Wake up, stroll to a table, turn on the laptop and start working. Working from home. Many who could work remotely during the pandemic got used to it quickly and some built their lives around it. Earlier this week, however, Amazon’s chief executive, Andy Jassy, informed staff that they would be returning to the office five days a week, bringing an end to the company’s hybrid work policy which had previously allowed staff to work from home two days per week.
The move, Jassy said, was to ensure a “better set-up to invent, collaborate and be connected enough to each other”. Accepting that people’s personal lives may “require some adjustments” in making the transition, he confirmed the new rules will come into effect on January 2nd, 2025.
Following the announcement, Gary Cooper, the man who coined the phrase presenteeism, called employers who try to force staff back to the office five days a week “dinosaurs of our age”.
But are remote workers in Ireland ready for a return to pre-pandemic norms? What would it mean if employers were to insist on a full-time return to the office?
Jason Shortt now works from home five days a week but, before the pandemic, Shortt commuted from his hometown of Roscrea, Co Tipperary, to south Co Dublin in scenes somewhat reminiscent of the 1980s comedy film Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
Working for a US company, he began his commute at 6.15am, and would first drive from Roscrea to Ballybrophy, Co Laois, to catch the Limerick train to Heuston Station in Dublin. “Initially I was using DublinBikes to get down the quays,” he explains. After parking the bike on the quays, Shortt walked over to Tara Street station and took the Dart to Blackrock “and then walked into the office from there”.
As it became more difficult to get a DublinBike on occasion, Shortt decided to get a fold-up bicycle, which he took with him on the train and for the rest of his journey. He aimed to get the 6pm or 7pm train home again.
He would batch cook at the weekend, in preparation for the week’s long commute. But otherwise Shortt made most of his long commute – eating on the run where possible, and even studying for an Open University degree on the train. He went for a run or to the gym after work, although he points out that he hadn’t yet become a father at that time.
Shortt lives in Cork now with his wife Gemma O’Leary-Shortt and two-year-old son Felix. A return to the office full time is something “I don’t want to contemplate,” he says.
“It’s ideal for family life, to work from home,” he says. “It’s give and take. Working from home means you can work longer, if it’s necessary.” Remote working means he can spend time getting Felix ready in the morning. Felix’s grandparents provide the bulk of his childcare.
If Shortt was to return to commuting, he says he would see Felix only when the boy was asleep, Monday to Friday. And Felix’s grandparents wouldn’t be able to facilitate the additional childcare hours the family would need.
Edel Galvin knows all about long commutes. A medical scientist in the Coombe Hospital, she commutes from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, to Dublin four days a week. Her two German Shepherds go to “doggy day care” on the day she works from home. Working at home one day is “a perk. It’s not an entitlement”, she says.
Working from home allows her “uninterrupted time”, to focus fully on her work, she says. It’s a “get-the-stuff-done day”, she adds. “Work has been incredibly obliging.” When she does travel, Galvin’s commute begins at 5am for a 7.30am start. She finishes at 3pm and the journey home takes roughly two hours.
Afterwards, “unless you physically make yourself get up and do something in the evening, you won’t, because you’re tired.” She tries to make sure she goes for a walk at lunchtime. “If I had children there is absolutely no way that I could do this,” she says. Of her husband, she says: “My commute does have an impact on him.” There is a need to be “diligent” about things such as making sure they eat together.
Galvin says if she did not have the option of the one day working from home it would make her “quite unhappy”, as well as putting her “in a situation where I wouldn’t get all my work done”. She spends about €400 per month on fuel for her commute. If she went back to five days on-site, her spend on fuel would increase.
“I don’t take it for granted.”
In Dublin, Orla Hendrick works in finance. She thinks the hybrid model she has of working from home two days per week and three days in the office is “perfect”. Hendrick, who worked from home five days a week during Covid restrictions, says: “In theory when you think of working five days from home you think: ‘Oh God, that must be great’, but actually you’re away from everybody, you’re away from everything. You’re on your own. You don’t speak to anybody. I don’t really like that. I find it a bit depressing.”
There are advantages to working from home two days a week though, she says, especially when it comes to her children. Along with easing the pressure of having to rush home to get her two children to their after-school activities in the evening, she’s able to collect her eight-year-old son from school rather than sending him to after-school care for two afternoons each week.
