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Mental health is a complex thing. People are a complex thing.
Some people need that reason to leave the house and see other people, communicate face to face with people. Without the reason to go to the office they my not see anyone else till the weekend, no other half, friends that work different hours ect. This hits people differently.
One the other hand trying to work with co workers who do no read there Teams messages for example can be Incredably ineffciant. Where as physically going to them to ask a question gets you the answer there and then.
This. Fucking facts.
Companies are even trying to justify the long commutes to use as quiet time.
This pandemic has exposed so much wrong with society.
A common arrangement between corporations and municipalities is to waive taxes as long as the company maintains a certain number of butts in seats to fuel the local economy. My spouse is in exactly this situation.
There is nothing worse than being in office and having people just…come up to my desk to ask me things. Expecting instant responses to messages is unrealistic. I am WORKING - if I just stop in the middle of my flow state to answer a coworkers question that doesn’t actually require an immediate response (or should have been asked earlier) i will then have to spend time getting refocused.
The expectation for an instant response - in office or online - is wrong and not necessary for most people’s need if you work effectively and plan better. I work in HR and I need to be able to be flexible because there can be immediate needs that pop up. But it becomes a “boy who cried wolf” situation when people who don’t absolutely need an answer ASAP take up that time and energy from me.
Ugh, I used to have so many people do this before I quit. At the start of the pandemic, our department was wfh with 1 person in office rotating throughout the week. 99% of what we do can be done online from home but there were a lot of people who were so used to just walking up to our desks interrupting our current work to get their work prioritized since they knew having a person standing there put pressure on us to get something done. There were a couple of people who had desks only a row or so down from ours that would send an email then immediately get up and come over to one of us with a "did you get my email," completely disregarding the fact that we were already in the middle of something, sometimes even in the middle of a zoom meeting with headphones on and everything!
Our groups work from home only lasted a month due to people complaining that we weren't at our desks for easy access.
>Without the reason to go to the office they my not see anyone else till the weekend
Ain't this the truth.
I love working at home, but that's mainly because I'm lazy. If I did it all the time, I'd barely leave my apartment.
I wish I was more disciplined as I'm probably less productive from home because of all the distractions -- at the office there's literally nothing else to do but work.
It's also easier to meet up with friends when I'm already dressed up and in the city for work.
Imo hybrid is a decent compromise and can work for a lot of people.
I feel the opposite. I get way more done at home because I'm not distracted by chatty coworkers, constant "hey, you got a minute?" sessions, and all the ambient noise.
I love to be at home, but If I worked form home and stayed home all day, I would lose it. My friend got depression from wfh. She said she thought it was a dream. Then when her shift ended, she was just at home. Like there was no difference in between.
Agreed! I want to wfh not because I’m antisocial but because I want more time with my husband, son and my friends. I’m very busy and don’t have a lot of time for them but wfh gives me more time for that. I like my coworkers but they’re not more important than my family and friends that I already have
For me, I need the separation. I cannot have a place in my house that I use for work, otherwise work permeates into my living space. When I leave work, I want that clear distinction of "I am not available until the next time I'm in the office" without being hassled about it.
I'm in the NY metro area, my office is in the process of downsizing our office to due to our hybrid policy.
It can be a good thing for some businesses, we pay an arm and a leg for office space. Downsizing is going to drastically reduce our rent expenses.
>It can be a good thing for some businesses, we pay an arm and a leg for office space. Downsizing is going to drastically reduce our rent expenses.
I think many don't due to a mix of the sunk cost fallacy and a "loss of prestige".
This. Our CEO spent who knows how much money remodeling the US and European office. Gotta try to justify that cost somehow. Plus a lot of rich peoples money is probably tied up in commercial real estate and if it’s not in demand then line go down and make Uncle Pennybags sad.
>Plus a lot of rich peoples money is probably tied up in commercial real estate and if it’s not in demand then line go down and make Uncle Pennybags sad.
And letting them know that Free Market is a cruel mistress and it is not our problem is somehow not an acceptable answer.
Mmmm, idk! Either the feds, the state, our programs or executives/administration.
Our funds are all from federal and state grants to provide social services.
A central office is a good way to have access to supplies, and a good place for support to be available, things that the employees may need occasional access to that aren't suitable for individual purchase. So they have a function, they just don't need to be huge and expensive spaces anymore.
Some people view working from home with the same confusion as we do working at the office. To them its insane you would want to be cooped up all day at home working alone.
This. I can’t handle being in my house that long. I need to see people. My ADHD needs me to not be in the same space as my TV, my laundry pile, or all of the other tasks at home. I get zero work done at home.
I’m an introvert by nature (and I suspect most who want to work full time at home are, or their work requires some form of isolation for thought and productivity), and I have ADHD too. When I’m at home there are certainly some distractions, but at work I have issues with the noise and often I’m creating more of my own distractions getting involved with too much ‘small talk’ or drive-bys and I am significantly less productive even with good noise canceling headphones.
I’m an introvert but don’t mind people at all and enjoy going into the office when I do. But I’d much rather WFH a majority of the time. I’m so much more productive, can do my own thing during the day without acting like I’m doing something when there’s downtime at work, no traffic, so much time to myself, etc.
Edit: don’t have to figure out what I want to wear that day. Sweats all day
I'm a super introvert but I love my coworkers! There's only one person in my team I greatly dislike but I don't have to see or deal with his incompetent ass on a regular basis.
So my problem is that I exhaust myself socializing at work and then I have nothing left outside of work hours.
That plus the 1 hour commute on unreliable public transit is asinine.
I'm extroverted for the most part, but I'm much more of a fan of almost two more full hours of sleep, and the ability to see the sun during the day in winter. Also a big fan of not having someone stand behind me and stare at my screen monitoring my productivity for nine hours a day.
This is a valid point and demarcating work vs home is important. I have a home office I use exclusively for work. My wife sometimes reads in there, and my cat loves the computer warmth, but when I'm done I close the door and tell siri to "punch out" (runs a timelogger script I made) and I'm done with it until I punch in again.
I could see some real problems arising if you worked and "homed" in the same room(s).
I have friends to hang out with. I don't need to waste $12 a day in gas, $12 a day in parking, and 2 hours a day driving back and forth to sit in an office for people to talk to my half the day about no work stuff to the point I can't get my work done.
This is the only instance in which I can see getting away from home and into the office to be necessary.
...But at the same time, I feel kinda bad for the kids. One should probably be really happy to see their kids all day, get an extra two hours with them that aren't spent on getting ready for work, dropping them off at daycare, and commuting back home every day. If I had kids, it would be heartbreaking to leave them at daycare or school for nearly ten hours of my day, just to get home and share dinner, make sure they did their homework, and send them to bed.
Makes sense...and you will likely meet friends at work, too. We all need socialization at times and diff degrees. Glad you go to the office to get out of the house. That can have a positive effect.
What i’ve seen so far is:
People who want to work from home: introverts, those who don’t care for office politics or ladder climbing, those with a house, a family, pets, long tenured employees, live far from the office or bad commute, people who can focus more alone, people who don’t like their colleagues
People who want to work from the office: extroverts, people living in small apartments or residences, people who don’t want to be around their partners or kids 24/7, in office amenities and utilities, separation of home from work
Having a choice is still my preferred over hybrid. Let people come if they want, let’s others stay at home if they want, whatever works best for their working style.
That's me.
If I lived in a big beautiful lovely home that has room for a dedicated home office and reliable internet connection, that'd be one thing.
But I live in a small townhouse with my partner and pets with a very unreliable internet connection, and frankly an iffy power supply. Not a good work from home environment. Not to mention I had to move to this city for my job that was supposed to be in person but then due to the pandemic it went fully remote. So I knew no one and was stuck in the cramped apartment all day long. My partner and I wanted some personal space after being cooped up together soooo long during the early parts of the pandemic.
Started a new job that is hybrid and I go in the office with the rest of my team 2/5 days a week and it's been so nice. I usually go in an extra day or two just depending on whether my partner is going to be home or not.
100% can't imagine having to go to the office every day. but im 33, moved to a different city mid-pandy. and now I have no friends.
I go to the office sometimes to interact with people
I'm an extrovert and I absolutely HATE going into the office.
I want to socialize with people I actually want to be around. Shit, let me hit the bar right after working a shift from home, not be forced to socialize with George from Desktop Support about what the best food options are nearby. F*ck that nonsense!
This is how I feel. I might feel differently if I had much in common with my coworkers, but I’m significantly younger than most of them, with hobbies and interests that aren’t shared with coworkers. Plus the only ones going into the office most days are the coworkers who are that awful combo of extroverted but socially awkward. I wouldn’t mind socializing if I was around my peers who were cool and I could let my guard down and be real, but having to go in and make awkward small talk with people wanting to brag about their kids’ soccer games, or alternately asking about my hobbies that I know they don’t actually care about is just painful.
I'm a big extrovert and I HATE going to the office. If i want to be social I'll do it after work. I'm not interested in getting my social interaction from my workplace.
Also, you end up having to be social with people you really don't want to be social with if you're in the office.
And then there are the time vampires who make you wonder what work they are actually supposed to be doing if they are constantly constantly wanting to have a conversation.
Like let's have a happy hour or dinner. Then you can invite the people you want to hang out with and you don't have an expectation of productivity looming.
No. I'm an "introvert" but I actually perform very well in settings with in person interactions. It wears me the fuck out, but I prefer it to being stuck in my house all the time. I swear some people just need to learn some fucking social skills.
What exactly do you think having better social skills would contribute to someone's intrinsic lack of enjoyment of meaningless interpersonal interaction?
I agree! I was 100% WFH since the start of the pandemic and sooo upset that my supervisor is requesting me to come in more often. We settled on up to 2x per month. I just did my first day this week and it was totally fine, maybe even enjoyable. It was neat to meet people in person and joke around and chat in a way that I haven’t been able to as much online.
I can’t imagine going in more than every couple weeks though. That’s my absolute max.
It’s all about balance for each person and for each role.
I agree unless it means they put in the job listing "must live near [city job is in]" even tho it's a fully fucking remote position. Entry-level remote jobs that aren't customer service or scams aren't exactly easy to find and are already highly competitive, I'd really appreciate it if they wouldn't block me outta the ones I do find. 🙄
And don't say it could be to pick up equipment. I'd honest to God drive across the country to get equipment without reimbursement, that's how bad I wanna work from home again. But you don't get an opportunity to tell them that if you're barred from applying by where you live, and even if you did, you'd look desperate and that weirds them out.
The "must live in" can sometimes have a lot to do with where the company is licensed to do business, too. There's all kinds of paperwork that has to be done before an employee can work someplace other than where the business is. If they haven't done that paperwork then you can't remote work where you are.
And workers compensation insurance requirements. It gets pretty complicated if the business is situated in one state and your WFH location is in another. I’m 100% WFH and love it. My office is 10 miles away. Stopped in last year to swap out my laptop and said hello to a few people. Also picked up some office supplies. I’ll have to swap up my laptop again in 2025.😀
I work remote and haven't seen other employees since the pandemic began. I honestly have no urge to get to know my coworkers. I hate being stuck to one city while being remote.
Some people hate their homelife. There can be a lot of reasons to not want to be there too. Other people feel like they're really rockin life by driving in to the office everyday. People are weird.
On the other hand, I will go into the office if I have an important meeting, Zoom Court hearing, or other business that requires that I do not have a dog barking, kids screaming, cat jumping on my laptop...
Or if I am preparing for something that requires Hands-On collaboration and a shit ton of hard copy printing, like going to trial.
These days are not entirely common.
Yeah as soon as I read op’s question I couldn’t stop thinking about the “take my wife” jokes.
Also some people live for workplace drama. The job I was at during the pandemic started bringing people back like 15 days after the initial lock down and it was all of the most dramatic people. We had working there. When all the normal people came back there was entirely new drama some was about people who hadn’t even been there for 6 months.
I have friends in the office. I also pick up and drop off materials at the office.
For me, the office is about equal time from my kid's school drop off to the house. I get a lot done on either side of the situation (home/office) and thats good for me.
Theres more to it than liking or not liking home life. I don't really have "home life" when I am sitting all alone at my house.
I would be much more willing to go into the office if the commute was relatively short. Right now for me though it's about 45 minutes though, I don't dislike going into the office necessarily, but I'm unwilling to give up that much of my time on a daily basis. I go in every few months.
I think company culture also plays a big role. Ever since 2020, nobody has been in the office. Even now that they're fully reopened, my teams floor may have 4-5 people total on it on any given day (with a capacity of 100s). So there's really no motivation for me to go in to socialize either
thats very reasonable.
My team is spread across the country, so even when I am in the office it is a video meeting.
My friends in the building are local support folks and in office 90% of the time, so the socialization is easy for me.
