When people said they were more productive from home I called bullsh*t. However, once I went remote I say the same thing. No more gossip sessions, annoying coworkers and the time wasted commuting I spend working.

Who wouldn't' want to escape the toxicity of today's workplace environment? With the gossips, favoritism, microaggressions, evil managers, throwing people under the bus, etc.. I will take remote work over in-person work any day.

Yes. Let’s get back to the office where these managers can sit “in-person” in meetings and be non-responsive and busy all day. Management seems to have the biggest issue with work and life balance.

"Face to face mentorship" means they have a tight leasing agreement that can't be corrected. I have worked remotely for the majority of the last 12 years. I am happier at home and I excel. In the last year, because my company understands that working remote is not a disadvantage to either of us, I have been promoted twice and gotten a 50% raise. And I am happy!

It's absolutely ridiculous to cause people to go into an office when the job can be done remotely from home. Look at how clean the air got in California when we were on lockdown and there were few cars on the streets. With global warming, I think as many people who can work from home should work from home. Any CEO reading this needs to understand that this is the future, not the office.

I’ve been at ATT for 25 years in one of the engineering departments. I have my own work, I rarely interact with anyone on my team. They are slowly pulling us back to the office for no good reason. I am much more productive without having to spend time commuting to a disgusting and dirty office full of unmasked people coughing and sneezing all day. I believe going back to the office is mainly a result of upper management starting to realize that with no office environment they are not not needed (they’re not needed anyway). It’s a complete waste and thank goodness I’m retirement age and plan to leave this sick world of nasty, miserable managers who take out their personal aggression on the employees. I’m counting the days.

I've been fully remote since March 2020 with the option of going into the office as of September 2021. It's the main reason I've stayed with my organization. The flexibility has been life changing.

Working in the office made me really hate my job, and is quite frankly depressing. You're not meant to be put in a cube for 8 hours a day, and listening to others talk about how they hate their job/life. WFH actually made working enjoyable and fun. In fact, I would argue that it's the lazy employees that want to go back to the office, since they can simply portray themselves as working from merely being physically present.

Being able to work from home in Ohio for the last two years has not only saved me money, it's saved me time from commuting, especially in the winter. Once my company changed to a hybrid schedule I was upset. I would literally go into work, finish my job within a few hours and literally had nothing to do the rest of the time. I have since found a new job that is fully remote. I am no longer wasting my life doing nothing when I have no work to do. I can accomplish 10x in a day if I am in the comfort of my own home.

Love working from home. I take less time off, and Im able to spend more time home with my family. Less money being spent on gas and food, less wear and tear on my vehicle and a stress free morning from not being in the morning hustle and bustle

My team showed higher productivity working fully remote, but our firm is still pushing for us to be in the office part time. That’s just 2 days a week in the office, but those 2 days are less productive, require the commute, dressing in less comfy clothes, packing lunches ahead of time. I know those are things that people have always done, but they seem absolutely pointless now knowing how much better we performed and balanced our lives at home.

im a college student and i only search for jobs that are fully remote. when i had a job over the summer in office, half of it was just me sitting there because i'd finish my work in a few hours. also as an introvert im fine working from home

I work remotely. My son works remotely. My DIL works remotely. We love it. Our employers love it. It’s a win win situation. We feel valued by our employers because we get to choose where we want to live.

Funny how the only ones who believe in offices still are those who have financial ties to office real estate.

This is hilarious… I have not seen one comment saying that they enjoy working in the office. I have worked remotely since 2009 and it has made my life so much more enjoyable. It is exhausting commuting to a job every morning… Showering… Putting on an expensive outfit… Paying for a lunch during your lunch break… Having to listen to your cubicle neighbors crunching on their Doritos….Avoiding the creepy guy that keeps staring at you when you get out of your seat. It is absolute heaven rolling out of bed in your pajamas and logging in without distractions for eight hours. How can anyone be more productive sitting in a cubicle? It just doesn’t make sense. I gotta say the ONLY positive that came out of Covid was people realizing that work at home made sense.

