Work From Home Or Quit?
Bloomberg published an article recently (possible paywall) that made some waves. The title of the article was Employees Are Quitting Instead of Giving Up Working From Home, and pretty much says it all.
One passage that really stood out to me:
While companies from Google to Ford Motor Co. and Citigroup Inc. have promised greater flexibility, many chief executives have publicly extolled the importance of being in offices. Some have lamented the perils of remote work, saying it diminishes collaboration and company culture. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon said at a recent conference that it doesn’t work “for those who want to hustle.”
For the record I obviously disagree with Mr. Dimon. Maybe he forgot that folks like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates were working from home in their garages when they changed the world. If that ain’t hustle I don’t know what it is then.
So where do folks like Mr. Dimon get this impression about working from home?
Yahoo! …Now Get Yer Ass Back In The Office
Perfect office…
Let’s rewind a relatively short 9 years. In 2012 headlines were made in the tech world when Marissa Mayer, a brilliant computer scientist and employee #20 at Google, jumped ship to become the CEO of Yahoo.
Yahoo was a much bigger force in the online and internet world in those days, but were struggling. The move was a bold hail mary to turn the company around and put them back on top.
In February 2013 Mayer took everyone at Yahoo off guard by announcing that employees would no longer be allowed to work from home.
Yes, it was 8 years ago but working from home had already gained quite a lot of traction in the world of white collar jobs. Even then there was talk of a not too distant future of mostly remote work and flexible job arrangements.
But Mayer wasn’t having it. What were her reasons for issuing such a seemingly draconian measure? Here’s part of her memo to the company:
To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.
Her decree made headlines and obviously caused quite a bit of rancor at Yahoo. Big tech companies like Yahoo, Google, and Amazon were famous for their unique working environments, crazy-generous benefits, and overall laid back and chill atmospheres.
That is of course as long as you work your ass off and deliver the goods. Mayer’s demand that everyone must come in to work seemed very “un-Silicone Valley”.
Work From Home Rises Again
Looks like a great spot to work #naturalsunlightishealthy
Fast forward 8 years and a global pandemic launches the work from home movement to the front and center for anyone who’s job allows them to do it.
But here we are almost a year and a half into said pandemic with much of the country vaccinated and things slowly getting back to “normal”, or at least a pre-pandemic state. And many employers want their folks to start coming in again.
Over the past 16 months millions of workers have gotten a sweet taste of the work from home life, and they found it better than ice cream on a hot summer day.
No dreadful commute, tons of money saved on gas and car maintenance, no dry cleaning or ironing, and no annoying encounters at the coffee machine with that creepy guy from accounting.
Like everything the issue has lots of nuance and I don’t form my opinion in a black and white manner. I agree that there are certain jobs, companies, or even stages of a company’s journey that require more personal interaction.
A struggling tech startup with a handful of people trying to break new ground is likely going to do better with in-person collaboration. There’s something to be said about the spontaneity and energy of personal interactions that cannot be replicated through screens or on phones.
I worked at a small tech startup in the early 1990’s, at the dawn of the 1990’s dot-com boom. Working from home wasn’t technologically possible back then, but if it were we wouldn’t have been as productive in utilizing it.
So to be honest I think Mayer’s decision was probably sound for Yahoo at the time, at least for many of her employees but probably not all.
But as the CEO of a world renowned tech company, she didn’t do the rest of the working world any favors. Many thought her move would set back the telecommuting movement, or kill it entirely. It certainly didn’t do it any favors.
The lesson here is that an insurance company should not be taking cues on whether to allow telecommuting from a company like Yahoo. They’re in entirely different worlds.
Yeah… No Thanks
I can take meetings from my desk when working from home…
Back to the Bloomberg article. It comes as no surprise to me to hear that many workers are deciding to quit instead of going back in the office.
The article references a FlexJobs survey that found more than a third of folks working from home claim to be saving at least $5,000 per year.
If you put $5,000 into a mutual fund every year with a 7% annual return that’ll net you about $85,000 over 10 years, and $245,000 over 20 years. Not a bad reward for doing something that many or most folks prefer anyway.