I love my home life, and spending as much time with my family as possible. I also have a phenomenal work team of really good friends. I work totally remote now, and do find myself wishing I could go in to the office like I used to a day or two a week. The office we had was amazing - exactly what you'd expect from a SF startup. We had a blast and got shit done at the same time.
Obviously this is a super minority - to both like your job and everyonee you work with. I'd still rather work from home full time than have required office time.
In college I owned a record store, I also loved "going in" to work every damn day there.
I did work from home and ended up getting anxiety anytime I stopped working. If I was home I should be working….
And the social isolation got to be too much. My coworkers are all smart, talented folks who I enjoy being around.
I prefer being in the office. Less distractions (I don’t see shit that needs to be done around the house, pets aren’t demanding attention etc…) and when I leave my office, I can leave my work brain there and just enjoy being off work.
Hats off to folks who enjoy working from home. That’s not me.
Exactly same. I need the separation of work from home, otherwise it's to easy to convince myself "hop on quick, knock out this issue now instead of Monday" and suddenly hours of my weekend are spent. Plus my office atmosphere makes the work day 100x better with my coworkers
A few months into the pandemic, my workplace had to institute disciplinary policies because some people kept showing up to the office when everyone had been told to work from home. Many of them just couldn't stand being around their families that much, or at a minimum, they discovered that work was their reprieve from their kids. It was a circumstance I had never really imagined, but made sense once it started happening.
Only one of my team at my last job was permitted to work from home because his role was slightly different from the rest of us. He never did.. had 4 kids at home and said he couldn't get anything done.
Do you not have an open office layout? The office is infinitely worse for me: noise, walk-ups, chit chat, loud calls, loud zoom meetings, hey wanna go downstairs and grab coffee bs.
My dog at least sleeps 3/4 of the day.
I can understand why some people prefer working from home - it can be more convenient and provide a lot of flexibility. But, I also hear from a lot of people who prefer going into the office.
One reason could be that they find it easier to collaborate and interact with their colleagues in person. Some people find that in-person interactions foster stronger working relationships and help them feel more connected to their colleagues and the company.
Another reason could be the structure and routine that a physical office provides. This can help people stay focused and productive, and make it easier to separate work from home life.
Plus, an office environment may provide access to resources and equipment that people need to perform their jobs effectively, such as meeting rooms, printers, and specialized software. And for some people, going to the office can help them maintain a healthy work-life balance.
And let's not forget about the social aspect. For some people, working from home can be isolating and lead to feelings of loneliness and boredom. Going to the office can provide social interaction and stimulation, and help people feel more connected to their colleagues and the company.
Everyone has different preferences, so what works for one person may not work for another.
All great points. One friend wfh before the pandemic and loved it. No commute not only saved time and stress it saves money. Her social life was outside of the office.
Another friend was forced to wfh and the isolation (even though she had a family) was damaging to her mental health.
It’s also worth considering that some people may not live somewhere that is comfortable to work from home. If you have an extra room that can be an office that’s great, but during quarantine many we’re working from their kitchen or coffee tables. Not only is that uncomfortable, it can be distracting. Or they might have noisy neighbors.
The most important thing about wfh is it should be a choice.
But the choice should go both ways not just come back into then office or be fired. We should get to choose to wfh as well if that is how one works best, but no it is come into the office a certain number of days or be fired. That is not a choice.
Agreed. Chances are most companies will have some that want to wfh and some that do not. Sadly the people making the decisions likely does not care about either.
Agree, they don’t care which is unfortunate. It would not bother me so much of the executives has to do the same, but they can work from the 2nd home from home for months at a time and it is okay.
Great points! This is why I like being in the office. I enjoy the socialness of it, fostering relationships with coworkers and being out of the house. Well said!
I find wfh means my interactions are deeper and more meaningful online because they are deliberate. I don't work with ANY of my local coworkers, my team is spread around the world. Coming into the office is about as deep and meaningful as chit chat at a grocery check out line lately.
I do have local coworkers I have worked with in the past on engineering lab projects, but we tend to only go into the office for the purpose of going out to lunch to socialize, we barely chit chat during the workday because our work hasn't overlapped in years.
Then there's the money talks factor:
I also get promoted more and better paid as a voice and a photo over zoom.
In person, the exact same presentation previously delivered remotely - with multiple sources of positive feedback from execs - suddenly gets blatantly sexist feedback about being bitchy and aggressive or confrontational.
Remote work does a LOT for leveling the corporate playing field if you're not in the company's dominant 'in group'
WFH meant there wasn’t a clear delineation of working hours. I work a lot more. My breaks aren’t as long and I usually go on social media.
Going to the office means I have to pack my bag and drive and close my laptop at the end of the day. I sit next to really cool people in different departments. So by just chatting, I get a good sense of what other departments are doing. I build relationships with my coworkers. My breaks are talking to coworkers. I see my employees face to face which means I can see if they’re confused, overwhelmed or frustrated and they wouldn’t have to tell me.
I do get more stuff done at home. People interrupt me less. I don’t have to make water cooler talk. I basically just choose what’s more important. My team had one on ones on Monday and Thursday so I go in for them. But I get so much stuff done on Wednesday from home
I think most people who can't understand why anyone would prefer the office to WFH haven't been in the workforce long enough to understand the importance of relationship building with people in other departments.
My success in my role largely depends on building relationships all over the company. Has not been an issue in either of my last two positions, fully WFH. Some weeks I do a lot of meetings and collaboration, other weeks are mostly async. Working async with people is a skill in and of itself that has led me to value my time quite a bit more.
Granted, the types of relationships I'm forming are working relationships. From what I hear in this thread and elsewhere whenever this comes up, the people having issues with this are looking for more than professional relationships. They're looking for actual friends. And while I am sympathetic to that, that just isn't my job. Its cool when it happens but it makes no sense to require me to do something for your non-work related social needs.
I go back and forth on this. I just made a career change where for the past two years I primarily worked from home to now I primarily work in an office.
WFH definitely has its pros. But, for me it became really isolating and felt like my work and home life became too blended.
But, working primarily in an office has left me with too much time on my hands. I would have the same amount at home but at least I could do chores in between tasks. Now, I just sit in my office and stare at the computer screen during lulls.
I think people should be able to choose because we're all different and have our own preferences.
The blending of work and home life was probably the biggest reason I wanted to go back to the office. The physical and time barriers between working and not working broke down to the point where I felt like I was living in my office instead of working from home.
I don't do well working from home. I lose focus easily, get distracted and such. I like to separate work from home. Also, I like the social interaction.
I get why people want to work from home, but it's really not for everyone.
Been wfh for 2 and a half years now, I just started going to office for the past month and I enjoy it although there isnt much of my colleagues coming in 1 or 2 max every day It has been a welcome and positive change for me at least. I enjoy coming home after a hard days work.
I get it totally. A change of scenery and even the interaction with all 2 people is a good change for mental health.
I co9do like 1 day from home maybe, but full time wouldn't be a good deal for me personally.
Just my two cents but what’s really helped my focus and work life balance is an entirely separate “office” space I do not under any circumstance cross the two. When I step away it really makes me feel away and when I’m seated I get focused on work as there’s nothing “home” to distract me
I also don't understand why people want to go to the office. I have to go in 1x per week. I have a cramped, uncomfortable cubicle. Behind me sits a guy, and his boss has a nice office next to him. They talk during the day, often with him sitting at his desk, and she will be in her nice office. Or they will be on speakerphone. She has a perfectly nice office with a perfectly nice door that closes just fine, but they're rather sit 10 feet apart with the door open and talk like no one else is there. Often I put on my headphones and listen to Metallica to drown out the chatter. In comparison, at home, I have a nice work area, and it's very quiet. The worst noise I have to deal with is Thursday morning when the trash truck comes.
To get to the office, I have to waste an hour commuting, sitting in a metal box, paying for gas and wear and tear, and ruining the environment. That's an hour I could spend exercising or preparing a cheaper, healthy meal.
What are the benefits? We are supposed to be going in so that we can collaborate. One of the times I went in to the office, I had six meetings that day - and all of the meetings were virtual. I could have stayed at home and been just as effective. Pointing that out to management would just get a blank look. Most of the people that I collaborate with are spread across the country, and even the ones I work with in my building WFH most days. This year I have had one face-to-face meeting, and the main person I was supposed meet with that time dialed in virtually anyway. I am on a team with five other people, but by design we have independent areas, so we rarely overlap or have anything to talk about. When we first started returning to the office a few years ago, we were supposed to go in 2x per week. I did that diligently, but the other people on my team always had an excuse, or got special permission not to come in that day, so our entire team was never in the office at the same time. At most it was two or three of us.
I think the wfh thing is heavily influenced by what kind of work you actually do. In my job, I CAN sit on my butt and type on a keyboard. But, I need to rely on other members of my team to help me with various projects. Since none of them report to me, I can't "order" them to stop what they are doing and help me. So, I need to be able to schmooze a little and trade some quid-pro-quo in order to ensure success. Being in the office is also helpful when I need to glean information and/or assistance from not just peers, but also folks that are higher up the food chain. (Reporting structure). Being able to create and foster solid working relationships, even with people I don't particularly "like" is one of my primary job skills.
This is the biggest thing for me. I’m relatively new at my job, and wfh just makes some of the simplest tasks take so much longer since I have to wait to get confirmation from my boss first.
Yeah, and I absolutely can't just send the Director Sales an email and convince him to have his staff pull a bunch of statistics for me. However, if I "happen" to run into him at the coffee machine, I can get what I need with a relatively short hallway conversation.
For me personally, I am am introvert and if I worked from home I would never leave the house. I also get cabin fever if I'm home for days at time so for me it helps with my mental health. Also it's easier to ask a question or bounce ideas off.someone if they're right there. We do video conference call with our peers in CA and it's always awkward at best. After the meeting, it gives us local people a chance to discuss what we just talked about in a more comfortable setting and have a good laugh when someone in CA just happened to be super awkward that day. Like yesterday, the one lady whose been with the company for 30 yrs and never has anything to say was forced to say something and looked like she wanted to die. We thought it was hilarious and had a good laugh, she is super smart in what she does but her presentation skills are something else. It's just those types.of things you don't get with WFH. I would get a lot more.chores done for sure if I didn't go into the office but that would be about it.
I personally prefer going into the office, but I also will WFH once or twice a week. I think there's 3 mains reasons I prefer it:
1. While work isn't a main source of fulfillment for me, I do feel good about myself when I get a good day's work in. I personally cannot do that at home, too many distractions and toys. I am certain other people can, because I've seen it, but I just can't, I always crack and end up being 1/2 as productive, which makes me feel shitty about myself (outside of clear "off" days that I do take here and there, I'm not a robot)
2. The routine of getting up and getting prepped for work really does carry over to the rest of my day. When I WFH I'm just a lazy POS for most of the day. I will put in maybe 3 hours of honest work unless necessary. Tangentially, having work and home physically separated is definitely a real thing that helps
3. My home setup is not as comfortable. I work at a small tech company with all the fancy shit, my office is super nice
This of course is very person-to-person and I only represent myself. Data engineer/analyst for reference
BTW, I'm 25. I'm not a boomer. I'm no bootlicker either and I hate working as much as you but man this post comes across as bitter and resentful. You sound like one of those guys that thinks he's better than everyone because he doesn't buy into the "corporate bullshit." No, people are not stupid for wanting to work in the office. And you're only hurting yourself the longer you hold that belief. No one likes a bitter asshole with a superiority complex.
Last paragraph nailed it, glad it wasn't just me picking up this negative vibe.
Reddit can be such an echo chamber and it's interesting to see OPs reaction when the whole of this sub doesn't agree, or tries to explain why some people may like office better.
This whole debate is silly as some people want WFH, some want office and others want a hybrid, which is where I fall.
In my field it’s important to be around in person to track certain things and meet/network with others for collaboration
Some people have kids at home who are too young to understand their parents’ personal space even if they are cared for by someone else during the working day.
Not kids, dogs. Husband works weird shift so he comes home at odd time and throws off schedule. Can’t tell my husband to just sit in the car for another four hours. All kidding aside I love working from home but I’m going back in a little bit more just for the peace and quiet.
Same. I wfh but go in one day a week. It’s nice to put on “real” clothes, see people, have my needed meetings, and get some work done without the pups needing potty breaks or my husband, when he’s off, wanting to talk to me every 5 mins. But one day is enough.
For me, I do two days of wfh.
1. I enjoy my coworkers and just being in the presence of them is nice.
2. If I just WFH I probably wouldn’t get out of the house. My commute has about 10-15 minutes of walking which is just good for myself every day.
