Because working from home is cheaper, less stressful and less miserable for a lot of people.
We have technology that allows us to do tasks from home effectively. There is no reason a lot of jobs can’t be done remotely
My central London office is by far the busiest it’s been since lockdown the last few weeks. I think it’s a case of not being worth it when no one is also there.
I make reports at work. Weeklies, monthlies, quarterly etc
Most days I’ve got less than 2hrs work to do, so I’d spend 5 or more hours starin’ at my computer trying to look busy
When I work from home, they get the same reports and of the same quality but I’m not losing my mind.
Why on earth would I want to pay to go back to the office and be bored all day?
As a Civil Servant who’s forced to work in the office. I’d love to work from home. 90% or the job can be done at home. 100% if management trusted us a bit more.
Remote working means no stressful commute for employees, and employers get to offload that expensive office floor space. Seems like a win-win to me.
I enjoy going into work because it’s a small office, I like all my colleagues and it’s a quiet commute through the countryside. But if you work in a large office with a bunch of people you hate and have to use cramped public transport, why wouldn’t you want to work from home?
To flip the usual arguments on their heads, offices just can’t make working environments good enough to compete with people’s homes. I’d want my own office with a window, ability to choose the temperature, lighting and background music, a huge screen, safe storage for my stuff, a clean and working shower and toilet, fully equipped kitchen, comfy sofa for breaks and reading and the ability to receive parcels at my work without dealing with grumpy receptionists.
Put all that within ten minutes walk of my home and then we can talk.
I think the argument of it being cheaper particularly with the energy costs is not really one of value for those who want to work from home.
My energy bills are high, it is arguable if I would save money going into the office (washing work clothes, travel, lunches, sporadic purchases after a hard day etc). Lets not forget the other comfort costs to offset the unpleasant experiences of being in the office for some people.
Even if it is cheaper to go to the office, I would happily pay more to be mentally in a much better place.
People care about their money but if their money buys them comfort and mental stability everyone takes that option. We all heat, eat well, have cars, our own homes for what? It’s more expensive than car pooling and house sharing and budget eating….
I don’t think I’ll ever go back to full time office work. I’m in a routine of one day a week in the office and I don’t think I would accept a job that had a requirement for more than 2 days. It’s changed my lifestyle so much, I have much more time in the evenings to do things and am overall less tired and grumpy.
I’ve to go to the office 3 days a week on them days I’m tired, sore and burnt out, we are in the office because they believe it builds connection, which is utter bs.
When I’m not in the office I have more energy more time to myself and I don’t have to get up at stupid o’clock just to get to work. But hey big bosses don’t listen while they fuck us all over out of decent pay and force us to pay more just so they can justify their renovations and leases.
We’re finding majority prefer a hybrid. Certain meetings/discussions face to face, and a mix of in office and at home.
There are a few that prefer completely at home or in work, but I’d say they’re outliers.
Everyone’s home situation is different, some don’t have good working spaces or like to cycle to work etc.
We used to have a cafeteria, a gym, and a park and ride at my office. All have gone. Hardly encouraging us to go back by making it worse
For a lot of people they have to commute in.
Trains are expensive and seldom reliable. Cars cost more to run. Want lunch? Food is more expensive as rates rise for business.
It’s a no brainer, really.
I hate having to look busy. Work is peaks and troughs and in a quiet patch i dont want to have to click around excell or whatever because janet and kevin from finance can see my screen.
I start work at 0830 so I get up at 0820 or sometimes 0730 I start as I like starting early. Im up and down putting the dishwasher on etc blasting out what I need in the morning and then chilling in the afternoons.
I love it.
As long as the work gets done i get left alone
It’s simple for me – I don’t want to spend an extra working day a week sat on the M5 commuting (much worse in the summer). My free time is more important, much more as I get older and there is literally nothing for my job that I can’t do from home and all that is before you take out any fuel costs.
“On the other side are frustrated managers at large office-occupiers who say they want to reignite their workplaces with the collaboration and creativity that comes from in-person interaction.”
Okay so book a space for occasion meet ups. Have group video calls. If you can’t be creative and work as a team over video call then wfh isn’t your issue
You people who want to work from home are so selfish, how are people like Sir Alan to cope with reduced rents.
