Elephant in the room: how many of these people would prefer it to having a private office? Strangely, this article/survey/infographic never mentions that option.
I'd prefer remote work, too, over sitting in an open floorplan office, but I'd much prefer an actual office to either one. The easy "why" is: despite all the drawbacks, a lot of us will do pretty much anything to get out of an open floorplan.
But, there are big advantages of remote work over private offices:
1. Lower cost to the company. Private offices are expensive to build and maintain.
2. Less commute time to the employee. Private offices still require commuting which impacts the environment and the employees personal time.
3. Job flexibility. Home workers have (or will have) more options for employment.
4. No relocation expenses. Relocating an employee costs a few thousand dollars, hiring them and letting them stay put is cheaper.
5. Maintain ties to community.
6. Distribute income geographically. Offices concentrate incomes into a small geographic area. The effect is compounded by global companies as the worlds revenue streams feed into a single area. Think about how inflation and costs are out of hand in Silicon Valley.
#6 might be the only real chance the US has of having less divisive politics. Moving the upper middle class and wealthy out of cities could change the game entirely by making the political extremes less concentrated geographically.
5G may help to at least some degree. Most people don't need Gigabit or anything like that. But it's nice to have a better alternative to satellite and (sometimes) hotspots which are your only options if you can't get broadband today.
- Accountants/lawyers are also expensive to employ, and remote workers that live in N different states will require accountants/lawyers that are experts in tax/employment laws of said N states.
- Requires much higher quality of team communication and coordination (of requirements, workload, work scope, expectations, etc), which can be hard to achieve.
> 1. Lower cost to the company. Private offices are expensive to build and maintain.
You're just pushing that cost to the employee. Are you paying them the amount saved, to furnish their own private offices? Or are you just penalizing the worker to save a buck?
> 3. Job flexibility. Home workers have (or will have) more options for employment.
I have not seen this. Most companies still don't offer remote work.
> 4. No relocation expenses. Relocating an employee costs a few thousand dollars, hiring them and letting them stay put is cheaper.
Again, maybe it's different now, but I've worked at several tech companies, and never been offered "relocation expenses".
> 5. Maintain ties to community.
What does this mean? The company? The worker? It seems like the company not employing local workers, and the worker not leaving their house, would be worse for community all around.
> What does this mean? The company? The worker? It seems like the company not employing local workers, and the worker not leaving their house, would be worse for community all around.
No, like an actual community. Like people who live near each other and don't necessarily share a corporate brand but take care of each other and share memories and build traditions. People naturally have communities based on place, so getting hired and forced to move for that job disrupts communities. It's better for the everyone's social and psychological well-being to stay put.
> 1. Lower cost -> You're just pushing that cost to the employee.
This one does seem to be a relatively common thing, at least in recent job posts I've seen. I can imagine it's not all that common if you take a step back, but quite a few companies have given what I consider very generous monthly stipends for use in personal offices or (co-)workspace expenses.
If you're actually working from home as opposed to a co-working space, home office expenses are usually easily offset by commuting expenses, lunches, even clothes that you incur by going into an office.
I mostly work from home and incremental work-related expenses are pretty small. Maybe I buy some computer gear I wouldn't have if I worked at home less. But the expenses are pretty much trivial relative to commuting.
This just goes to show you how path dependent things are. I have been given an equipment budget for home office (not to mention the cost savings of no commute), and I have also had relocation expenses covered for multiple moves, including international.
Not me. Not most of my remote team. Most of them do have a private office, in their own home. The flexibility to work when you want, where you want, live where you want, visit family without needing to take vacation, etc. That all adds up to a great working life. One of our guys even spent the summer road tripping out of a custom camper van, and working the whole time from various parks.
The problem people have with remote work is when they don't change their lives to embrace its flexibility. When they try to emulate their office life, just in their home. Not only does that not help them reach their peak efficiency, it completely misses out on the opportunities of remote work.
How do you visit family without needing to take vacation?
I guess you're blurring the line between "full-time from a stable remote (home/coworking/etc.) office" and full on "digital nomad".
