So at my job, we do a hybrid thing where I come in Monday through Wednesday and I get to work from home Thursday and Friday. I accept it, as the CEO just didn't want the office empty and felt that some workers were dropping the ball during that entire work from home time during the pandemic. I actually got two days because I am my own department (UX) and I was the only guy who didn't drop the ball.
Now then, today is a day I have to go downtown. Got on the train this morning and everything is standing still with messages about massive delays. Some technical issue or apparently maybe somebody running on the tracks.
I sit there waiting for 15 minutes, then we move about two stops and then we're standing there again with the delay messages. I wait another 10 minutes. And finally I just give up and grab a Lyft Home, sending a message. I'm going to work from home because of all this.
If you think about this, had I decided to slug it out and get downtown, it would have probably taken me over 2 hours to get downtown, went on a normal day. It maybe would take me 40 to 50 minutes tops to go from my house to the office.
Today is a day I have no meetings other than the morning status, and I'd pretty much just be sitting at my desk with my headphones on plugging away at my work.
I can understand the idea of some companies needing people to be together as a team for helping one another, or collaborating, but more often than not. Many of these employers need to really start to wonder if dragging everybody downtown is helping or hindering productivity.
At least I'm thankful my employer isn't a hard ass. I've seen some that would have just told me to slug it out on the train and then probably scold me for not leaving my house even earlier this morning, despite the fact there was no way this could have been avoided.