Submitted by Mei_Flower1996 t3_121nbk4 in boston
nattarbox t1_jdmhhs9 wrote
Design/UX in tech, I would do maybe one day at home max, pre-Covid. Often not even that.
Folks in our office with kids and/or long commutes would do two or more days at home pretty regularly though, and it wasn’t a big deal. There were always a couple people fully remote, usually high skilled individual contributors who could ask for something like that and be trusted with it.
People with very long commutes (Newburyport, Worcester, NH/ME) would work from the train too and count that as part of their day.
Mei_Flower1996 OP t1_jdmhw6m wrote
So it was sort of a thing! Tbh, even just 1 WFH day makes a huge difference. I wanna live with my parents until I start making real money, which would be at least 1-2 yrs post grad. My commute , by train, could be upwards of an hr, but just one day WHF would break that up, you know?
devAcc123 t1_jdo7ks6 wrote
Hate to break this to you but a 1hr commute is generally pretty standard
Shit sucks but that would be considered pretty normal in most major US cities
Mei_Flower1996 OP t1_jdo8bfz wrote
Mine is over an hr. More like 80 mins.
Also in a lot of parts of the US ( non urban, I never said Boston is the worst as a city, it's just worse than the overall average) an hr is considered long. Like, I'm not just comparing cities. The USA as a whole, including jobs in suburban areas.
devAcc123 t1_jdo9cvf wrote
Yeah 80 does not sound fun
Just basing it off the cities im familiar with, mostly NYC and Boston, and a 60 minute door to door one way commute would be seen as completely standard, albeit shitty.
Something like a 10 min drive to the local train station, 40 minute train ride, 5 minute walk to a subway, 10 minute subway ride, 5 minute walk to the office is like the norm for any suburb of NYC
Mei_Flower1996 OP t1_jdo9obu wrote
NYC and Boston are the worst. And I'd imagine WFH is a tad more common in Ny for this reason as well. ( or what was described up here, fully hybrid not really a thing pre COVID, but one WFH day or whatever.)
echocomplex t1_jdp3d46 wrote
I lived w my parents in Boston suburbs for awhile while working in the city, it was about 80 minutes door to door either by driving or commuter rail. Then I moved to Somerville, just 6 miles from my job downtown. Believe it or not, my commute using the T was about 50-60 minutes. Later I moved to Melrose, a town much closer to Boston than my parents town, and considered highly desirable by commuters, but further away than Somerville, and the commute was about 60 or 70 minutes (via bus and subway). After that I bought a house one town over from where my parents live, due to cost reasons, and bc fuck it, my commutes never felt super different even when I was theoretically living considerably closer to work as the crow flies, for me it didn't radically improve my quality of life to live considerably closer.
nattarbox t1_jdmmc6h wrote
Yeah I mean Im just a quick red line trip or 20 minute bike ride, but there is absolutely no way on earth I will ever EVER go back to working in an office lol. That era of civilization is over.
alkdfjkl t1_jdoco2i wrote
I've been in software development and technology consulting for about 15 years. This closely matches what I've experienced.
RedPandaPopTarts t1_jdxx6x4 wrote
I was a government recruiter for IT specialists and intelligence analysts, as well as UX designers for the last couple years. I began before the pandemic and worked In office about half the time I was employed until I left late last year for personal reasons. There are several reasons it makes sense you’re not given the option to work from home like others. Who knows, maybe you’re better at your job than anyone else and your boss just really wants you around more, or the opposite; maybe you suck at your job, idk (I definitely don’t assume that of you). Some people it’s because they need a government clearance or certification and that kind of clearance cannot be used outside of a government building. Maybe the CEO simply paid for the space already and would rather see it being used rather than breaking the contract. Could be a lot of things.
I am surprised your work made such exceptions pre Covid. Regardless of industry, I’ve never worked anywhere that gave much of a shit if you had kids or a long commute. I’ve had some good bosses that worked with people but policies in general can be quite unforgiving.
samstanley7 t1_je1558i wrote
Also UX here, and I’d echo that. I’ve been lucky in the sense that my dev and product folks have typically been located elsewhere, so coming into the office was usually more of a culture thing a couple days a week.
That said, there was and still is a “butts-in-seats” culture around here too. I live in the city and once worked for a company outside Worcester who only let me have one remote day, despite a commute of about two hours each way, traffic permitting. Ironically, it was an IC role with all overseas teammates and stakeholders. 🤷🏻♂️
They were genuinely confused and surprised when I left for a hybrid role in the city.
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