As far as workers outright quitting instead of going back in, the article says:
A May survey of 1,000 U.S. adults showed that 39% would consider quitting if their employers weren’t flexible about remote work. The generational difference is clear: Among millennials and Gen Z, that figure was 49%, according to the poll by Morning Consult on behalf of Bloomberg News.
This comes as no surprise to me, especially the higher number for Gen Z workers. They’ve been brought up in the reality of ubiquitous connectivity and gig-jobs galore. Many probably feel that having to report to the same place everyday to do stuff and get paid is weird.
Is this the start of a white collar version of a labor movement, a virtual picket line? Only time will tell.
For me, working from home has been beyond spectacular. I know, don’t cry for me, I only work at that pesky W2 job 20 hours a week anyway. But to be able to cook or do laundry while taking a meeting, that’s a game changer.
As with so much in personal finance, it comes back to having a cushion. If you have FU money or achieve full financial independence, seemingly tough decisions like quitting instead of going back into the office are a lot easier. FU money and FI are superpowers.
This conversation around working from home or going back in has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve been trying to think of what I’d do if my employer demanded I come back in for my measly 20 hours a week.
Let’s just say it’s a hot summer day and I’ve got a big fat ice cream cone, and if you wanna try to take it away from me you better beware. It might get ugly.
Your Turn – If you are still working from home and your employer suddenly demanded you return to the office every day, would you do it, or quit?
100% planning on quitting. Like you said, that doesn’t work for every job, but for mine it does. I also can see the benefits that an organization gets from having everyone in one place. It often truly IS better for the organization.
But here’s the thing – I don’t care. Nor do any of the other countless folks contemplating quitting. It’s not that we don’t want to work hard or do a good job; we do. But I’m going to work for whatever organization will let me do that while taking care of my own life. The only one who is going to look out for my spare time, my finances, and my stress levels is me, and when it comes down to it, my own life is more important to me than any job or corporate culture. I recently had to go back in every day for a couple of weeks, and I realized how hellish that routine was compared to what I have now. No amount of money will make me do it again.
I think there’s about to be a big shift. If companies want the best people, they’re going to have to find a way to make WFH work permanently.
“I don’t care”
HA! Love it. I gotta be honest, I’m very close to that status as well. As you so elegantly put it, taking care of #1 should always be priority #1. I hope the big shift you speak of comes to fruition, thanks for the great comment!
Quitting sounds great until you run out of money. At the moment it is easy to find another job. Won’t be that way forever. Lot of telecommuters in India want to work also. For a lot less money.
I agree, that’s why I discussed having FU Money and/or being FI as superpowers. With those things quitting is always an option, and with FI – as in my case where I’m more than doubly FI – I don’t have to worry about running out of money. So quitting is a real and very good option indeed.
i remember that marissa mayer crap show at yahoo!. she seemed ham fisted and misguided and not ready for the role, but the buyout package was sweet.
i can see both sides of the work from home debate. as someone who paid a lot of dues i see the entitlement side for younger workers who want everything right now before accomplishing anything. good luck to them if they can get it. personally, and this sounds odd, i no longer mind coming to work on site. the job is straightforward and low stress with a 13-14 minute commute and i’m home at 4:15 every day. then again, i don’t have to interact with a lot of dildonic knuckleheads at the office these days so that really matters.
i was at the beach and my friend who stayed the week worked from the rental a few hours every morning conducting meetings. that was pretty cool.
you have a very short commute (you should ride a bike in summer btw 🙂 so in your case going in has much of the sting taken out of it. The commute is the biggest downside for a large number of people – the cost, the time, and the risk of being killed in a crash are all real.
My employer, a provincial government in Canada, has already announced that the future will be based on a hybrid model, with a certain amount of days per week in the office and the others spent working from home. Details are yet to come, but I appreciate that my employer announced what it could at the moment to allow people to plan for a gradual shift to a new paradigm later in the year. At this point, I don’t feel the need to actually make a choice of whether to quit or not. However, I think I would have been in the “quit” camp had the message been that it’s back to the old status quo once it’s safe to do so.