If we had an insanely good bus and train network that always turned up on time and was fast, then I’d probably not mind going in sometimes. But as it is now, not a single day in the last… 3 months? have I had a good commute into work. There’s always something wrong with part of it that takes my 40 min journey to an hour.
Aside that, my office has good heating and is free. However, I would rather be cold at home and keep the heating off like I do now, than get dressed and sit in a warm building just because it’s warm.
Working culture began changing in 2010, as both IT (end user) equipment and networking / server infrastructure matured into the direction we’re working with now.
Home working was completely viable in the mid to latter 00’s. The Pandemic hastened and normalised this practice.
I understand there’s a need for work place culture. In environments like engineering, face to face interaction aids development. But this isn’t that…
The vast majority of ‘get back into the office’ drives are from the likes of Boris trying to appease Pret and Starbucks. Office developers watching their multi-million complex sitting empty. Middle managers crying because they no longer have a captive audience in front of them.
And they can all fuck right off. Culture is changing. People are healthier, and happier this way. Corporate greed, and middle tier managers clinging onto their inflated profits and egos can go suck a thousand dicks before I’ll capitulate to their egregious whining. They didn’t read the market and backed the wrong horse – boo fucking hoo. Welcome to the way the rest of us get on with things.
Why would I waste my time getting up earlier, getting dressed, going to get a train and likely getting to work early then getting another train hone and not getting home and until like 6pm then being too tired or miserable to do anything like make dinner?
Working from home I can get up when I actually need to, only spend time doing what needs to be done and get some stuff done at home too then get in relaxation mode straight away.
BT sell services specifically aimed to allow people to work from home… While demanding their staff return to the office 3 days a week….
I’m almost 18 years with my current employer.
The last 2 have been probably the most productive of my career with them.
The work I’m doing is better and has opened up opportunities on accounts nationwide rather than limiting me to ones in the immediate radius of my base office.
I don’t have to bother with ironing shirts and dressing up in office wear.
I gain an additional 1-2 hours of my time back saved in commuting.
There’s an albeit modest saving in fuel from that commute.
The only downside is the fact there’s now a bit of a disconnect to when I actually finish work. It’s too easy to answer that email that comes in at 8pm at night or still be sat getting things done before bedtime. But you know what – I don’t grudge that one bit given the pro’s listed above.
I never want to return to the office again.
Working from home has made people happier and opened up to opportunities people didn’t realise they missed. There is no reasonable argument why we need to go back.
For me and a lot of people I know, the reason is that my salary is simply worth so much less if I go into the office. It’s £7.10 a day, so I’d hit the monthly cap. That’s over £100 that I don’t get to keep of my salary.
Worked from home the last two years, started going back into London on Thursdays about a month ago, although because of my Son starting reception I’ve not been able to go in for a few weeks due to the staggered start / end times for him.
Summer Holidays were difficult trying to combine being a parent and work from home, as he’d been going to a school nursery for the last year – But I shudder to think how we’d have coped had I been in the office five days per week… I guess a lot of relying on Grandparents to look after him when my wife was at work (as she only works P/T)
When I do go in its more of a Social thing, and the office is more noisy than at home, so struggle to focus on what I need to do
The best example was Friday though, had a busy day and wasn’t able to log off from my laptop until 7pm – I didnt care though, was able to sit down have dinner, just checked my emails sporadically (as I was waiting to hear from one person), and shut down when I heard from them – That wouldn’t have been possible from the office, as in my mind I’d have been thinking about the commute home, so I’d have left it until today to pick up.
The question is why do some employers have such a hard on for spending money on facilities, rent, catering etc to have people miserable in a petrie dish?
Something not often mentioned is that some people are unpleasant to be in a workplace with. Nothing at fault with their job performance, but something such as their eating habits, or that they smell, or that their way of getting attention from you is just annoying.
So if you only have to cope with that low level annoyance for two days a week instead of five, it’s a hidden gain.
Let’s face it, for a lot of us going back to the office is:
1. An effective pay cut since we would now have to pay out for fuel and meals etc. All of which have gone up in price significantly since before the pandemic.
2. Detrimental to our work life balance with the time cost of commuting and getting ready in the morning.
There are always those people that thrive in the office, so let them go there and leave the rest of us alone, we’ll all be happier. I’ve turned down two job offers recently because despite offering higher pay they required extensive office time.