I retired from a corporate environment over 20 years ago. Believe me, socializing with co-workers was definitely not something I wanted. I worked with these people all week long. My off time was for family and friends and my own time to myself -- period.

When leaders and/or managers make their people work in an office (scope being office workers/computer workers) they are doing it for themselves not for their people. If they are putting their people first they give them the option that makes their employees' lives the most fulfilled.

I really feel for that AT&T employee. 30 years of hard work and loyalty to them, proved she can do her job from home, and the thanks she gets is to have to go back into a crowded office. I hope she takes her talent elsewhere.

This has been my career for 20 years and it’s so much better than to be stuck in an office with a bunch of gossipy, rude, busybodies. Working from home is not playtime, if anything, it’s work harder to prove yourself. Employers get better employees with happy employees.

I've been managing a remote department for over a year now. It takes effort to maintain alignment on our goals. This business of people not being able to collaborate when working remotely is nonsense. We all utilize Microsoft teams to "Ping" someone and quickly chat about a topic. (Just like we do in our corporate office.)

American workers are the most disrespected, disregarded, overworked and never appreciated! I love working from home. It’s literally saving my life.

I just started working remotely, it has been instrumental in allowing me as a single mom to care for my daughter if she is sick without missing work and a day out of my paycheck. Also, it lowers my stress being home with my dog. There are just too many benefits to remote work. Save $ on gasoline Save $ on food costs Lower childcare costs Chores done early Dinner ready at a decent hour Lower stress No gossiping or office drama The list goes on and on...

The mandatory drives to “the office” have been increasingly spiking carbon pollution for decades.

Remote work is the future. Why have people commute and then work in cubes. Mentoring and collaboration in the office is BS. Office buildings are a waste and drain resources that can be used elsewhere. Turn office building into residential spaces like they are doing into LA.

Offices are so craptastic even with all the bells and whistles and perks of a modern office. Can't stand the compulsory socializing with people I would never want to know in the first place

Currently I work two weeks at home; one week in the office. For those two weeks at home, my car rarely moves out of the driveway and I’m cool with that.

Am I the only one who sees the irony in ATT the mobile cell phone company not letting their workers stay mobile. I guess ATT doesn't know how to make things work on a mobile network. Maybe they should ask Verizon.

It is always the managers who think people should go back. They want to keep employees under their thumbs and watch them like hawks. They miss having control over others. Company I work for gave us a choice and no one in my department voted to go back to the office. I love working from home and I cannot stand the idea of ever going back

I turned down two jobs because they wanted me in on a mandatory schedule of 3 (or more) days a week, so I waited and went with a company that has reduced their office space down to one floor in a building and offers us to come into the office as much or as little as we wish by reserving a desk. In my decade experience of work I have never seen the “collaboration” these companies yearn for. Everyone is busy, everyone is running in and out of meetings, everyone has their own life they’re trying to manage on top of that.

My husband works in a startup that is 100% remote since the pandemic that ironically started that way before the lockdown....they plan to stay that way since the founders also like the flexibility with just 1-2 meetups a year...where they just get together...go to a restaurant and drink just to "hang out". Overall, it's his first startup that actually is cash positive and everyone is pleasant to work with he says. He loves how you can hire talent anywhere, do whatever you need to during the day, can do meetings anywhere...it's a balanced life and if he had to find another work, it's easy because he specifically will only request remote openings again from a recruiter.

The mainstream work week made me super depressed, angry, miserable. Now that I choose my schedule, I'm finally content again! I'll *NEVER* do the early hours, commute or pretending to like coworkers ever again. It's literally a life in shackles!

AND a HUGE benefit to remote work is less traffic, less pollution, not spending hours commuting every week...

Some of our offices are just a place to go in and get on a computer all day to do our jobs, and we can do it perfectly fine from home. So yes, some corporations shouldn't have a problem with full time work from home. Wasn't that the big dream of the internet 20 years ago?