I had my annual review a few weeks ago, and I was very clear with my boss when he asked me what my ideal situation would be. I’m one of those people who work an extra hour per day compared to when I was trudging into the office, but it’s not meant a change in the amount of non-work time I enjoy. In fact, it’s been a win-win situation; I use the time I would have spent commuting to keep on top of a heavy workload. I stated in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t willing to work an extra hour each day to which I would have to add time for commuting, and so the ministry I work for would be getting less from me should it impose a schedule weighted toward in-office presence. He jotted that tidbit down on his form…
Hybrid setups are getting popular and I see merit to them for sure. You get some face time and still get to wfh a lot. Your story is indicative of so many out there, you’re playing your cards and seeing how the game goes. Thanks for the comment!
Look like Apple employees decided to air their un-satisfaction with the plan to return to the office.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57385999
I guess the decision vary depends on the individual. I know some of my colleagues were so eager to return to the office even before it was available as an option, they did not enjoy working from home at all.
Thanks for that link, good stuff and interesting to see how different big tech companies are handling things. Many friends at my agency wanted to return as well and in every case when I asked them it’s either a super-extrovert who needs to be around lots of people, or someone having difficulties at home (marriage, home-schooling kids).
This has been a lot on my mind too, lately. We do not have yet clear indications from corporate. However, my boss keeps on sharing hints that he wants me back in the office soon, while I keep pushing back quite strongly – all this made possible thanks to me being 1) kind of valuable for him as an employee 2) ok financially with some years of spending aside, and 3) able to turn into a frugal cockroach, if the s…t hits the fan.
Two things made my mind about remote working: I moved to a (much) bigger house with outdoor space, which made sharing it with housemates/girlfriend (who were also working remotely) much more feasible and enjoyable; second, during the last year I had the chance to do some weeks remote working from Portugal and Canary Islands (I am European), where a big community of ‘new’ remote workers is in the making. I’ve met so many people who escaped lockdowns/restrictions and moved there, all working from home, most of them doing this without official corporate consent. Working in the morning and surfing in the afternoon, cheap cost of living, and favourable time zones and climate make all this so good that is hard to understand why we should live in a crowded city anymore.
Ok, so you have me thinking about a move to the Canaries. If you’re not aware there’s world-class cycling there too and many of the top pros in the world train on those islands. I’m not one of them, haha. But I’d love to do those climbs and live a bit of island life. Thanks for the comment!
Not surprised to hear this at all. While I do think that many employers have truly realized that an at home/distributed workforce can be extremely productive and cheaper without no having the fixed costs of unnecessary offices, I always knew the notion of “control” would creep back in once thing settled. And to be fair, not all jobs can be done as effectively remotely and there is massive value and advantage for in-person interaction. Some variant of a hybrid is likely best (where it can be done).
That said, up and quitting seems like a bit of an impetuous, boner move. If one prefers working remotely, start the search and find one before walking away in misguided spite. All told though, I think post-Covid more people will work from home and the office model has been indelibly changed – for the better.
I think if someone is FI or has a big stash of FU money then up and quitting is fine, stick it to the man. But if not then I agree you have to search and have a safety net, even in this great job market.
I was remote since March of last year but our company has us doing a week in / week out rotation since late January of this year. I work for a large, established company in a mature industry so no need on a broad scale for constant collaboration like you’d find at a young startup.
I’ve been really vocal with our executives about my position on remote work (it’s effective, it’s desirable for employees, it can be a recruiting tool, etc.) but I can tell I am not being listened to. I have a team that reports to me and we haven’t missed a beat since switching to remote work. I think it’s one of those “bad apples spoils the bunch” mentality or some desire to be “fair” to everyone by having us all follow the same work arrangements. The fact is, we accept that people have different roles, require different credentials / training, and earn different amounts so why can’t we accept that different roles could work in different locations?
Remote work has been awesome for me. I get to spend so much more time with my kids and to go back to the way things were would feel like I’m having that time taken from me for no good reason. Depending on whatever the new the policy winds up being and how draconian it may be, I might look into other options but I wouldn’t just quit without something else lined up.
