This is a question about my past. What made me go back to the office was having not one but two little kids at home. The office is a much more quiet space.

The commute does not bother me much, it’s 12 minutes by bike, half the trip trough forest.

A few things that would help:

A 4 day work week with both ends of the day brought in to maybe 10-4 (sorry didnt mean 10-3). Things like going to the bank require me to either run during my lunch break or do it on a day off. 4x10-4 means i have a day and edges of days to do tasks i can't do on the weekend.

Unlimited PTO. If my tasks are done and I'm paid a salary there is no reason i need to sit around doing nothing. If more work is expected then I'd expect more compensation.

And lastly mandatory cost of living connected to inflation every year. My last job started during the pandemic. In 2 years the effective inflation rate was 15% and yet i was only given 3% over that time while getting good marks on my reviews. That means in that time i was paid a crazy amount less my last day than my first. I dont care about the actual number of dollars I'm paid but I'd like to buy the same number of eggs mext year as this year if I'm expected to do the same amount of work. This shouldn't be thought of as a bonus, but rather keeping my level of compensation matched woth my level of expectations for my job.

As everyone else is saying it'd take a significant bump in pay that not only offsets my incurred daily commute expenses but also gives me a meaningful weekly take home increase.

Plus I work better by myself at home where I can control my daily interruptions vs having to put up with annoying coworkers in-person who could just walk into my office whenever they wanted so I feel like going back to an office would impact the quality of my produced work.

Enough money that I can retire in six months. So idk, like, call it a cool $4M/yr and I'm yours in office for 6 months. Otherwise I guess MAYBE my same salary at somewhere walking distance where I only have to work 3 or 4 days a week at 8 hour days.

My mental health is just so much better working from home. The upside would have to be enough to balance that and realistically nobody is actually going to do that.

I moved during the pandemic when we were all remote. But let's pretend I went back to the office near where I used to live.

I would expect it to be an inviting, colorful environment. Put effort into decorating . Give me an office with windows, and a door. Not a gray cube and off-white walls that feels like I'm going to die in it. Other incentives like a guaranteed parking spot would be fantastic. Maybe provide lunch. I think Google at least used to provide a great office environment.

I would also want more money because transportation is very expensive now. And it takes time. That's less time with my kids and to handle chores properly. Often cost saving chores.

Nothing. I refuse to go back.

1. Commute as part of working hours.
2. Reliable public transit, with the monthly pass paid by work.
3. Salary increase of at least 15%.

I feel all of these are relatively realistic and achievable by my workplace except for reliable public transit which is out of their hands. Thankfully they're still remote first though there have been a few indications that this might change.

What would get me into the office? Physical force.

If I had to just bring it the one big thing it would be If my commuting time counted as work time - so I could be home the same time when I’d be normally finishing if I was working from home.

If that was the case I wouldn’t exactly like having to go back to the office, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world

It’s totally unrealistic, work doesn’t owe this to me, I moved over an hour away knowing there would be this commute…. But that was before I had a kid and covid started us working from home

Now my priorities are different - I want to be there in the morning and help them wake and get ready for the day. I want to be home when they finish nursery for our evening and bed time routine. That time is absolutely precious and I could never get it back if I missed out.

There’s a million other things that make working from home great that has absolutely nothing to do with being a parent. But for me that there is worth so much I’d find it hard to imagine a salary big enough that would convince me to give that time time up.

Double my salary, then we'll talk.

Everyday, a blowjob, a nice glass of whisky, and a good cigar. A nice desk, made with oak or something.

Also shit tons of money.

And the ability to show up at 10 and leave at 3.

Still interested?

Systems Engineer/.Net Developer here. Currently have a super flexible hybrid setup. I work from the office 2-3 days a week. My commute is about 15 minutes when I decide to go to the office.

I like seeing my coworkers, using the awesome conference rooms, free snacks and coffee. Change of scene keeps me focused and motivated.

My main motivation for working where I do is that nobody gives a shit what I'm doing or where I'm working from day to day. We're all professionals working to deliver our projects on time. How we deliver is up to us.

If my boss told me I had to start coming to the office every day at some set time, I'd immediately start searching for a new job.

If it was very close, like under 10min bicycling, and if I had my own office room like the director/CEO has. I hate open plan offices with a passion.

500k salary

Higher salary, free lunch, commute costs covered. And should be hybrid instead of all five days in the office (Tues-Thurs).

Double my pay and cut my hours by 50%

Absolutely nothing

• 200k min salary (I'm currently paid 5 figures)
• 4 hour workdays
• 4 day workweek

And this is the single most important piece

let me go home when I'm done with my work

My commute was, at best, 30 minutes each way driving myself. Public transportation would easily double that time and could easily be even worse.

Compensate me for that time at my full rate of pay or higher plus IRS mileage and I will START thinking about it.

My work environment also matters. Open floor plans suck ass and kill productivity. Pony up the money and give everyone offices with doors that close. My productivity at home is much higher because I am not sitting on a busy aisle across from a noisy meeting room.

I do miss being around people, I feel more isolated doing wfh. But the tradeoffs are pretty dismal against going back to the office.