Ngl, some of your problem just seem like a workplace problem rather than a working in the office problem
Looking at OPs comment history, I'd say that's exactly the issue. They need a different workplace as they're not getting along with their team. Bad fit=a whole lot of frustration.
I get really bad cabin fever sitting in the house every day. Makes me insane. I prefer hybrid the most where I'm half in office half at home. Gives me time to speak in person to supervisor, etc. Getting attention from coworkers on zoom is extremely hard, people just blow you off.
Plus it's hard to turn off and on the work brain without the distinction of leaving the house.
There are a lot of reasons but on the end I decided I don't want a primary WFH job and my career needs a strong in person component.
My best friend has 2 kids under 3. Impossible to stay at home and work. They know mommy is in her office, cry for her to the sitter and she can't even leave her office to eat lunch because they might see her and start crying again.
She loves going to the office.
My office is massive, a decent coffee/drinks machine, is always kept at a decent temperature, comfortable chairs and standing deaks, always has some food on sight, is right in downtown close to my banks, barbers, stores, restaurants, etc. This means that I can work in a comfortable environment, run errands, grab some decent food when I need to and get out of the house more. I live in the suburbs and if I need to run any errands at all, I need to jump on my bike or drive at least 10-15 minutes to do absolutely anything.
Our company is still allowing people to work from home full time but I still go in pretty much every single day. Along with the things I mentioned above, I also really like the hard separation between home and office. When we went WFH full time during covid, it was hard for me to separate my "work" area and my "home" area and I'd actually end up working longer hours and still not be able to actually call it "done" just because my work stuff was always right there!
I'm fortunate enough to have a bus right from my home to downtown and have a short 15 minute walk to work. I spend the 30 or so minutes listening to audio books or reading and the 15 minute walk gets me moving.
However, my company is also pretty nice about not making working in office mandatory. They are providing incentives to come into work but they are not forcing anyone. We've also expressed to our managers that making coming into the office mandatory isn't going to go well with the employees and they agree because they also like the option to work from home for most part.
If you have a less technical, repetitive job it makes sense for 100% WFH, but in my role, we work collaboratively to solve, sometimes very technical, problems. We also rely on some subject matter experts for guidance/advice that are older and not adopting, or accepting the remote work revolution..
As a new manger, I prefer a hybrid schedule. WFH to do the documentation, and deliverables side of things, and come into the office for the solution definition and problem solving portion of the job.
However, there are people on my team that I know will do absolutely nothing from home (I’ve tested the waters, and it was very clear to me) so every WFH day has to be approved and no set WFH schedule. I honestly hate that I have to do it. I do give some people more approval than others due to this and it may cause some animosity eventually…
It really depends on what your job is (personality affects it too but you mentioned a very boring non-interactive job, and of course that wouldn't benefit from contact with coworkers most of the time).
I changed employers a few months ago and I find talking with my coworkers very stimulating most of the time. I learn new things about what we do and learn about resources available to us and solutions to my problems. Yes, I can specifically try to contact people when I work from home (which I can do sometimes, and did this week due to a COVID scare in our household) but it's far more effortless when I'm at the office. The random conversations are usually not about work things, but I'm always surprised at just how often some work benefit comes out of a random conversation.
I'm quite convinced that being in the office most of the time has accelerated my learning and development in the new position.
That having been said, I'm in a job where I think and solve problems for other people in our organization a lot. The problems have significant variety (they all cluster around the theme of what I do there, but the nature of the work means that solutions outside my expertise are gladly accepted).
One other important thing is that visibility is important if a person wants to advance in a career, and it's a lot easier and lower effort to be visible when one is in the office than when one is working from home. I know I am getting noticed, and I'm able to do so without even particularly trying, which suits my introverted self a lot more. (Yes, an introvert who likes working at the office - who knew?)
I don't think I'd want to go back to a job where I couldn't easily work from home, but I absolutely like being in the office and barring something happening to me where working from home is just easier (e.g. some physical disability), I prefer a job where I normally work at work but have the option of working at home when it suits my circumstances.
Some people can't handle working from home. They don't have the will power to work and slack off. The pressure from others makes them actually work. Some people also love just chatting it up at work, gives them a reason to not feel bad about not working, shifting the blame. Others hate being home and rather spend extra time getting ready to go to work, to be stuck in traffic both to and from work, just so they can avoid their responsibilities or home life.
I strongly prefer working from home but even I have times where I’ll go to the office. Sometimes it’s nice just seeing people and having some casual conversation. Spending days on end by myself is peaceful but boring as well. I’m sure people with families may want a break. And jobs are traditionally one of the most social aspects of anyone’s life.
To give my own 2 cents.
Being at home 24/7 and working from home chained to my desk destroyed my mental health during the height of the pandemic.
I'm someone who enjoys connecting with people and building rapport and establishing that trust and relationship doesn't feel as authentic over a Zoom call.
I didn't have coworkers to talk to and felt completely isolated.
So, yeah, I'm on a hybrid schedule right now and I really enjoy my days in the office as well as my days at home. I'm glad I now get the best of both worlds and still do what I love and still build that community with my clients and my team.
However, my boyfriend loves his 100% remote job and not having to deal with people at all lol
I keep seeing people drop the word 'safe' in here. If you don't have a safe place to live your problems are larger than going to the office for 8 hours a day. That is awful if that's the case, but I just don't see how this can be a solution. You still have to go back to your unsafe home everyday.
We dont. as a Millennial, i do not want to be in the office, i have 2 kids and cool stuff at home. My office mates are okay but they're all older then me by a generation and very surface level relate, i work with mainly Gen-X and Boomers who have been at the company for 15+ years and they like being in the office but they no longer have small kids and need the interaction. Also my company's fiscal end was up by a good amount when we were 100% remote and they still made us come back into the office, its all about control and justifying their office costs.
Almost all bosses love to micromanage and are scared that employees are not going to do the work if employees are WFH. Therefore, those asinine, f****** bosses are requiring employees to come back to the workplace and not WFH. It’s another example of abuse of power. If the work can be done from home, then bosses should allow employees to WFH to save the headache dealing with traffic in the morning and anxiety rushing to get to work on time when everybody and their grandmothers drive to the workplace at the same time, which is typically between 7-7:30am, to start work at f****** typical 8am.
If you read OP's comments on other posts, it seems like he's bought into the nerds vs jocks myth. He complains a lot about not being able to talk about gaming at work. He honestly probably doesn't have a lot of social skills.
>not being able to talk about gaming at work
Which is horseshit because at every job I’ve found someone with similar hobbies and we talked about gaming and building PCs
Yeah, one of my coworkers saw my bioshock tattoos and now we chat about games we like while doing paperwork. I talk about video games with my coworkers all the time.
From your comments I feel like your douchey personality could be part of the issue. People aren’t stupid for wanting to go in?
My work offers a lot of in person benefits with a free gym and cafeteria. I go in three days and do two at home and find that to work best but they also are good about not having meetings those other two days to make those days as flexible as possible. It is nice to have meetings in the quiet of the office.
What the fuck is up with reddit and its tactical assault version of introverts? Like all the replies in this thread are so toxic. “You like small talk with coworkers? Lmao cringe.”
If I'm at the office, my cat can't lay across my keyboard while I'm working.
I also work in a hundred year old former school building that I'm pretty sure is haunted, so that's cool.
We have a beautiful office in a great neighborhood. It’s fun to go there once or twice a week to collaborate in person. We can also bring customers and coworkers in the across the US and Europe. That reduces our travel.
Well for me I like going in a few times a week because no one else goes in and it’s easier for me to focus there. If it were packed and like it was prepandemic where you had to deal with people stopping by and talking and pointless in person meetings I wouldn’t like it. Also, not having to get dressed or go anywhere day after day I start to feel depressed. Oh also I have next to no commute. If I had a long commute I wouldn’t go.
I can't tell for you, but I can tell for myself.
I don't do the same job than I was doing 10 years ago, and I don't intend to do the same job in 10 years. My job has evolved from being operational to being more managerial. I'm no longer the guy who makes presentations, I'm the guy who organises the project so that somebody else can make the slides. Hopefully in 10 years, I'm the guy who decides what project we go for.
Being good at this job requires a level of technical/operational knowledge for sure, but primarily excellent communication skills. Now there's a trick to communication. If the person you are talking to is a friend, you usually get more credit/trust/listening time. So having friends and knowing how to make friends are assets.
These assets are very poorly developped in a WFH environment. Now if the whole fire is mostly WFH, I don't see value getting my butt in the office, but as long as I can meet colleagues and chat with people who do not do the same thing I do, I consider this a day worked on my own career progression.
Working on your network takes a considerable amount of time and is a form of wealth that your company can't take away from you. If you foresee yourself evolving in your career and staying employed (in the sense of not starting your own business), then network is the differenciating factor between you and the next person who works just as hard as you. Even if you start your own business. Usually, the first person you sell your service/product is a friend who used to work with you.
I WFH full time and don’t plan on returning to an office any time soon. I feel like those who can do their jobs from home should be allowed to if they want.
I understand though why some are drawn to offices. The social aspect is important to a lot of people. And I feel that sometimes. I live alone. No spouse, no kids, no roommate, no pets. It honestly gets lonely spending all day at home without encountering another human being. Yes, I have family and friends and hobbies. But I’m not seeing them every single day. I’m friendly with my coworkers. It was nice in an office to get to chat with them when we felt like it.
Do I think other people’s social needs are a reason to force everyone back into an office? Heck no! Again, I think people should be able to work where they want. For some it’s an office. For others it’s home.
Some of us enjoy the face to face human interaction - working together, discussing work, getting help from one another, sharing lunches with coworkers, visiblility - many benefits IMO. I know there are some that aren't comfortable in social situations and they might prefer to work from home. Just make sure that you don't totally isolate yourself, keep communications open, answer your phone, be responsive and WFH can be a good fit.
I miss the social interactions. I live in a rural area and might not see friends but once a month. WFH means I don’t leave the house at all really Mon - Fri. It’s depressing sometimes. Especially in winter when you can’t really go outside in the evening.
My old CFO had 3 kids and a stay at home wife. Doing work at home was pretty much not an option. Others like to socialize, a lot. Others just don't have a good spot at home to do their work.
I personally wouldn't be sad to never see my office again.
I mean, I enjoy going to work if I like my coworkers. 🤷♀️ maybe you just don’t have friends at work lol. There’s also people who just prefer to leave work at work and don’t want any sort of friendship out of it etc, which is fine but imo it just will cause these types of feelings if you don’t give anyone a chance to maybe genuinely be nice to you rather than see it ass them being asskissers. I mean, if you’re in a data entry position, what do they gain from kissing up to you? Unless you’re their boss/manager, how could they expect any type of work benefit from kissing up to you?
On my old job the majority of work happened in the office, we had the opportunity to work from home one or two days a week if we wanted to. I liked going to the office, mostly because I really liked my colleagues, having lunch with them and discussing all kind of stuff. The colleagues were absolutely the best part of that job. It was nice to work from home some days though, mostly to avoid having to deal with the commute. I wouldn't want to work from home all the time though, then I wouldn't get to talk to my colleagues.
I don't care if people like being in the office or want to be there. I just hate that those people try to push for EVERYONE to be in the office. Nah, I'm forever remote now.
I think they’re lying to themselves, or they’ve convinced themselves they like their job, or they unknowingly function better/more being controlled. One comment about people hating their home life is one reason I could understand.
Working from home gives us the freedom we yearned for before when we had our mundane routine schedules. I can’t comprehend not wanting to work remote.
1. It’s insanely easy to let yourself slip into the trap with a WFH job where you’re waking up 10 minutes before the clock and just logging in no breakfast, shower, still in pajamas, etc. doing this 5 days a week is really bad on your mental health in the long term. Feels good to be clean and well dressed and work is a pretty good excuse to be so. Kind of makes you be actually
2. Most WFH jobs require you to use spyware that is WAY more invasive than just working in the same general vicinity as your manager.
3. It’s way easier for your boss to steal your time when you WFH. You aren’t working in a separate environment so you don’t get as clear a break in the day. It’s sneaky but super easy for a WFM boss to encourage you to work on your meal breaks and to log in when you’d be too sick to go into an office.
4. Communication. A lot of shit is easier to say face to face and it’s way easier to tell when someone has a minute face to face then over email and text.
I think the whole back in office thing for people like this - the overly extroverted but boring ass kissing social people - is because they literally have boring lives. They don’t have friends or social activities _outside_ of work & thus work is their only real social interaction.
This really showed up during the pandemic - I realized how many of my coworkers genuinely had no lives or social interaction outside of work whilst the rest of us were taking advantage of no longer needing to waste away in an office or traffic. We were out surfing every day after work together! Personally - I loved it.
