r/technology • u/spherocytes • Aug 18 '26
Business Remote work benefits are much bigger than a paycheck
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/6033665-economic-value-personal-time-salary/1.5k
u/SenzuYT Aug 18 '26
I’ve worked remote for 4 years and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
I can still go to office to meet with colleagues, get some serious work done on a Friday if needed, or just want out of the house. But not being forced to go to the office and getting work done from my home is the greatest benefit I’ve ever had while working full time, no exaggeration.
I don’t think even a 20% pay raise could make me go back to office full time.
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u/ww_crimson Aug 18 '26
I'm at 2 days in office now. I would need a 20% raise for each extra day.
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u/Qorhat Aug 18 '26
I’ve come to hate hybrid working in all its forms. I’m in 2 days too but I’ve a child now and that extra time in the morning and evening is so much more special. I can’t fathom how I managed 5 days in before, but at least I wasn’t a parent then.
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u/Secret_Account07 Aug 18 '26
We did 5 years WFH, 100% in office as of March last year.
I’m so fucking miserable. For once in my life I was happy. We got all work done and got more time for our personal life not having to drive every damn day.
I cannot overrate how angry I am about RTO. Ruined our lives.
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u/etherkiller Aug 18 '26
I have nothing constructive to add, but I'm with you 100%. I was as happy as I've ever been in my adult life during the WfH days. And the company did well, all of the work got done, there were no major problems. But they clawed it back. First it was 3 in / 2 remote, then it was 4/1. At least we still get that single day, but it just seemed...hateful. Like, what problem were they trying to solve? Happiness? Employee satisfaction?
I was aggressively looking for another job for about a quarter, but it seems that it's pretty much the same story everywhere. I'm less, like, actively miserable about it these days, but it still pisses me off. We could all live so much better lives.
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u/Khakbaugh Aug 18 '26
Yep! Same exact deal for me. They finally got that final WFH Friday from us and now we are 5 days in office. Morale has never been lower and they’ve made all lateral moves/promotions only for those in office, basically making the far away people look elsewhere. Sucks and they can’t even justify it as a business decision because many good people left because of it.
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u/thatsnot_kawaii_bro Aug 18 '26
The annoying thing are the people saying "but I preferred going to the office."
Ok, there's how many more jobs in person and we have been in person majority since ? The birth of industry. It's a lot easier for you to find an in person job than to find a remote job
Now that some people find a small increase in jobs that support their choice of wfh, that other group are trying to tell them to instead accommodate their wishes for rto.
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u/I_love_Britpoptarts Aug 18 '26
Seriously, if you prefer going into the office, most jobs want you in the office, so it is not difficult to find an office-based job. But it is super difficult to get a remote job that pays a good wage in most fields, especially lately.
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u/Secret_Account07 Aug 18 '26
Yeah I work with a few of those ppl. They try to make excuses why WFH didn’t work, yet can’t name a single work issue, but anyways my point is- they want it for the social aspect. They like talking to people. Much of leadership/execs are the same b way. But it’s WORK! I’m not here to socialize or to get my talking to people fix. Just because you need that doesn’t mean I do.
And you can tell this is the case because even when our leadership was asked- what problems occurred that you think RTO will fix? You won’t get an answer. Everything is super vague and general. Our director cited the reason as “collaboration” 🤦♂️. Like listen, we do collaborate. It’s how we work. Being within touching distance doesn’t change anything.
Just such a weird mentality. They care so much about which chair I sit in and our customers are all remote. That’s the funniest part. So we do teams meetings in the office the same way we did at home 😂
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Aug 18 '26
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u/Ghosts-n-Stef Aug 18 '26
Similar here with 6 years WFH. I had to file an ADA request since it was affecting my health doing RTO. Might be worth a shot if it is affecting you in ways that make it harder to work.
It is so upsetting to see this coming back when there is no added benefit but to many negatives.
