What SV Professionals Miss About The In Person Office

Published on

Up until last year, a large part of the human experience involved leaving one’s home, encountering a specific bunch of people, trying to get along with them, doing some work, bidding them goodbye, and going home again. Because of COVID-19, a large part of America’s workforce has spent most of 2020 working from home.

Get Our Activist Investing Case Study!

Get The Full Activist Investing Study In PDF

Q3 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more

On Blind, the largest anonymous professional community with 4M users from big tech, unicorns, and startups, a Microsoft employee asked, “If you’re tired of WFH, why do you want to be back to an in person office?” 

Here Are The Things Professionals Miss The Most About The In Person Office

  1. Social aspects- missing friends (34%)
  2. The food (19%)
  3. Career Growth (18%)
  4. Mentorship opportunities (13%)
  5. Spouse/ partners getting on nerves (9%)
  6. 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

In Person Office

An Intuit professional shared, “I miss my office because -

  1. I miss my team
  2. Whiteboard design sessions
  3. Happy hours
  4. Mentor/mentee side of things
  5. Optimism & excitement.

Feels like we are in a dark tunnel. On the plus side, I am enjoying great time with my family & especially kids. I am getting to know & appreciate them more”

An engineer at Google shared “I hate WFH because I don't like to do work at home. I miss being able to go to the office, put in a day's work, and then leave. Separation of domains.”

The office might look different when we all go back to work, but one thing is certain: It isn’t going away.

Yes, coming together in an office setting may be more infrequent, but when we need to meet in order to address important situations or simply get the kind of creative input that comes from team dynamics, the office will be there.