It may boil down to dollars and sense. Hypothetically, if a person in the study works in New York City and resides in Westfield, New Jersey, a nice upper-middle class suburb, they’ll have about a two to three hour round-trip commute back and forth to work.
The annoying commute is compounded by the inclement weather of the Northeast with cold snowy and icy winters and oppressively hot summers. The pandemic, coupled with calls to defund the police, has left New York a little dirtier and scarier. There have been reports of questionable characters committing heinous violent acts on the streets and in the train stations.
If you do decide to go back to the office, you can’t wear your work-from-home uniform of tee shirts, shorts and flip flops. You’ll have to buy a brand new wardrobe, especially if you put on the pandemic extra pounds. Then, there’s the question of who will take care of your children now that you're going back to the office.
When you get into the City, there’s the obligatory stop at Starbucks for a venti coffee and sausage and egg breakfast sandwich that runs about $10.00 or so, depending how fancy you like your coffee. The odds are high that you’re not brown-bagging lunch and either ordering out or running to a local food joint for an overpriced meal that tastes terrible. At least once or twice a week, you’ll get roped into an event after work that sets you back financially for dinner and drinks.
Corporations are corrupt. Pay your employees well you tax evading cheaters.
And if gross income declines so do taxes. Less is more. Voluntary simplicity.
So you’re telling me, if I got asked to use my own electricity, own internet, own house (not the company space), and still do the same work or more, for 30k less? I’d gladly go back into the office to spend time in 8 meetings a day and get nothing done instead.