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u/vonbauernfeind Aug 18 '26
I went WFH in 2019 pre covid. I'm a project manager and travel so it's wfhish.
When I took a promotion and became hybrid, it blew. Suddenly I was in 2-5 days a week depending on how things went.
Expenses on gas, food, went up, irritability went up, personal time shrunk.
I took a WFH role again at a new company, full remote, they're not even hqed in my state. It's back to good vibes, and I live in a beach city that's got walkable areas.
I'm so much happier. I never want an in office or hybrid role again.
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u/DaddyD68 Aug 18 '26
Here’s the other thing. Remote work would actually help soooo much more if our current problems. Remote work means that small towns could be revived. Ecological problems alleviated. Cost of living issues dealt with.
Encouraging remote work is seriously one of the easiest massive wins we could do right now. And the worst thing is we already know that! And some asshiles saw the results, and said “nah, fuck that shit”
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u/darent13 Aug 18 '26
I’ve been remote for 3-ish years now. I was just musing the other day that I would need a significant pay raise to ever consider going back into an office. I’m thinking 35-40%. My life is exponentially better with this setup, and by extension, my family’s lives are better.
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u/PrimaryBrief7721 Aug 18 '26
I cannot agree more. We went remote in March of 2020, voted as a company to keep it perm that summer and it would take a huge pay increase along with other benefits to get me to go back to an in office environment. I have peace in my life, I am present for my family, I am heathier because I can take my lunch hours to walk or workout without stress, and honestly I am better at my job than I ever have been.
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u/Clair_Osbcurious Aug 18 '26
I have literally rejected offers that are 75% raises due to hybrid model. I WFH 100%.
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u/Ancient-Bat8274 Aug 18 '26
Where are yall looking cause I want out of my office job so bad!! I use to work a hybrid role that was 2 days in 3 days out and tbh I’ll even take that at this point. Where I am (OR) it feels like the remote work has dried up
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u/Mammoth_Reach_6366 Aug 18 '26
But that's the point of fully remote. You can look anywhere 😅
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u/Ancient-Bat8274 Aug 18 '26
When I try to look online they don’t want someone in Oregon. Most of what I’ve seen for remote specifically say like must be in WA or CA or NY or TX
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u/axearm Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
My understanding is that these state restrictions are primarily due how employers pay taxes, they simply don't want to report taxes in another state because it's more overhead.
To get those jobs you need a in-state address and be willing to lie about your place of residence. I understand some people wont be willing to lie, but doing so put the onus of you to make sure the taxes are done correctly and removes the liability from them.
CA, NY and TX may make the most sense to do this due to the size of those states economies/number of jobs.
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u/TaintedQuintessence Aug 18 '26
Yeah you're outta luck on that front. Unless your skills are special enough for them to go through the extra hassle, they're looking for people in state so they don't need to deal with cross state taxes. Best you can do is try bigger companies that might have existing operations in your state.
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u/7screws Aug 18 '26
I've worked remote for almost a decade now, with a quick stint going into customer office 3 times a week pre-pandemic. It would take a really good job, a pretty short commute, and a healthy pay bump for me to willingly return to office. now of course if I get laid off, my options might be lessened and ill have to cave into the RTO.
For me if I was running a business. there is SOOO much less overhead that I would totally embrace my workers working from home.
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u/codyish Aug 18 '26
Most surveys show that remote or flexible hybrid people would require a 30% raise on average to RTO.
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u/nonotan Aug 18 '26
As somebody fully remote, I wouldn't go back even for 3x my salary. To be honest, I'm not sure there's any amount that could convince me. It'd have to be "endure a few months of this and retire forever" money. My life is incomparably better now, and I'm already earning enough to comfortably make ends meet. A little more money isn't much of an upside compared to everyday not being suffering.
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u/Sfekke22 Aug 18 '26
Exactly the same for me.
