A lot of the interesting jobs have gone hybrid. Unfortunately a lot of "hybrid" implementations prescribe a number of days per week instead of a just "get your shit done, here's the office if you'd like to use it, we expect you to do whatever makes you most efficient".
I'm in a long-distance relationship and I hate this situation. Like, I'm even OK with alternating 5 days per week for 2 weeks and then 0 days per week for 2 weeks. But some companies are hellbent on 3 days per week and it's a top-down HR level thing that even managers can't control.
Amazon does this. One of the parents at my kid's bus stop in Seattle works for them and has to go in three days a week. Her entire team is in D.C., so nobody she works with is in the office.
Yeah I'm at Amazon right now. I go into the office for 3 afternoons a week. They are just 3 wasted afternoons. The office HVAC gives me a sore throat, I can't leave stuff at the desk (no fixed desks, they implemented "agile" with the desks), the office chairs aren't the best for my back, the Wi-Fi is worse than my wired connection at home, the coffee is shitty, there is no cafeteria, and meeting rooms are in short supply so I sometimes take them from my car. I have gotten COVID once and flus twice from the office because of others badging in sick, losing close to 2-3 weeks of work time, in addition to all the lost efficiency due to the sore throats. I could wear a mask all day in the office, but that's uncomfortable AF.
I get all real work done at home, mostly in the 2 non-office days. They have effectively reduced my work efficiency to 40% of what it was when I joined. Leadership either doesn't understand this, or they are using the whole badging thing as a way to get people to leave voluntarily without severance.
If you want to optimize for people to come to the office, have the best fucking lattes and snacks on the planet, put couches and comfy seating everywhere, give me an assigned desk where I can leave stuff plugged in, and a budget to buy the monitor, keyboard/mouse, chair, and whatever else I want, clean the HVAC, set the temperature to something higher than Antarctica, and ACTIVELY encourage people to stay home at the slightest sign of sickness instead of encouraging them to come in.
If you want to optimize for the business, downsize the offices if people aren't using them and just focus on getting work done, not where it gets done.
They are now busy modifying the code to ensure that people only get 1 free coffee per day, and hear rumors that they will require people to come in for at least 2 hours for it to count, so now people are forced to waste 2+ hours instead of just 1 hour each time. Instead of figuring out how to make the office a comfortable, fun, and infection-free place that people actually want to come to.
But someone at HR probably got a promotion for implementing the maximum of 1 free cardboard-flavored coffee and someone else probably got a promotion for increasing the badging rate.
I'm in a long-distance relationship and I hate this situation. Like, I'm even OK with alternating 5 days per week for 2 weeks and then 0 days per week for 2 weeks. But some companies are hellbent on 3 days per week and it's a top-down HR level thing that even managers can't control.