Most people who have been fortunate
enough to continue working from
home during coronavirus are now
dreading the possibility that
they'll have to go back to
the office very soon.
As more and more Americans get
vaccinated, we're noticing that
businesses are opening up.
That means that remote workers are
likely to go back to the office.
But there are many workers who
are not looking forward to that.
In fact, according to a new study
by staffing firm Robert Half,
the survey found that 34% of work
from home respondents say that they
would rather quit than return to
a full time office job.
>> Boom. >> I'm going to stop right
there. There are so many amazing
statistics in this survey, but
I get it, I do, I get it.
And it's not for
the reasons that you would think,
at least for me.
But I certainly agree with
the reasons that were listed as
part of this survey.
But I want to hear what you think
about it, boss man.
What do you think about people
getting back to the office and
working full time?
>> Okay, I'm going to tell you
a qiuck personal.
Yeah, I'm going to tell
a quick personal story.
So my dad was tough, but fair.
I love him.
He did a great job of raising at
least my sister [LAUGH].
For me, you speak for me,
I don't know.
Anyways, but when I worked for
him when I was a kid,
yeah that happened.
[LAUGH] He burst into the room
all the time to make sure if you
were working.
Tough immigrant mentality,
open the door suddenly and
be like are you working, right?
And if he caught you twice
slacking off,
he said that's a bum forever, okay?
And would threaten to fire me,
his son.
So that's how it is growing up in
an immigrant mentality.
And I love that the right wing
things like immigrants are lazy,
[LAUGH] that's hilarious.
Anyways, what that did for me was,
is some psychological scarring, so
whenever I worked for a big company
I was always panicked about
somebody looking over my shoulder.
Like there's somebody who's
going to burst into the room.
>> Yeah.
>> Right, and so I hate that.
And at a company I run I
don't want that, right?
And so we trust people to do their
jobs.
But of course we monitor it, but
we don't monitor based on time.
We don't monitor it based on your
work in an office and space, and
looking like you're working.
No, it's on the work product.
It's on the work product, okay?
So I don't really care if you do it
from home or
you do it from the office.
And coronavirus showed that
not all the jobs, but
some of the jobs can be done from
home just as efficiently.
And I get why the employees want it
because I'm also an employee,
[LAUGH] right?
And I like spending more time with
my kids.
And I'll tell you, last thing, Ana,
for me, probably not true.
I'll probably say more things.
Is that [LAUGH], the chitchat at
the office takes up a lot of time.
It does, it's not
an unpleasant thing.
It's a pleasant thing.
You get together with friends and
you talk and stuff.
And ironically for me,
home has been much more efficient.
>> Yeah, it has been for
me as well and, like,
don't get me wrong.
The hardest part about working from
the office is desperately wanting
to give in to the temptations to
either chit chat or
do something fun, right?
So the first thing I immediately
thought about was John coming to my
desk, as he often would,
to ask me if I wanted to go get
something from the food truck.
And I'm not even hungry, but
do I want to step away from
the desk to have a conversation,
to enjoy waiting outdoors as our
food is being prepared?
Yeah, I love that.
So it needlessly makes my workday
longer and I get less done.
I do what I need to do for
the live show.
But that's all I'll have
time to do.
So there's that.
The other thing is when
the pandemic first hit and
the shutdowns first happened,
we started quarantining.
I remember that first day after
the show.
It was light outside.
And I looked at Christian and
I was like, should we go for
a walk?
Let's go for a walk.
And so we started walking in our
neighborhood.
And it was springtime, and
there were flowers.
And I was like, my god,
these flowers are beautiful.
And they're here every year and
I never noticed them.
Because I can't notice them because
I'm in the office or
I'm in rush hour traffic.
So I'm not exaggerating, I mean
this from the bottom of my heart.
I haven't been as happy as I've
been feeling in a long time.
And I think part of it, and
I've really realized this,
is just having the ability to just
give myself 30 to 45 minutes
every day to do whatever I want.
Whether it's go for a run,
go for a walk.
Maybe there's an episode of
something I want to watch and
just chill.
Maybe I want to read
a super lengthy article that has
nothing to do with our rundown.
But it's okay, I got time bro.
I can read that article,
it's all right.
I love that freedom.
And guess what?
The respondents in the survey did
mention that.
The most important aspect
that the surveyed employees
mentioned is the freedom.
Above all, that means freedom to
set their own office hours.
They've also grown increasingly
fond at the highly personalized
workspace that work from home jobs
allow.
Absolutely like Charlie.
Charlie's right there, my dog.
So if I need to step away from
the computer because something I'm
researching is really frustrating,
I can do that and
I won't get in trouble for it.
It's not going to hurt anything.
They indicated that work from home
provides a more distraction free
environment so.
But that doesn't mean I don't miss
the camaraderie of the people I
work with.
That's missing, and it's
really hard to balance that really.
>> Yeah, so first of all,
let's acknowledge that flowers,
they're here, they're near,
get used to it.
Secondly, traffic.
Forget the number of hours at
the office,
especially if you live in LA,
you're going to save potentially
a couple of hours in traffic.
And that allows you to see
the flowers that were near,
that you missed the whole time.
Or to do more work like Anna,
kudos to her for
reading more articles, and
getting more educated, and
being a better host.
And I love the way she's
using that time.
But my favorite part of the story
is how Johnny Pie got thrown under
the bus for no reason.