<story><title>Who still needs the office? U.S. companies start cutting space</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-results-realestate/who-still-needs-the-office-u-s-companies-start-cutting-space-idUSKCN24N2NL</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mc32</author><text>The most productive workers barely scrape 50% productivity; however, idle, chat, socialization and other “wasteful” time isn’t wasted.  You learn things about the needs of other groups, colleagues, the politics and all sorts of things you’d never pick up on working remotely.</text></item><item><author>danny_sf45</author><text>The only reason for me to not go back to the office is: fixed working hours. Sure, my contract says I have to work 40h&amp;#x2F;week, but I just can&amp;#x27;t. If I&amp;#x27;m at the office, I would probably work (focused) around 4 or 5 hours. The rest is &amp;quot;wasted&amp;quot; with: chat with other coworkers (non-work related stuff), breaks... but I have to be there for 8 hours no matter what. At home, I can work those 4 or 5 hours (focused) and call it a day. I don&amp;#x27;t have to pretend I&amp;#x27;m working, I just close the laptop.&lt;p&gt;Same outcome (for the company), less (wasted) hours for me. This is impossible to achieve if one has to go to the office. (can you imagine entering at 9am and leaving at 2pm while telling everybody: &amp;quot;hey, I cannot work anymore, I&amp;#x27;m only able to work focused 5 hours per day. See you tomorrow!&amp;quot;.)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>baron_harkonnen</author><text>&amp;gt; all sorts of things you’d never pick up on working remotely.&lt;p&gt;When people say these things I seriously question if they&amp;#x27;ve ever worked remote before. Yes if being remote makes you atypical for your workplace, then you&amp;#x27;ll probably be left out. But if you&amp;#x27;re working for a remote-first team the it&amp;#x27;s completely different. Nearly all of my closest coworkers I&amp;#x27;ve met have been at remote companies.&lt;p&gt;I have had tons of interesting conversations, brainstorming session and just generally fun discussion while remote.&lt;p&gt;Honestly, I have personally found the amount of more toxic conversations also drops when remote. The problem with in-office socialization is that you have to socialize with people you might not particularly like (working with people you don&amp;#x27;t like is fine, but having to have conversations with them, go out for team drinks with them etc is another thing). This leads to generally more toxic behavior, since you have to put more energy into those social interactions.</text></comment>
<story><title>Who still needs the office? U.S. companies start cutting space</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-results-realestate/who-still-needs-the-office-u-s-companies-start-cutting-space-idUSKCN24N2NL</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mc32</author><text>The most productive workers barely scrape 50% productivity; however, idle, chat, socialization and other “wasteful” time isn’t wasted.  You learn things about the needs of other groups, colleagues, the politics and all sorts of things you’d never pick up on working remotely.</text></item><item><author>danny_sf45</author><text>The only reason for me to not go back to the office is: fixed working hours. Sure, my contract says I have to work 40h&amp;#x2F;week, but I just can&amp;#x27;t. If I&amp;#x27;m at the office, I would probably work (focused) around 4 or 5 hours. The rest is &amp;quot;wasted&amp;quot; with: chat with other coworkers (non-work related stuff), breaks... but I have to be there for 8 hours no matter what. At home, I can work those 4 or 5 hours (focused) and call it a day. I don&amp;#x27;t have to pretend I&amp;#x27;m working, I just close the laptop.&lt;p&gt;Same outcome (for the company), less (wasted) hours for me. This is impossible to achieve if one has to go to the office. (can you imagine entering at 9am and leaving at 2pm while telling everybody: &amp;quot;hey, I cannot work anymore, I&amp;#x27;m only able to work focused 5 hours per day. See you tomorrow!&amp;quot;.)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rightbyte</author><text>Political power play doesn&amp;#x27;t work out as easily remotely. Social manipulations is harder. That is my observation.</text></comment>