I'd do it because I think it's better to have separate work / life areas; right now my WFH spot is also my PC gaming spot and the bedroom and the place where laundry dries, and I wouldn't mind more distance between work, leisure and private life.
That said, five minutes means one could come home for lunch.
But anyway, five minute walk to work is highly unlikely; a lot of people (most? citation needed?) have a commute to work, either driving or public transit. I'd rather have a nice private office or small team room than a big open and loud office space.
>I'd do it because I think it's better to have separate work / life areas; right now my WFH spot is also my PC gaming spot and the bedroom and the place where laundry dries, and I wouldn't mind more distance between work, leisure and private life.
Long time ago I used to rent a room in a shared house 5 min walk from work. My housemates were all cool people, but working on a laptop sitting next to the bed I slept in every night would e far worse for me than just going to the office. But this was decades ago. I can understand why someone in such position would prefer an office.
But if you can have a house, and you're mid/senior in your role there is nothing better than wfh.
Also I've recently noticed a disturbing trend. Companies advertising 100% remote work, then you go through the whole recruitment process and at the very end they tell you. BTW, it's not 100% wfh. You gotta come to the office 1 day per month (sometimes even 1 per week). Anyone looking for real wfh job should be aware of such tricks to nip them in the bud early on.
There was a study about that and there was a direct correlational between the size of you home and your desire to return to the office, people with small apartments enjoyed the office much more than those with larger houses. I'd also guess that the people with larger homes live father away from work than people with smaller homes so a longer commute comes into play.
That makes total sense. My house is about 1900 sq ft over two levels. During lockdown, my wife converted our guest bedroom into her office. My HS aged son did online school in his bedroom and I basically had the entire downstairs. Our cats moved around throughout the day depending on their mood.
This would have been much more uncomfortable in a smaller 2BR apartment and almost unmanageable in any space smaller than that.
I've been WFH of over 20 years and my wife has been WFH for 10, we live in the city so our living space is smaller than most ~1100sqft and we've worked within 10 feet of each other for a decade. I do have a small office but I only go into it when I have an important customer call and I want to put everything on a bigger monitor than my laptop and I expect to do a lot of talking. Aside from that she's usually on one end of the couch and I'm on the other, with the two fat cats sleeping in between.
I had to get a second desk in my place for WFH. It was way too jarring to log off and keep sitting in the same spot. Contextual learning made me feel awkward to browse Reddit “at work”.
Given my space, my WFH desk is much crappier and smaller than my personal one, but still so much better than losing my life commuting.
That said, five minutes means one could come home for lunch.
But anyway, five minute walk to work is highly unlikely; a lot of people (most? citation needed?) have a commute to work, either driving or public transit. I'd rather have a nice private office or small team room than a big open and loud office space.