You seem to be yet another person trying to feel things out and negotiate with an employer who is hesitant. There’s lots of that going on. Play your hand strong, maybe even bluff a little 🙂 You make great points and in the end, like it or not, it is kind of a game and you have to play to win. Good luck!
Even better than working from home? NOT working from home, and NOT working in an office. #ILoveRetirement Sorry, you just tee’d it up so well, I had to take that swing… That said, I expect the WFH trend will continue, and become a major selling point for companies looking for the best talent. Those, like Yahoo, who insist on “office” will get the dregs…
Haha, when you see that hanging curve ball coming in sometimes ya just gotta tee up on it and hit it out. Nice job! Who knows, I may be in that club with you sooner than I expected. I have options and that’s a great position to be in.
Now that everyone has settled into their new remote life which most people love, expecting them to just give that up and go back to their old routine with long commute and meetings that could be an email is just ridiculous.
I think Jamie Dimon and other CEOs who are saying that WFH is bad or isn’t productive is trying to make us feel guilty and just go back to the old ways. This is short sighted of them and they are going to lose talent to companies that include WFH as part of the benefits.
It’s short sighted indeed. Dimon seems to be in that “hustle together or die” culture that might be necessary in silicone startups but isn’t for everyone
I can’t understand AT ALL Jamie Dimon’s logic to come back to the office. Like.. Does he look at JP Morgan’s stock price? They’re not just at all time highs. they’re at all time highs of the all time highs. And he’s still so unsatisfied with that that he wants workers to come back to the office at the risk of ruining the huge momentum they built?
I really don’t understand the company’s logic.
haha, yeah JP Morgan hasn’t been doing so well.
I think the complaints about eroding office culture are so overblown. Most office “cultures” I’ve been in felt forced and fake. I don’t miss it one bit. Before the pandemic I wasn’t sure I’d like working from home, But it has been so much less stressful. I dread going going back with every fiber of my being. My boss mentioned wfh one day a week, but that’s not gonna cut it either.
But unfortunately I can’t quit working permanently yet. Being forced to go back will prompt me to start searching for a new gig though.
So true, there’s a facade o phoniness in my office culture too. Glad you like wfh as much as me and I hope you get to continue!
My company has never offered remote work as an option. It’s an older company that’s been around for a while and remote working is just a foreign concept. The pandemic forced them to let people work remotely but as things have settled those opportunities have begun to die down. I personally don’t mind going in to the office as it’s a 10 minute commute, everyone has their own office, we have a stocked kitchen, and the company provides paid membership to the health club next door which is a 30 second walk from the office(great for lunch time workouts)That said if I was commuting a further distance or was stuck in a cubicle all day I would feel differently. I wouldn’t mind having the option to be remote a couple days per week or infrequently as needed. As you pointed out, one thing that does bother me is the hour every Sunday that I spend ironing clothes for the week!
I suspect that in time remote working will continue to evolve for the better – especially if companies can get a better handle on it (or at least feel like they do) and begin to realize the cost savings of remote workers and increased productivity through employees that are happier because they are getting a better work/ life balance.
Your setup doesn’t sound too bad at all, it’s cubicle culture and the commute that are the soul-crushers to most people. And as more great collaboration tools become available, I agree that wfh will get better
Would I work from home or go to office? Neither. A big quality of life enhance is just watching the grass grow on my newly seeded lawn daily, coffee at breakfast is no less than 1 hour, and no commute at all. 🙂
Oh man, you’ve set yourself up with the best option of all. Call it “rfh”, or relax from home.
Congrats!
My wife didn’t think should would like WFH, but now she loves it for all the reasons you listed.
She’d go back in to the office if the employer demands it, though. Truthfully, I prefer her to work at the office.
I like my personal space at home.
As for me, I hated WFH when I was an engineer. I tried to work from home a few times and I wasn’t productive at all.
I just don’t want to work when I’m at home. I like the boundary.
“I like my personal space at home.”
Ha, I hear ya. And the boundary issue is a really good one that I didn’t include in the post. Many folks feel that wfh associates their house with their job. I’ve been able to keep it separate myself
Great article Dave!
