The average american commutes 55 minutes each day. Assuming they work 8 hours per day, the time saved not commuting alone is roughly an 11% raise that a company can give for free. This is before one considers the real costs of commuting (fuel, wear & tear, tolls, etc) and the potential savings from lifestyle changes (living in a more affordable area, convenient access to home ammenities during working hours, etc).
On the company side, either more employees can be hired while keeping the same office space or a smaller, less expensive space can be rented. With employee commutes being less of a factor, offices can be located closer to customers or in less expensive areas depending on the business needs. Likewise the geographic area from which employees can be hired significantly increases (even if not fully remote, a several hour drive or even a flight might be acceptable if they're only coming into the office on special occasions). You even get ethically dubious perks like getting people to work when they otherwise would have called out of the office, and offloading some of the costs of operating an office onto your employees.
It takes effort and capital to set up all the infrastructure necessary for remote work, it might take a while to realize the full benefits of remote work (moving to a lower cost location is not-trivial), and of course some jobs simply can't be done remotely. But once you already have gone remote, there's no logical business case for returning to the office. You are spending more money to be in an objectively worse position, possibly literally. Companies that choose to engage in this irrational behavior will lose employees and market share to competitors who better take advantage of the opportunity.
One minor correction / nitpick here: Most folks work 9 hours per day. We often don't consider this part of work per se but this is an hour block of your day that you cannot use for yourself.
The work day is 9 hours and 55 minutes on average for full time employees. Not to mention the preparation time you need for getting ready to commute. As most of us know, at least those who have been fortunate to work remotely, you don't have to devote huge blocks of time before work on work.
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The average american commutes 55 minutes each day. Assuming they work 8 hours per day, the time saved not commuting alone is roughly an 11% raise that a company can give for free. This is before one considers the real costs of commuting (fuel, wear & tear, tolls, etc) and the potential savings from lifestyle changes (living in a more affordable area, convenient access to home ammenities during working hours, etc).
On the company side, either more employees can be hired while keeping the same office space or a smaller, less expensive space can be rented. With employee commutes being less of a factor, offices can be located closer to customers or in less expensive areas depending on the business needs. Likewise the geographic area from which employees can be hired significantly increases (even if not fully remote, a several hour drive or even a flight might be acceptable if they're only coming into the office on special occasions). You even get ethically dubious perks like getting people to work when they otherwise would have called out of the office, and offloading some of the costs of operating an office onto your employees.
It takes effort and capital to set up all the infrastructure necessary for remote work, it might take a while to realize the full benefits of remote work (moving to a lower cost location is not-trivial), and of course some jobs simply can't be done remotely. But once you already have gone remote, there's no logical business case for returning to the office. You are spending more money to be in an objectively worse position, possibly literally. Companies that choose to engage in this irrational behavior will lose employees and market share to competitors who better take advantage of the opportunity.
One minor correction / nitpick here: Most folks work 9 hours per day. We often don't consider this part of work per se but this is an hour block of your day that you cannot use for yourself.
The work day is 9 hours and 55 minutes on average for full time employees. Not to mention the preparation time you need for getting ready to commute. As most of us know, at least those who have been fortunate to work remotely, you don't have to devote huge blocks of time before work on work.
Great insight.