Her commute to work is not too long, she says. In good traffic, she can get to work in 20 or 25 minutes. But it’s not just about the commute she says. Working from home “is the best thing that’s come from Covid”, Hendrick says. It has eased other aspects of her working-parent juggle. “There’s also the worry if one of the kids were sick and they couldn’t go to school, or creche. Whereas now it’s a lot more flexible. If one them was sick and I had to be at home with them, there’s not a big issue.”
Hendrick also says it’s easier for people to continue working at home if they’re “a little bit under the weather” and perhaps not well enough to go into the office, but not necessarily too ill to work from home.
If Hendrick was forced back into the office five days a week she says it would probably be “a deal-breaker” for her, even though she’s very happy in her workplace. “I just don’t think it’s necessary, unless there’s an issue with their work and you feel like people aren’t doing what they should be doing when they’re working from home.”
We asked Irish Times readers for their thoughts on returning to the office full time. Here is a selection of some of the responses we received.
‘I’m disappointed when I find the office near empty’
Brendan Kinsella, Dublin: I honestly prefer working in the office myself and can be a bit disappointed on those days I find the office near empty, but I would question whether I could continue working for an employer that forces workers to work from the office. I generally work from home on a Friday. Because of the nature of my job Thursdays can have long hours and be rather hectic.
Most Fridays I just don’t have the energy to deal with hour-long, and often longer, commutes both ways. Being asthmatic, it’s not uncommon that I’m unable to come into the office, but I will still be able to work from home. Flare-ups and respiratory tract infections make it difficult to move about and do physical tasks, but working at a laptop is fine. I still get my work done and there is no drop in productivity. I’m fortunate my employer allows work from home or I would have had to take time off. That would, in the long-term, threaten my continued employment, for no benefit at all. I’ve seen the benefits work from home has for the chronically ill like myself but also for young parents who need to take care of their kids when they’re sick, co-workers with long commutes, and even the just naturally reclusive.
It creates a better work-life balance, and also tells workers they’re trusted and valued. I can’t understand why an employer would think of taking away work from home unless their workers are not trusted or valued. As far as I’m concerned, if you don’t trust and value your workers then you have no place being an employer.
‘Forcing people to commute to an office risks losing talented staff’
Diarmuid O’Riordan, Dublin: I currently work fully remote with the option to attend the office whenever it suits. My team is based throughout the US so there would be no advantage to being in the office. I do attend the office usually twice a week by choice but only to socialise with other workers. In the days of modern, distributed teams I see little to no advantage to commuting and working together five days a week. However, companies should allow for workplace gatherings to foster strong social bonds within teams or for periods of in-person working during big projects, system upgrades or new colleague training. Forcing people to commute to an office adds no value and would definitely risk losing talented staff.
‘Why revert to an old model that does not serve workers and families?’
Caroline, Kildare: I think there is merit in three days in the office but I value my work from home days in equal measure. My two days at home afford me concentrated time to get through work without the distractions of the office environment. On a more personal level, it reduces my time spent commuting, which allows for more time with my mother, who is in her 80s and living alone. Our workforce has diverse family responsibilities. We have demonstrated that working from home is a viable option. Why revert to an old model that does not serve the majority of workers and families? The workplace, and employers, should be evolving to match our ever evolving society.
‘I work one day a week in the office, which is more than sufficient for any collaboration’
Jim*, Dublin: My reaction is “existential dread”. The time lost to the commute (particularly in winter), the distractions/discomfort/noise of the open-plan office, the additional costs of fuel, lunch, office clothes, etc. Not seeing kids off in the morning, not being able to walk the dog during lunch hour. Not having quiet space to think about problems or to do focused work. I currently work one “anchor” day a week in the office, which is more than sufficient for any collaboration and mostly consists of people just chatting, drinking coffee or trying to make themselves heard on Teams calls to customers above the background noise.
I personally feel like I have much more mental and physical energy at the end of a day remote working than I do coming in from a long and frustrating spell commuting home on the M50. It’s completely ironic that companies spend so much money implementing all these marvellous cloud collaboration tools to enable anyone work from anywhere with anyone and then insist that we all pile into one specific location to use them. Why travel to the office to spend the day on Teams calls? Mr Jassy (the Amazon CEO) is probably just trying to find a way to get rid of people without firing them – I would like to see his set of metrics which indicates how he was able to measure this perceived improvement.”
‘I work from home one day per week because I’m afraid to come across as a weirdo’
Mark*, Dublin: This is an unpopular opinion, but I would be happy if everyone was to return to the office. I think working from home has made working life very difficult. People are siloed into their own teams and there is little spontaneous collaboration or communication with the wider workplace. Even simple chats have to be calendared in.
