Working from an office seems fun until you realize the pure, unbridled joy of arriving at the office.
Wake up, take a shower, brush your teeth, drink coffee in a to-go cup, start the car, hit the freeway to avoid traffic, listen to 3+ podcast episodes before you get to the downtown office parking lot , only to do the same thing in reverse later that same day, where God only knows what kind of shenanigans may occur on the way back home.
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With the Covid pandemic causing major changes to the dynamics of office life, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had a few words to say about those still taking advantage of Covid-era policies in the face of a packed room at City Hall in Downtown Minneapolis.
“I don't know if you saw this study the other day, but what this study clearly shows is when people have the ability to go downtown to an office and they don't, when they stay at home, sitting on their couch with their nasty cat in a blanket playing with their laptop… if they do that for a few months, you become a loser! It's a study. We're not losers, are we?” she asked.
“No, we are winners, we are resilient, we are tough, we are strong, we are innovative, we rise to the challenge, we get knocked down seven times and we get up eight, that's who we are as a city.”
A spokesman for the mayor told the Fox affiliate in Minneapolis that the “loser” statement was a joke.
Joke or not, the numbers behind hybrid and remote work suggest they are just as popular among the workforce as they were during the pandemic.
According a February 2024 update on a study According to professors at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and ITAM, 42% of full-time employees have a hybrid work schedule or work completely from home.
In the same study, nearly 25% of respondents said that a fully in-person work schedule would be best for their physical health, while 19% and 17.1% of respondents said that spending two or three days in home would be best, respectively. . Along the same lines, almost 24% of respondents said that a fully remote position would be best for their mental health, while 18.9% and 17.3% of respondents said that spending two or three days in home would be best, respectively.
However, attitudes about remote work don't spell good news for Mayor Frey. Less time at work means less time and less money spent downtown, which was the initial message he intended to convey with his statement, as he aims to revitalize his city.
“Come experience the greatness of downtown (Minneapolis),” the mayor pleaded at the same event. “Back to work.”
Mayor Frey's comments Wednesday reflect a similar, but guided, sentiment he expressed in a December 2023 interview with Minneapolis/St. Paul's Business Diary where he reflected on the impact of remote work on downtown Minneapolis.
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“It's easy to forget all the things you love about downtown when you've been sitting on your couch for the last two years watching Netflix,” the mayor said.
“'Go back.' “That's what I'm saying. That's my job. It's what's best for Minneapolis, it's what's best for downtown.”
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