[redserk]

Unfortunately a new job, even 5-8 miles away, may turn a then-5 minute commute into a 45m-1hr commute in many metropolitan areas.

I think more management needs to realize that forcing in-person isn't inherently beneficial. There can be value in meeting up if it's appropriately planned, though.

My current management has been very accommodating with remote/hybrid. If there's a meeting where face-time is beneficial, people voluntarily come in -- but there's no pressure to do so. Generally, we find it easier to pop into the office for a day every few months to whiteboard things instead of dealing with Miro/Zoom. We have a mix of remote folks who live next to the office, some folks within a couple hour drive, and some who need to fly in.

A former job of mine used to fly people to the same location 4x a year for a week to hash out a quarterly plan and grab drinks. The whole agenda was laid out and not a minute felt wasted. While not everyone went 4x a year, everyone was given the opportunity to do so, and this helped alleviate friction.

Another job of mine had remote folks fly in every 3-4 months for a couple of days at a time. Some teams did it more frequently (1x/mo for a couple days) when critical projects were in the pipeline, but they'd return to normal afterwards.

[jart]

Oh tell me about it. I used to have no problem with a 2 hour commute taking metro-north because I could just unwind on the train, and I loved walking into majestic places like grand central station. But a 60 minute commute to travel 10 minutes in the bay area flipping destroyed me, because it was nothing but stop and go traffic the whole way.

[epolanski]

With good public transport and metros such low distanced would never take that long.

But Americans just can't give up the freedom of being stressed in their cars.

[redserk]

I'm a big supporter of public transit but this absolutism isn't grounded in reality.

A 5-10mi change in destination in almost every system that I'm aware of can add a tremendous amount of time to a commute.