Dreaded commute to the city is keeping offices mostly empty
That&#x27;s one reason for sure, but even if my house was a 10 minute walk from the office, I&#x27;d still rather only go in for meetings. At home I have my own private office with a  nice view. I have a nice set of speakers and can play any music I like. If I want to go for a walk,  I&#x27;m in a quiet suburban neighborhood with hiking trails nearby. The kitchen is always stocked with snacks I like plus freshly prepared healthy lunches (prepared either by myself or my wife). My dog spends most of the day in the office with me.<p>At the &quot;new&quot; office, no one has an assigned desk, so I have to take everything I need with me to my desk and  pack it up at the end of the day. My company is distributed so I spend half the day on zoom meetings with people in other offices... and even with relatively few people in the office it&#x27;s already hard to book a room for a meeting. There&#x27;s enough background noise in the open office that I keep headphones on most of the time while I&#x27;m at my desk. We do get free lunches at the office which is a nice perk, but food is prepared off-site, so menus tend to be designed around food that stands up to this model of food that can be prepared hours ahead of time.<p>My commute is less than 30 minutes (one-way) and is a pretty pleasant drive.... it takes an hour out of my day, but it&#x27;s not the primary reason I don&#x27;t want to go to the office.