I work full-time remote and I think there's a huge difference between working from a stable office and wandering around working from a camper van or ducking out for personal travel while on the clock? It's hard to imagine that the latter type of employee would be ready to quickly respond to incidents, to sync with their team on short notice, etc.
Everyone I visit has an internet connection and a quiet place I can work. I spend much of the day working, and then walk out and spend time with family. And yes, I am blurring those lines. That was kind of my point - that working remote can be far more than just locking yourself to an office in your home and working the same as you would in an office.
Sure, if you take business days off to fly across the country, that could go badly. But I tend to travel on weekends. And my family understands that I might get a message and go hop onto work for an hour or two.
Most of the remote workers I know would turn down a job that expected 8 hour shifts of "butt-in-seat"-style working environments. The whole concept of "on the clock" is alien to how my teams work.
Not the person you're replying to, but my family works too, so I can visit them and then we hang out on the evenings and weekends. Everyone is still working during the day.
Where I work, we have core hours (12-4 Eastern) that everyone is supposed to be online, but otherwise your schedule is up to you, so it allows considerable flexibility. In practice though, it's even more flexible. Part of remote work is that you're no longer glued to your desk. Your output is what matters, not where your butt is.
I do it by working during the day and spending time with my family and friends at night. I typically "work from home" for a week around Thanksgiving and Christmas where "home" is my home town instead of my personal residence. The day is spent working, the evenings are spent with family and friends I wouldn't otherwise get to see. I can even use my lunch hour to take my nephew to the park. I'm no less available than I would be in the office or at my apartment.
Depends on the role. Some dev jobs don't have a support role where one has to "quickly respond to incidents". Or if they do, those incidents are rare. Regardless, you can always call the person if something urgent arises. I have found remote workers more likely to be available than "office" employees, because the latter are in more likely to be in meetings, or at lunch off site.
I had a private office with a door (clouded glass) for five years. It wasn't large but it was quiet, interruptions where rare. It was great and I preferred it to working from home (I've done four years working from a home office).
I thought so too, but now, after WFH for 2+ years, I'd tolerate up to 2h commute a day total - assuming I'm not driving - for a private office at the workplace. Home is much more conductive to focused work than an open plan, but it comes with its own set of distractions.
I dislike commute in general, but as long as I can read a book or use a laptop over it, it can be even more productive time than spending it at home.
Yes, I have a baby here. My ideal imaginary working condition changed from 'working from home' to 'working from a place that is a 10-20 minutes walk from home', and maybe with some colleagues. (And talking to people by typing gives me almost none of that human connection...)
It depends a lot. When I commuted from Redmond to Seattle, that was just a ridiculous amount of time to fill, and transportation options are limited (bus, car, or a really long bike ride). Now I work seven miles from the house, I ride an electric push scooter (Boosted Rev) or the bicycle. If I decide to whip back into ultra marathon shape, I can run to work. I'm not the type to just take the scooter out for a joy ride, so it gives me the opportunity every day to go for a ride along the river. Probably would not have even purchased the scooter if I had no commute, which means I'd still be driving the car three miles down the road for milk. But now I just take the solar-charged scooter if I need something from the store, et. al.
But that same commute in a car sucks ass, so your point stands.
Every company I have worked for has had showers. Even the lousiest office I was working in back in the days had this kind of shower installed in the cleaning room. Did the trick.
A while back I could go from my apartment's front door to my desk in my office in under 4 minutes if I hustled. That was pretty great. Had to move for family reasons and my commute was almost reaching 2 hours one-way on bad days. Couldn't do it anymore.
Not to discredit your opinion, we're all different. For me the commute is worth the benefit of human interactions, seeing my coworkers for lunch and I also go to the gym next to my office. If I could only have my own private office it'd be great...
What prevents you from going out on a lunch with someone or the gym while working remotely? You just have to live in a metro area, not suburbs. I generally have done that for the last 13 years.
Well, you answered the question for me "You just have to live in a metro area, not suburbs".
I'm not saying I couldn't do both of those things when working from home, merely that as an added bonus of working out of an office I end up doing those things more often.
I had a private office for a couple of years. I've also worked in open plan landscapes as well as offices with 4-8 people.