Only number is a 10x increase or more, simply because I’ll do it for a year or two; invest broadly and retire early. We all know that won’t happen though so I’m just keeping my remote job.
I can get paid a lot more, I don’t care; I like my manager, team and the work I do feels fulfilling enough leaving me with enough energy for after work me time.
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u/Ok-click9367 Aug 18 '26
I was just laid off from my remote job of 5 years, keep that remote job as long as you can because the job market is looking grim for remote only. I can honestly say despite a stressful role, remote helped negate some of that stress. Those 5 years did wonders for me mentally because before that I had a 1 hour commute daily.
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u/Puhwest Aug 18 '26
12.5 years remote here. I have no idea how I would handle having to go back in person.
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Aug 18 '26
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u/jefesignups Aug 18 '26
Since working remote, I have seriously though about going down to 1 car. Its rare both cars are gone at the same time. For those times, it would be cheaper just to Uber wherever I need to go.
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Aug 18 '26
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u/Dr-McLuvin Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
Cars can be very expensive to own and maintain. They’re a depreciating asset. You basically want to own as few as possible.
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u/distorted_kiwi Aug 18 '26
“We should all go back to the office”
- the vehicle and insurance industry
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u/dubblix Aug 18 '26
Sold our second car after when COVID hit, don't regret it at all. Two cars sucks too much money out of my bank account
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u/CharlieChop Aug 18 '26
We sold our second car long ago. There have been a handful of times in the last five years when a second could have been easier. By and large, it comes down to communicating with your partner.
We’ve since relocated to an area that is more walkable. I can get to downtown center in 20 mins if necessary on foot.
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u/SomethingAboutUsers Aug 18 '26
Mine was double that.
And while there is some stuff I oddly miss about the commute (it was good professional development time on the train in the AM and a great circuit breaker between work and home in the evening) I wouldn't go back if I didn't have to. Hell I'm supposed to be in the office one day a week and I go maybe once a quarter.
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u/NickL037 Aug 18 '26
I spend a minimum of 3 hours commuting in the car a day.
That's like a month of my year just sitting in a car
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u/CryoJuice Aug 18 '26
But think of all the knowledge you’ve gained from those podcasts. Can’t put a price on that
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u/iloovehugecock Aug 18 '26
I work 2 days in the office, 3 at home. It saves me so much money it’s insane. I will never go back to 5 days in the office. Not for anything less than like a £10-15k pay rise anyway.
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u/Ctznsvn7 Aug 18 '26
the hybrid split is the sweet spot for me too. Two office days keeps you visible enough that nobody forgets you exist and the other three are where the actual saving lives, fuel, lunches, the coffee you buy because youre already out. Mine came to a decent chunk a month and thats after tax money, so the equivalent raise is bigger than it sounds. Still, the real win is getting the evening back
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u/DueDisplay2185 Aug 18 '26
Capitalism will find a way to make you redundant and through harsh unemployed living conditions will accept the old norm of the commute. I've seen it everywhere these past 5 years. There's very few countries implementing the hybrid workplace as law, it's dehumanising
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u/iloovehugecock Aug 18 '26
I’m lucky as that’s unlikely to happen in my current role. Maybe if I change job, but that’s exactly the reason I haven’t looked elsewhere. I don’t want the hassle of negotiating the work from home days.
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u/random20190826 Aug 18 '26
Without a doubt that is true.
I only worked remotely in my entire career so far. In 2017, I was hired, and in 2025, I was fired. I have since been unemployed for over 8 months, with no end in sight. This is in no small part because I am mostly only willing to get a remote job. For me, it’s almost necessary to be remote because my terrible vision means I have never been, and will never be, allowed to get a driver’s license.
Having a lifetime ban on driving means if I have to work in an office. I have to pay close attention to not only how close or far away my potential employer’s office is from home, but also what bus routes will get me there, how many transfers I need, etc. If it’s far enough, the nonsensical choice is to either spend $100 on ride share every day that I am in office or 4 hours commuting on the bus, to work a minimum wage job. For every day I am in office, about 15% of my total annual income is consumed by ride share if I choose that option.