My office lost about 15% of our employees due to a mandatory return to the office. After a year and a half, lives changed. We’re hybrid now but to add perspective, while remote, the company easily got an extra 2 hours of work each day from us. Our new space is reminiscent of a makeshift call center - open-air, loud, noisy and farm-like. We’d figured out early on that the return wasn’t about getting work done, but ensuring executives would stay employed. The plus side for me is after my return, I’ve been much more reserved, I don’t engage as much (so I’m left out of the typical workplace BS), I’m better focused, less emotional and as long as I get what was agreed upon during my hire, I don’t question or have input. I’m the employee companies would love to have, but can’t afford to admit it out loud.

There is literally no point in forcing people back to the office 🙄 This entire pandemic proved that everyone can wfh

Working from home for the past two years has been life changing !

I used to get really bad migraines from driving to and from work in Washington, D.C. traffic. Those who know, know it's really stressful. Working from home allows employees to go above and beyond and not stressed out.

'You absolutely have to come into the office' Says every single ineffective leader.

Biggest benefit of working remote. You don't have to endure the bathrooms at the office, especially after lunch.

I find it truly head-scratching that so many tech companies (like Google and the aforementioned ATT) have decided that employees have to be back in the office full-time. As the woman at ATT said "we've been doing the work and doing it well remotely for the past 2 yrs!" I spent my career in clinical (pharmaceutical) research, as a member of the small army of ppl who travel (50%+), making regular visits to sites conducting the research. Fortunately, the industry realized abt 25-30 yrs ago that we folks could be home based: at least half the time you're traveling, and the remainder of the time you're writing trip reports and doing other administrative tasks. It's a win-win situation: you live in the region where you're traveling (not to mention no commute, minimal office politics, etc), and your employer has reduced travel costs, needs less office space, etc. Of course, there were the weekly project conference calls (3-4 hrs. worth some Fridays 😝), and endless emails on a daily basis, so you always felt "connected", but remote work, or a hybrid of remote/office, is the only way to go for many industries!!

I quit my job that was forcing us into the office and found something remote and they pay for childcare. My new company reimburse for childcare, after-school, and summer camp. I don't know why I stayed with my previous company for so long. There are better companies out there don't be afraid to make that move.

I’d rather cultivate my social life through activities that align with my interests and with people of my choosing, not people I am forced to share a work space with.

We need to shift our general perception of the "commute" as a weighty fact of life that should be shouldred by the employee, to one where the companies that profit from our time bear the burden. The time it takes to get to the job site is time that is donated to the business. When housing prices make living close to work nearly impossible, that 2 hours a day adds up to thirteen 40 hour weeks., or more than three months. It is insane that businesses that are primarily computer based are not *majority* WFH. Downtowns could be reshaped into viable communities instead of office tower canyons.

We had 70% turnover within a year since the company started asking people to return to the office. The challenge of WFH is many older managers are not savvy in using digital tools to measure/oversee staff performance effectively; and new hires don’t know enough on how to communicate effectively via digital tools or “see” how hardworking others are. A hybrid model (1-2 days/wk in office) might be the best and companies should offer more flexibilities to WFH for more skilled/productive employees as a reward.

My employer has mostly remote workers and I LOVE working from home.

Companies that allow 100% remote work will attract the best employees and will probe able to offer a slight decrease in pay rate. Employees who work from home don’t quit bc it’s a benefit to work from home and not have to deal with shty coworkers.

Offices are noisy and distracting. People on the phone, people chatting about tv, whatever. After working from home and coming into the office, I couldn't be as productive. All of that stuff about being in office is just a way for managers who don't trust. Collaboration is easy remotely. If all this is were true, how do you explain moving positions overseas where those people are part of a team?

Imagine all those office spaces being turned into housing units- best of both worlds

AT&T: "We don't care about our employees." Enough said...

Many of us use the time commuting for taking a walk or hitting the gym or getting couple of more hours of sleep. This improves ones health resulting in better quality of life. This aspect is never discussed by employers....

