bitfriend6 t1_je16hns wrote
In regards to Silicon Valley/San Francisco specifically it's due to the long commute times. 90 min commutes mean wasting 3 hours per day in traffic. This makes an 8 hour workday into a 11'er, 12 with a lunch break. Most people won't tolerate that unless the money is really good, which it increasingly isn't. This is caused by a supply problem, there's not enough transit and physical mobility in the region, and this problem will persist through the end of the decade.
We can talk about Office-or-not all day but the plain fact is, if the Office is completely divorced from your community and not involved in your personal life in any way then you have no commitment to it. Workers are isolated from their physical workspaces and even the products they create, to the point where they'd rather quit than subject themselves to such a dehumanizing, alien experience. Which follows as it's only human nature to want some amount of control over our daily routines.
To have a serious discussion about Office-ing, the Office and areas around it have to be desirable. If they aren't, it's over. The same problem vexes industrial workers who are just told to eat it, and largely do because they didn't finish college. These are also the people most likely to replace former Office jobs, presuming companies can't find a machine to do it better.
asthmaticblowfish t1_je201gl wrote
I live a 10 minute walk from my office and still go once every three weeks tops.
[deleted] t1_je4fubh wrote
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EntertainerOrk t1_je4unug wrote
Cool, go there then.
Also, are you really threatening us with offshoring? Have you observed anything that's been happening in the last 50 years?
phdoofus t1_je1ia4r wrote
90 min? When I was doing it I ran in to people on the Amtrak who were riding in from Sacramento to either the Berkeley station to catch a bus or BART in to the city or taking it all the way to Santa Clara. That's almost 3 hours one way assuming the train isn't late or gets stopped due to someone on the tracks (dead or alive). And, yeah...Amtrak...that never happens.
DiceKnight t1_je3rmsv wrote
You're touching on a point i've been finding myself talking about with family and friends a lot. What's the point of moving to a city that pays you a seemingly high salary but the salary isn't anywhere near enough to actually live in the parts of town close to your office?
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