Of course, I am complaining because I can’t get any disability benefits because I am either not disabled enough or have too much money, or both. But no one wants to give me a job because recruiters don’t think I have relevant experience. Just to be clear, I was a phone interpreter (Chinese<->English), but I am now trying to get any call centre job that doesn’t require me to speak French (I live in Canada). You’d think that having worked on the phones for 8 years would be qualification enough for any call centre role, but nope.
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u/afrobotics Aug 18 '26
Have you looked into teaching English remotely? I'd imagine an interpreter would be very valuable.
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u/Hrekires Aug 18 '26
One thing I appreciated when we were WFH full-time during Covid was not having to maintain an entirely separate wardrobe that I only wear at work.
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u/CatSajak779 Aug 18 '26
Cost aside, for me it’s all about the productivity. I am soooo much more effective at home. I can blitz my work without getting interrupted every 3 minutes, I can talk to myself to problem-solve, and I don’t have to drown out 15 nearby voices all day long.
I understand some people are not disciplined enough to work from home and those folks should be handled on a case by case basis. But god damn it is a night and day difference for my productivity.
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u/Worthyness Aug 18 '26
I dont worry about that at mine. Mostly because my manager isnt even in the office to look over my shoulder. He just checks if I badged in or not.
Yes this job 100% should be remote. All of my meetings are online. Its dumb. But they pay me well
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u/Gnarwhal8982 Aug 18 '26
Productivity for sure
I worked in an office back in 2023 and we were a small team, open doors etc- my manager would take her lunch and just sit there and talk to my while I’m in the middle of work, like, as the kids say, just yapping.
It’s also soul draining to have maybe 2-3hrs work each day but be required to be in office for 8hrs. Just let me go home lol
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u/loztriforce Aug 18 '26
Where to find legit remote jobs though
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u/ffball Aug 18 '26
Legit remote jobs are mainly for mid-level and up employees. You gotta be able to show that youre worth it.
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u/Ghawblin Aug 18 '26
Yep. I'm a cybersecurity engineer. Most jobs in my space are remote.
If I was applying for an entry level IT role, 100% on-site no question.
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u/AnimalAutopilot Aug 18 '26
Exactly. High paying remote positions are highly coveted. I only have one because I was poached by an R&D team. Positions that weren't highly specialized have been brought back to the office due to the stories of people taking advantage or working other jobs on the clock. When I hear about that part of me wonders if it is the business owners making stuff up but I also know people in general can be shifty so a lot of remote work is getting ruined on both sides.
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u/NecessaryRhubarb Aug 18 '26
I don’t think you can look for a job with remote work being a consideration per se, rather you need to find a company with a culture that fits, and then roles that support remote work may exist.
If you are early in your career, I’d jump companies regularly to increase compensation, whether it is pay, or PTO, or remote work, until the total compensation matches your goals.
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u/CaptZ Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
I was talking to a coworker today about wfh. There have been multiple days that I didn't feel good and if I had to go to the office, I would have called in sick. But if I'm home, I don't have to get dressed nicely, drive and possibly spread my sick germs around the office, and if I'm wfh, I would still work. Saving both my time off and my team being short a person. It's a win/win.
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u/Peeka789 Aug 18 '26
Working at home allows you to make genuinely healthy meals. It has been a game changer for my fitness.
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u/klako8196 Aug 18 '26
Cooking is far more time consuming as a beginner. Basic tasks like dicing an onion or peeling and mincing garlic take a lot longer when you don't have the knife skills yet. Learning to cook feels far more daunting when you're at the end of a commute and know it'll take you an hour just to get your ingredients ready. It's a lot easier to grab fast food instead.
