LOS ANGELES — Making coffee at home is just one of the perks that Jennifer Dunn Steinmeyer enjoys about working remotely, something she’s done since COVID-19 hit four years ago.

Dunn Steinmeyer works for a payroll company. While she never had a long commute, this schedule has helped tremendously with work-life balance, she says. She is able to schedule doctor appointments and be there when her daughter, who has celiac’s disease, needs to stay home from school. And then, there are her fur babies.

“You going to come help me work?” she cooed at a kitten named Mabel that she is fostering for the Burbank Animal Shelter.

“This particular one oversees my day to day working,” she said as Mabel sat watching from a perch above her desk. "And I’m also able to help them with other kitties that, like, have medical issues or need to be bottle fed. Whereas if I was in office, I wouldn’t be able to do that.”

She is also taking online classes to earn her master’s degree, another thing that her work-from-home schedule has made possible.

Last year she says, her company announced they would be switching to a hybrid model, two days in office, three days at home.

“There was a huge uproar,” Dunn Steinmeyer said. "And they got so many complaints, they said they were pushing it back.”

They planned to try again this month, but she says are considering postponing it again.

Jaclyn Hashim has been on a hybrid schedule since January of 2023. She says her job in TV distribution is a 24/7 industry and one downside she’s found with working from home is when to stop working.

“You feel the guilt that you’re always available,” she admitted, “and it’s very hard to turn it off.”

She said she’s saved a lot of money making her own espresso and eats healthier since she’s not running out for fast food. Being home a few days a week also allows her to do small chores and schedule home repairs, plus she’s there after school when her daughter, who is on the autism spectrum, has at home therapies.  

“Which is a requirement,” Hashim said. “So I can do some work while she’s doing the therapy at home. So that has been very key and actually very helpful for us.”

But she says, her schedule is about to change again. Hashim works for a large media company that wants employees to be in the office more often.

“Pretty soon I’ll be back in four days a week,” she said. “Maybe even five in the next few months here.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 23% of employees did some or all of their work from home in July of 2024. Half of them worked remotely full time. It’s a massive shift says Dr. Nick Vyas, founding executive director for the Randall Park Kendrick Global Supply Chain Management Institute at the University of Southern California. The new structure, he points out, reduced commute time, especially around large cities, and created a flexibility that employees have come to expect and now demand.

“To undo this and go back to going into the physical work Monday to Friday could be a very challenging for companies to not only sell it, but then to continue to recruit good employees,” he warned. “If you don’t adjust that variable, you may not get the top talent and recruit in a market that is already very tight. So this becomes an obstacle for you to hire and recruit the top talent in your field.”

He says the impact of COVID on the workplace can’t be overstated. It’s a once in a century type of disruption.

“Covid sort of broke the entire paradigm, not just a shifted, but it actually really broke it and established that remote work can actually work,” he said. “The technology and the productivity of the workforce can be managed if you properly set up the infrastructure.”

But Hashim says some things can’t be replicated. She sees definite benefits of at least being in the office part time, especially at corporations where young workers are looking for mentors as they grow their career.

“You have to get to know somebody and, you know, have lunch with them or have a coffee with them,” she explained, pointing to her own experience getting to know women in leadership in her own field. “The younger generation coming into the workforce, they’ve missed that, right?”

Dunn Steinmeyer also says she misses the comradery.

“You know, it’s funny because everybody laughs about pizza parties,” she said. “But when you’ve been home for four years, you kind of start to miss those pizza parties.”

But would she ever consider taking a job that’s back in the office full-time?

“No,” she answered without hesitation. “That is a very easy no.”

Having found a good work life balance, she doesn’t intend to lose it.