I know this will vary a lot, so hypothetically let’s say you currently WFH/work remotely at least 3 days a week. Your commute to work takes an hour max (door to door) each way. If you were given the choice of a 4 day week working onsite, or a 5 day week WFH (or as many days as you’d like) for the same pay, which would you choose?
After doing WFH for several years, I’ll only take a job on site as a last resort or for like double my pay. Then I would cut my time until FIRE roughly in half. I don’t hate doing work. I hate having a huge chunk of my time taken up by having to work 40 hours.
If work weeks were cut to 24 or even 32 hours, I might even reconsider the FIRE path.
What does FIRE stand for?
Basically earn a bunch of money, invest smart, and retire early.
A bunch of people want to act like it’s some secret new method and treat it like a fad diet, but people have been doing it forever.
Thanks! Sounds like calories in - calories out in weight loss.
Yeah, it’s overly simplified to the the point you’re missing out on valuable details.
Like, if just “spend less, save more” was easy, everyone would do it
I think the original FIRE was much more radical- basically the plan is to save up only like 700k or so, move to a low cost of living area, spend less than 20k a year, and try to live off of stock increases and interest.
But honestly that life sounds kinda shitty, so people stopped talking about FIRE what all the other conditions and it just became more “save, invest, retire eventually”
basically the plan is to save up only like 700k
Oh, that’s it?
I’ll knock this out this afternoon and let you know how well it works
Financial Independence, Retire Early
I went back to 5 days a week in office in summer 2021. I hated it when I was told but now I’m glad it happened. I walk 2 miles each way to work. That walk is one of the nicest parts of my day. I get crazy paranoia when I can’t speak to people face-to-face, and I can maintain a routine. I appreciate I am lucky in my situation but I would take the 4 days and enjoy a long weekend where I can properly unwind
I will never commute again, ever. I’d rather work four days a week in my pajama pants and one day pantsless (Casual Friday) than waste my time schlepping my brain through meatspace.
Oohh I might have to implement that pantsless Casual Friday policy.
WFH and it’s not even close. Too many benefits to it.
4 days on site, not even close.
WFH for 5 days will still result in less time spent doing dumb shit I don’t want to do than RTO for 4. That doesn’t even count the pomodoro breaks I take where in the office I can’t do anything but walk in circles but at home I can start laundry or prep for dinner.
That was the best part of WFH for me. I could start a brisket in the morning and baby it all day long.
I legit have a pork shoulder dry brining rn for tomorrow. I know an electric smoker isn’t quite the same as a proper charcoal offset rig but my setup means I can do bbq any day I want to
I don’t hate on electric smokers. Nothing wrong with convenience.
Yeah 4 day WFH sounds great, IDK what the difference in onsite makes lol you just go onsite to zoom meeting anyways
Full remote.
I actually like going into the office ~2x per week. But tell me I have to and bump it to 4 days, I’m out. I also do not want my colleagues forced on site. My current ~2x/week is as productive as it is because the other people going on site now are there voluntarily and for specific reasons.
I originally wanted to go back to the office because I’m a weirdly social person. Eventually my work told us to come in 3 days a week. They told us “it’s the best of both worlds!” That’s when I realized that hybrid is actually the worst of both worlds. I don’t get to have a consistent daily routine. I have to constantly lug all my equipment back and forth between work and home. I don’t get a dedicated desk. Everyone is coming in just to take virtual meetings from their desk all day, so it’s really loud. I would rather everyone be at work 5 days a week than three, because then we would all be there, so meetings would be in person again.
My manager rebelled against upper management and had us just come in one day a week, and honestly, I think that’s fine. We just don’t get hardly any work done that one day. But we are seeing each other’s faces, which is what upper management wants. They say it’s good for team building and collaboration, and I see the merits in that.
Half the team still doesn’t even do that. I mean, one member of the team lives 2000 miles away from the rest of us. One has a newborn baby. One has kids that she needs to pick up from school at 3 every day. Another guy has worked at the company for like 15 years and just refuses to come in because he knows they won’t fire him. Another guy is 2 months away from retiring, so what’s the point?
So, even if the company wanted you to come in 3 days a week, what was stopping you from commiting to the whole 5 days? I don’t think a company would say no if someone wished to go to the office even more often.
We’re doing hybrid too where I work, but I still go in 5 days a week, even if that means there are times (generally Monday and Friday) when there aren’t as many people around.
It wouldn’t have any benefit if I personally did come in 5 days a week. I would still need to lug my stuff around because I still wouldn’t have a permanent desk, as the company doesn’t have enough for everyone anymore and doesn’t allow anyone to have permanent desks. People would still be loud on calls, because just because I’m in the office 5 days a week doesn’t mean anyone else is.
If the company’s policy was to have everyone come in 5 days a week, these issues would be resolved. But of course they would need to add more desks first. They ripped out a whole floor of desks for some reason, but I’m not sure why.
My sentiments exactly.
I took WFH for higher pay in 2013. It makes sense because I’m more productive without the noise, uncomfortable lighting, interruptions and subpar hardware.
Not conidering going back to office unless things change A LOT
I simply wouldn’t take a job with a one hour per way commute. Takes me 15-20 minutes max, and one less work day a week sounds sweet.
WFH, no question.
1 day doesn’t make much of a difference for me, so I’ll still take the 5 WFH days. It’s still a much better use of my time when you total all the time saved from commuting and being able to run errands/chores while WFH vs. being in the office for 4 days. 3 days though? Maybe I’ll consider it.
A lot depends on the exact conditions. If the WFH/remote work let’s my live anywhere in the world, I’d take that in a heartbeat. If I still have to be in a specific country it depends on how bad the commute is. If it’s 10 minute to a train station, hop on a train for 40 minutes and another 10 to the office, then I take the 4 day work week. But if the commute is driving or lots of transfering then I would go with WFH.
It depends on a lot of factors, like how my productivity is measured, how long is the commute, etc. but in general I’d pick the 4 days in the office.
