If you have been working from home, what have you missed the most being away from the office? That’s the question that was asked by Blind, the largest anonymous professional community with four million users mostly employed at big tech organizations, unicorns, and start-ups. Up until last year, a large part of the human work experience involved leaving one’s home, encountering a specific bunch of people and of course, trying to get along with them. Most employees back in 2019 would get to work, interact with coworkers, sit in meetings, bid your team a goodbye and go home. COVID-19 of course has upended that century old work ritual and a large part of the global workforce has spent most of 2020 working from home.
So Blind asked “If you’re tired of WFH, why do you want to be back in the office?”
Here are the things professionals miss the most about the office
- Social aspects- missing friends (34%)
- The (free) food (19%)
- Career Growth (18%)
- Mentorship opportunities (13%)
- Spouse/ partners getting on nerves (9%)
- Dating prospects (7%)
More key learnings:
- 26% of Twitter professionals miss the food
- 46% of Cisco professionals miss the social aspects
- 29% of Visa professionals miss the career growth
- ¼ of Snap professionals miss mentorship opportunities
- 17% of Oracle professionals’ spouses are getting on their nerves
- 15% of Lyft professionals miss the dating prospects
If you work for Google, 33% of Blind poll recipients miss the food, 34% of Facebook respondents miss the food too but only 14% of Facebook work from homes miss the opportunities for career growth. I have had lunch at Google in the California offices and all I can say is that I’d be missing the food too. It’s like being on a cruise without the germs.
If you work for Wayfair, this Covid thing is really messing your mojo; 25% of respondents at the furniture distribution company miss the dating opportunities. (Good thing those mattresses come wrapped!) At Wayfair almost 1 in 3 are also missing their friends.
If you work for Zillow, 24% of respondents share that their significant other is driving them nuts having to work from home. Hmm, those rumours about real estate agents – say no more!
Fintech sensation Square had one of the highest percentages of coworkers missing the social element of being in an office at 46%. Square also had the lowest number of employees missing the food at 8%. At Jack Dorsey’s other company Twitter, 26% miss the food, meaning Dorsey has some explaining to do why Square is getting short-changed with their kitchen.
At Splunk, a big-data analytical firm based in San Francisco, 0% of employees miss the dating potential. That stat is the most telling of the deep dive raw data from the survey! 15% of Splunk’s team miss the career growth but 20% miss the food. So that must mean Splunk hires unmotivated, unattractive people that like to eat! I am sure that I must be over simplifying things with my understanding of data, but if comes down to a job at Splunk or Wayfair, choose Wayfair!