In 2019 I spent 12 weeks of my life =on a tram... you likely did too.
If you work full time in Australia there are typically 225 working days per year. If you travel 1 hour each way on public transport, that's 450 hours per year, and if you work 37.5 hrs per week, that's 12 additional "work weeks" per year spent just getting to work.
That is 12 work weeks a year lost to more productive and healthy activities, such as time supporting children/ family, exercise and personal development.
Unless your job requires you to travel to a physical location, spending the equivalent of 12 work weeks per year sitting/ standing on a tram/ train/ bus, has genuine environmental and social impacts. It means we wear out our infrastructure faster, we make life hell for tourists and those who's job depends on getting to a physical location, we pass on communicable diseases like colds and flu, we give less support to family, we invest less in our local communities, and of course we spend a lot of money travelling to work--which is not tax deductible.
So whilst the global COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of people "who could work from home, to work from home", as we come out of the other side, a question worth asking is "how many equivalent weeks at work do I really want to spend on public transport in 2021 and beyond?
I'm excited to work from a new office, and to get back to the buzz of a University campus, but my eyes are also wide open to the significant aspects of our lives and incomes we give to "standing room only", "delays", "cancellations" and "missing out on family time".
We all need to think deeply about what an office is, what is its purpose, how does it fit with the lives of staff, what will make staff want to be there, and how can we improve the experience of them getting to the office and home.
Organisations who get this right are going to attract the best talent and gain competitive advantage over organisations desperately seeking a return to "old normal".