I'll have to go with "a shitload more money." An extra 1.5 hours added to the workday in commute, less time with family, less healthy lunches, less freedom, etc. means it would take a large monetary incentive for it to even be a possibility. Twice my current salary, at least.

Collusion among employers.

Actually fostering collaboration.

Double my salary. Even then It'd be tough. Working from home has so many benefits. Plus my entire team is in a different state, so going into the office would be pointless.

TLDR: I would friggin' love to be back in the office for a couple days a week. Would probably never do onsite every day for any boss but myself again.

I've experienced both pure remote and hybrid remote, as well as existing for about 45 years in a world where remote work was a mythical thing you heard about but only saw on television. Even at the time that my office was 1.5 hours drive each way, I absolutely loved when I was a Sysadmin and spent three days a week at home and two at the office.

Covid came and I got full time remote for close to two years and I really did hate it, especially since when it started I was in the first couple months of a new role I had been promoted to with no experience - had I not built up a lot of love from my employer in the previous role (the promotion happened for reasons, basically I had scripted my job down to nothing at all so it was kind of a freebie for them) I would have busted out but they basically let me coast and learn whatever I could for the duration, before going under.

Had I been able to be in the office and work alongside my new teammates in that role, I would today be much further along in my career arc. I'm still doing okay, but it would have been so much better to have been in the same room with them. And as it happens, my current job is also fully remote and my employer is great but based in a different city, so at the moment unless I move halfway across the continent I'm stuck fully remote. And I like my employer, have no interest in leaving, and I think they like me, even in my current state, so probably I'm stuck there for good. Boohoo lol.

I do realize that my problems are non-problems, in actuality; I'm doing fine. But if I had my druthers I'd be going into an office and standing around the coffee machine for small chats and eating the free croissants they give out on Wednesdays. I'm not very social and those little interactions, from which one had a constant "gotta get to work" excuse to dip out at will, were just the perfect level of socialization for me, really. Going to the office is not remotely all bad, really.

But I also remember being power tripped on and micromanaged by various scumbags, so when I see these corporate fuckwits demanding everyone just make things like they used to be, I know what they're trying to do, so in the end I think if the job is doable remotely, it's up to the individual whether they want to go in, and in the long term employers are just gonna have to figure out how to handle that equitably. One instant thought I had was, pay a premium for onsite roles, or for hours done onsite. If it's really that crucial to operations that will be a sound strategy, just the cost of doing business.

Oh, I immediately went back. I don't do well at home, I need to be at the office. Otherwise I'll just nap all day. Also, I like seeing people, I need that daily socialization with co workers in person.

Make it optional for starters, followed by compensation for gas for anyone coming in.

I cherish my job a lot more (when before I was happy to switch every year). If companies want to retain good employees they’re going to have to adapt to the changes in the market.

Edit: guess I didn’t really answer, I agree with teleporter guy and private office guy. It’s ridiculous to ask people to return to a shared office.

I've already voluntarily started going to the office. My company does not require it, nor does it gain me any particular favors with the company for doing so - either in-office, full remote or anything in-between is allowed.

I've decided to do so because, frankly, our office is out of the world. The amount of free shit I get there on a daily basis straight up rules. The office staff puts on frequent events which I enjoy attending, I get to meet and interact with other people in person as opposed to sitting around in my apartment all day, I'm in the city near all the good food options. There's a whole lot of perks to going in to the office for me, and not a whole lot of negatives.

Some negatives and my reasoning around them:

• I have to wake up a bit earlier in order to get ready for work. This does indeed suck a bit.
• I spend more on food buying lunch from restaurants in the city as opposed to eating leftovers. I see this a bit as a plus, as I get to experience great food made by professionals every day.
• I have to spend some money on transporting myself to the office. It's not a whole lot - public transportation is excellent where I live - but I've mitigated this further by commuting by bicycle, which affords me some quality exercise on the commute, and some great podcast listening time.
• My less flexible schedule affords me less good opportunities for strength exercise. I'm still working on fixing this problem, but right now the bicycle gives me what I consider to be more than enough exercise, all in all.

All in all, I'm happy with my choice. I spent a lot of time working remote during the pandemic, and weighed the upsides and downsides, and going to the office came out on top in the end. I understand that this is not for everyone, and I think everyone that wants to work remotely should get to keep doing so. Hopefully others afford me the same respect in my choice!

I don't have a car, so if I have to go 'back to the office', I will have to use the bus, wake up earlier, and commuting (even with my current employer being 15' away by bus) is still 30 minutes out of my day that I don't want to spend. When I am at home, I can just stand up, play some piano to relax, or have a short shower. Things that help me calm a little bit that I can't do at an office. I also have a better setup than the setup at the company's office, so why bother.

To be honest, as long as companies open remote positions, I don't think I want to go back to any office whatsoever.

5x pay.

I sometimes have to. Not because someone tells me to, but because my physical presence is actually needed.

Sometimes I have to fly in from my middle-of-nowhere home office because whatever system I was troubleshooting wasn't fixable via VPN. And said system can be anywhere in the world, so it doesn't really matter where I live.

So returning to an office based work location? Yeah, that ain't happening..

They're going to have to buy me a car and pay for gas and parking before I'll take a job where I'm full time in the office