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My niece works for a big Pharma and is in this situation as well. Her team and manager are all based in another state. And yet she is required to come in 2 days per week, which she says has had zero benefit for her work or growth.
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That seems to be just the employer asserting power over the employee if there is no benefit to being in the office (like in person interaction).
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Seems like going into the office would be most useful when groups of people who work together choose the same days to go in, so that they gain the benefit of in-person interaction. Coming into the office just to have remote video conference meetings with your co-workers does not seem to be worth the commute.
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My husband and I went to Starbucks next to a āluxuryā apartment building near my daughter. 10am on a weekday, packed! I wondered why all these people? WFH! Maybe Starbucks should be the new grocery store. Except everyone would have to put down their phones.
I think for the extroverts, they will be able to meet people whatever the situation. Itās harder for introverts and they may have been helped by an in office environment.
In the case I was thinking of with the groups on different days, the department had three teams and so each team came in on the same day, but the different teams did not overlap their work days.
Except the introverts are totally happy not having to do those āmeet and greetsā! 
They donāt need help, they like it that way!
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love they hybrid model! both my partner and i are doing that; and D16 was offered her first job yesterday (architecture!) where she is in office T,W,R and home MF. I think that sounds perfect.
Sister who works in large tech firm told me their policy: people can work remote from anywhere if job allows it. However, pay is differentiated to the location, and everyone has to be available during west coast work hours.
Friendās work wonāt allow remote work from other states (although at home) because of tax reasons. Partnerās work requires random drug tests for federal reasons so people must be nearby.
but after being in the office 5/days a week for 30 years, my husband Really LOVES hybrid.
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DD had to go into work on a Monday to get her computer fixed. She was the only one on her floor in a skyscraper in SF. Eventually decided it wasnt safe and went home. I guess it counts as her in office time for the week.
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My daughter works on-site, but she is by herself all day (she photographs food and other items for a local supermarket chain). She convinced a few of her college friends to move here. Portland is a wonderful city for young people so she has quite the social life. She has thought about moving but realizes she has a pretty nice setup at this point. Iām glad! My sisterās daughter, the same age, lives in South America so I know Iām lucky to have my D so close.
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My remark was for young people in a new to them environment. I donāt need any meet and greets or icebreakers.
One of my kids really struggled moving to a new city. There was an orientation for new hires. It was great for forming new friendships. Just having people and organized things to do was helpful in those first months.
Especially for companies that hire a new crop every year, this is vital. Especially for those who are shy and not outgoing. WFH eliminates all of that.
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My D was saying yesterday that the one benefit of covid/remote has been able to keep connections no matter where she lives because so many people are comfortable using teams/zoom/FT. During Covid, her co op company held biweekly mentoring nights where they paid for everyoneās dinner, they did virtual games and the winners got company swag, and then there was the actual mentoring component. It meant she got to know the whole team, regardless of where they were located, and now that things are back in person, she has a group of people she knows and considers friends. Plus they still do the online meet ups because there are so many different site locations so some are still scattered.
She has been able to meet and make friends wherever sheās lived (and sheās been in five states in five years of coop/internships) but sheās the first to say that itās way easier when working in person. Her last internships, the company did all kinds of team building with the young hires. Everything from sports outings, to picnics, to a sunset cruises. She has friends who are fully remote who havenāt met a single co-worker in person. I think that would be very, very hard!
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I find the pay differential for location so interesting. It makes sense I guess, but just havenāt thought about this before in my own world work.
Iād like to hear a little more about peopleās situations/thoughts about this.
As it relates to this thread of course.
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Among my kids and their friends, the young people uniformly want full in person work. My son is looking for even an in person freshman internship. My older son turned down internships that were remote. Indeed I am going into work 2 days a week at the request of young people in the office who want mentorship.
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What Iām hearing in my circle is that there isnāt necessarily a salary difference between high and low cost of living sites, but there are differences in relocation and bonus amounts to help with the offset. But, this is for companies with in person requirements.
I read recently that companies who were going to adjust salaries for remote workers had to dial back on that because they were losing too many people.
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I once worked for a woman who was dying to be a grandma and she encouraged me to bring the baby in. I was working part-time and had a reasonably well-behaved baby, but he never slept. I did almost all my work with the kid in a sling. When he started crawling it was off to daycare!
I think you might be able to be productive if you can make up lost time in the evenings, or if you donāt have a full time job, so you can build some down time into your hours.
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There is no legal mandate to accommodate remote work requests. I donāt see how that would make sense or happen.
The move to PTO was a shift that occurred over a decade ago at many companies. Itās just a way of accounting for usage of time off of work for any legally mandated reason. I hope that clarifies my response. Itās not a restriction. WFH or fully in person should not affect how an employee accounts for their time working. HTH.
My partner works for a company like this (was hybrid-2 days/week WFT, 3 days in person, for four months in 2020 and fully in person after that). He actually got praise from the CEO when the hybrid work thing ended in July 2020 for being productive at home relative to his colleagues. July 1 he was back in the office full time and thatās that.
I just deal. He makes a lot more money than I ever will, so it is what it is. Heās not making a crazy amount, either, but we are comfortable. We are still in that wealth-accrual stage of life, so we have to.
He probably gets a call a week from a recruiter, too, but none of the available opportunities have been able to tempt him to leave. It seems like companies are looking to save money on middle management and C-suite with this WFH/hybrid thing. He gets calls from firms seeking leadership all over the country.
This is where the company can play a huge role in creating an empowering WFH culture. 100% WFH does not always (or need to) mean that employees never gather in person - just that there are no weekly requirements to work at the company office. My Dās company holds in-person team days, all-company onsite days, and all-company off-site retreats, plus occasional happy hours. They also provide volunteer group service opportunities several times per year. For the all-company and larger team events, they fly in the employees who work out of state (a small subset of their workforce of approx. 100 employees.) A new-hire orientation can be done in person, especially if āa new cropā is being on-boarded. When my Dās team was given a new-to-the-company manager, the manager met with the team in person and also took each of them out for a coffee meeting. Iām sure WFH is challenging for an introvert as is moving to a new city - Iām not arguing that point at all - but itās not an absolute that WFH eliminates any opportunity to meet colleagues in person and build relationships.
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Iām confused. My post was about my kids restrictive PTO policy. The next job was more accommodating, itās a positive change.
@Embracethemess I was responding to @abasketās comment that introverts are happy being left alone in the office.
My husband was so annoyed by meetings that had these icebreakers and get to know you meetings. I was saying that they have a purpose for new workers. Either in person or WFH.
Personally I think the hybrid approach is a great new way of working. We all needed some flexibility and it feels like the pandemic reset some old ārulesā. Itās better for everyone. I think some people are more productive in the office and some are at home. I personally think that being in an office setting, part time, has some advantages.
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Question- Are they are going to decrease the work from home income because of commute costs? or time to commute? How about using your own place for an office-electricity-phone-internet- etc? Does that get compensated, too? I know the tax laws are way too hard to navigate for most to get tax credit.