Those big shiny offices that are still being built by billionaires , need to be filled with drones though.
The city want you spending your wages on travel , in sandwich shops ,cafe’s , restaurants and bars
My favourite attempt by organisations to justify returning to the office is their “vibrant and collaborative office environment”. If being in your office is so amazing how come none of your employees want to come back then?
Now I go to the office to socialise. Get almost no work done and enjoy the pub after. Rest of the week is doing work effectively from home.
Going back into the office just feels like a pointless, arduous box ticking exercise to keep happy the managers who don’t think you can do your job from home
The reason I’m never going back to the office, at least for me personally, is the insufferable and toxic “Office Politics”. Can’t speak for everyone, but I wouldn’t be surprised if many also had enough of Stacy getting a promotion for being so pretty.
Remote and hybrid work has certainly brought a lot of people more freedom and happiness, and it’s great that that is the case for many people here, but personally I enjoy my work a lot less when I’m not interacting with a team in-person. It’s so much more engaging and really gets me through the day. Work is just way more fun when you can build that more personal relationship with your coworkers.
I’ve had to ditch being a software developer because of the pandemic. I enjoyed it before, but now it’s just so boring sitting by myself in a room all day.
Feel like I see these headlines every week but I’m personally not seeing any difference from last year, (London, tech) – we do 2 days at best, I do 3 since I end up talking to myself in my little flat but there’s no pressure to do more
I talked to a lady who loved going back into the office. To be on Zoom/Teams calls all day with her team.
I love WFH, and I’d forgotten how much of a productivity killer the office was. I was in last week, I faced:
* Bureacratic jobsworths on reception not letting anyone in. Had to really twist their arm just to re-enable my pass and let me in my own goddamn building
* All the meeting rooms are booked, can’t collaborate with anyone other than on Teams
* All the IT is fucked, monitors broken, none of the projectors work
* Lifts broken, car park closed, noisy building work next door.
* Insane security pass setup where I need to phone someone to let me back in every time I go to the bathroom
* Endless boomers talking at me (not with me), subjecting me to their rambling chit chat about the X Factor or the local council or whatever
Honestly the whole place was like an MC Escher painting. About 75% dealing with stupid shit, 25% work.
We couldn’t even start working until 10:30, one of my colleagues didn’t even manage to turn on his laptop the whole day because he was dealing with other people meddling/blocking basic tasks.
They still can’t get staff back in the office because if a company advertises that they want me in the office I say ‘thank you’ and move to an offer that allows 100% working from home.
Been working like this since I started, 2011, and damn, freedom is amazing.
When I started I felt like working from London. So I did that. After few years and eating in all fancy joints, I had enough. Now I wanted to move to a small countryside town and enjoy nature and sports. So I did that.
I got to choose from entirety of the UK, which is amazing. You never go through the lenses of “is it close to the office” thinking. Everywhere with good Internet is close. I limited myself to here as I’m working towards my citizenship years but it was MY decision.
But a friend of mine working for US company felt an itch to move from London to a small village in Spain. So he did that.
Country raises taxes too much? Bye in a month. Racist tension arising? Sayonara. Voting with your wallet has never been easier.
Considering my job is 50 minutes away in a different town, I’m happy only having to commute once or twice a month.
I’ve got home comforts, a good set up and the ability to have music/YouTube on in the background as I work, which actually helps me focus.
I’ve saved a lot of money on fuel costs and in fact, I am handing my car back in December to further save money.
So the real question is… Why would I ever want to go back to the office?
I’m going into the office one or two days a week and that balance is absolutely perfect for me.
It means that I can schedule in the kind of meetings which wouldn’t work remotely (anything where we’re trying to be a bit more creative and throw ideas around). It also means that I can get just enough real world contact with my colleagues that we work much better together remotely – it means that the faces we see on Zoom are real people who we’ve met and interacted with rather than just an anonymous person who’s asking us for something!
Most importantly, it means that we can go to the pub with each other after work every now and then. I like my colleagues and I’d hate to work somewhere where we didn’t hang out over a beer and enjoy each others’ company!
The biggest downside for the company is that they have to have enough office space that most of us can fit in on a Thursday (everyone’s favourite day to come in because it’s the best day to go to the pub after work), but that office space that they’re paying for is half-empty on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and pretty much *completely* empty on Mondays and Fridays!
