I think as soon as we get a vaccine, or even just a test that will tell you if you will end up in ICU or not, 95% of people will head back to the office.
Even among the people who at first found WFH a huge productivity gain, I've noticed a recent trend of people fatiguing of it. The initial boon to concentration (assuming you have a quiet home which not everyone does) and not having to commute etc was great, but it seems like for a lot of people it is starting to wear a bit thin now.
Pre-lockdown I used to work from home quite frequently and would happily put up with video calls, but I am growing to hate WFH now. Video meetings are increasingly grating due to their latency and people's patchy wifi. Ad-hoc informal collaboration/chats are down to zero - everything now has to be formally scheduled and arranged vs when you'd just bump into someone in the corridor/getting coffee etc. Getting a feel for what the team is working on is hard, even with regular stand-ups etc there is no "overhearing" people talking about stuff around you.
Personally I do not have the space for a dedicated office set up where I live - I have a desk in the corner of my living room which is the same room that the rest of my family use while I am trying to work. I do not like the idea that I will have that there forever now - if my job wants me to work from my house forever, they can increase my salary 200% so I can stand a chance of buying somewhere in/around London with space for an office.
As soon as we have a vaccine, or a test to know if I will end up in ICU vs being asymptomatic, or there is just some pill you can take if you test positive that means you get a bad fever and not a near-death coma etc, I will be right back there in the office a usual no questions asked.
I think as soon as we get a vaccine, or even just a test that will tell you if you will end up in ICU or not, 95% of people will head back to the office.
Even among the people who at first found WFH a huge productivity gain, I've noticed a recent trend of people fatiguing of it. The initial boon to concentration (assuming you have a quiet home which not everyone does) and not having to commute etc was great, but it seems like for a lot of people it is starting to wear a bit thin now.
Pre-lockdown I used to work from home quite frequently and would happily put up with video calls, but I am growing to hate WFH now. Video meetings are increasingly grating due to their latency and people's patchy wifi. Ad-hoc informal collaboration/chats are down to zero - everything now has to be formally scheduled and arranged vs when you'd just bump into someone in the corridor/getting coffee etc. Getting a feel for what the team is working on is hard, even with regular stand-ups etc there is no "overhearing" people talking about stuff around you.
Personally I do not have the space for a dedicated office set up where I live - I have a desk in the corner of my living room which is the same room that the rest of my family use while I am trying to work. I do not like the idea that I will have that there forever now - if my job wants me to work from my house forever, they can increase my salary 200% so I can stand a chance of buying somewhere in/around London with space for an office.
As soon as we have a vaccine, or a test to know if I will end up in ICU vs being asymptomatic, or there is just some pill you can take if you test positive that means you get a bad fever and not a near-death coma etc, I will be right back there in the office a usual no questions asked.