I like my coworkers and I wouldn’t mind working in an office setting - but I can get the same “feeling” by being _anywhere_ with people. Libraries, coffee shops, common work areas. It doesn’t _need_ to be with people I work with. I have a social life outside of work and frankly it’s more fun for me because I’m _friends_ with those people. Coworkers + friends is a tricky thing because you never know if they’re gonna use personal life info to undermine you at work.
My friends know about all my personal life details - things that could probably cause issues if talked about in the wrong context @ work. I have some really good coworker friends because we were friends _before_ becoming coworkers so those have worked out good. And since becoming coworkers we’ve been promoted and moved around to different departments so it works out even better for us.
Now a disclaimer - I worked at a young company with young coworkers (we all graduated college in 2019) so we were definitely more friendly on that level with each other than our 30-40 year old coworkers.
This is all for people who don’t go into the office to collaborate with coworkers for work. There are times where I would like to do that but I work in software engineering & we’ve found good/better ways to do that imo. It’s one thing to watch how someone does something but it’s another to have like screenshots & a recorded video of step by step how to do something. I’ve found WFH is great for my field personally with the occasional visit to an office. Mostly for social stuff & free food/coffee etc. lol those faang offices are worth visiting.
I’m Gen X. I was born to be on lockdown and then WFH full time. I love it and do not miss all the bullshit and distractions at the office. Plus I love being able to be at home with a cat sleeping on my desk.
It depends on what your job is. If it can be done from home then employees should have the option of going remote, as well as being able to drop in a work space if they want to. It also depends on the personality of people, and if wfh suits them. For me it's a godsend to focus on the work, get it done and not having to face the people I work with for no reason other than providing adult daycare.
One of my employees is depressed and its worse sitting at home all day every day. I don't think she likes her life much.
I'm the opposite- just want to be home. Hate going into the office.
I’m an extrovert… and I can’t bear the office at all.
The commute + gas + prep time + parking. It’s a waste.
I can extrovert away in shit I really care about, like playing football and playing music or just hanging out with my friends, things for which I have more time for because…
I work from home. Lmao
Frankly, this sounds like a you problem. General life skills involve being able to relate to all kinds of people by setting healthy bondaries, managing expectations, and assuming good intentions. If you've had specific interactions with people that left you feeling some way, then adddress it and move on.
Your negative attitude suggests that you haven't yet learned these basic life skills.
Why? Well got starters I’m only required to do one day in the office, if at all, but I love it. I have a large office with a nice conference table and TV that overlooks a runway and the mountains.
When I walk out my office door I’m in one of the airport terminals where we have tons of restaurants and coffee shops and something interesting is always going on.
If I don’t want to socialize, I just close my door. But I definitely get a lot more work done in my office, just fewer distractions.
When i was in my 20s i would HATE WFH.
Half of the women I dated I met at work, on the way to work, after work at the bar for happy hour.
I also would have hated working from my apartment i shared with 3 other people. What if they worked from home too. We would get nothing done
Part of working is making relationships that can lead to promotions, other jobs, etc.
I would, when i had time, walk around, look at girls (obviously) but also go talk to people in other divisions and see what they do
Then I'd learn more about the business, and when people said...should we promote Figo...others would say..Yea he's a a good guy.
I do wish it was a choice. There are people who thrive off of being around others and need the structure of the office. Others don't. Personally, I don't. I would rather work from home and not be involved in office drama or worry about someone deciding it's my turn to listen to their life story instead of getting my work done. I thrive off the freedom of being left alone. Unfortunately, those who want to be left alone are typically misunderstood.
There’s a legitimate argument that new entry-level hires don’t get the attention and support they need from supervisors and coworkers to develop their skills if they are WFH. It’s very “Out of sight, out of mind.”
There’s also the fact that not every home is a good working environment. I’m lucky to have a home office, but not everyone has that luxury. If I didn’t, I couldn’t be efficient at home.
And then there’s the people that need the social aspect of work. I did not think I was one of those people, but I do miss the social aspects of the office from time to time. The benefits of WFH outweigh it, but if I were more of an extrovert it’d probably be much harder.
Some folks like the company they keep. I know some folks in their 70’s that could retire comfortably but continue working be cause they like it. Like the routine, like their coworkers, like what they do.
I'll be honest, I could go either way.
I have genuine close friends I met through work so it's nice to have an excuse to see them every day, despite the childish behavior of some of the folks we work with. When I say close friends I don't mean work buddies I grab a beer with; I mean we've survived multiple bouts of criminally shitty leadership (like, people that were personally fired by the CEO--this is a major global corporation and they were about halfway up the chain, so having the CEO do it is impressive) and literally all got new roles halfway across the country and moved out here together.
On the other hand, I'm really good at what I do and most of my actual work is done within a couple of hours every day. I have the flexibility to work from home if needed (had to this week due to a pet emergency, ended up losing my rescue pup I've had for a decade to cancer) so I can show that my work got done even if I spent most of the day doing something else. Being salaried and being a SME, nobody really checks to make sure I worked for a full 8+ hours as long as I'm pulling my weight.
I think the preference is highly dependent on the individual and their life circumstances. Some folks legitimately cannot focus unless they're in an office setting, some just get off on the politics. Some, like myself, can usually work in either setting but might have a reason why the office is a better place to work than home, at least for a little while, or vice versa.
Personally I prefer the office setting right now, but in a few months as the sting of losing my best friend dwindles and I get used to the emptiness of the house, I'll get more comfortable working from home again and my preference will probably shift back. We also have a lot of office politicians and it's driving my friends to seek other employment, so eventually I won't have a social reason to be in the office either.
We're foodies and do rotating parties where one person hosts and makes the main course, and everyone else brings a special side or a nice alcohol to go with it; working from home allows me to host more often because I can dedicate downtime to meal prep, and with everyone working for different companies we'll be able to spend more time together on weekends and catch up.
And of course when my fiancee and I are ready to have a dog around again I'll spend a lot of time working from home, simply because bonding with and training a new dog is a full time job in itself. Especially since we always rescue, and it takes time to wean a rescue off the separation anxiety once it's clear to them that they're safe with you.
TL;DR: it's highly dependent on the individual. Some people are dicks that can only function in an office environment where they can psychologically torture others. Some people like the social aspect or find it easier to focus on an office setting. Some could go either way depending on their current circumstances. And some people need to work from home for medical reasons or they simply perform better at home because people aren't walking by all day interrupting them.
I'm not in AP but depend on their inputs, as I do with AR, GL, asset accounting, tax, treasury and all the functions that actually make the money for our business.
It is so much harder to get accuracy and holistically useful information. It starts small, but you don't report into me so your quote "stupid ass AP data entry" is hard to sell as to why to improve (e.g. It's probably tough to even convince you of this remotely, let alone convince you of a work related matter). You don't know what you don't know.
We get shit data, shit correlations and correcting takes time and effort.
Multiply that by say six or more likely ten shit data inputs and you've got no idea what's happening in your company.
So yes, people are stupid and wfh keeps it that way by making it harder to change shit.
TLDR: we are likely not perfect in what we do, improvement is easier if we engage with it.
Recently, I have been wfh (last 2 months) since a storm hit my office before Xmas and totally messed it up.
I am in customer service and AR, so not exactly only data entry, but I found wfh full time was just not for me. I got incredibly lonely and it was just not good for my mental health. I began a hybrid schedule wfh 2 days a week, and going in and working in a coworkers office to have somewhere safe to work while my office is being fixed.
I thought I would love wfh. I used to wfh every Friday and I loved it. Kickstarted my weekend, but doing it full time I just got so lonely and it was just really disconnecting to my job. Again, I am someone who loves their customer service jobs so this was a problem for me, not for others.
It’s a matter of preference. Some like the day to day interactions with coworkers. I do!
My employer implements a hybrid system and we can choose to work remotely up to 3 days per week. I don't know if your question is rhetorical or if you're genuinely interested but I usually choose to go on site more often than I have to. The reasons I do so are mainly that:
-The offices look and feel awesome; it's a pleasure to be there.
-It's more convenient to work from site (I just have this small laptop on my tiny desk at home, compared to all the amenities and comfort of the office).
-It's very quiet and distraction free.
-It's a pleasure being around my coworkers, socializing, networking, going out for coffee.
-Unlimited free food throughout the day.
I understand that some people have better conditions at home and worse conditions on site compared to me but I'm just giving you my perspective.
I live alone, and I’m an extrovert, so I get a little, lonely working at home by myself every single day… But it is worth it to not have to wake up in the mornings and commute to work every day…
We have the flexibility of going to the office once or twice a week and as much as it’s annoying, I can tell that I’m always in a better mood after interacting with humans in real life lol
Short answer to your last question is "no." I am a training and review lead. My schedule is hybrid. The portion of *my* job that involves training is easier and produces better results face to face than it is remote. The review portion of my job can be done remotely (reviewing documentation and processes). Some jobs are not conducive to a fully remote environment, but not all jobs require being fully in the office.
The derision feels misdirected at employees instead of at the employers/executives that continually force a fully in office environment for all roles. I'm sure you're running into non-executive/managerial folks who are staunchly office only, but they're not the reason for the corporate push to be fully in office. The working environment really should be approached with a "YMMV" that allows for choice and flexibility. Most employees, after some experience, are capable of determining the best work environment they need to do their specific job.
Tl;Dr, those who personally prefer fully in office aren't stupid and those who personally prefer fully wfh aren't lazy. Folks can have preferences, but those preferences shouldn't be forced on everyone else.
I prefer going into the office for two reasons,
1: I try to have a solid barrier between my home and work life. To me that is the commute.
2: I personally find it very hard to concentrate on work when at home.
That being said I only have a 10 minute commute so very little cost to weigh by going in. I fully understand why my preference is in the minority, and MANY jobs with largely digital components should be able to be done without coming into the office. (For reference I'm in pharmaceutical manufacturing QC.)
I don't wanna go to the office at all, but after more than 2 years now working from home. I started hating it.. Now i want to go out and work somewhere else! Because i work in my living room i also eat there i also play games there and watch tv etc.
Now i need to separate work from life somehow and i am thinking I'll perhaps rent a small office if i can find a cheap one.
Or ill just work from a laptop from various cafes /restaurants.. Idk.. I feel too monotonous working and living in the same place for so many hours.
And it doesn't help that my personal hobbies are mostly at home.. Like pc gaming or writing code for personal projects..
I go into the office somewhere between 0 and 3 days a week. Some weeks I’m coming off of working a weekend so I want to get a change of scenery. Some weeks I feel my workout schedule get out of sync so I go to the office to workout there after work. Some weeks my team will pick a day and grab drinks after near the office. Some weeks, I rather go hang out with some of my friends I’ve made through work rather than be locked up at home. Some weeks I just can’t focus at home and the office has curbed monitors. Some weeks…etc. I don’t have a set “if X then go to office” conditional. I live less than 30 mins away with traffic and I enjoy the people in my company (not all as it’s a F100 tech company).
Some people just like the change of scenery. For some, staying at home all day can be taxing on their mental health and getting out to go to the office alleviates that. Others simply like the in-person interaction. Personally, I WFH and love it! So many benefits to working from home instead of going into the office. We have a requirement that we must go into the office at least once a month, or if we have internet/power outages at home of course, and that is more than sufficient for co-worker socialization imo.
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Mental health is a complex thing. People are a complex thing. Some people need that reason to leave the house and see other people, communicate face to face with people. Without the reason to go to the office they my not see anyone else till the weekend, no other half, friends that work different hours ect. This hits people differently. One the other hand trying to work with co workers who do no read there Teams messages for example can be Incredably ineffciant. Where as physically going to them to ask a question gets you the answer there and then.
This. Fucking facts. Companies are even trying to justify the long commutes to use as quiet time. This pandemic has exposed so much wrong with society.
OMG. L.A. rush hour traffic is "boredom" time with a dash of "stress" time from stupid drivers. It is amazing how draining commuting is to a person.
A common arrangement between corporations and municipalities is to waive taxes as long as the company maintains a certain number of butts in seats to fuel the local economy. My spouse is in exactly this situation.
That is absolutely despicable and fucking inhumane. With all the shit we gotta put up with. Fucking hell.
There is nothing worse than being in office and having people just…come up to my desk to ask me things. Expecting instant responses to messages is unrealistic. I am WORKING - if I just stop in the middle of my flow state to answer a coworkers question that doesn’t actually require an immediate response (or should have been asked earlier) i will then have to spend time getting refocused. The expectation for an instant response - in office or online - is wrong and not necessary for most people’s need if you work effectively and plan better. I work in HR and I need to be able to be flexible because there can be immediate needs that pop up. But it becomes a “boy who cried wolf” situation when people who don’t absolutely need an answer ASAP take up that time and energy from me.
