Should remote workers return to the office?

I think that it should be based on metrics if a company or organisation is smart. I would look at costs vs productivity and I'd also look at absences through sickness and injury. If productivity is equal to or greater than pre-pandemic levels and costs and/or absences are lower then it would be stupid to change anything.

they can goof of at work as easily as at home.

I had a work from home job for about 14 months after I retired the first time and I had a quota. If you didn't meet the quota then they would find someone who could.

They ended up going hybrid and require 1/2 of your time in the office. I think it was mainly to justify the big buildings they bought.

It's a win for the employers - they can hire twice as many people with the same office space and only have to pay for the computer equipment.

Some jobs can't be done at home but for the ones that can - shoot - why not.

It depends on the job. None of my work could have been done remotely, so I had to be in the office. My daughter-in-law can do most of her work from her home office, and the company flies her to other locations when needed. That made it easy for her to move with her husband when he took a new position in another city.

why municipal and government employess? Seems arbitrary, so you must explain why.

I always had to go into work, just the nature of my work, so I'm curious.

Why? Before the pandemic, economising on office space and encouraging workers to be more flexible were seen as the key to improving productivity. As soon as an idea becomes popular among workers, all of a sudden there is an assumption that there must be something wrong with it . .

If government employees had not worked from home during the pandemic, entire economies would have collapsed.

There is an advantage to remote work: less car traffic, fewer people on the road.

If there is a downturn in the economy and big companies start cutting staff who do you think will be the first go?

My case: technology development, software and hardware.

Remote work needs to be ended. Productivity is way down, relative to pre-pandemic, even though we used the latest and greatest set of tools to manage the Agile development cycle (GitHub, Jira, Confluence, Slack, Zoom, etc).

Cooking, answering the phone, answering the door, watching TV, talking over each other during Zoom meetings, wasting half the meetings going over "I can't hear you", "I need to reconnect", "the neighbor is blowing the leaves", "I can't really see the full whiteboard", "let's wait for Jack to get on the call", spending a half hour trying to figure out if Jack can make a call in 30 minutes, and so forth and so on.

Each developer is doing no more than half the points they used to do pre-pandemic, and I can never guarantee that they're not doing two jobs simultaneously, or more.

In our case, the Central business district wants workers to return to bring bak business to the cafes and restaurants through the week. But it eases the strain on Public transport and parking..😷

There is some cross-fertilization of ideas and actions missed in total remote work. There is also the needed human element of a socialization that helps set apart humans. On the other hand, there are some jobs that work well remotely.

If you can do your work remotely, soon AI will be doing that job. I know women think it is a godsend (and for them situationally it is if they have young kids at home), but if I was a computer programmer, I would systemmatically target these profession so as to eliminate them. Clearly the businesses don't need them physically around, just need the end product which is a few buttons pressed. A AI can do that. So you'll see alot of women currently empowered and flushed with funds and a carefree lifestyle unemployed in the next generation when further advances in automation arrive.

Hmm, that poll is a tad "loaded", is it not?

I think I know what you believe on this question.

Bwa ha ha! Also your user name is "sevendays"....😆

Who are you to make that judgement?
They say remote workers actually get more done

some of us never got to stay home in the first place. being essential and having to actually go to work aint for everybody though. LOL

Why would the rest of us (unemployed, retired, non 'remote' or otherwise unaffected) Care ???? 🥴

But if your office is already at home, there's no need to return, 'cause you're already there.

No, keep people off the roads that don't need to be there.

Why?
I work from home and i work bloody hard - so do my team.

People can waste time in the office. I know, because I used to have an office job. I would go to work stoned, have vodka in my water bottle, and play computer games in between answering phone calls lol

I could do a certain percentage of my work at home.,But most needed face to face human interaction.

Sadly some people are inherently lazy and need constant supervision. Sad but true.

A precedent has been set. Another consequence of Covid. I have always worked from home. I sure don't want to go into the office now. the noise bothers me

Why?

Depends on whether or not it’s economical for the company.

No, I'll just go find another remote job.

The longer people remain at home doing remote working, the more socially inept they tend to become. Teenagers are already socially inept as a result of using hand-held devices instead of congregating socially at a mall or at a favorite hang out. Teens rarely get together anymore because they have no reason to.

how does anyone get anything done when working from home? i'd be so distracted