Tech Workers Take Much Lower Pay to Ditch the Office

Not surprised at this part:

>"None of the variables the study tested carried as much weight with job seekers as the availability of remote work, according to the findings. Fully remote work appeared only slightly more attractive than hybrid jobs."

For me, remote work is and will continue to be my number one factor, should I end up back on the job market again. I've been remote since ~2019 and I will never go back to full time in the office. Even hybrid is pushing it for me.

There's no price you can put on the savings from: commute cost, commute time, improvements in mental health, etc. Even being able to get an at home workout in on a lunch break instead vs. paying for a gym membership near my work enough, or delaying getting home even more by doing it after work. It's also hard to quantify the value of not having to be butt-in-chair 8 hours a day. As long as I'm available when needed, I can be wherever I want. Struggling to wake up on a particular morning? No problem, grab my laptop and hang out in bed until I'm ready. In a lull period of low productivity? No problem, I don't need to hang around my cubicle and pretend to be busy I just go do something else and leave my phone on.

Not an exaggeration for me to say I'd exit the workforce entirely before working a 100% in office job ever again.

I get some people need the social interactions, but I don't necessarily, at least not at work. Chat is fine enough for me, and I have my social group outside of my job that's enough for me, and in a lot of cases, better - I'm not surrounded by other DevOpsy types, most of my friends are non-tech and I prefer it that way.

Without accounting at all for my mental health and convenience (which are things of value) WFH has immediate material benefit in terms of commute and lunch costs. I can take less salary at a WFH position and still actually end up with more money in my pocket at the end of the day because I lose the expenses associated with going somewhere non-home, being there for 8 hours and then coming back to home.