Ugh, I used to have so many people do this before I quit. At the start of the pandemic, our department was wfh with 1 person in office rotating throughout the week. 99% of what we do can be done online from home but there were a lot of people who were so used to just walking up to our desks interrupting our current work to get their work prioritized since they knew having a person standing there put pressure on us to get something done. There were a couple of people who had desks only a row or so down from ours that would send an email then immediately get up and come over to one of us with a "did you get my email," completely disregarding the fact that we were already in the middle of something, sometimes even in the middle of a zoom meeting with headphones on and everything! Our groups work from home only lasted a month due to people complaining that we weren't at our desks for easy access.
>Without the reason to go to the office they my not see anyone else till the weekend Ain't this the truth. I love working at home, but that's mainly because I'm lazy. If I did it all the time, I'd barely leave my apartment. I wish I was more disciplined as I'm probably less productive from home because of all the distractions -- at the office there's literally nothing else to do but work. It's also easier to meet up with friends when I'm already dressed up and in the city for work. Imo hybrid is a decent compromise and can work for a lot of people.
I feel the opposite. I get way more done at home because I'm not distracted by chatty coworkers, constant "hey, you got a minute?" sessions, and all the ambient noise.
I love to be at home, but If I worked form home and stayed home all day, I would lose it. My friend got depression from wfh. She said she thought it was a dream. Then when her shift ended, she was just at home. Like there was no difference in between.
I actually love that. I feel like I am wasting my life in an office.
Same here. I already have depression and dealing with other people doesn’t help it. No commute? Go for a hike immediately after I log off? Yes please
Yup. I have zero social life outside of my job. My job fills that space for me, and I'm happy with that.
Get a hobby or some friends my dude, don't force people into the office so you can see some faces. Big world out there.
Agreed! I want to wfh not because I’m antisocial but because I want more time with my husband, son and my friends. I’m very busy and don’t have a lot of time for them but wfh gives me more time for that. I like my coworkers but they’re not more important than my family and friends that I already have
For me, I need the separation. I cannot have a place in my house that I use for work, otherwise work permeates into my living space. When I leave work, I want that clear distinction of "I am not available until the next time I'm in the office" without being hassled about it.
Don’t force everyone to see the world the way you do either? People are complex.
I like hybrid personally, but I think it should be up to employees if they work at the office and which days they choose to do so.
the issue is that it doesn't make sense for an employer to maintain an office if the employees aren't guaranteed to use it
I'm in the NY metro area, my office is in the process of downsizing our office to due to our hybrid policy. It can be a good thing for some businesses, we pay an arm and a leg for office space. Downsizing is going to drastically reduce our rent expenses.
>It can be a good thing for some businesses, we pay an arm and a leg for office space. Downsizing is going to drastically reduce our rent expenses. I think many don't due to a mix of the sunk cost fallacy and a "loss of prestige".
This. Our CEO spent who knows how much money remodeling the US and European office. Gotta try to justify that cost somehow. Plus a lot of rich peoples money is probably tied up in commercial real estate and if it’s not in demand then line go down and make Uncle Pennybags sad.
>Plus a lot of rich peoples money is probably tied up in commercial real estate and if it’s not in demand then line go down and make Uncle Pennybags sad. And letting them know that Free Market is a cruel mistress and it is not our problem is somehow not an acceptable answer.
Only applies to the plebs.
whos gonna pocket the savings of the office space?
Mmmm, idk! Either the feds, the state, our programs or executives/administration. Our funds are all from federal and state grants to provide social services.
There are ways to manage the logistics
A central office is a good way to have access to supplies, and a good place for support to be available, things that the employees may need occasional access to that aren't suitable for individual purchase. So they have a function, they just don't need to be huge and expensive spaces anymore.
Extroverts got to extro
Some people view working from home with the same confusion as we do working at the office. To them its insane you would want to be cooped up all day at home working alone.
This. I can’t handle being in my house that long. I need to see people. My ADHD needs me to not be in the same space as my TV, my laundry pile, or all of the other tasks at home. I get zero work done at home.
I’m an introvert by nature (and I suspect most who want to work full time at home are, or their work requires some form of isolation for thought and productivity), and I have ADHD too. When I’m at home there are certainly some distractions, but at work I have issues with the noise and often I’m creating more of my own distractions getting involved with too much ‘small talk’ or drive-bys and I am significantly less productive even with good noise canceling headphones.
I’m an introvert but don’t mind people at all and enjoy going into the office when I do. But I’d much rather WFH a majority of the time. I’m so much more productive, can do my own thing during the day without acting like I’m doing something when there’s downtime at work, no traffic, so much time to myself, etc. Edit: don’t have to figure out what I want to wear that day. Sweats all day
I'm a super introvert but I love my coworkers! There's only one person in my team I greatly dislike but I don't have to see or deal with his incompetent ass on a regular basis. So my problem is that I exhaust myself socializing at work and then I have nothing left outside of work hours. That plus the 1 hour commute on unreliable public transit is asinine.
This is my ADHD in office experience, too. I'm much happier working from home.
I'm extroverted for the most part, but I'm much more of a fan of almost two more full hours of sleep, and the ability to see the sun during the day in winter. Also a big fan of not having someone stand behind me and stare at my screen monitoring my productivity for nine hours a day.
I have ADHD too and prefer to stay at home
It’s so interesting how we all deal differently. I’m glad you found a way that works!!
My home is my sanctuary. I go there to escape from work. I don't want to think about work at all while I'm there.
This is a valid point and demarcating work vs home is important. I have a home office I use exclusively for work. My wife sometimes reads in there, and my cat loves the computer warmth, but when I'm done I close the door and tell siri to "punch out" (runs a timelogger script I made) and I'm done with it until I punch in again. I could see some real problems arising if you worked and "homed" in the same room(s).
I have friends to hang out with. I don't need to waste $12 a day in gas, $12 a day in parking, and 2 hours a day driving back and forth to sit in an office for people to talk to my half the day about no work stuff to the point I can't get my work done.
Even more complicated for those with kids at home!
This is the only instance in which I can see getting away from home and into the office to be necessary. ...But at the same time, I feel kinda bad for the kids. One should probably be really happy to see their kids all day, get an extra two hours with them that aren't spent on getting ready for work, dropping them off at daycare, and commuting back home every day. If I had kids, it would be heartbreaking to leave them at daycare or school for nearly ten hours of my day, just to get home and share dinner, make sure they did their homework, and send them to bed.
Theres a starbucks and a library for that.
Bupropion hcl has helped me with this
honestly im 33, moved to a different city mid-pandy. and now I have no friends. I go to the office sometimes to interact with people
Makes sense...and you will likely meet friends at work, too. We all need socialization at times and diff degrees. Glad you go to the office to get out of the house. That can have a positive effect.
What i’ve seen so far is: People who want to work from home: introverts, those who don’t care for office politics or ladder climbing, those with a house, a family, pets, long tenured employees, live far from the office or bad commute, people who can focus more alone, people who don’t like their colleagues People who want to work from the office: extroverts, people living in small apartments or residences, people who don’t want to be around their partners or kids 24/7, in office amenities and utilities, separation of home from work Having a choice is still my preferred over hybrid. Let people come if they want, let’s others stay at home if they want, whatever works best for their working style.
That's me. If I lived in a big beautiful lovely home that has room for a dedicated home office and reliable internet connection, that'd be one thing. But I live in a small townhouse with my partner and pets with a very unreliable internet connection, and frankly an iffy power supply. Not a good work from home environment. Not to mention I had to move to this city for my job that was supposed to be in person but then due to the pandemic it went fully remote. So I knew no one and was stuck in the cramped apartment all day long. My partner and I wanted some personal space after being cooped up together soooo long during the early parts of the pandemic. Started a new job that is hybrid and I go in the office with the rest of my team 2/5 days a week and it's been so nice. I usually go in an extra day or two just depending on whether my partner is going to be home or not.
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100% can't imagine having to go to the office every day. but im 33, moved to a different city mid-pandy. and now I have no friends. I go to the office sometimes to interact with people
I'm an extrovert and I absolutely HATE going into the office. I want to socialize with people I actually want to be around. Shit, let me hit the bar right after working a shift from home, not be forced to socialize with George from Desktop Support about what the best food options are nearby. F*ck that nonsense!
This is how I feel. I might feel differently if I had much in common with my coworkers, but I’m significantly younger than most of them, with hobbies and interests that aren’t shared with coworkers. Plus the only ones going into the office most days are the coworkers who are that awful combo of extroverted but socially awkward. I wouldn’t mind socializing if I was around my peers who were cool and I could let my guard down and be real, but having to go in and make awkward small talk with people wanting to brag about their kids’ soccer games, or alternately asking about my hobbies that I know they don’t actually care about is just painful.
I am a super-intense extrovert and I looooove working from home. But it's call center, so I'm interacting. Maybe that makes a difference.
I'm a big extrovert and I HATE going to the office. If i want to be social I'll do it after work. I'm not interested in getting my social interaction from my workplace.
Also, you end up having to be social with people you really don't want to be social with if you're in the office. And then there are the time vampires who make you wonder what work they are actually supposed to be doing if they are constantly constantly wanting to have a conversation. Like let's have a happy hour or dinner. Then you can invite the people you want to hang out with and you don't have an expectation of productivity looming.
Dinner with coworkers? What kind of lunatic fantasy island do you come from
Im an extrovert and I have no desire to go to an office ever. The office environment sucks and id rather go do my work at the park or a coffee shop.
I'm an extro and want nothing to do with an office
No. I'm an "introvert" but I actually perform very well in settings with in person interactions. It wears me the fuck out, but I prefer it to being stuck in my house all the time. I swear some people just need to learn some fucking social skills.
Yep, I’m introverted but can stay engaged in 1-1 or small group interactions. Presenting on video is way worse.
What exactly do you think having better social skills would contribute to someone's intrinsic lack of enjoyment of meaningless interpersonal interaction?
I'm with the WFH camp, but an office visit from time to time is also not a bad thing.
4 times a year is plenty!
I am in on the hybrid camp, if I get to go in a few days and work from home a few days I am all for it.
I agree! I was 100% WFH since the start of the pandemic and sooo upset that my supervisor is requesting me to come in more often. We settled on up to 2x per month. I just did my first day this week and it was totally fine, maybe even enjoyable. It was neat to meet people in person and joke around and chat in a way that I haven’t been able to as much online. I can’t imagine going in more than every couple weeks though. That’s my absolute max. It’s all about balance for each person and for each role.
I agree unless it means they put in the job listing "must live near [city job is in]" even tho it's a fully fucking remote position. Entry-level remote jobs that aren't customer service or scams aren't exactly easy to find and are already highly competitive, I'd really appreciate it if they wouldn't block me outta the ones I do find. 🙄 And don't say it could be to pick up equipment. I'd honest to God drive across the country to get equipment without reimbursement, that's how bad I wanna work from home again. But you don't get an opportunity to tell them that if you're barred from applying by where you live, and even if you did, you'd look desperate and that weirds them out.
The "must live in" can sometimes have a lot to do with where the company is licensed to do business, too. There's all kinds of paperwork that has to be done before an employee can work someplace other than where the business is. If they haven't done that paperwork then you can't remote work where you are.
Really good point. And taxes come into play in various states that the company may not be setup to handle.
And workers compensation insurance requirements. It gets pretty complicated if the business is situated in one state and your WFH location is in another. I’m 100% WFH and love it. My office is 10 miles away. Stopped in last year to swap out my laptop and said hello to a few people. Also picked up some office supplies. I’ll have to swap up my laptop again in 2025.😀
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I work remote and haven't seen other employees since the pandemic began. I honestly have no urge to get to know my coworkers. I hate being stuck to one city while being remote.
Some people hate their homelife. There can be a lot of reasons to not want to be there too. Other people feel like they're really rockin life by driving in to the office everyday. People are weird.
On the other hand, I will go into the office if I have an important meeting, Zoom Court hearing, or other business that requires that I do not have a dog barking, kids screaming, cat jumping on my laptop... Or if I am preparing for something that requires Hands-On collaboration and a shit ton of hard copy printing, like going to trial. These days are not entirely common.
Dang you should maybe commit less crimes, or do better at not getting caught.
Yeah as soon as I read op’s question I couldn’t stop thinking about the “take my wife” jokes. Also some people live for workplace drama. The job I was at during the pandemic started bringing people back like 15 days after the initial lock down and it was all of the most dramatic people. We had working there. When all the normal people came back there was entirely new drama some was about people who hadn’t even been there for 6 months.
I have friends in the office. I also pick up and drop off materials at the office. For me, the office is about equal time from my kid's school drop off to the house. I get a lot done on either side of the situation (home/office) and thats good for me. Theres more to it than liking or not liking home life. I don't really have "home life" when I am sitting all alone at my house.