I don’t like working from home. I don’t like bringing the stress and conflict of working life into my home environment. Working from home means staring at a monitor all day, completely disconnected from the physical world. I work from home one day per week because I’m afraid to come across as a weirdo and an outlier. At the end of a working-from-home day I am stressed and need to get out. My daily walking commute helps me to decompress and I miss it at the end of the day. Introversion and lack of social contact puts me in a bad mental space. Working from home has too many distractions. Marriages work better when you’re not under each other’s feet! It’s not healthy or normal to stay at home all day.
I’d be curious to know if there is any systematic research on the mental health impacts of increased social isolation. I work in the Civil Service and I think that unfortunately it has now become a bedded-in entitlement that will be impossible to change. Most people working from home are dossing for a lot of the time. Everyone knows it. But most managers are wfh-ing too, so they don’t want to change things either. I think Amazon are brave and a re-evaluation from other large employers would be wise.
‘A return to the office would remove me from the workforce’
Jane*, Cork: Currently wfh three-four days per week. Returning to office is not an option for me, with it being a three-hour commute daily. This is the closest work site in my industry to my home (along with a void of well-paid other careers in the area). Having a young family I am unable to work a 40-hour week on-site plus commute due to childminder drop-offs and collection. A return to the office would essentially remove me from the workforce, impacting us financially as well as my own mental health. I am fully able to wfh within a team and have a proven track record, I should be allowed to continue doing this and contribute to my company, family and society as a whole.
‘If I had to start going in five days a week my mental health would deteriorate’
Cleo*, Dublin: I am female, aged 52. I would look for another job if I was told to go into the office five days a week. I’ve been wfh most of the time since Covid and my work-life balance has improved exponentially since. If I had to start going in five days a week my physical and mental health would deteriorate. I’d be back to doing no exercise and eating unhealthily. I also have a dog now (a Covid dog) who is like a child to me. Lastly, I’m a natural introvert so wfh suits me down to the ground.
‘I favour going back to a five-day week in the office. We need to bite that bullet’
Emma, Dublin: Unpopular opinion herein: people have got used to having the flexibility to take care of “life admin” during their working day that returning to the office five days a week would remove. It is also clear that hybrid or fully remote working styles have been great for people because they avoid the hassle and the cost of a commute while, in a lot of cases for those previously in full-time office roles, retaining the same compensation package. Who wouldn’t want to retain such a status quo? I know that I would miss that at a personal level but professionally I can see that it isn’t sustainable.
Companies are taking a productivity and teaming “hit” every day that they have fully remote or hybrid working employees. Working in a midsized company I face daily delays trying to get information from people because they simply aren’t as available during the working day as they used to be. Additionally, what are we going to do to develop future talent? I’m well enough established career-wise to be able to progress but it’s hugely challenging leading a team that works apart more than it does together, despite technology. It can be absolutely excruciating training new people to our company and my team because of the lack of walk-up time. New starters are also less engaged than they were five years ago and in a lot of cases they have very short attention spans – being in the office on a daily basis would address this. My experience is not an isolated one.
I’m concerned about an impact on job growth and the economy in Ireland. I personally like what we’ve had for the last few years but in my unpopular view it has had its time. I’m pinning my flag here: I favour going back to a five-day week in the office although my company isn’t changing work policy yet. I’d be sorry if some of my team leave because of it but I think that we need to bite that bullet.”
‘Working from the office full time would cost us thousands’
John*, Meath: Remote working makes it possible for us to work full time. It would cost us tens of thousands of euro to work from the office full time because our daughter’s preschool is only until 2pm, and I literally had to beg the creche for the extra two hours a day. With one of us at home every day we can pick her up at lunch and she sleeps through the afternoon while we work.
There is no full-time childcare option available to substitute, so at best we’d both have to work short weeks. Beyond that, the rest of my team are in other parts of the country so it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference to my work performance whether I’m in the office or at home. Managers talk about collaboration, etc, but what they’re really looking for is control. I’m a manager, and it’s my long observation that if you’re unable to manage your staff effectively remotely, you’re almost certainly useless face-to-face as well. I think very senior managers are also concerned about supporting the values of their very expensive office blocks as well, and requiring staff to work on site for no reason.