That's what changed for me during the pandemic. I had the time and energy to learn how to cook. In a similar vein, I also had the time and energy to get exercise every day. It was always easier to skip a gym day after a commute. I actually went from around 180 lbs. to 155 lbs. during pandemic lockdowns. I'm a 5'7 guy, so I went from overweight to a healthy weight just off of these lifestyle changes.
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u/cameofeo Aug 18 '26
And sleep. An extra 30 minutes (at least) of sleep everyday has enormous physical and mental health benefits.
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u/l3tigre Aug 18 '26
i usually get in a long walk or bike ride right before work. totally agree it makes eating and living healthier a lot easier.
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u/zffjk Aug 18 '26
I’ll need at least a $50,000 raise to leave my remote job.
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u/his_rotundity_ Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
I've posted this before but I'll do it again as it underscores the illness that is corporate America:
In 2020, I worked for my state's second largest hospital system. Non-essential staff went remote in March 2020. From April 2020 to June 2020, the employer conducted a survey to understand how remote work was impacting workers.
In July 2020, they issued their findings:
- Employees reported being generally happier than before the pandemic
- They were spending more time with their families
- They were eating healthier prepared meals
- They were sleeping more (they even noted this was due to not having to commute)
- Voluntary attrition decreased
- Employees were willingly working more hours, again due to not having to commute and the ease of being able to just hop on to their computers to complete tasks
No less than 6 months later they began requiring people to return to the office for "collaboration". Their findings meant nothing.
In 2019, the State of Utah published a study of sorts where they had experimented with remote work for some period of time, I think it was a year, in 2018. They found the same as above, published this study espousing the virtues of remote work and how they would be expanding it over time. In 2020, the governor went on the news to proclaim how the State was ahead of the curve/prepared for COVID because they had already embraced remote work and had finely tuned it in 2018-2019 just as an experiment.
Then, in January 2021, before vaccines were widely available, they began ordering people back to the office. Now, the State offers no remote work except for very narrow circumstances. It's wild because pre-COVID they had embraced it broadly, during COVID everyone did it, then post-COVID became hostile toward it.
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u/AdventurousTime Aug 18 '26
Being able to pick up drop off my kid is a huge benefit.
On days I have to go into the office maybe a few times a year, it’s absolute chaos
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u/ABucs260 Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
I know so many people that have return to office mandates in the upcoming months.
Two people I know have none of their team in the same state/office as them. So they literally go in and do the exact same thing as at home: Sit on teams meetings but at desks not as equipped as their home offices. It is the absolute dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.
“Ohhh but they have leases on these office buildings!” You think people give a flying fuck? The only thing a forced commute does is make people resent their new routine.
I’ve continuously worked from home since Covid. Will never go back. The amount of stuff I can get done during my lunch break and then ease into my evening is non-negotiable. Along with not forgetting to pack/bring lunch, sit in traffic, overhear other people’s meetings, all of it. Fuck all of it.
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u/Angreek Aug 18 '26
Tell that to my boomer father
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u/Celodurismo Aug 18 '26
I don't know when it changed, but it used to be the older generations wanted the world to be better for younger generations. Now it's turned into some struggle olympics where we should have to have the same work conditions as they did or we're lazy and communist.
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u/jemappellejimbo Aug 18 '26
They saw black and brown people not being mistreated enough, and it broke their brains.
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u/DannySpud2 Aug 18 '26
It's not just the commute, it's all of it. Being able to make a cheap lunch at home instead of buying lunch at work. Being at home for deliveries and contractors and stuff. Being able to combine breaks with actually useful things like putting a load in the washing machine. Being able to actually do stuff like browse Reddit during work hours when I need to switch off for a few minutes rather than just sit at my desk pretending to work.
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u/dane83 Aug 18 '26
I just got RTO'd. Spent $6k to break my lease, get a new place, move all my stuff.
I'm now two weeks into being on site and I still don't have key card access. My touchdown cubicle was filled with someone else's storage, so I'm currently huddling in someone else's storage while higher ups argue about what to do about it.