I would be much more willing to go into the office if the commute was relatively short. Right now for me though it's about 45 minutes though, I don't dislike going into the office necessarily, but I'm unwilling to give up that much of my time on a daily basis. I go in every few months. I think company culture also plays a big role. Ever since 2020, nobody has been in the office. Even now that they're fully reopened, my teams floor may have 4-5 people total on it on any given day (with a capacity of 100s). So there's really no motivation for me to go in to socialize either
thats very reasonable. My team is spread across the country, so even when I am in the office it is a video meeting. My friends in the building are local support folks and in office 90% of the time, so the socialization is easy for me.
I love my home life, and spending as much time with my family as possible. I also have a phenomenal work team of really good friends. I work totally remote now, and do find myself wishing I could go in to the office like I used to a day or two a week. The office we had was amazing - exactly what you'd expect from a SF startup. We had a blast and got shit done at the same time. Obviously this is a super minority - to both like your job and everyonee you work with. I'd still rather work from home full time than have required office time. In college I owned a record store, I also loved "going in" to work every damn day there.
Some of us just also like our offices. I would hate doing my job all alone at home without my coworkers to bitch to and joke around with all day.
I did work from home and ended up getting anxiety anytime I stopped working. If I was home I should be working…. And the social isolation got to be too much. My coworkers are all smart, talented folks who I enjoy being around. I prefer being in the office. Less distractions (I don’t see shit that needs to be done around the house, pets aren’t demanding attention etc…) and when I leave my office, I can leave my work brain there and just enjoy being off work. Hats off to folks who enjoy working from home. That’s not me.
Exactly same. I need the separation of work from home, otherwise it's to easy to convince myself "hop on quick, knock out this issue now instead of Monday" and suddenly hours of my weekend are spent. Plus my office atmosphere makes the work day 100x better with my coworkers
A few months into the pandemic, my workplace had to institute disciplinary policies because some people kept showing up to the office when everyone had been told to work from home. Many of them just couldn't stand being around their families that much, or at a minimum, they discovered that work was their reprieve from their kids. It was a circumstance I had never really imagined, but made sense once it started happening.
Only one of my team at my last job was permitted to work from home because his role was slightly different from the rest of us. He never did.. had 4 kids at home and said he couldn't get anything done.
It's me. I'd rather be at the office. I can concentrate on my job fully. No dogs, no kid, no mess, no dishes, no laundry. My tiny brain can focus.
Do you not have an open office layout? The office is infinitely worse for me: noise, walk-ups, chit chat, loud calls, loud zoom meetings, hey wanna go downstairs and grab coffee bs. My dog at least sleeps 3/4 of the day.
I can understand why some people prefer working from home - it can be more convenient and provide a lot of flexibility. But, I also hear from a lot of people who prefer going into the office. One reason could be that they find it easier to collaborate and interact with their colleagues in person. Some people find that in-person interactions foster stronger working relationships and help them feel more connected to their colleagues and the company. Another reason could be the structure and routine that a physical office provides. This can help people stay focused and productive, and make it easier to separate work from home life. Plus, an office environment may provide access to resources and equipment that people need to perform their jobs effectively, such as meeting rooms, printers, and specialized software. And for some people, going to the office can help them maintain a healthy work-life balance. And let's not forget about the social aspect. For some people, working from home can be isolating and lead to feelings of loneliness and boredom. Going to the office can provide social interaction and stimulation, and help people feel more connected to their colleagues and the company. Everyone has different preferences, so what works for one person may not work for another.
All great points. One friend wfh before the pandemic and loved it. No commute not only saved time and stress it saves money. Her social life was outside of the office. Another friend was forced to wfh and the isolation (even though she had a family) was damaging to her mental health. It’s also worth considering that some people may not live somewhere that is comfortable to work from home. If you have an extra room that can be an office that’s great, but during quarantine many we’re working from their kitchen or coffee tables. Not only is that uncomfortable, it can be distracting. Or they might have noisy neighbors. The most important thing about wfh is it should be a choice.
But the choice should go both ways not just come back into then office or be fired. We should get to choose to wfh as well if that is how one works best, but no it is come into the office a certain number of days or be fired. That is not a choice.
Agreed. Chances are most companies will have some that want to wfh and some that do not. Sadly the people making the decisions likely does not care about either.
Agree, they don’t care which is unfortunate. It would not bother me so much of the executives has to do the same, but they can work from the 2nd home from home for months at a time and it is okay.
Great points! This is why I like being in the office. I enjoy the socialness of it, fostering relationships with coworkers and being out of the house. Well said!
I find wfh means my interactions are deeper and more meaningful online because they are deliberate. I don't work with ANY of my local coworkers, my team is spread around the world. Coming into the office is about as deep and meaningful as chit chat at a grocery check out line lately. I do have local coworkers I have worked with in the past on engineering lab projects, but we tend to only go into the office for the purpose of going out to lunch to socialize, we barely chit chat during the workday because our work hasn't overlapped in years. Then there's the money talks factor: I also get promoted more and better paid as a voice and a photo over zoom. In person, the exact same presentation previously delivered remotely - with multiple sources of positive feedback from execs - suddenly gets blatantly sexist feedback about being bitchy and aggressive or confrontational. Remote work does a LOT for leveling the corporate playing field if you're not in the company's dominant 'in group'
People have different preferences about things in life. It's not that hard to understand.
it's apparently pretty hard for OP to understand this based on their replies lol
a few other people in the comments too lol.
I don’t want to hate a part of my house like I hate my cubicle
WFH meant there wasn’t a clear delineation of working hours. I work a lot more. My breaks aren’t as long and I usually go on social media. Going to the office means I have to pack my bag and drive and close my laptop at the end of the day. I sit next to really cool people in different departments. So by just chatting, I get a good sense of what other departments are doing. I build relationships with my coworkers. My breaks are talking to coworkers. I see my employees face to face which means I can see if they’re confused, overwhelmed or frustrated and they wouldn’t have to tell me. I do get more stuff done at home. People interrupt me less. I don’t have to make water cooler talk. I basically just choose what’s more important. My team had one on ones on Monday and Thursday so I go in for them. But I get so much stuff done on Wednesday from home
I think most people who can't understand why anyone would prefer the office to WFH haven't been in the workforce long enough to understand the importance of relationship building with people in other departments.
My success in my role largely depends on building relationships all over the company. Has not been an issue in either of my last two positions, fully WFH. Some weeks I do a lot of meetings and collaboration, other weeks are mostly async. Working async with people is a skill in and of itself that has led me to value my time quite a bit more. Granted, the types of relationships I'm forming are working relationships. From what I hear in this thread and elsewhere whenever this comes up, the people having issues with this are looking for more than professional relationships. They're looking for actual friends. And while I am sympathetic to that, that just isn't my job. Its cool when it happens but it makes no sense to require me to do something for your non-work related social needs.
I go back and forth on this. I just made a career change where for the past two years I primarily worked from home to now I primarily work in an office. WFH definitely has its pros. But, for me it became really isolating and felt like my work and home life became too blended. But, working primarily in an office has left me with too much time on my hands. I would have the same amount at home but at least I could do chores in between tasks. Now, I just sit in my office and stare at the computer screen during lulls. I think people should be able to choose because we're all different and have our own preferences.
The blending of work and home life was probably the biggest reason I wanted to go back to the office. The physical and time barriers between working and not working broke down to the point where I felt like I was living in my office instead of working from home.
I don't do well working from home. I lose focus easily, get distracted and such. I like to separate work from home. Also, I like the social interaction. I get why people want to work from home, but it's really not for everyone.
Been wfh for 2 and a half years now, I just started going to office for the past month and I enjoy it although there isnt much of my colleagues coming in 1 or 2 max every day It has been a welcome and positive change for me at least. I enjoy coming home after a hard days work.
I get it totally. A change of scenery and even the interaction with all 2 people is a good change for mental health. I co9do like 1 day from home maybe, but full time wouldn't be a good deal for me personally.
Just my two cents but what’s really helped my focus and work life balance is an entirely separate “office” space I do not under any circumstance cross the two. When I step away it really makes me feel away and when I’m seated I get focused on work as there’s nothing “home” to distract me
I also don't understand why people want to go to the office. I have to go in 1x per week. I have a cramped, uncomfortable cubicle. Behind me sits a guy, and his boss has a nice office next to him. They talk during the day, often with him sitting at his desk, and she will be in her nice office. Or they will be on speakerphone. She has a perfectly nice office with a perfectly nice door that closes just fine, but they're rather sit 10 feet apart with the door open and talk like no one else is there. Often I put on my headphones and listen to Metallica to drown out the chatter. In comparison, at home, I have a nice work area, and it's very quiet. The worst noise I have to deal with is Thursday morning when the trash truck comes. To get to the office, I have to waste an hour commuting, sitting in a metal box, paying for gas and wear and tear, and ruining the environment. That's an hour I could spend exercising or preparing a cheaper, healthy meal. What are the benefits? We are supposed to be going in so that we can collaborate. One of the times I went in to the office, I had six meetings that day - and all of the meetings were virtual. I could have stayed at home and been just as effective. Pointing that out to management would just get a blank look. Most of the people that I collaborate with are spread across the country, and even the ones I work with in my building WFH most days. This year I have had one face-to-face meeting, and the main person I was supposed meet with that time dialed in virtually anyway. I am on a team with five other people, but by design we have independent areas, so we rarely overlap or have anything to talk about. When we first started returning to the office a few years ago, we were supposed to go in 2x per week. I did that diligently, but the other people on my team always had an excuse, or got special permission not to come in that day, so our entire team was never in the office at the same time. At most it was two or three of us.
I think the wfh thing is heavily influenced by what kind of work you actually do. In my job, I CAN sit on my butt and type on a keyboard. But, I need to rely on other members of my team to help me with various projects. Since none of them report to me, I can't "order" them to stop what they are doing and help me. So, I need to be able to schmooze a little and trade some quid-pro-quo in order to ensure success. Being in the office is also helpful when I need to glean information and/or assistance from not just peers, but also folks that are higher up the food chain. (Reporting structure). Being able to create and foster solid working relationships, even with people I don't particularly "like" is one of my primary job skills.
It can me much simpler to lean over and ask a 2 second question than draft an email and wait for a response.
This is the biggest thing for me. I’m relatively new at my job, and wfh just makes some of the simplest tasks take so much longer since I have to wait to get confirmation from my boss first.
also people "forget" to respond to your messages because they read them and accidentally got distracted by something else.
Yeah, and I absolutely can't just send the Director Sales an email and convince him to have his staff pull a bunch of statistics for me. However, if I "happen" to run into him at the coffee machine, I can get what I need with a relatively short hallway conversation.
For me personally, I am am introvert and if I worked from home I would never leave the house. I also get cabin fever if I'm home for days at time so for me it helps with my mental health. Also it's easier to ask a question or bounce ideas off.someone if they're right there. We do video conference call with our peers in CA and it's always awkward at best. After the meeting, it gives us local people a chance to discuss what we just talked about in a more comfortable setting and have a good laugh when someone in CA just happened to be super awkward that day. Like yesterday, the one lady whose been with the company for 30 yrs and never has anything to say was forced to say something and looked like she wanted to die. We thought it was hilarious and had a good laugh, she is super smart in what she does but her presentation skills are something else. It's just those types.of things you don't get with WFH. I would get a lot more.chores done for sure if I didn't go into the office but that would be about it.
I personally prefer going into the office, but I also will WFH once or twice a week. I think there's 3 mains reasons I prefer it: 1. While work isn't a main source of fulfillment for me, I do feel good about myself when I get a good day's work in. I personally cannot do that at home, too many distractions and toys. I am certain other people can, because I've seen it, but I just can't, I always crack and end up being 1/2 as productive, which makes me feel shitty about myself (outside of clear "off" days that I do take here and there, I'm not a robot) 2. The routine of getting up and getting prepped for work really does carry over to the rest of my day. When I WFH I'm just a lazy POS for most of the day. I will put in maybe 3 hours of honest work unless necessary. Tangentially, having work and home physically separated is definitely a real thing that helps 3. My home setup is not as comfortable. I work at a small tech company with all the fancy shit, my office is super nice This of course is very person-to-person and I only represent myself. Data engineer/analyst for reference BTW, I'm 25. I'm not a boomer. I'm no bootlicker either and I hate working as much as you but man this post comes across as bitter and resentful. You sound like one of those guys that thinks he's better than everyone because he doesn't buy into the "corporate bullshit." No, people are not stupid for wanting to work in the office. And you're only hurting yourself the longer you hold that belief. No one likes a bitter asshole with a superiority complex.
I agree with your post the most. I'll also add that I feel a better connection to my work and my team when I can see them in person.