I have been working remote for 15 years. I have done amazing things remotely. Them calling workers back to the office is all about CEOs needing power and control. It's been proven that productivity did not suffer as a part of work from home culture during COVID. SMH. What does it cost corporations to keep their employees happy in this way? Absolutely nothing. They can save tons of money on buildings, electricity, telecom. My company does not pay for my phone or internet but I'm happy as a clam. If the job can be done remotely let people work remotely. SMH.

All my team members are out of state but my employer insists in going to office twice a week to do the exact thing I do at home.

I was fortunate enough to keep my job throughout the pandemic and didn’t miss a single day. But I had to go into work every day because I am considered essential. Hearing about people working remotely for 2+ years sounds so foreign to me.

After working from home a year and 4 months, I didn't want to go back. Mainly because I have to take 2 buses and a long walk going to and from work every day. They made us go back 3 days a week and working at home 2 days a week. I begged to work at home 3 days a week and in the office 2 days a week. They wouldn't budge. I'm 65 and have been dealing with the commute for decades. I was burning out so I decided to retire after 27.5 years. I plan on going back to work part-time.

Maybe tear down a huge building and build a park with lots of trees

I worked at AT&T for 18 years and they laid me off when the pandemic hit, I was going to apply to get back on but after working completely remote for other companies I chose not to because I knew they would not be for remote work, I currently work for JPMORGAN working the hybrid model, love it

I’m a business owner. I closed my office in 2017 and set all my employees up to work from home. It was a bit of heavy lifting at the beginning but we were “old hat” by the time COVID forced a shutdown. Our biggest challenge was figuring out how to keep our employees with kids doing remote learning at home productive. So we went to split shifts so those folks could work at night or weekends to get their work done. Business owners should be able to trust their employees and have faith in their abilities. Working from home also helps the environment by keeping cars off the road!

I would be happy to work at home. The office sucks with all the gossip, politics, and showboating. The aforementioned are at the core of "corporate culture"

My company sent us all home March 2020. They decided to keep us all at home by May. They let go of their building and gave us all raises. It took a while but I (with the exception of two people) don’t miss any of my coworkers. I see them all on teams chat, but I do not miss any of the inter-office politics. The office is basically a grown-up version of high school with various clicks. I’ve saved money working from home and am happier. A few of my other coworkers have gone on to other jobs making more money, which is good for them. However I’ve been with the company so long, that I have not been able to find a job that offers me more money. #1stworldproblem

If any company that lets there employees work from home is as productive or more productive than when they had to go to the office, it is a no brainer. Working from home is a benefit that I don't think costs the company much but it is a selling point to prospective employees. There is zero reason not to have work from home if it's possible.

Why does it bother people commenting that companies allow at home work or that people want to? Get a life……seriously how miserable are you that this bothers you?

I do think remote work will boost the *housing market.* Ppl will move to more affordable locations with a decent backyard.

At its most basic level, working remote is a time saver and good for the environment. I'd like to see an end to the Great American Commute.

I enjoyed working with co-workers, however I've never been into the stress and times of commuting. Too many variables on the roads, times, traffic, road rages and gas, most of all the cost of stress and strains of the drive. If it a long commute, the drive tired you out by the time you get to the office.

Working remotely definitely improves my everyday life and health. Not to mention the amount of money I save from my commute and rent. I just go back to my town and have a comfortable life.

The quote at the end of "we've been doing work from the office for 100+ years" is really poignant. Just because we've been doing something for a long time, doesn't mean that it is the best option available to us as a society. Otherwise, I will ride my horse into the office and use my telegraph to communicate to my co-workers and customers....just like we've done for 100+ years. I may even bring my stone tablet and chisel in for note taking, we've used that tool for thousands of years.

I could care LESS about the office and in-person mentorship……that kind of shows bias towards the folks who do care about the in-office presence! The office ain’t my life…..outside of work is my life. I’m not there to be friends, there to make money so I can have a roof and eat (which I’m barely doing with inflation driving prices through the roof; one accident away from being homeless). Outside of that, I don’t care about being in the office.

