> My company wants to go 2 days home and 3 days office. I've said I'd do it the other way around.

That's exactly the same as me. Company is talking about everyone coming back in for 3/2 starting in mid-September. My response is I'll see you for 2/3. I have a 20 minute commute which isn't too onerous, and I like having some in-office time as I find it valuable.

What will really be the test for me is how I feel after a month or two of the kids being back in school. Right now being home is still fairly social for me. Previous times I've tried to work remotely it was the loneliness of having only myself in the house for days on end that killed it for me.

I'm also a bit of a realist, though. Being remote (or at least 'more remote' than the rest of the team) is a serious career limit, so if everyone else starts spending most of their time in the office, I will probably follow along.

I suspect the partial in-office/wfh arrangement will be fairly rare. Office space is costly to use only 2 days a week. Companies can do hoteling but it breaks down when you have very technical employees who like very particular desk setups (multiple monitors, chair positions, special keyboards/mice). The more common arrangement will probably be mostly WFH but meet up occsionally in some per-hour rented office for collaboration. Sucks for WeWork to have blown itself up before this :).

> Office space is costly to use only 2 days a week.

So downsize. We were doing partial WFH before the pandemic because our office had more people than seats (open office seating); everyone picked different days they preferred for home and office, and the office ended up mostly full most days.

Or if everyone's two days is Tuesday and Wednesday. :-)

Just spread it around so all five days get coverage.

Also, depending on the type of commute, I need to factor in the exhaustion that comes with using public transportation like Bart. So for me it was an hour each way plus a substantial time to decompress from standing in a packed sweaty train. In the evening it usually meant that I was just too tired to do anything else after work.

Before the pandemic I did a lot of WFH, looking after my chronically ill partner. I basically got my face-to-face load out the way on a Monday, which was Meeting Day.

> My company wants to go 2 days home and 3 days office. I've said I'd do it the other way around.

Mine is pushing some similar nonsense. I don't think anyone thought about it too hard:

1. I still have to live within a reasonable driving distance of the main office.

2. I still have to maintain a home office, sacrificing valuable square footage without being reimbursed for its use.

3. I still have to furnish this home office, without being reimbursed for anything except computer accessories.

At least for Bay Area companies, the "hybrid" 2/3 or 3/2 or whatever schemes are insufficient. They partially alleviate the long commute problem, but they do not solve the high cost of living problem. WFH has been nice in that it lets me skip my 4+ hour commute every day, but what would be even better is 0/5, allowing me to completely move out of the Bay Area and still keep my job (at lower comp, fine).

I presume you’re in eng because we’re on HN but are you not? If you’re in the Bay Area, you should be able to afford an okay home here (assuming you stop playing the startup game and join a public tech company). Being only able to afford Tracy or something sounds like very low pay...

My company is going to a 2 days at work and 3 days home setup. But they won't pay for anything except the computer -- if I want a monitor or a docking station I'm on the hook for that, they won't provide it. I recently shelled out for a $500 chair, and I know two colleagues who paid $2-300 for docking stations (I think I'd be happy with a cheaper one, personally).

I think they'll pay for a monitor if you're full-time WFH but that requires special permission.

1. Why? I can live 2 hours from my office and still have a total weekly commute that is less than my pre-pandemic commute. If I can somehow fix an overnight in the city it's even less.

2. This is true, although you get 'reimbursed' for that by not commuting. And since you don't commute you can live somewhere cheaper, or get a bigger house for the same price.

3. My company paid for all that, so no issue here.

Two hours from your office? Is this hyperbole?

If you live two hours from your office and go in for three days per week, that's 2h per leg * 2 legs per day * 3 days per week = 12 hours per week on the road.

You were spending more than 12 hours per week in traffic?

The average commute in the United States is a little less than 30 minutes [1]. That's 5 hours per week for someone who works five days per week.

1. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/one-way-...

I used to commute 1 hour one way pre Covid, so 10 hours per week. If I go into the office for only 2 days a week I could live twice as far from my workplace and still only commute 8 hours a week. I was meaning to say that even with 2 days in-Office per week it opens up possibilities regarding housing.

I was spending 1,5 hours per day in a train, and walking to the station for 10 minutes or so, yes.

There are only so many hours in a day. Are you willing to wake up at 5AM to get to the office and be home at 8PM for 2 days a week?