Remote work may not be working any more

[Jedi Guy]

35. I'll never work in an office again if I can help it. Ever.

I worked remotely for two years before the pandemic hit and I was far, far more productive. Last year my then-employer tried to reel us all back into the office, and I found a new WFH job within two weeks and quit. Every single member of my team did likewise in the months after I left, and the brain drain has continued steadily across other teams in the organization, or so I'm told by friends who are still there. It wasn't broken, but some dumbshit vice president got a bug up his ass and decided he'd "fix" it. Now they're hemorrhaging people faster than they can hire new ones since all the prospective hires want to work from home.

In my current role, I log in early and stay late pretty much every day. If my employer has enough consideration for my work/life balance, I don't mind going the extra mile. I'd just be sitting in traffic for my commute anyway. It's much easier to focus on tasks without the distraction of other people around me. I can ignore non-critical messages when I'm working on something important, whereas it's a bit harder to ignore someone who just walks up to my desk and starts yapping about something.

Employers are going to find that the genie isn't going back into the bottle.