I was very productive in the office and now I'm slacking off every day WFH, so no.

It was 4 years ago. Time to change jobs perhaps

Except no one can actually measure or confirm these apparent hordes of lazy slackers that are totally out there. Just legions of secret non-working people.

How do you know that no one can measure ?

Maybe all the big companies have measured and all concluded that on average WFH is less productive.

Individual productivity of office workers is nearly impossible to properly measure but aggregate productivity is easier though certainly far from perfect.

> Maybe all the big companies have measured and all concluded that on average WFH is less productive.

They say they don't have it, but tell people to do it anyway.

https://fortune.com/2023/08/03/amazon-svp-mike-hopkins-offic...

>How do you know that no one can measure ?

Because they haven't. Again, every study on this issue hasn't shown a drop in productivity.

>Maybe all the big companies have measured and all concluded that on average WFH is less productive.

And yet curiously neither the companies themselves nor any outside actor has been able to produce any of those measurements supporting such conclusion after years of trying.

I guess every company, government agency, and private entity in the world are all colluding to hide the evidence of lower WFH productivity despite desperately, desperately wanting to show that that's the case to support their RTO demands. Who can stop this nefarious conspiracy?

That's not at all my experience. I was and am much more productive in the office, and it has a lot to do with changing my environment to a place of work. In order of my productive environments: the office (decent private cubicles, not open concept) > coffeeshop > table at the park > home office.

Why is it so hard to believe that people like me exist? And no, it's not because I like to bug my coworkers or that I haven't considered improving my tooling or home office. At this point in my career, with my personality and demeanor, I get a lot of work done at the office, without the misery of trying to force myself to focus and be productive like I do when I'm at home.

You could always go to the office by yourself (or a coworking spot, or really anywhere) if the point is just changing your environment and you don’t need to bug others. Everyone gets to be happy and productive, no mandatory RTO needed.

That is what I do. But we'll lose the office or downsize if enough people commit to hybrid or WFH, and I'd probably have look for another job with a firm that has committed to RTO.

I'm hoping these things self-select to a happy equilibrium. I'll fill in the folks that left due to RTO, and they can fill in for my company that has a hard time finding talent in a 2nd or 3rd tier city?

If it’s not about your coworkers though you should be able to find a nice coworking spot or cafe even if they close the office. Your company may even be up to pay for it given all the millions they are saving on office space. Hope it works out, though, everyone needs a good place to work.