I don't know about other industries/professions, but... for developers? Not gonna happen. The demand for our skill is incredibly high, we're in a power position and as long as it is that way, pandemic or not, we can choose. And I know many people that, as me, would rather take a pay cut than go back to an office every day.
Salaries might at some point stabilize I suppose, as people will prefer to relocate to cheap places and overall there will be more offer of developers charging less money.
Overall I think this is a win-win for everyone (except middle managers that like micromanagement, those are the ones worried right now).
90% I predict. There is little to no advantage of having an in-office work force for tech startups unless physical presence is necessary for the job. Managers can crow all they want about wanting to see asses in chairs but the data does not support it.
Yeah I think the steady state is that the number will very closely match the percentage of people that other remote vs. offices. I don't have a good sense for how that breaks down, but my sense is that it's over 50% that prefer remote, but not 90%.
Yeah, I suspect this is where a lot of the 'debate' is coming from. My experience is that Google/FB/etc... have (a slight) majority preferring WFO for at least 3 days, and other companies are overwhelmingly WFH.
I dunno, I went into one of these really nice offices most days a week for awhile after it reopened in the fall. But the novelty wore off and I haven't been going in that much recently. But I do think part of this is that it's still a ghost town, so it's not that much fun to go in there. But that will change eventually.
Same. I’ve been remote for close to a decade now. If I had to find a job, I’m not sure I could go fully remote. Sure, flexibility to WFH is great, but having no office at all is not something I want to continue doing forever.
I prefer full WFH myself, but I think a lot depends on the family situation, too. Some people have small kids and it's hard for them to WFH, though people are more understanding if some little kid walks into an online meeting yelling about something these days.
Other people just like the structure of it or they have a good desk setup at work and not as good a place to work from at home.
I've seen people Work From Someone Else's Home. I think that would be the best of both worlds for me. I'd set up a second workstation in my 'office' for colleagues that are also friends.
Let's see how this looks 2 years after the pandemic is over.