‘I would change career and sector to retain this essential work-life balance’
Stephen*: I find it ludicrous to ask staff to return to five days in the office. Employees and employers have managed just fine since the radical changes in the early days of Covid. Many individuals have discovered that their lives can be improved substantially while continuing to do the same work. Whether it’s removing commutes several hours long or actually being home in time to put their young children to bed, there are so many benefits to employees at no additional cost to employers. In my current role we are required to come in two days a week. One anchor day and another floating day, while one day for specific tasks that require in-person interaction is justified, the floating day seems redundant, we have to come into an office to sit at a desk far from colleagues who may be on separate floors or at home, there’s no benefit to it, it’s a box-ticking exercise. The day that we are told five days’ return to office is the day industrial action should be discussed. I am as productive as before and have no desire to return to an objectively worse life. If required I would change career and sector to retain this essential work-life balance.
‘We now have local hubs for people wanting to work from in rural areas instead of the house’
Seamus*, Tipperary: “I joined the Civil Service at the start of Covid-19 in March 2020 and it has been a game-changer for me and my family. If have to go back I will have to leave a job I like and career I am progressing in. I feel that it’s an agenda being pushed by the office owners with leases to get everyone back in the office. We now have local hubs for people wanting to work from in rural areas instead of the house. The real game-changer would be for Government to invest in not just rural but town and city regeneration. I can defo see the younger ones leaving any job that does not come with remote working. We are at full employment and until the next bust that isn’t changing overnight like before.”
‘Staff who meet all their targets should have the right to flexible work’
Keith*, Dublin: I manage a team in Madrid, I’m managed by someone in New York. I work in Dublin. We were told not only to go [into the office] from zero to three days a week with four days’ notice during the back-to-school week, but also told we have an assigned desk and the days are fixed. I immediately typed a resignation letter and saved it on my desktop, it was a statement and an action that gave me comfort, it made the search for a new job real rather than just something I keep telling myself I should do. It was like resignation meal prep. I didn’t even give it a second thought. We’re a modern tech company that prides itself on creating digital experiences for a global world, so upon reading this new school-like rule I immediately thought: This company wants to be old fashioned, it’s the beginning of the end for it. Grown adults with busy lives and childcare needs who joined a company as a remote worker and meet all their targets should have the right to flexible work.
‘There needs to be a demonstrable loss in productivity to justify such a step’
Laura*, Kildare: My employer is currently trying to revert from two days’ remote to none. I love my job but will consider my options if this happens. I feel that there needs to be a demonstrable loss in productivity to justify such a step backwards. People like myself, with long commutes and young children, are very reluctant to revert to rushed dinner times and stressful evenings for no justifiable reason.
‘I’m interested in an option where my working week was more condensed over four days’
Carl, Down: With the introduction of flexible working my wife and I decided to relocate out of Dublin where we have both worked for over 10 years. In the summer of 2021 we moved with our young family up to Co Down, where we have ties. We now both commute to Dublin a couple of days a week and although the commute results in long days with early mornings and late home on a number of days a week it is working for us and allows us to live in an affordable area with fewer financial concerns.
We would be significantly impacted if either of our jobs moved away from their current flexible working policies and this would certainly lead to us having to look for new job opportunities as we could not sustain a long commute five days a week with our family commitments. I do sense there is an appetite in my industry to increase the number of days working in the office, but feel that this would be unworkable due to the decisions we have now made to relocate further out of Dublin. I would be interested in an option where my working week was more condensed over four days with three of those days in the office, but could not sustain the commute being increased any further.”
‘Team members offered to forgo pay rises to keep working from home’
James*, Limerick: I manage a team of 14 in the software industry and I’m under increasing pressure to get them back into the office. All of the top performers have indicated they will leave the business if we are forced to come in more than twice a week. Team members have offered to forgo pay rises this year to keep the status quo. All of this suited me perfectly as I relayed this to senior management. I feel exactly the same way as the team members. I am saving 1.5 hours a day on a commute and my family life now bears no relation to that pre-Covid. As I’m not rushing to get home and getting stuck in traffic I get to help out with my younger kids’ sporting activities far more than I did with the older ones. I have time to get organised and ready and coach the teams they are involved in. I am sitting down to breakfast with them rather than leaving before they get up. All in all I’m getting to enjoy their childhood a lot more. Remote/hybrid working is a deal-breaker for me, if the team was forced back to the office I and many more would leave with a wealth of experience. We are lucky to be in an industry where remote working is now an expectation rather than a privilege.”
* Some names have been changed. Others preferred to give only their first names
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