Truly underscores the insanity of "normal." The sight of a traffic jam disgusts me, such a titanic waste.

The photo made me realize that perhaps working from home is one of the reasons many family members aren't going back to work thus leaving many of the minimum wage jobs unfilled.

I am guessing that many families that had both parents working but one in a minimum wage job found that with the one person working at home, the other person could quit their minimum wage job because of the savings in gasoline and other expenses that working in an office entail.

I worked from home for the last 10 years I was working. 1995-2005.

I raised my daughter while working from home with an elaborate schedule of mother's day out programs, school, and kid exchanges with other parents, while only working in the office one day a week for meetings and other required interactions.

For a while my boss insisted I come into the office two days a week for strictly egotistical purposes because I couldn't work effectively from there (the office was a Mac environment, and the finances were on PCs). I would leave work at 3:00 to do carpool and then continue working from home, but he'd regularly come up with some surprise activity that would delay me from leaving on time. The will to thwart work from home runs strong in some people. Although the pandemic may have changed the corporate philosophy a bit, I'm not sure it did enough.

Having started two jobs during the pandemic, there are advantages to being IN the office, especially in the beginning. You learn lots from listening to your peers. You get more "face time" with management, and more interaction with your peers. OTOH, I don't miss the drive. We were supposed to return to the office after Jan 1, however that seems to be delayed, and now there is a "hotel" desk plan in place. I'm very OK with that, I don't plan to go in unless I absolutely have to.