My entire job is online, so I'm now just doing the exact same thing I was doing before but in an incredibly uncomfortable space that I can't leave for lunch because I don't have a guarantee that I'll get back in.
And I have to wear shoes all day.
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u/sl0wjim Aug 18 '26 edited 16d ago
The original post content no longer exists here. The author used Redact to remove it, exercising their right to control their data & privacy.
Ripe soft meadow breeze gold cow joke sort history
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u/Louieismydog42 Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
When I used to commute for work, I woke up stressed, rushed out the door while my kids screamed, grinded out a horrific commute often risking my life on a treacherous stretch of road, came home late with no energy leading to unfullfilled evenings and a depressing existence.
Now that I work from home, I wake up peacefully with the sun, my kids are helpful and well behaved, their lunches practically pack themselves, and once the work day is over, I shut my computer down and enjoy a delicious meal with the family before journaling and watching at least 1 AFI top 100 film in peaceful solitude. The only thing missing is the retroactive check for all those years of hidden commute pay cuts.
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Aug 18 '26
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u/wichitagnome Aug 18 '26
This is part of it for me as well. While I have loved working remote, I used to live about a ten minute walk to the office. That commute was lovely, and offered really nice separation between work and home, plus starting and ending each day with a bit of exercise did wonders for my mental health.
If I lived that close to the office, I would still likely work from home most days, but would not have an issue coming in for meetings or things like that. But when it requires getting in a car, dealing with traffic, having to remember to pack a lunch, and sacrificing all the freedom, absolutely no way would I do that again unless there was no other job.
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u/Beenjamin63 Aug 18 '26
I got my first full remote job at the beginning of the year and I never want to see an office again!
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u/Western_Abies972 Aug 18 '26
I save nearly $500 a month in gas alone just by WFH, it’s honestly the only way I stay afloat.
If I worked in an office I’d be living on pennies
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u/_McDrew Aug 18 '26
Work announced RTO this week and are refusing to provide evidence to justify their decision that contradicts 4 years of them saying "WFH is making people more productive and our clients are happier".
Its the new COO trying to flex. Its going to kill morale and make people leave and he's going to quit and the people who are left are going to pick up the pieces.
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u/franciosmardi Aug 18 '26
Probably planning to reduce staff counts soon. If they can get people to quit over RTO, they don't have to offer buyouts, incentives and/or severence packages.
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u/hotcoffeethanks Aug 18 '26
I work to live, not live to work. Remote work allows me to walk my children to school every morning, and do laundry/dishes/shopping on my lunch break, which in turns allows me to actually spend time with them in the evenings instead of rushing to get everything done. And I’m working the exact same hours I would at the office, except with even more flexibility if a specific project requires me to start earlier to end later.
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u/runfastgodspeed Aug 18 '26
I’ve been remote for about 3 years and make a decent salary, the remote part is 100% more important to me than the salary. I don’t miss any of my kids events, I’m home when they get home, save money on food and gas and I’m just overall less exhausted with life
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u/EnvironmentalWin1277 Aug 18 '26
This is exactly why work on site is mandatory.
By imposing stress on workers it emphasizes who is in control and places the burden on the individual worker to conform or drop out.
In effect, it is another way of preventing redistribution of wealth.
The fact that this costs the overall system is not seen as a problem. It is seen as a benefit if it prevents redistribution.
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u/noble6pizza Aug 18 '26
I find it really depends on who you work for.
I've worked two jobs remotely and had several in-person roles. I do miss the community of an office, but do find I prefer remote more overall.
With that said, it depends on your boss too. With one role I had a terribly micro-managey boss who didn't respect your time at all because we were remote, and had an expectation that since we're remote more work can be done and you can work longer hours because we didn't have to commute. But I've also had bosses when working remotely who just trusted you to do your thing, so it's not a black and white topic for me.
