3 ms·

2 hours a day!? I wonder how overlapping the "have no interest in return to the office" crowd is with the "2 hour commute" crowd. I don't think I know a singl

2 hours a day!? I wonder how overlapping the "have no interest in return to the office" crowd is with the "2 hour commute" crowd. I don't think I know a single person that has any interest in continuing to work from home. But around here the commute is a 20 minute train ride, and homes are small. Any chance you're in the USA, in a big house, in the suburbs?

Yizahi 3y ago
I had a 2-3 hour daily commute (1-1.5 hour one way) in the big city in Europe. Regardless of taking a car through clogged center, or if I took publick transit, because it equated to about the same - 5 min walk to the station, 10 min wait, 10 min ride, 5 min change to other line, 5 min wait, 20 min ride, 15 min walk or shuttle to the office. That's not even a commute across whole city, only across about half of it. And majority of the people had the same times. Lucky ones maybe had 30-40 mins.
Mountain_Skies 3y ago
There are lots of living and working situations between your living on a subway platform for a company located on a subway platform and a big house in the suburbs. I'm assuming of course that your 20 minute train ride had zero minute connections on both ends since you excluded them.
michaelrpeskin 3y ago
I live 10 minutes from my office. I still only go in 1 day a week. I prefer working in the comfort of my home and being able to take a walk or mountain bike at lunch.
graypegg 3y ago
I won’t say my experience is either like you or the GP’s post. Average commute time here is maybe 10min - 1hr and yeah it probably involves a train. Not too many people living far away from their other colleagues, among the folks I know. Montreal is dense enough. But I’d say maybe only a quater or less of people I know would be positive about a return to office. (Me excluded, surprisingly) It’s a pretty low percentage of people because it’s low flexibility for pretty much no benefits unless you’re a special kind of weirdo (myself) I live a 6 min walk to my office, and like the amenities + chatting.
surgical_fire 3y ago
I live in Europe, and have friends in other countries that are not the US. I know a grand total of zero people, among friends and extended acquaintances, that showed any preference to work from the office when given a choice, irrespective of the commute time. Make of that what you will.
KoolKat23 3y ago
I live in Europe. Out of an office of 9, only 2 want to go back. One person is in sales and I assume is very extroverted, the 2nd is an old man, who likes the whole "dress up, get to the office early, I'm a serious businessman" cosplay. The 2 GenZers don't seem to mind working from home, and this is despite the fact they've only recently moved here.
cracrecry 3y ago
20 minutes going, 20 returning is 40 minutes a day. Unless you live by the train station, it is 10 minutes going there, and you have to wait for the train, 2-5 minutes. That is at least an hour/day, 2 hours/day are not that far away from you. It is important not to idealise the perfect timing, what it should be if there were no cars on the roads, no traffic jams or the train comes exactly on time. Take a chronometer and measure it every day and you will be surprised by reality. I did it lots of times. I have been living in big cities around the world and almost everybody spent an hour or so going to work. I had a small apartments but was living alone and did as much remote work as I could.

Yizahi 3y ago

I had a 2-3 hour daily commute (1-1.5 hour one way) in the big city in Europe. Regardless of taking a car through clogged center, or if I took publick transit, because it equated to about the same - 5 min walk to the station, 10 min wait, 10 min ride, 5 min change to other line, 5 min wait, 20 min ride, 15 min walk or shuttle to the office. That's not even a commute across whole city, only across about half of it. And majority of the people had the same times. Lucky ones maybe had 30-40 mins.

Mountain_Skies 3y ago

There are lots of living and working situations between your living on a subway platform for a company located on a subway platform and a big house in the suburbs. I'm assuming of course that your 20 minute train ride had zero minute connections on both ends since you excluded them.

michaelrpeskin 3y ago

I live 10 minutes from my office. I still only go in 1 day a week. I prefer working in the comfort of my home and being able to take a walk or mountain bike at lunch.

graypegg 3y ago

I won’t say my experience is either like you or the GP’s post. Average commute time here is maybe 10min - 1hr and yeah it probably involves a train. Not too many people living far away from their other colleagues, among the folks I know. Montreal is dense enough. But I’d say maybe only a quater or less of people I know would be positive about a return to office. (Me excluded, surprisingly) It’s a pretty low percentage of people because it’s low flexibility for pretty much no benefits unless you’re a special kind of weirdo (myself) I live a 6 min walk to my office, and like the amenities + chatting.

surgical_fire 3y ago

I live in Europe, and have friends in other countries that are not the US. I know a grand total of zero people, among friends and extended acquaintances, that showed any preference to work from the office when given a choice, irrespective of the commute time. Make of that what you will.

KoolKat23 3y ago

I live in Europe. Out of an office of 9, only 2 want to go back. One person is in sales and I assume is very extroverted, the 2nd is an old man, who likes the whole "dress up, get to the office early, I'm a serious businessman" cosplay. The 2 GenZers don't seem to mind working from home, and this is despite the fact they've only recently moved here.

cracrecry 3y ago

20 minutes going, 20 returning is 40 minutes a day. Unless you live by the train station, it is 10 minutes going there, and you have to wait for the train, 2-5 minutes. That is at least an hour/day, 2 hours/day are not that far away from you. It is important not to idealise the perfect timing, what it should be if there were no cars on the roads, no traffic jams or the train comes exactly on time. Take a chronometer and measure it every day and you will be surprised by reality. I did it lots of times. I have been living in big cities around the world and almost everybody spent an hour or so going to work. I had a small apartments but was living alone and did as much remote work as I could.