This year, however, I've started working from home a lot. I like it much more than any of the above and generally get so much more done. I can relax and breathe in my own home. Make some tea and sit in the garden when I need to think. My focus, productivity and well being have been through the roof. It also helps that connecting from home saves me an hour's commute each way.
Some things can't be done effectively over VPN (mainly working on Xbox or PS4 specific bugs), but for most tasks it's great.
Maybe I'm missing it, but these still sound like variations on the theme of "my office is lousy so working from home is relatively nicer".
An hour commute is just nuts. According to statistics I found, that's more than double the average. I've worked at places with a 5 minute commute, and they're great. I realize not everyone has infinite flexibility in where they live, but a workplace would have to be pretty amazing in every other way to make me spend an hour every day getting there.
I've worked at places that had a garden or park right outside, and it's terrific to go out there and think. Why don't all knowledge worker offices have this? When I look at what the big tech companies are building, it's certainly not that they can't afford a garden.
We used to know this. Do an image search for "university campus" (those other places where people sit around and think) and you'll see buildings in a sea of grass and trees. Yet do an image search for "company campus" and it's all steel and glass, with greenery only to fill in the small useless spaces between the parking lot and the building.
What good is a workplace for thinkers, if it doesn't include good places for thinking?
You have a few valid points, but seem to be missing a few things, as well.
You say an hour is terrible and talk about an average. Average for whom and where? I live in Sweden, 30km outside of Gothenburg. It's a nice 15 minute walk through a wooded area and along a stream, then a 25 minute ride with the commuter train. On the train I read the latest articles while listening to music or play on the Switch. Once in Gothenburg it's a ten minute walk from the station to the office.
The office isn't terrible and has a lot of good things going for it, including a beautiful rooftop terrace. It's also quite social, filled with people who very passionately share my interests and with whom I play magic over lunch.
The main issue is that it's very busy and I often need peace and quiet. Even when I had my own office and could think uninterrupted it still wasn't as good as being home. It's the comfort of being home, with all my things and a beautiful house in a peaceful neighbourhood with a large garden at the edge of the forest. It would be unreasonable to expect an office in the busy downtown area to be able to compete with that. Also, when I need to think at home I often do household chores, and then they're done and i can spend my whole evening playing with my kids or spending time with my wife.
In Toronto and the surrounding communities, a typical commute is 15 minutes through traffic-choked local streets, 30 minutes on a train, and 15 minutes walking through tunnels downtown. Each part of mine is longer, although I am able to work on the train and count it against my hours. But that's absolutely normal for any tech worker in this city. It's insane. I come in and have a conversation or two over the several hours I'm here, which I could easily have over the phone, and then I begin the monumental journey home.
My home workspace is an airy attic office with a view of trees and houses. My downtown office is an open-plan wreck with exposed pipes and broken chairs. I am pretty certain which one is more conducive to productivity, let alone which one means a higher quality of life.
I have a private office, but we also work from home two days a week (often more than that as various things come up for people).
I come in to the office every day because my wife stays home with our 3 kids. Work from home when home is four people that want your attention doesn't work out very well. The few times I tried it, everyone just got frustrated that I was present but not available.
Maybe in a couple years when the kids are in school working from home will seem appealing. Honestly a ten minute commute and the entire office to myself twice a week isn't half bad.
The difference for many people is more than a ten minute commute. I'd enjoy 20 minutes a day of quiet time, but in my situation it'd be an hour per day.
The trick to making family understand when you're on the clock is training them to treat the closed office door as though it was locked. If you come out of the room, your attention is free game at that point, but once that door is closed, you're not home. Takes awhile of effective communication and discipline, but once enforced makes remote work incredibly enjoyable, even with family at home.
That makes it hard to come out of your office to accomplish a specific task, like grabbing coffee or visiting the restroom. Then your attention's not free game, and you still have to sneak around.
I work remote, and have for ~10 years. I'd take it over having a private office.
Of course, I've arranged my home space around this. I have an "office" at home, with a door and everything, where I can work. I still do a hefty amount of my working in coffee shops, though, which is somewhat akin to the open office experience. I also preferred remote working back when I first started it, and was just occupying my kitchen table or couch.
