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by DiggyJohnson 1050 days ago
I prefer RTO and being in the office with the entire team. That doesn't make me crazy, and I know several others on my team feel the same way.
5 comments

Your preferences would do a very quick 180 if you had a commute over a certain length in order to get to the office.

Understand that your current preference is a result of being in an advantageous living accommodation next to the office building your company is leasing.

I live in the city center and so by choice. My office is a 12 minute drive away with rarely any traffic. I'm in a medium COL city not known for its tech scene. I don't live "next door" to my office, though that would be awesome if I could.

> Understand that your current preference is a result of being in an advantageous living accommodation next to the office building your company is leasing.

I prefer to go to the beach or the park in my free time, but my preference would certainly change if there was hurricane outside. In that case I'd rather stay indoors.

Obviously my experience would differ if I had a 30+ minute hellish commute. The only teammates that have a commute this long choose to do so as a tradeoff (e.g. more house).

I guess this response and tone surprise me because it seems obvious. There are clearly tradeoffs made when we choose where to live and where we work (including WFH or in-office policy).

I don't think anyone is trying to prevent people who prefer that from forming teams and even companies around the practice.

We're trying to prevent reverting to that being the mandatory norm for all workers though.

I don't mind occasionally being in the office with my entire team. The problem is that my team is split across three offices in different cities.

We have folk who prefer to work from the office, and that's fine. But it makes team meetings more challenging than they are when everyone's at home.

When we were only spread across two offices, we'd occasionally have a team day in one or other of the offices. But the third office is much further away.

Oh certainly: in the case of distributed teams I much prefer WFH.
Aren't distributed teams basically the norm nowadays? It has been a long time since I worked with my whole team in a single office.

Between outsourcing, satellite offices and remote employees, almost no team I see nowadays has everyone in the same office.

It does make you selfish, though. You'd force people who don't want to RTO into the office because you prefer it?
No, it's not selfish. There are enough remote and in office companies, if you're at the wrong kind of company leave.
I really don’t understand what people are gaining from telling others what to do. Flexibility buys freedom for all employees to live the lifestyle they want. As long as it does not impact your goals or your employers goals I don’t really understand what the real issue is here.

If the shoe were on the other foot how would you feel if someone forced you to be remote?

Why do you not see it as symmetrical? A WFH policy is not my preference, yet I don't feel "forced" to put up with it if that is the policy of my team / company.

What am I missing?

Do you enjoy the unpaid commute time?
Yes, yes i do. It gives me some time to physically and mentally detach from work when going home, and it gives me time to read up on news, catch up with friends, family, etc.

"But you could do that from home": yes, but i wouldn't.