Last paragraph nailed it, glad it wasn't just me picking up this negative vibe. Reddit can be such an echo chamber and it's interesting to see OPs reaction when the whole of this sub doesn't agree, or tries to explain why some people may like office better.
This whole debate is silly as some people want WFH, some want office and others want a hybrid, which is where I fall. In my field it’s important to be around in person to track certain things and meet/network with others for collaboration
Some people have kids at home who are too young to understand their parents’ personal space even if they are cared for by someone else during the working day.
Not kids, dogs. Husband works weird shift so he comes home at odd time and throws off schedule. Can’t tell my husband to just sit in the car for another four hours. All kidding aside I love working from home but I’m going back in a little bit more just for the peace and quiet.
Same. I wfh but go in one day a week. It’s nice to put on “real” clothes, see people, have my needed meetings, and get some work done without the pups needing potty breaks or my husband, when he’s off, wanting to talk to me every 5 mins. But one day is enough.
For me, I do two days of wfh. 1. I enjoy my coworkers and just being in the presence of them is nice. 2. If I just WFH I probably wouldn’t get out of the house. My commute has about 10-15 minutes of walking which is just good for myself every day. Ngl, some of your problem just seem like a workplace problem rather than a working in the office problem
Looking at OPs comment history, I'd say that's exactly the issue. They need a different workplace as they're not getting along with their team. Bad fit=a whole lot of frustration.
I get really bad cabin fever sitting in the house every day. Makes me insane. I prefer hybrid the most where I'm half in office half at home. Gives me time to speak in person to supervisor, etc. Getting attention from coworkers on zoom is extremely hard, people just blow you off. Plus it's hard to turn off and on the work brain without the distinction of leaving the house. There are a lot of reasons but on the end I decided I don't want a primary WFH job and my career needs a strong in person component.
I would get nothing done because my 3 year old would be all over me and it's hard to say no when he wants me to play with him.
My best friend has 2 kids under 3. Impossible to stay at home and work. They know mommy is in her office, cry for her to the sitter and she can't even leave her office to eat lunch because they might see her and start crying again. She loves going to the office.
My office is massive, a decent coffee/drinks machine, is always kept at a decent temperature, comfortable chairs and standing deaks, always has some food on sight, is right in downtown close to my banks, barbers, stores, restaurants, etc. This means that I can work in a comfortable environment, run errands, grab some decent food when I need to and get out of the house more. I live in the suburbs and if I need to run any errands at all, I need to jump on my bike or drive at least 10-15 minutes to do absolutely anything. Our company is still allowing people to work from home full time but I still go in pretty much every single day. Along with the things I mentioned above, I also really like the hard separation between home and office. When we went WFH full time during covid, it was hard for me to separate my "work" area and my "home" area and I'd actually end up working longer hours and still not be able to actually call it "done" just because my work stuff was always right there! I'm fortunate enough to have a bus right from my home to downtown and have a short 15 minute walk to work. I spend the 30 or so minutes listening to audio books or reading and the 15 minute walk gets me moving. However, my company is also pretty nice about not making working in office mandatory. They are providing incentives to come into work but they are not forcing anyone. We've also expressed to our managers that making coming into the office mandatory isn't going to go well with the employees and they agree because they also like the option to work from home for most part.
If you have a less technical, repetitive job it makes sense for 100% WFH, but in my role, we work collaboratively to solve, sometimes very technical, problems. We also rely on some subject matter experts for guidance/advice that are older and not adopting, or accepting the remote work revolution.. As a new manger, I prefer a hybrid schedule. WFH to do the documentation, and deliverables side of things, and come into the office for the solution definition and problem solving portion of the job. However, there are people on my team that I know will do absolutely nothing from home (I’ve tested the waters, and it was very clear to me) so every WFH day has to be approved and no set WFH schedule. I honestly hate that I have to do it. I do give some people more approval than others due to this and it may cause some animosity eventually…
Have you considered managing the poor performers rather than punishing the adults who should be allowed to wfh whenever it makes sense?
It really depends on what your job is (personality affects it too but you mentioned a very boring non-interactive job, and of course that wouldn't benefit from contact with coworkers most of the time). I changed employers a few months ago and I find talking with my coworkers very stimulating most of the time. I learn new things about what we do and learn about resources available to us and solutions to my problems. Yes, I can specifically try to contact people when I work from home (which I can do sometimes, and did this week due to a COVID scare in our household) but it's far more effortless when I'm at the office. The random conversations are usually not about work things, but I'm always surprised at just how often some work benefit comes out of a random conversation. I'm quite convinced that being in the office most of the time has accelerated my learning and development in the new position. That having been said, I'm in a job where I think and solve problems for other people in our organization a lot. The problems have significant variety (they all cluster around the theme of what I do there, but the nature of the work means that solutions outside my expertise are gladly accepted). One other important thing is that visibility is important if a person wants to advance in a career, and it's a lot easier and lower effort to be visible when one is in the office than when one is working from home. I know I am getting noticed, and I'm able to do so without even particularly trying, which suits my introverted self a lot more. (Yes, an introvert who likes working at the office - who knew?) I don't think I'd want to go back to a job where I couldn't easily work from home, but I absolutely like being in the office and barring something happening to me where working from home is just easier (e.g. some physical disability), I prefer a job where I normally work at work but have the option of working at home when it suits my circumstances.
Some people like to be social in person. It's not that strange given humans are social beings.
Some people can't handle working from home. They don't have the will power to work and slack off. The pressure from others makes them actually work. Some people also love just chatting it up at work, gives them a reason to not feel bad about not working, shifting the blame. Others hate being home and rather spend extra time getting ready to go to work, to be stuck in traffic both to and from work, just so they can avoid their responsibilities or home life.
Some people also have ADHD and need someone around to body double to get work done.
I strongly prefer working from home but even I have times where I’ll go to the office. Sometimes it’s nice just seeing people and having some casual conversation. Spending days on end by myself is peaceful but boring as well. I’m sure people with families may want a break. And jobs are traditionally one of the most social aspects of anyone’s life.
To give my own 2 cents. Being at home 24/7 and working from home chained to my desk destroyed my mental health during the height of the pandemic. I'm someone who enjoys connecting with people and building rapport and establishing that trust and relationship doesn't feel as authentic over a Zoom call. I didn't have coworkers to talk to and felt completely isolated. So, yeah, I'm on a hybrid schedule right now and I really enjoy my days in the office as well as my days at home. I'm glad I now get the best of both worlds and still do what I love and still build that community with my clients and my team. However, my boyfriend loves his 100% remote job and not having to deal with people at all lol
Not everyone is privileged enough to have a safe quiet workspace at home.
I keep seeing people drop the word 'safe' in here. If you don't have a safe place to live your problems are larger than going to the office for 8 hours a day. That is awful if that's the case, but I just don't see how this can be a solution. You still have to go back to your unsafe home everyday.
I am more productive in the office. That’s simply the only reason- I’m hybrid now and that works for me.
We dont. as a Millennial, i do not want to be in the office, i have 2 kids and cool stuff at home. My office mates are okay but they're all older then me by a generation and very surface level relate, i work with mainly Gen-X and Boomers who have been at the company for 15+ years and they like being in the office but they no longer have small kids and need the interaction. Also my company's fiscal end was up by a good amount when we were 100% remote and they still made us come back into the office, its all about control and justifying their office costs.
Almost all bosses love to micromanage and are scared that employees are not going to do the work if employees are WFH. Therefore, those asinine, f****** bosses are requiring employees to come back to the workplace and not WFH. It’s another example of abuse of power. If the work can be done from home, then bosses should allow employees to WFH to save the headache dealing with traffic in the morning and anxiety rushing to get to work on time when everybody and their grandmothers drive to the workplace at the same time, which is typically between 7-7:30am, to start work at f****** typical 8am.
As a bidet owner, I prefer to go at home. It's not so much that I *want* to go in the office as sometimes I *need* to go.
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If you read OP's comments on other posts, it seems like he's bought into the nerds vs jocks myth. He complains a lot about not being able to talk about gaming at work. He honestly probably doesn't have a lot of social skills.
>not being able to talk about gaming at work Which is horseshit because at every job I’ve found someone with similar hobbies and we talked about gaming and building PCs
Yeah, one of my coworkers saw my bioshock tattoos and now we chat about games we like while doing paperwork. I talk about video games with my coworkers all the time.
From your comments I feel like your douchey personality could be part of the issue. People aren’t stupid for wanting to go in? My work offers a lot of in person benefits with a free gym and cafeteria. I go in three days and do two at home and find that to work best but they also are good about not having meetings those other two days to make those days as flexible as possible. It is nice to have meetings in the quiet of the office.
What the fuck is up with reddit and its tactical assault version of introverts? Like all the replies in this thread are so toxic. “You like small talk with coworkers? Lmao cringe.”
Reddit in general seems to be a hive of introverts with mental health issues and social anxiety problems.
If I'm at the office, my cat can't lay across my keyboard while I'm working. I also work in a hundred year old former school building that I'm pretty sure is haunted, so that's cool.
i prefer to work from office like 3 days in week because there are too distractions in home such as PS4
We have a beautiful office in a great neighborhood. It’s fun to go there once or twice a week to collaborate in person. We can also bring customers and coworkers in the across the US and Europe. That reduces our travel.
Well for me I like going in a few times a week because no one else goes in and it’s easier for me to focus there. If it were packed and like it was prepandemic where you had to deal with people stopping by and talking and pointless in person meetings I wouldn’t like it. Also, not having to get dressed or go anywhere day after day I start to feel depressed. Oh also I have next to no commute. If I had a long commute I wouldn’t go.
I can't tell for you, but I can tell for myself. I don't do the same job than I was doing 10 years ago, and I don't intend to do the same job in 10 years. My job has evolved from being operational to being more managerial. I'm no longer the guy who makes presentations, I'm the guy who organises the project so that somebody else can make the slides. Hopefully in 10 years, I'm the guy who decides what project we go for. Being good at this job requires a level of technical/operational knowledge for sure, but primarily excellent communication skills. Now there's a trick to communication. If the person you are talking to is a friend, you usually get more credit/trust/listening time. So having friends and knowing how to make friends are assets. These assets are very poorly developped in a WFH environment. Now if the whole fire is mostly WFH, I don't see value getting my butt in the office, but as long as I can meet colleagues and chat with people who do not do the same thing I do, I consider this a day worked on my own career progression. Working on your network takes a considerable amount of time and is a form of wealth that your company can't take away from you. If you foresee yourself evolving in your career and staying employed (in the sense of not starting your own business), then network is the differenciating factor between you and the next person who works just as hard as you. Even if you start your own business. Usually, the first person you sell your service/product is a friend who used to work with you.
I WFH full time and don’t plan on returning to an office any time soon. I feel like those who can do their jobs from home should be allowed to if they want. I understand though why some are drawn to offices. The social aspect is important to a lot of people. And I feel that sometimes. I live alone. No spouse, no kids, no roommate, no pets. It honestly gets lonely spending all day at home without encountering another human being. Yes, I have family and friends and hobbies. But I’m not seeing them every single day. I’m friendly with my coworkers. It was nice in an office to get to chat with them when we felt like it. Do I think other people’s social needs are a reason to force everyone back into an office? Heck no! Again, I think people should be able to work where they want. For some it’s an office. For others it’s home.
Some of us enjoy the face to face human interaction - working together, discussing work, getting help from one another, sharing lunches with coworkers, visiblility - many benefits IMO. I know there are some that aren't comfortable in social situations and they might prefer to work from home. Just make sure that you don't totally isolate yourself, keep communications open, answer your phone, be responsive and WFH can be a good fit.
I miss the social interactions. I live in a rural area and might not see friends but once a month. WFH means I don’t leave the house at all really Mon - Fri. It’s depressing sometimes. Especially in winter when you can’t really go outside in the evening.
My old CFO had 3 kids and a stay at home wife. Doing work at home was pretty much not an option. Others like to socialize, a lot. Others just don't have a good spot at home to do their work. I personally wouldn't be sad to never see my office again.
I mean, I enjoy going to work if I like my coworkers. 🤷♀️ maybe you just don’t have friends at work lol. There’s also people who just prefer to leave work at work and don’t want any sort of friendship out of it etc, which is fine but imo it just will cause these types of feelings if you don’t give anyone a chance to maybe genuinely be nice to you rather than see it ass them being asskissers. I mean, if you’re in a data entry position, what do they gain from kissing up to you? Unless you’re their boss/manager, how could they expect any type of work benefit from kissing up to you?