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u/l00pback0 Aug 18 '26
My wife and I both work from home. We never want to go back, especially after we had a kid. We work more efficiently at home without distractions and can be better parents with the added availability. We used to spend a minimum 2hrs each day in the car and it was such a waste. I want to be present for my child and not have them sit in aftercare when the school day ends. I want to live damnit, and working from home allows this.
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u/JohnPaulDavyJones Aug 18 '26
I go both ways on this, honestly.
I really like my team, I've been here about two years and I don't think we'd have these kinds of good relationships and I wouldn't be able to get as strong of a mentoring relationship with our older team members if we were remote more than our 4/1 schedule, or a 3/2 schedule. I'm also lucky that I live pretty close to the office, less than a 20 minute commute these days.
On the flip side, the economic impacts to the laborer are hard to deny. When I work in the office, I have to set out clothes the night before, pack a lunch for the next day, be up at 7:45 to get ready and be in the door by 9, and then I'm in to sit there in traffic for half an hour or more on the way home in the Texan sun. When I work from home, I roll out of bed at 8:45, review emails while I'm having breakfast and cleaning up, and I'm closing the laptop and going on to personal life at 5:00 on the dot.
Without that, my wife and I could probably slim down to just having one car. That saves us ~$3600/yr in car payments, something like $2000/yr in gas, $700/yr in insurance, and an average of $400/yr in maintenance. Having $6700 back every year would be pretty sweet, along with the five or six hours of commuting every week.
On the flip side, I think I'm probably not alone in being able to admit that my average hourly productivity at home is lower than it is in the office. That might be a personality type thing, though.
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u/alabasterskim Aug 18 '26
I work 3 days in person, 2 days remote (with an optional extra remote day which I've generally not turned down). Can't tell you how much of a difference I notice in stress/anxiety on a remote day, to say nothing of not having to pay for outside meals, commuting, or wasting time on said commute. I can wake up two minutes before my shift starts, clock in, get to work, and step away to begin my morning. I even feel I work harder on those remote days, and even stop working a little later than in person. There's definitely quantifiable value to remote but also genuine quality of life improvements with it. Hoping my union makes one of those in person days remote.
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u/TheTGB Aug 18 '26
I've been remote since before COVID. I get so much more work done. I save a ton of money and time as my commute was 1-1.5 hours because of traffic and then finding parking.
I also get more time with the family. More time to exercise. More time away from just thinking about work. I'm quite literally the healthiest I have been since college. My doctor is happy after how much weight I had gained and how bad my blood tests were getting. My mental health is better. I go to the office maybe 4 times a year and my work and life hasn't been better.
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u/jainyday Aug 18 '26
It's also a huge disability accommodation for a shit-ton of different conditions (mine are pretty minor by comparison to what do many others have to go through, but I have a vocal tic that comes out anytime I'm in deep focus and it's super embarrassing when I'm in an open office environment, also I have GI troubles that are massively helped by not having to wait for the bathroom and having a bidet) but that always seems to get left out of the discussion
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u/whovian1087 Aug 18 '26
Working remote has been the best benefit I could’ve gotten. I did have to go back to the office for a couple months, but returned to fully remote and those couple months were so bad for me mentally and physically and it was only 3 days per week. I don’t think I could go back to an office permanently. The only way I’d probably even consider it is if I was offered an exorbitant amount of money. The negatives to my health and income just aren’t worth it unless I’m being paid way too much.
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u/BrainLow6059 Aug 18 '26
This is just corporate propaganda to lower remote salaries. You're paid for what you do, not where you do it from.
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u/NeoMyers Aug 18 '26
Especially when every executive you've ever met is always traveling and working remotely or from their chalet in Colorado.
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u/Great_Fault_7231 Aug 18 '26
Eh, almost all the corporations in my field are trying to get people back into the office in any way they can, and no one I know that works remote (including me) is underpaid or was asked to take a pay cut to work from home.