If I was in SF and thus able to access our office, I might well go in sometimes. But I suspect we'd top out at once a week, or when I really wanted to catch up on that hot nonprofit gossip. Commutes really are horrible things.
Floor plan and commute. I love remote work, but would be perfectly fine going to the office every day if I could afford to live less than a 10 minute walk away and had a private/small shared team office. Since neither of those is likely, remote work all the way.
A private office is the worst of both worlds for me. I have to go to the office, be out of everything that is comfortable for me, to be closed in an office for most of my day? No thanks!
I don't know. I'd assume the order would be remote > private office > open office. I'm full time remote and there is no way I'd prefer a private office. That'd mean a commute, being away from my family and an inferior work environment.
Why would you prefer an office to home? The only situation I could imagine where I'd like to occasionally go into an private office would be if I were single and living alone, so I could see people occasionally.
There's a middle ground I like, which is office rooms that have 2 - 4 people.
I've worked in private offices, home office, open floor plans and small shared rooms. The worst are large open floor plans. My favorite have been offices with rooms for 2 - 4 people. That's the sweet spot, I think.
My favorite of all is mixing that with WFH. e.g., Office M/W/F and WFH Tues/Thurs.
I still vastly prefer the flexibility, cost-advantages, and productivity gains from remote work.
That being said, you have to invest in it. Have a separate room with a door. Spend some money on good ergonomics. Have a good, stable internet connection.
I'm pretty sure this describes exactly what went wrong for me. I worked in an open plan office for 6 years and then for a variety of reasons fled for a WFH arrangement for 2 years with the same company (under the guise of moving to a different city where an office didn't exist). I think in the end I liked being in the office much more than WFH but that what it really represented was a private workspace for the deep no-interuption work. However, I missed being near my co-workers so much that I eventually gave up on it. There's no doubt that I would have never left had I had a private office at the main office instead.
I had a private office for eight years, its not really meaningfully different from a cubicle (I've never worked in an open floor plan). I mean, I could close the door rather than putting on my headphones if noise was bothering me, I could have phone conferences in my office, and I could have private phonecalls without stepping outside. I also had more room for all my crap (ended up with a few old computers sitting around). But those improvements are very, very minor.
Consider the option of open office two days and WFH three other days. I’d find that better than commuting 3 hours round trip through traffic for 5 days.
I created a semi-private space inside my last big office job, and it made a world of difference; colleagues would come to me and discuss things without having to consider whether other people on the team would misinterpret what they were saying.
I think I was probably very blessed to have such an understanding and flexible company to work with, because thinking back, that was pretty crazy.
I just made my own private office in my home. Easily done with cost savings of remote work.
I suspect you mean private office at HQ, or alike. To which I'd say... that'd be a hell of a lot better than tradition or open office layout. But you'd still lose most of the remote benefits for what I suspect is little gain.
I have worked remotely since February, and the startup also rents a shared office, which is mostly unoccupied. However, I have used it only when there is a meeting.
I rather not use my time to commute, and prefer working at home, some cafe, or even nearby park or restaurant terrace on sunny days.
I think this is exactly it. Offices are prettier than ever and also less conducive to work than ever. I bet most people would choose an office with actual quiet workspaces -- even full-height cubicles! -- given that commutes were also reasonable.
I'd take private office and casual dress code over work from home. I live close to the city with a great commute but don't have space for a home office at home.
Haven't seen this as an issue for awhile. I'm old enough that when I started programming I had to wear a tie to work (it wasn't a 'tech' company). Over time and different jobs it changed to golf shirts and khakis to now where if anyone wears more than shorts/jeans and a t-shirt we think they are going on an interview.
Should clarify I'm not in tech. I dress business casual for 4/5 days. It takes a lot of time and effort to deal with selecting, matching, dry cleaning pants, ironing, etc and it's less comfortable than true casual. We don't meet clients so I don't see the issue, just conservatism.
I'd prefer remote work, too, over sitting in an open floorplan office, but I'd much prefer an actual office to either one. The easy "why" is: despite all the drawbacks, a lot of us will do pretty much anything to get out of an open floorplan.