Being "on site" a few days a week means I can't live where I want to live.

I get Whiteboard and Mentorship virtually. We use Teams and other platforms; being in the office is old-school and a waste of space, destroy the office buildings and create housing, there is no need for in person work in a lot of fields.

Have worked from home since March 2020. So many benefits. Less office politics, no struggles with one co worker freezing while the rest of the cubes are too hot. Able to open a window and get fresh air. No commute. It benefits my employer also. Minimal heating & cooling in the remaining office space, less coffee, snacks for meetings, less toilet paper, paper towels, tissues. Less cleaning, garbage. We were switching to more remote meetings even before the pandemic. Instead of 3-4 people in a meeting, multiple people from many of our locations could meet remotely via Zoom. It is great when we can meet face to face, but if someone has to drive 200 miles for a 2 hour meeting, that’s a lot of cost and productivity lost.

Yelp has it right! ATT get a clue! I work 100,%remote and I love it and appreciate my employer.

I'm finally in a company that allows us to work 100% remote, they call it work from anywhere. We're doing software, it only makes sense. I'm saving a ton of money and I'm more effective. The Yelp CEO is smart. Less foot print = more $ saved. Productivity DOES go up. It IS the future of work.

Working from home is always a good idea to keep people productive, and it looks just like at the office.

Yelp deserves an EXCELLENT review on Yelp. 👍

In some big cities workers don’t even feel safe going back to the office. The walk from a bus or train station to an office building can be scary in some cities. If CEO’s really want workers to come back to the office they will have to address this. Also many office environments are drab and sterile…if you want workers to come back make it a better place to be. Bottom line is a lot of CEO’s don’t understand how much the world has changed. They are used to laying down the law and having people comply. Those days are gone, at least in many industries.

I couldn’t care less where you work from, just get your work done! -Our office boss 👍🏼

I love how stupid the people pushing workers back in to the office think the rest of us are. We all saw how working from home was better for the reasons cited here, not to mention the fact that it has worked for over 24 months. The ones pushing an office setting are mainly those with their own selfish agenda who thrive on toxicity & having things their way. And there will always be back stabbing & conflict-work is still life. But at home it is not in your face for 8 hours a day with a commute and the price of gas adding to your stress level. There are plenty of remote jobs now out there. If you want one it is for the taking. Don't fall for the "or else" bullying tactics.

I had to go back into to the office 5 days a week to sit on zoom all day yet they let administrators work remotely several days a week. I was miserable so decided to take a paycut and work primarily remote for another company and have never been happier.

And you get to avoid the nasty after affects of other people in the bathroom, people drinking all the coffee you made, stealing your lunch. Collaboration can happen just fine without the whole open office bs concept. REMOTE WORK FOREVER.

Since many companies will be permanently remote, there will be lots of commercial real estate sitting vacant. How fortuitous, since we have an affordable housing and homelessness crisis. Convert the empty offices to low cost housing! This is a win-win-win situation!

But it's NOT a crazy idea, it's a no-brainer. Working from home works.

Driving to work gave me anxiety people drive like race car drivers. Glad to be 90% working from home 10% in the office if I need to go in.

great to see the Yelp CEO so upbeat & sending a positive message that companies should just do it & not look back!

It’s waste of space and energy to make people leave their houses to be housed elsewhere for no good reason. It lowers business overhead significantly not just for running cost of the office space but in less insurance cost! What is needed now are tax breaks for remote work, further supported by reimbursement/provision by employers for office furniture and equipment and stringent regulations with penalties that force employers to adhere to breaks and working hour communications (like Germany has). Many people working remotely are putting in many more hours than is reasonable and not everyone has the physical living space to create the healthy separation between work and life. Not everyone can afford to turn on the AC during the day during peak hours but offices with no employees in them are saving a ton turning off the AC and heating because they are vacant. You also need to pay people who must do on site work differently with a differential that covers mileage, wear and tear and hazard pay for exposure to covid. Empty office building can absolutely be converted to house the homeless! We need to think outside the “norm” on this one and asking people to “get back to the office” is not only old thinking it’s actually wasteful. Let’s support this efficient strategy and direct funds to workers who are able to stay home, stop driving around and utilize resources unnecessarily.