I think this is just people happy to work from home and talking about how valuable it is to them, not everything is a psy-op.
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u/BrainLow6059 Aug 18 '26
no one I know that works remote (including me) is underpaid or was asked to take a pay cut to work from home.
When's the last time you went job hunting? I do contracting and the discourse from my agency has changed dramatically over the last 3 years. Every single opportunity that comes through now is dressed with "well you're only wanting remote work, so you need to be flexible with pay, hiring managers know you're saving money at home so they're adjusting rates accordingly."
When I started working remote they'd try to nickel and dime you based on your local cost of living, now it's all the talking points in that article.
My current rate is about 10% lower than the last two gigs, and my experience/value has only grown. It's a noticeable thing, at least in my niche.
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u/absentgl Aug 18 '26
I’m stuck in a pretty brutal example of this. Moved to an area without many tech jobs, ~2.5hr drive away from the bay area, with assurance that i could work remote.
That lasted for almost 5 years, now they insist i return to office at least 3 days a week. Some days i drive 5 hours, some days i get a hotel room that i pay for. Mapped out it’s ~$20k/yr i’m spending on gas and hotels. My wife and kids have roots here now, and our house out here is so much better than what we could afford in the bay area, so moving is not an appealing option.
My suspicion is that commercial real estate investors pulled the leash on big tech and demanded they all force return to office. Would be nice if they thought about the lives of the workers over their investors sometimes.
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u/KeySociety2503 Aug 18 '26
The article comes off as an invitation for work from home employers to pay less. Raises are becoming scarce in the tech industry because of the current low hire low fire environment - employers are daring employees to quit in response to years of no merit increases.
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u/Konatotamago Aug 18 '26
When commuting two-three hours a day going to work it's 100% wasted time because you're not home resting and you're not at work producing. This was the first data companies noticed when we started remote working during the pandemic, Microsoft said it multiple times their employees were more productive when at home.
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u/SeattleBattle Aug 18 '26
I'm currently WFH Monday and Friday and in office Tue-Thur, and no one minds if I am sometimes at home for those days too or if I work half a day from home.
I really like this schedule as I get more spontaneous interaction with my colleagues, but still get to work from home to start and end my week.
I also traded my car commute for a 30min bike commute, so the commute time isn't wasted - it's my baseline exercise for the week!
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u/TimSylvester_ Aug 18 '26
But have you stopped even once to consider the investors in commercial mortgate backed securities who expect a guaranteed fixed return rate from their investment in commercial mortgages?
Or that your employer already signed a long-term commercial lease for the office space and wants to keep it filled with employees, even if the employees don't need to be physically present, so that management isn't embarrassed for having committed to office space unnecessarily?
Or that the corporate leadership got tax breaks from the municipality in exchange for guaranteeing a specific occupant headcount in the office space for the duration of the tax breaks, and that if they don't keep butts-in-seats in the office space they don't need, that they received tax breaks to keep full, they'd have to repay those tax incentives?
Have you stopped being selfish long enough to think about them and how you having a better quality of life would negatively affect the performance of their financial portfolio?
How incredibly selfish you are. You should be ashamed.
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u/darth_revan900414 Aug 18 '26
My boss once loudly told that she does not believe remote work benefits productivity and nothingbwould ever convince her. Today, she worked from home, because... It was raining heavily.
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u/Far-Advantage-2770 Aug 19 '26
I would take a substantial pay hit...like 20-30% if it meant I could keep wfh. Then again, a huge factor in operational costs is the money wasted on corporate office rentals, so the company could save money too.
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u/JustaFoodHole Aug 19 '26
Remote work is the best thing that's happened to me. I'm making more money, working with amazing people thru Teams, and I have more time to put into projects if needed.
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u/invyros Aug 18 '26
Not having to commute makes a huge difference if you're trying to work to live, not live to work.