the interpersonal communication.

ghaff 3y ago
In my experience, going into a downtown office for customer visits every now and then, dropping down to a couple days a week really does open up commuting options. The approximately 2 hour door-to-door time wouldn't be sustainable on a daily basis but really isn't that bad for a couple days a week. I'm remote anyway and everyone I work regularly with is in a different city but if everyone/most people were local I really wouldn't mind having scheduled team days.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
smsm42 3y ago
As a remote worker, given the choice I'd probably choose to go to the office 1-2 days a week and work remotely for the rest (I worked like that before and it was fine). Occasionally, being in the same room is very helpful. It's not worth firing someone who is physically so remote they can't go to the office, but with all possibilities open, my experience shows the hybrid model is the most efficient overall. In reality, the possibilities are not always open, so one has to find the model that works best for the particular team.
- illegalsmile 3y ago
  > In reality, the possibilities are not always open, so one has to find the model that works best for the particular team. This is what's up. My team is distributed across all continental US time zones and as such many of us don't share a central office. I have one person on my team of 11 that I share an office with and we barely share any projects. They ask us to come into the office once a week but what's the point? They do nothing to encourage teamwork. Gone are the days where we'd have company wide lunches that promoted conversation, unity and employee cohesiveness. Now they offer us food trucks once a week? Not company paid for of course but rather the employees footing an over priced mediocre meal in the name of convenience. I really don't know what management is thinking. End of the day, the people that want to be in the office are in the office and those that want to wfh are wfh. Companies need to shift expectations and priorities at this point because while they can push for office, and that's fine, the culture has changed dramatically. I offered my employer numerous tactics to promote teamwork and cross-team engagement and they're doing none of it. In-office isn't working and they're doing nothing to fix it but rather trying to force it to work.