40 comments
Because working from home is cheaper, less stressful and less miserable for a lot of people.
We have technology that allows us to do tasks from home effectively. There is no reason a lot of jobs can’t be done remotely
My central London office is by far the busiest it’s been since lockdown the last few weeks. I think it’s a case of not being worth it when no one is also there.
I make reports at work. Weeklies, monthlies, quarterly etc
Most days I’ve got less than 2hrs work to do, so I’d spend 5 or more hours starin’ at my computer trying to look busy
When I work from home, they get the same reports and of the same quality but I’m not losing my mind.
Why on earth would I want to pay to go back to the office and be bored all day?
As a Civil Servant who’s forced to work in the office. I’d love to work from home. 90% or the job can be done at home. 100% if management trusted us a bit more.
Remote working means no stressful commute for employees, and employers get to offload that expensive office floor space. Seems like a win-win to me.
I enjoy going into work because it’s a small office, I like all my colleagues and it’s a quiet commute through the countryside. But if you work in a large office with a bunch of people you hate and have to use cramped public transport, why wouldn’t you want to work from home?
To flip the usual arguments on their heads, offices just can’t make working environments good enough to compete with people’s homes. I’d want my own office with a window, ability to choose the temperature, lighting and background music, a huge screen, safe storage for my stuff, a clean and working shower and toilet, fully equipped kitchen, comfy sofa for breaks and reading and the ability to receive parcels at my work without dealing with grumpy receptionists.
Put all that within ten minutes walk of my home and then we can talk.
I think the argument of it being cheaper particularly with the energy costs is not really one of value for those who want to work from home.
My energy bills are high, it is arguable if I would save money going into the office (washing work clothes, travel, lunches, sporadic purchases after a hard day etc). Lets not forget the other comfort costs to offset the unpleasant experiences of being in the office for some people.
Even if it is cheaper to go to the office, I would happily pay more to be mentally in a much better place.
People care about their money but if their money buys them comfort and mental stability everyone takes that option. We all heat, eat well, have cars, our own homes for what? It’s more expensive than car pooling and house sharing and budget eating….
I don’t think I’ll ever go back to full time office work. I’m in a routine of one day a week in the office and I don’t think I would accept a job that had a requirement for more than 2 days. It’s changed my lifestyle so much, I have much more time in the evenings to do things and am overall less tired and grumpy.
I’ve to go to the office 3 days a week on them days I’m tired, sore and burnt out, we are in the office because they believe it builds connection, which is utter bs.
When I’m not in the office I have more energy more time to myself and I don’t have to get up at stupid o’clock just to get to work. But hey big bosses don’t listen while they fuck us all over out of decent pay and force us to pay more just so they can justify their renovations and leases.
We’re finding majority prefer a hybrid. Certain meetings/discussions face to face, and a mix of in office and at home.
There are a few that prefer completely at home or in work, but I’d say they’re outliers.
Everyone’s home situation is different, some don’t have good working spaces or like to cycle to work etc.
We used to have a cafeteria, a gym, and a park and ride at my office. All have gone. Hardly encouraging us to go back by making it worse
For a lot of people they have to commute in.
Trains are expensive and seldom reliable. Cars cost more to run. Want lunch? Food is more expensive as rates rise for business.
It’s a no brainer, really.
I hate having to look busy. Work is peaks and troughs and in a quiet patch i dont want to have to click around excell or whatever because janet and kevin from finance can see my screen.
I start work at 0830 so I get up at 0820 or sometimes 0730 I start as I like starting early. Im up and down putting the dishwasher on etc blasting out what I need in the morning and then chilling in the afternoons.
I love it.
As long as the work gets done i get left alone
It’s simple for me – I don’t want to spend an extra working day a week sat on the M5 commuting (much worse in the summer). My free time is more important, much more as I get older and there is literally nothing for my job that I can’t do from home and all that is before you take out any fuel costs.
“On the other side are frustrated managers at large office-occupiers who say they want to reignite their workplaces with the collaboration and creativity that comes from in-person interaction.”
Okay so book a space for occasion meet ups. Have group video calls. If you can’t be creative and work as a team over video call then wfh isn’t your issue
You people who want to work from home are so selfish, how are people like Sir Alan to cope with reduced rents.
