I'm a Senior Paralegal and Law Clerk. I worked from home for three months. It was WONDERFUL. I had to come to the office once a week to pick up paperwork and deliver it (although, if management were more efficient, ALL of my paperwork would have been scanned, and I would NEVER have to come in).
Three months later, in the midst of an outburst of COVID-19 here in Los Angeles, we were told to return to the office, full-time. What stupidity!
We're in a large, commercial building which has lost 50%-60% of its tenants, on a major commercial street, and most of the major commercial tenants in the neighborhood have boarded up or are planning on doing so in the near future.
In answer to your question, the Support Staff would still need to come into the office, perhaps three days a week, to scan and file the hard-copy paperwork. The rest of us---attorneys, paralegal (me), and secretaries---could (and SHOULD) work from home. There's absolutely no need to artificially support the so-called "convenience economy" which takes away useful income from workers.
Los Angeles, my hometown, is now a vastly-degenerated version of its former self. The population of L.A. was a little less than two million people in 1952, the year I was born. In 2020, it's estimated to be 4.116064 million. In 1962, when the Santa Monica Freeway was opened, it took about 11-12 minutes to travel from downtown L.A. to Santa Monica; nowadays, it's an easy 60 - 75 minute ride. In 1972, the cost of a gallon of gas was $0.249/gallon. Nowadays, it's averaging about $3.79/gallon. You can see where I'm headed with this, I'm sure.
So, in this hellhole, the combination of people who can't/won't obey proper social rules (wearing face masks, observing social distancing, washing hands, coughing/sneezing into their elbows, driving courteously and less, and, in short, following the dictates of civil behavior) and those who believe that their rights outweigh everyone else's, have created an extremely unpleasant environment.
I'm looking to move to a better environment, perhaps Nice, France or Barcelona or Valencia, Spain. Italy also is attractive.
