As soon as the COVID-19 vaccine became available, some companies started mandating that employees return to the office (RTO). But workers who had found that they were happier and more productive working from home began resisting, thus beginning an often contentious RTO debate that’s lasted over three years. U.S. office occupancy rates are at 40% to 60% of pre-pandemic levels, according to consulting firm Korn Ferry. That is much lower than the 70%-to-90% office occupancy rate in Europe and the Middle East.

However, not everyone wants to work from home. Some employees are choosing to spend four days in the office each week, even without their employer mandating it.

Who is choosing to return to the office

Brian Sanford started going back into the office about a year and half ago. “Losing that in-person connection during the pandemic was brutal and getting it back was magnificent,” says Sanford, director of post-production at Versus, a production and creative studio based in Manhattan. 

He decided to return to the office after witnessing two clients collaborating in Versus’s creative suite. Those two people had been working together for a year but had never met, he says, but when they came together in person their creativity soared. “That became the catalyst to help see what’s possible when we come back and work together in person,” Sanford says.

Since then, he’s been gradually increasing his time in the office to four days a week. Although there is no mandate to come in, there are usually around eight to 10 people in the office on any given day from different seniority levels, says managing director Rob Meyers. Versus has 40 employees and 30 are based in New York City.

“There is a cultural and emotional connection that is created being there together and getting excited about the work,” Sanford says.

About 18 months ago, Joe Arnett decided to go into the office four times a week. “It felt like the right thing to do,” says Arnett, director of construction operations for mobility technology firm Verra Mobility in Mesa, Arizona. There is no mandate for anyone to be in the office, but Arnett says a handful of colleagues from his department and several from other departments regularly come in.

Both Arnett and Sanford believe there are benefits to working from an office rather than from home. Here’s what they have gained from going into the office.

Better collaboration

No amount of virtual whiteboarding can replace in-person collaboration, particularly if you’re working on a creative project like film editing, Sanford says. “Being together in person is beneficial to making challenging creative decisions that aren’t rooted in math,” he says. For instance, if you’re editing a film, it’s essential that you’re sitting in the same room, looking at the screen at the same time, hearing the same thing at the same time. You can’t do that over email or even Zoom.

“Sometimes it’s easier to walk down to someone’s office and ask a question than to email them and wait for a response,” says Rita Zimmerman, communications coordinator at American Inns of Court, an amalgam of judges and lawyers in Alexandria, Virginia. In June 2020, Zimmerman decided to go back into the office three days a week because she found it challenging to work at home with her husband and two sons.

Arnett agrees that in-person contact helps to get his job done more efficiently. Recently he met a colleague for the first time in-person. “The next time we spoke on the phone, we approached the problem differently because we had met each other,” he says.

Stronger work-life balance

Leaving an office at the end of the day signals the end of the workday. “During the pandemic, remote work made everyone feel like they had to be available all the time,” Sanford says. When he goes into the office and comes home at night, Sanford doesn’t feel like he needs to keep working after dinner every night.

Zimmerman found it challenging to set clear boundaries when she was working from home during the pandemic. She consistently started her day earlier because she wasn’t commuting to work and ended it later because her colleagues were still working. “I had a hard time turning off the computer and walking away when my hours were done,” she says.

Affirming daily rituals

Many employees who have resisted coming back into the office blame the commute. But for some workers, the ritual of going to and from the office helps them get into a work mindset and mentally transition to being back at home.

When Zimmerman was working from home, she said her whole day was thrown off without the daily rituals of getting up, getting ready, eating breakfast, and driving to work. “It took a while for me to realize I still had to set the alarm, shower and get a cup of tea before work started,” she says.

Sanford says he’s never found his 45-minute commute difficult. He enjoys the walk past the Empire State building on his way to the train station because it signals to him it’s time to go home. Employees at other companies might be reluctant to return to the office because their company isn’t creating an inspiring work culture. Sanford says. “The value of being in the office has to outweigh the 45-minute commute on the train,” he says.