If we had an insanely good bus and train network that always turned up on time and was fast, then I’d probably not mind going in sometimes. But as it is now, not a single day in the last… 3 months? have I had a good commute into work. There’s always something wrong with part of it that takes my 40 min journey to an hour.
Aside that, my office has good heating and is free. However, I would rather be cold at home and keep the heating off like I do now, than get dressed and sit in a warm building just because it’s warm.
Working culture began changing in 2010, as both IT (end user) equipment and networking / server infrastructure matured into the direction we’re working with now.
Home working was completely viable in the mid to latter 00’s. The Pandemic hastened and normalised this practice.
I understand there’s a need for work place culture. In environments like engineering, face to face interaction aids development. But this isn’t that…
The vast majority of ‘get back into the office’ drives are from the likes of Boris trying to appease Pret and Starbucks. Office developers watching their multi-million complex sitting empty. Middle managers crying because they no longer have a captive audience in front of them.
And they can all fuck right off. Culture is changing. People are healthier, and happier this way. Corporate greed, and middle tier managers clinging onto their inflated profits and egos can go suck a thousand dicks before I’ll capitulate to their egregious whining. They didn’t read the market and backed the wrong horse – boo fucking hoo. Welcome to the way the rest of us get on with things.
Why would I waste my time getting up earlier, getting dressed, going to get a train and likely getting to work early then getting another train hone and not getting home and until like 6pm then being too tired or miserable to do anything like make dinner?
Working from home I can get up when I actually need to, only spend time doing what needs to be done and get some stuff done at home too then get in relaxation mode straight away.
BT sell services specifically aimed to allow people to work from home… While demanding their staff return to the office 3 days a week….
I’m almost 18 years with my current employer.
The last 2 have been probably the most productive of my career with them.
The work I’m doing is better and has opened up opportunities on accounts nationwide rather than limiting me to ones in the immediate radius of my base office.
I don’t have to bother with ironing shirts and dressing up in office wear.
I gain an additional 1-2 hours of my time back saved in commuting.
There’s an albeit modest saving in fuel from that commute.
The only downside is the fact there’s now a bit of a disconnect to when I actually finish work. It’s too easy to answer that email that comes in at 8pm at night or still be sat getting things done before bedtime. But you know what – I don’t grudge that one bit given the pro’s listed above.
I never want to return to the office again.
Working from home has made people happier and opened up to opportunities people didn’t realise they missed. There is no reasonable argument why we need to go back.
For me and a lot of people I know, the reason is that my salary is simply worth so much less if I go into the office. It’s £7.10 a day, so I’d hit the monthly cap. That’s over £100 that I don’t get to keep of my salary.
Worked from home the last two years, started going back into London on Thursdays about a month ago, although because of my Son starting reception I’ve not been able to go in for a few weeks due to the staggered start / end times for him.
Summer Holidays were difficult trying to combine being a parent and work from home, as he’d been going to a school nursery for the last year – But I shudder to think how we’d have coped had I been in the office five days per week… I guess a lot of relying on Grandparents to look after him when my wife was at work (as she only works P/T)
When I do go in its more of a Social thing, and the office is more noisy than at home, so struggle to focus on what I need to do
The best example was Friday though, had a busy day and wasn’t able to log off from my laptop until 7pm – I didnt care though, was able to sit down have dinner, just checked my emails sporadically (as I was waiting to hear from one person), and shut down when I heard from them – That wouldn’t have been possible from the office, as in my mind I’d have been thinking about the commute home, so I’d have left it until today to pick up.
The question is why do some employers have such a hard on for spending money on facilities, rent, catering etc to have people miserable in a petrie dish?
Something not often mentioned is that some people are unpleasant to be in a workplace with. Nothing at fault with their job performance, but something such as their eating habits, or that they smell, or that their way of getting attention from you is just annoying.
So if you only have to cope with that low level annoyance for two days a week instead of five, it’s a hidden gain.
Let’s face it, for a lot of us going back to the office is:
1. An effective pay cut since we would now have to pay out for fuel and meals etc. All of which have gone up in price significantly since before the pandemic.
2. Detrimental to our work life balance with the time cost of commuting and getting ready in the morning.
There are always those people that thrive in the office, so let them go there and leave the rest of us alone, we’ll all be happier. I’ve turned down two job offers recently because despite offering higher pay they required extensive office time.
