Everyone's different and unless you account for that we will keep talking past each other.
Yesterday I went to the office for the first time in a month. I hated it.
First I spent over 1 hour commuting each way, which felt like a massive waste of time. We moved to a town out of the city because here we could afford a better living space for us without having to spend half of our income in rent.
Since I left in a hurry I forgot to take my lunch with me (that I cook at home daily), so instead I had to go to a takeaway around the corner and spend 25$ for a dubious sandwich and a snack. Coffee from the big tub in the lobby is so bad that makes me wonder how someone can botch coffee so badly. After lunch I got sleepy as sometimes happens, but instead of a powernap like I have at home, I had to bumble through my code until I sobered up. I ended up getting back home late and exhausted.
Some of the arguments from OP are quite curious, such as the number of steps. In my case, rather than spending 2 hours sitting in busses, I could spend 1 hour in the gym and 1 hour walking my dog, and come up ahead.
By the way, why is bonding with colleagues such a big deal? I had to leave my family and lifelong friends behind due to moving to another city. What if WFH had been the norm when I started my career? Doesn't hanging out with your family and friends count for anything?
Again I recognise each person's circumstances are different, but after having a taste of remote work (after 12 years of in-the-office career) I don't think I'll ever be able to go back.
> By the way, why is bonding with colleagues such a big deal?
One of the most consistent themes in the “please go back to offices” articles is that there is a cohort of people who appear to have designed their lives around their job. Their social life solely revolves around work. They don’t appear to actually have social lives that don’t involve coworkers. They also appear to believe all that matters is optimizing work performance.
Not exactly what I’d think would lead to a generally good level of well being, but I guess it works for some people.
> By the way, why is bonding with colleagues such a big deal? I had to leave my family and lifelong friends behind due to moving to another city. What if WFH had been the norm when I started my career? Doesn't hanging out with your family and friends count for anything?
I think this is for the company? If you have a good rapport with your co-workers, I suspect it will be easier to work together on problems.
It is of course also possible to do things more formally.
I dunno. I like to keep coworkers at an arms length and not get too buddy-buddy, and I prefer to socialize with my non-work friends. So I'm not suggesting that people should replace their social friends with work friends or something ridiculous like that. But the there's plenty of room between best buds and total icy formality that for coworkers to exist in, which might make it easier to bounce ideas back and forth.
You have to realise that the majority of people who want to force everybody to work in an office have no life outside of work. No friends, no intimate partner, nothing at all. WFH is a nightmare for them.
Yesterday I went to the office for the first time in a month. I hated it.
First I spent over 1 hour commuting each way, which felt like a massive waste of time. We moved to a town out of the city because here we could afford a better living space for us without having to spend half of our income in rent.
Since I left in a hurry I forgot to take my lunch with me (that I cook at home daily), so instead I had to go to a takeaway around the corner and spend 25$ for a dubious sandwich and a snack. Coffee from the big tub in the lobby is so bad that makes me wonder how someone can botch coffee so badly. After lunch I got sleepy as sometimes happens, but instead of a powernap like I have at home, I had to bumble through my code until I sobered up. I ended up getting back home late and exhausted.
Some of the arguments from OP are quite curious, such as the number of steps. In my case, rather than spending 2 hours sitting in busses, I could spend 1 hour in the gym and 1 hour walking my dog, and come up ahead.
By the way, why is bonding with colleagues such a big deal? I had to leave my family and lifelong friends behind due to moving to another city. What if WFH had been the norm when I started my career? Doesn't hanging out with your family and friends count for anything?
Again I recognise each person's circumstances are different, but after having a taste of remote work (after 12 years of in-the-office career) I don't think I'll ever be able to go back.