I switched jobs in the middle of the pandemic and started at the new company working from home. There were a couple of other people that started at this new company a couple months before I did and they also worked from home. It was really difficult to get to know people in the company other than those that you worked with. I tried scheduling calls with people to network and introduce myself but after that one 30min call, there wasn’t a constant “Hi” like there would be if we walked past each other in the office.
More recently, I’ve been going into the office while the other new folks have not. I have realized that I now know more people in the company, are on more interesting projects and are getting more exposure with executives because I saw them in the office.
I think a mix between working from home and going into the office is healthy and have witnessed first hand that those hallway conversations are super beneficial for new hires to get to know people.
In that circumstance as a new employee I agree that going in at least for a while to meet people is important. You have to make those personal connections first. But after you do then a hybrid model or full wfh to me is still a great option depending on what your job is. Sounds like you found the right mix – thanks for the comment!
I’ve been back in the office at least a few days/week since Aug 2020 and am much happier than fully remote. I am also a huge introvert! Turns out those sporadic interactions make a big impact to being effective in my job and supply me with just enough human interaction.
I think there’s a difference for jobs where you can do the exact same thing onsite or WFH. For me, as a scientist, that’s just not true. No amount of Zoom meetings can replace the energy of being in person. My giant global company will also go forward with a hybrid model and I plan to maybe work one day/week at home but not more.
Sounds like your job is one that definitely needs a good amount of personal interaction – glad you’re getting that!
The real question is – why did it take a global pandemic for WFH to be widely accepted? We’ve had the technology for decades. It’s much easier now since everyone’s doing it. If the team is physically present in a conference room and one person calls in remotely they look like a schmuck. WFH only works there’s some sort of white collar union.
I agree, I think part of it is that managers in many companies tend to be older folks who were brought up in more traditional environments and have that bias of being in the office like ‘the good ole days’. That will continue to change. But I don’t ever see white collar unions happening…
I think this topic will cause much debate over the coming months. Personally I’m 100% happy to keep WFH forever. I’m not sure my company will allow me to, but before Corona I was the first one in my location to negotiate one day WFH per week, so no way I’d drop to less than that now. I love my job, but if my company would require four days per week in the office again, I think I would need to consider switching. The work life balance right now can’t be beat. I think I actually work more hours, but it feels like less, because I save the commute and can get other tasks done in parallel. I wouldn’t straight up quit, but I would certainly look around for employers with more flexible policies.
Your story sounds very common, you’re basically feeling out the situation. Thanks for the comment and good luck with it!
And we all saw how Yahoo turned out….
Yep, not a powerhouse anymore. But Yahoo Finance is still good.
There’s a lot of talk about the hybrid model these days, and I think that’s going to be a very popular option. Just to get workers back in the office without everyone quitting. They’ll offer workers a hybrid option (like Apple) where they work in the office a few days a week and then from home a couple days a week.
Eventually the workers who put in the most “face time” and “hustle” are going to get most of the rewards. Just like before COVID. I don’t see that changing. Eventually everyone will realize the truth of it, and start working in the office as often as possible again.
However, the extra flexibility is great for folks with families and those with other priorities than getting that next pay raise. It was certainly needed at a lot of non-tech companies.
Good luck on not heading back to the office!
Smart insight as always Tako. In the Federal Government this will be true for sure – those who are not visible will suffer int he rat race. It shouldn’t be that way but it’s true.
Certainly an interest approach for so many people to take, but is it the right move? I think some people feel too entitled. I’m all for WFH a day or two a week, but basically demanding to work a from home everyday seem a bit outrageous. It will be interesting to see where the workers end up. Companies that resist WFH could lose a lot of good talent, but will that talent be as productive at new companies when WFH? Maybe for a year, maybe for two, but after how long does that benefit lose its shine and workers start demanding something else? I guess only time will tell…
I agree and I should have explained in the post that when I mean wfh I don’t mean it has to be 100% all the time. I agree that you have to go in sometimes to interact with people. But as you point out, we’re going to see how it all plays out in the years to come. Only time will tell indeed.