In the study they were comparing 5 days a week onsite to Monday/Tuesday/Thursday onsite.
They did not study fully time WFH or any other hybrid work arrangement.
I would hypothesize that what is gained by being in person would be VERY close for 3x / wk vs 5x / wk. it seems like there is very little downside to hybrid work compared to fully onsite for office work.
It doesn’t compare fully remote work though. That has more downside AND more upside.
If I was 20 years earlier in my career I think I would prefer being in 3 days a week (either MTuTh or MWTh) than all 5 days or fully remote. If it’s affordable, I would have looked at one overnight AirBnb a week (a single bedroom with a shared bathroom), which would reduce my commute to twice a week. This would make a 2 hours each way commute doable. Having a wider radius to live within makes it much easier to find something affordable if it’s an expensive city.
In Sydney that would have allowed me to live in the Blue Mountains, south coast or central coast, which would be great. However, if many people are doing the same thing, it may be pushing up housing costs in those places.
And AirBnb costs in the city.
For me it’s not about hybrid vs fully remote, it’s about the benefit of flexibility. Tell me I have to be in the office 3x a week and those days are set means I have lost my flexibility. I want to see stats on that, along with full WFH by choice as well.
I tend to come into the office 3x a week by choice, and so do most of my teammates. All of us are super disengaged with our new mandate, which is only 2x a week, but we are being told which days those must be. And other areas of the company are being told they have to do 3x a week, while half the company has zero mandate at all (the P&C side).
One thing I’m glad about: not going into the office on 10/31.
In my studying days, I’d simply take a whole study day.
True. I would like to see the capsule system in Tokyo catch on in some of the other big cities around the world.
I don’t think most countries are as hardcore as the japanese when it comes to being comfortable having very little personal space.
I just don’t see it working very well in Europe, UK, US, Canada.
Interestingly, in Sydney a popular day to come in (when employees have the choice) is Friday because they like to hang around for after work drinks/restaurants. Of course this won’t be the same in towns/cities where there’s little night life.
That assumes palatable coworkers or other friends in the area.
And maybe when I started, sure, let’s leave a little early and hit some happy hour spot, or stay around longer for whatever.
Nowadays, my hangout friends are nearer to me. Then again, I used to work a lot closer to home before The COVID.
For London it is 100% Thursday.
We have Halloween today (so not a typical Thursday) so people did wfh to be with their kids, but usually people come in to then socialise at the pubs and restaurants till late.
Friday is then WFH 
Lots of firecrackers now going off in my neck of the woods. Trick or treating is in full swing now.
Fireworks are likely due to Diwali
Yeah, October 31 and Presidential Election dates are murder on the evening rush hour.
Probably depends on the ages. I can see it being more popular among young adults and possibly empty nesters than parents with young kids.
Heh, when I was in my mid-20s and childless I’d go out to Happy Hour with friends, which might break up around 8 or 9:00 and then go back to work for a few hours because the office was empty and I could be super productive.
The what?
I am referring more to the idiot grown-ups who insist on dressing up.
Oh! Well in the before times I remember traffic being awful on Halloween and the night of Presidential Elections. No one works late those two days.
Elections traffic might not be as bad in the east where you still have a few hours until returns start coming in, but out west they may have already called a few states by the time I got home.
Eh, the last elections I walked into, I did before work. That was because the time BEFORE those, I went after work. Never again, I told myself.
Oh, I was thinking of Oregon, which is 100% vote by mail.
I think the uptick in traffic was 10% people dropping off ballots on the very last day and 90% people wanting to be home to watch the returns come in on tv.
On the west coast, other than 2000, you typically went to bed knowing who won.
Sleep Pods: San Francisco style.
Bloomberg (via Insurance Journal) looks at Allstate’s “middle of the road” approach on RTO: