Who's winning: work from home or return to office? | The Bottom Line

Economists call it “pandemic epiphanies".

During the first year of the COVID-19 lockdowns, people started questioning their life choices. Millions quit their jobs and pivoted to new fields.

When the economy started to open up in late 2021, companies in the United States had to pay more than pre-COVID salaries to recruit workers. American workers gained bargaining power in dealing with their companies.

But attempts to organise into unions are still met with ferocity by the biggest corporations.

Host Steve Clemons discusses the future of work with journalist Liz Hoffman, ZipRecruiter chief economist Julia Pollak and Indeed economist Nick Bunker.


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How has work changed in the post-pandemic world?

[lyl]

Commute to the office is a huge waste of time/energy and stress factor for most employees (especially with deteriorated public transit).
If employees use part of the extra time wasted on the road to work, it’s productivity gain for the companies and happiness gain for the employees.

[Nancys]

I am not applying for jobs who wants us to go back to the office. Its been proved the work can be done at home. Its 2023.. no thank you. We save money from gas, food and most important avoiding car accidents.

[TheCNYMike]

2/3 of the guests were Zooming from home. There's a debate?

[melvinhoyk]

Progression is the key word to whichever company learned from the Pandemic lockdown. Moving on to a more productive, cost-effective, and open option for employees would benefit the company's growth. Those companies that still think returning to the same old belief system after three years of lockdown will suffer mediocre flat-liner growth.

[paranoidthink]

With workplace violence in the US, I'll never work in an office again.

[AbhishekKumar-lprc]

I quit a senior engineering role and have been unemployed for 6 months. But I have learned more about engineering and business than I learned in last 5years of my career. I launched a business 4 months back. Very small personal brand thing but I am making money. And thats good enough for me right now. I will never enter a corporate office again unless its to lead or direct a company I truly believe in .

[EyeOnSciFiPod]

I was fortunate to WFH years before the pandemic. The pandemic proved WFH, well, works. I especially love working form home because, as a Black man, I don't have to deal with racist co-workers and their subtle aggressions. I don't have to deal with asinine office politics and being micro-managed. Plus, all the other WFH benefits: no commute, working in an environment where I'm most comfortable, setting my own hours, and more time to pursue my other interests. If I can help it, I'll always choose WFH.

[jill]

I love WFH, sleeping in, eat healthier, have more time to myself every single day without the commute. In fact, the only thing making me not look for another job is that I'm full time remote...

[ValentinSt]

All depends on your job role. If you are in the IT or finance or hr, you can enjoy on the benefit of working from home and have stress free of traveling. I would never go to work in a office based environment! REMOTE only!

[jaein]

Large companies and corporations did not learn lessons because the government bailouts shielded them from their failures. Why should a large company or corporation stockpile cash when they know the government will bail them out? Why make sound financial decisions as a bank when the federal government will step in and bail us out! No better example I can think of is when the US Government bailout the cruise ship industry. What national interest did bailing out the cruise ship industry serve???

[rontheoracle]

Who's winning?
Return to office = cars manufacturers
WFH = the rest who aren't in the cars industries

[thegamesninja]

RTO means local labor market only. Business thought pandemic meant time out to what was. People moved.

[beggerking]

well i'm so glad i'm still working remote... just got diagnosed with covid ...if i was in office i'd have spread to my coworkers

[Co-opSource]

Dude buried the lead at the end. Remote co-presence tech will make distance immaterial.

[crismarieb]

I quit my job of 15 years during the pandemic. I couldn’t juggle caring for my then 3 year old autistic son and working from home. I had no help and I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to be so isolated. It also took a big toll on my son not being able to socialize and I was stressed so I definitely think it made him stressed. I want to ease back into the workforce again and I definitely want to do remote again but part time.

[Summerdee]

I work from the office 2-3 days per week, but prefer 1-2 days. I am fortunate that my office is only 4 miles from my home and nobody cares what time I come in or what time I leave. On my in-office days, I typically go in around 9:30 am and leave around 4-4:30 pm (but still work at least a minimum 8 hours per day). I can tell you that I definitely get more work done on my remote days, but I do find value in the in person contact and meetings that I get when I am onsite. IMHO, hybrid is the best of both worlds as long as the worker doesn't have a horrid commute. Long commutes are absolutely terrible and that is more important to me than going into an office a couple of times per week. I intentionally chose jobs that were less than 10 miles from my home for the past 15 years. I live in a large metropolitan area, so that is possible for me, but I know it is not possible for everyone.

[solarpoweredheart]

I am appalled by such arguments that ties "work" with "where you work." I grew up understanding that "work" is "what you're actually doing" and "not where you do it."

So to say that "I am lazy" because "I don't want to go to the office" is a stupid and unfair statement. Especially if my weekdays are really dedicated to doing work 8 to 10 hours a day at home or anywhere else.

[mitebcool]

It shows the complete hypocrisy of those who wish to reduce carbon emissions, we want to reduce carbon emissions but only by making your life worse! not better!

[ShaunboloshisII]

Post - pandemic. We will all retrn to the office for round 2 pandemic time.

[greglyons]

If you do not want me your rivals will.