I thing some managers or ceos like the feeling of power so having everyone go to the office and get that attention makes them feel some type of way to MOTIVATE THEM. WFH is the best

Remote work = Safer and quieter environment, better lighting, better seating, better air quality, less discrimination, high productivity, no commuting for 4+ hours daily, space for thinking and collaborating, less water cooler gossip, greater work-life balance, better diet options, etc.

30 years of service and no respect from AT&T. Shame on AT&T.

The fact that during the pandemic there were news stories about how the environment was benefitting is a huge factor for me. The savings on fuel and childcare in some instances is enough to benefit most families. Finally you would think Big Business would be thrilled to save millions of dollars spent on renting and maintaining office space but it seems as though shooting themselves in the foot is preferable... Go figure 🤷‍♀️

These companies have to be saving money without these crazy NYC rents.

When the pandemic hit Las year. The childcare center I worked for started offering Zoom sessions for the children enrolled. It was a way for them to see their favorite teachers and their friends again.

My partner is disabled and he struggles with commuting and dealing with office drama. He uses every PTO for doctor appointments or winter storms. He's repeatedly asked to work from home at least half the week and is denied yet his coworkers in the office are leaving to work from home by the handful 😑 it's so messed up!

The truth is that many of the companies have expensive and extensive lease agreements that cannot be broken without a substantial penalty. They make those agreements sometimes a year or more in advance. Also, a lot of those high-rise buildings are owned by pension funds because they were long considered low risks. That is a huge future problem if they can't get bodies in buildings.

some companies don't want to pay for empty buildings and others have little trust in their employees, remote work works for some but not others. it should be up to the employees to decide if they can work remotely or not. as long as the work is being done and done correctly, remote work is ideal overall.

95% of our company went remote in March 2020. While some departments are still working remote, others who are required to interact with our clients frequently went back in late 2020/early 2021. I was able to get permission to move out of state and WFH permanently provided I go back to the office every quarter for a check-in. Between parking at the office and gas I am saving about $500/month. Getting back together with co-workers from my department as well as the entire office are amazing and evoke days of in-person teamwork. However, we have been able to pull off the same teamwork with the advent of Zoom, Microsoft Teams and other online programs that allow us to store our files in the cloud. Plus, it gives our company the opportunity to hire more client-facing employees to occupy the seats of those who no longer come into the office. Bottom line: With the right company, working from home full-time can be done. I give an enormous amount of credit to our IT department for not only allowing us the ability to work from home at the beginning of the pandemic but also being able to do so going forward be it in a part-time or full-time capacity, with other departments having the flexibility to do so on a case-by-case basis.

AT&T, it’s 2022 going 23. Get with it. Your customer service was so much better during the pandemic!

I have worked from home part of the time since March 2020. I hope I can continue working in this manner.

With still way-too-high gas prices there’s no sense in commuting. Plus it kills the environment. Flourescent lighting, bad air quality (sick building syndrome), basically…cubicles are shackles. Remote makes more sense, have office days for those who want them. But people are fed up with the old ways that make no sense & do not foster work/life balance.

Any company that forces employees back to the office should be responsible for covering their full commuting expenses, lunch, and those hours spent on the road should also be covered for them. Employees have been abused for years. Here we have a clear experiment that clearly works. Before the pandemic I never once brought a report physically to any stakeholder. Ever. You email it! Which can be done from the office, your room, the bathroom, or some random islands with wifi.

My company needs to adapt and needs to consider remote/hybrid but they will rather lose good employees than consider other options.

The big disconnect here is pretty easy to see. If you're the "boss" who calls people into meetings, then you get a sense of empowerment from being in office. If you' the one who gets called into no-notice meetings, then you don't stand to benefit from being in the office. With the right employees, remote work is far more efficient not just for the employee but for the company.