Those big shiny offices that are still being built by billionaires , need to be filled with drones though.
The city want you spending your wages on travel , in sandwich shops ,cafe’s , restaurants and bars
My favourite attempt by organisations to justify returning to the office is their “vibrant and collaborative office environment”. If being in your office is so amazing how come none of your employees want to come back then?
Now I go to the office to socialise. Get almost no work done and enjoy the pub after. Rest of the week is doing work effectively from home.
Going back into the office just feels like a pointless, arduous box ticking exercise to keep happy the managers who don’t think you can do your job from home
The reason I’m never going back to the office, at least for me personally, is the insufferable and toxic “Office Politics”. Can’t speak for everyone, but I wouldn’t be surprised if many also had enough of Stacy getting a promotion for being so pretty.
Remote and hybrid work has certainly brought a lot of people more freedom and happiness, and it’s great that that is the case for many people here, but personally I enjoy my work a lot less when I’m not interacting with a team in-person. It’s so much more engaging and really gets me through the day. Work is just way more fun when you can build that more personal relationship with your coworkers.
I’ve had to ditch being a software developer because of the pandemic. I enjoyed it before, but now it’s just so boring sitting by myself in a room all day.
Feel like I see these headlines every week but I’m personally not seeing any difference from last year, (London, tech) – we do 2 days at best, I do 3 since I end up talking to myself in my little flat but there’s no pressure to do more
I talked to a lady who loved going back into the office. To be on Zoom/Teams calls all day with her team.
I love WFH, and I’d forgotten how much of a productivity killer the office was. I was in last week, I faced:
* Bureacratic jobsworths on reception not letting anyone in. Had to really twist their arm just to re-enable my pass and let me in my own goddamn building
* All the meeting rooms are booked, can’t collaborate with anyone other than on Teams
* All the IT is fucked, monitors broken, none of the projectors work
* Lifts broken, car park closed, noisy building work next door.
* Insane security pass setup where I need to phone someone to let me back in every time I go to the bathroom
* Endless boomers talking at me (not with me), subjecting me to their rambling chit chat about the X Factor or the local council or whatever
Honestly the whole place was like an MC Escher painting. About 75% dealing with stupid shit, 25% work.
We couldn’t even start working until 10:30, one of my colleagues didn’t even manage to turn on his laptop the whole day because he was dealing with other people meddling/blocking basic tasks.
They still can’t get staff back in the office because if a company advertises that they want me in the office I say ‘thank you’ and move to an offer that allows 100% working from home.
Been working like this since I started, 2011, and damn, freedom is amazing.
When I started I felt like working from London. So I did that. After few years and eating in all fancy joints, I had enough. Now I wanted to move to a small countryside town and enjoy nature and sports. So I did that.
I got to choose from entirety of the UK, which is amazing. You never go through the lenses of “is it close to the office” thinking. Everywhere with good Internet is close. I limited myself to here as I’m working towards my citizenship years but it was MY decision.
But a friend of mine working for US company felt an itch to move from London to a small village in Spain. So he did that.
Country raises taxes too much? Bye in a month. Racist tension arising? Sayonara. Voting with your wallet has never been easier.
Considering my job is 50 minutes away in a different town, I’m happy only having to commute once or twice a month.
I’ve got home comforts, a good set up and the ability to have music/YouTube on in the background as I work, which actually helps me focus.
I’ve saved a lot of money on fuel costs and in fact, I am handing my car back in December to further save money.
So the real question is… Why would I ever want to go back to the office?
I’m going into the office one or two days a week and that balance is absolutely perfect for me.
It means that I can schedule in the kind of meetings which wouldn’t work remotely (anything where we’re trying to be a bit more creative and throw ideas around). It also means that I can get just enough real world contact with my colleagues that we work much better together remotely – it means that the faces we see on Zoom are real people who we’ve met and interacted with rather than just an anonymous person who’s asking us for something!
Most importantly, it means that we can go to the pub with each other after work every now and then. I like my colleagues and I’d hate to work somewhere where we didn’t hang out over a beer and enjoy each others’ company!
The biggest downside for the company is that they have to have enough office space that most of us can fit in on a Thursday (everyone’s favourite day to come in because it’s the best day to go to the pub after work), but that office space that they’re paying for is half-empty on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and pretty much *completely* empty on Mondays and Fridays!