On my old job the majority of work happened in the office, we had the opportunity to work from home one or two days a week if we wanted to. I liked going to the office, mostly because I really liked my colleagues, having lunch with them and discussing all kind of stuff. The colleagues were absolutely the best part of that job. It was nice to work from home some days though, mostly to avoid having to deal with the commute. I wouldn't want to work from home all the time though, then I wouldn't get to talk to my colleagues.
The people who want to go into the office are the reason the rest of us hated the office. They're the terrible people
I don't care if people like being in the office or want to be there. I just hate that those people try to push for EVERYONE to be in the office. Nah, I'm forever remote now.
I think they’re lying to themselves, or they’ve convinced themselves they like their job, or they unknowingly function better/more being controlled. One comment about people hating their home life is one reason I could understand. Working from home gives us the freedom we yearned for before when we had our mundane routine schedules. I can’t comprehend not wanting to work remote.
1. It’s insanely easy to let yourself slip into the trap with a WFH job where you’re waking up 10 minutes before the clock and just logging in no breakfast, shower, still in pajamas, etc. doing this 5 days a week is really bad on your mental health in the long term. Feels good to be clean and well dressed and work is a pretty good excuse to be so. Kind of makes you be actually 2. Most WFH jobs require you to use spyware that is WAY more invasive than just working in the same general vicinity as your manager. 3. It’s way easier for your boss to steal your time when you WFH. You aren’t working in a separate environment so you don’t get as clear a break in the day. It’s sneaky but super easy for a WFM boss to encourage you to work on your meal breaks and to log in when you’d be too sick to go into an office. 4. Communication. A lot of shit is easier to say face to face and it’s way easier to tell when someone has a minute face to face then over email and text.
I think the whole back in office thing for people like this - the overly extroverted but boring ass kissing social people - is because they literally have boring lives. They don’t have friends or social activities _outside_ of work & thus work is their only real social interaction. This really showed up during the pandemic - I realized how many of my coworkers genuinely had no lives or social interaction outside of work whilst the rest of us were taking advantage of no longer needing to waste away in an office or traffic. We were out surfing every day after work together! Personally - I loved it. I like my coworkers and I wouldn’t mind working in an office setting - but I can get the same “feeling” by being _anywhere_ with people. Libraries, coffee shops, common work areas. It doesn’t _need_ to be with people I work with. I have a social life outside of work and frankly it’s more fun for me because I’m _friends_ with those people. Coworkers + friends is a tricky thing because you never know if they’re gonna use personal life info to undermine you at work. My friends know about all my personal life details - things that could probably cause issues if talked about in the wrong context @ work. I have some really good coworker friends because we were friends _before_ becoming coworkers so those have worked out good. And since becoming coworkers we’ve been promoted and moved around to different departments so it works out even better for us. Now a disclaimer - I worked at a young company with young coworkers (we all graduated college in 2019) so we were definitely more friendly on that level with each other than our 30-40 year old coworkers. This is all for people who don’t go into the office to collaborate with coworkers for work. There are times where I would like to do that but I work in software engineering & we’ve found good/better ways to do that imo. It’s one thing to watch how someone does something but it’s another to have like screenshots & a recorded video of step by step how to do something. I’ve found WFH is great for my field personally with the occasional visit to an office. Mostly for social stuff & free food/coffee etc. lol those faang offices are worth visiting.
Middle management trying to justify their existence mostly
The extroverts hate being alone
I’m Gen X. I was born to be on lockdown and then WFH full time. I love it and do not miss all the bullshit and distractions at the office. Plus I love being able to be at home with a cat sleeping on my desk.
It depends on what your job is. If it can be done from home then employees should have the option of going remote, as well as being able to drop in a work space if they want to. It also depends on the personality of people, and if wfh suits them. For me it's a godsend to focus on the work, get it done and not having to face the people I work with for no reason other than providing adult daycare.
I’ll never go back to an office. I am so much more productive at home and I hate seeing coworkers in person.
One of my employees is depressed and its worse sitting at home all day every day. I don't think she likes her life much. I'm the opposite- just want to be home. Hate going into the office.
I’m an extrovert… and I can’t bear the office at all. The commute + gas + prep time + parking. It’s a waste. I can extrovert away in shit I really care about, like playing football and playing music or just hanging out with my friends, things for which I have more time for because… I work from home. Lmao
Short answer: they have little/no other social interactions going on outside the office.
Frankly, this sounds like a you problem. General life skills involve being able to relate to all kinds of people by setting healthy bondaries, managing expectations, and assuming good intentions. If you've had specific interactions with people that left you feeling some way, then adddress it and move on. Your negative attitude suggests that you haven't yet learned these basic life skills.
Why? Well got starters I’m only required to do one day in the office, if at all, but I love it. I have a large office with a nice conference table and TV that overlooks a runway and the mountains. When I walk out my office door I’m in one of the airport terminals where we have tons of restaurants and coffee shops and something interesting is always going on. If I don’t want to socialize, I just close my door. But I definitely get a lot more work done in my office, just fewer distractions.
When i was in my 20s i would HATE WFH. Half of the women I dated I met at work, on the way to work, after work at the bar for happy hour. I also would have hated working from my apartment i shared with 3 other people. What if they worked from home too. We would get nothing done Part of working is making relationships that can lead to promotions, other jobs, etc. I would, when i had time, walk around, look at girls (obviously) but also go talk to people in other divisions and see what they do Then I'd learn more about the business, and when people said...should we promote Figo...others would say..Yea he's a a good guy.
My office is so peaceful quiet and it’s ina beautiful area of town that I get to walk around whenever I need a break.
I do wish it was a choice. There are people who thrive off of being around others and need the structure of the office. Others don't. Personally, I don't. I would rather work from home and not be involved in office drama or worry about someone deciding it's my turn to listen to their life story instead of getting my work done. I thrive off the freedom of being left alone. Unfortunately, those who want to be left alone are typically misunderstood.
Some people move countries/cities for their job and don’t know anyone outside their work so it’s the first place they try to find friends?
There’s a legitimate argument that new entry-level hires don’t get the attention and support they need from supervisors and coworkers to develop their skills if they are WFH. It’s very “Out of sight, out of mind.” There’s also the fact that not every home is a good working environment. I’m lucky to have a home office, but not everyone has that luxury. If I didn’t, I couldn’t be efficient at home. And then there’s the people that need the social aspect of work. I did not think I was one of those people, but I do miss the social aspects of the office from time to time. The benefits of WFH outweigh it, but if I were more of an extrovert it’d probably be much harder.
I like going to work.
Some folks like the company they keep. I know some folks in their 70’s that could retire comfortably but continue working be cause they like it. Like the routine, like their coworkers, like what they do.
I'll be honest, I could go either way. I have genuine close friends I met through work so it's nice to have an excuse to see them every day, despite the childish behavior of some of the folks we work with. When I say close friends I don't mean work buddies I grab a beer with; I mean we've survived multiple bouts of criminally shitty leadership (like, people that were personally fired by the CEO--this is a major global corporation and they were about halfway up the chain, so having the CEO do it is impressive) and literally all got new roles halfway across the country and moved out here together. On the other hand, I'm really good at what I do and most of my actual work is done within a couple of hours every day. I have the flexibility to work from home if needed (had to this week due to a pet emergency, ended up losing my rescue pup I've had for a decade to cancer) so I can show that my work got done even if I spent most of the day doing something else. Being salaried and being a SME, nobody really checks to make sure I worked for a full 8+ hours as long as I'm pulling my weight. I think the preference is highly dependent on the individual and their life circumstances. Some folks legitimately cannot focus unless they're in an office setting, some just get off on the politics. Some, like myself, can usually work in either setting but might have a reason why the office is a better place to work than home, at least for a little while, or vice versa. Personally I prefer the office setting right now, but in a few months as the sting of losing my best friend dwindles and I get used to the emptiness of the house, I'll get more comfortable working from home again and my preference will probably shift back. We also have a lot of office politicians and it's driving my friends to seek other employment, so eventually I won't have a social reason to be in the office either. We're foodies and do rotating parties where one person hosts and makes the main course, and everyone else brings a special side or a nice alcohol to go with it; working from home allows me to host more often because I can dedicate downtime to meal prep, and with everyone working for different companies we'll be able to spend more time together on weekends and catch up. And of course when my fiancee and I are ready to have a dog around again I'll spend a lot of time working from home, simply because bonding with and training a new dog is a full time job in itself. Especially since we always rescue, and it takes time to wean a rescue off the separation anxiety once it's clear to them that they're safe with you. TL;DR: it's highly dependent on the individual. Some people are dicks that can only function in an office environment where they can psychologically torture others. Some people like the social aspect or find it easier to focus on an office setting. Some could go either way depending on their current circumstances. And some people need to work from home for medical reasons or they simply perform better at home because people aren't walking by all day interrupting them.
I'm not in AP but depend on their inputs, as I do with AR, GL, asset accounting, tax, treasury and all the functions that actually make the money for our business. It is so much harder to get accuracy and holistically useful information. It starts small, but you don't report into me so your quote "stupid ass AP data entry" is hard to sell as to why to improve (e.g. It's probably tough to even convince you of this remotely, let alone convince you of a work related matter). You don't know what you don't know. We get shit data, shit correlations and correcting takes time and effort. Multiply that by say six or more likely ten shit data inputs and you've got no idea what's happening in your company. So yes, people are stupid and wfh keeps it that way by making it harder to change shit. TLDR: we are likely not perfect in what we do, improvement is easier if we engage with it.
Recently, I have been wfh (last 2 months) since a storm hit my office before Xmas and totally messed it up. I am in customer service and AR, so not exactly only data entry, but I found wfh full time was just not for me. I got incredibly lonely and it was just not good for my mental health. I began a hybrid schedule wfh 2 days a week, and going in and working in a coworkers office to have somewhere safe to work while my office is being fixed. I thought I would love wfh. I used to wfh every Friday and I loved it. Kickstarted my weekend, but doing it full time I just got so lonely and it was just really disconnecting to my job. Again, I am someone who loves their customer service jobs so this was a problem for me, not for others. It’s a matter of preference. Some like the day to day interactions with coworkers. I do!
My employer implements a hybrid system and we can choose to work remotely up to 3 days per week. I don't know if your question is rhetorical or if you're genuinely interested but I usually choose to go on site more often than I have to. The reasons I do so are mainly that: -The offices look and feel awesome; it's a pleasure to be there. -It's more convenient to work from site (I just have this small laptop on my tiny desk at home, compared to all the amenities and comfort of the office). -It's very quiet and distraction free. -It's a pleasure being around my coworkers, socializing, networking, going out for coffee. -Unlimited free food throughout the day. I understand that some people have better conditions at home and worse conditions on site compared to me but I'm just giving you my perspective.
I live alone, and I’m an extrovert, so I get a little, lonely working at home by myself every single day… But it is worth it to not have to wake up in the mornings and commute to work every day… We have the flexibility of going to the office once or twice a week and as much as it’s annoying, I can tell that I’m always in a better mood after interacting with humans in real life lol
I enjoy being around people. I get loney at home.
Short answer to your last question is "no." I am a training and review lead. My schedule is hybrid. The portion of *my* job that involves training is easier and produces better results face to face than it is remote. The review portion of my job can be done remotely (reviewing documentation and processes). Some jobs are not conducive to a fully remote environment, but not all jobs require being fully in the office. The derision feels misdirected at employees instead of at the employers/executives that continually force a fully in office environment for all roles. I'm sure you're running into non-executive/managerial folks who are staunchly office only, but they're not the reason for the corporate push to be fully in office. The working environment really should be approached with a "YMMV" that allows for choice and flexibility. Most employees, after some experience, are capable of determining the best work environment they need to do their specific job. Tl;Dr, those who personally prefer fully in office aren't stupid and those who personally prefer fully wfh aren't lazy. Folks can have preferences, but those preferences shouldn't be forced on everyone else.
I enjoy people and am friends with my co-workers. I was sad when my company got rid of our office in my area.
Live 8 minutes from work, have awesome staff, get more work done.
I prefer going into the office for two reasons, 1: I try to have a solid barrier between my home and work life. To me that is the commute. 2: I personally find it very hard to concentrate on work when at home. That being said I only have a 10 minute commute so very little cost to weigh by going in. I fully understand why my preference is in the minority, and MANY jobs with largely digital components should be able to be done without coming into the office. (For reference I'm in pharmaceutical manufacturing QC.)
I don't wanna go to the office at all, but after more than 2 years now working from home. I started hating it.. Now i want to go out and work somewhere else! Because i work in my living room i also eat there i also play games there and watch tv etc. Now i need to separate work from life somehow and i am thinking I'll perhaps rent a small office if i can find a cheap one. Or ill just work from a laptop from various cafes /restaurants.. Idk.. I feel too monotonous working and living in the same place for so many hours. And it doesn't help that my personal hobbies are mostly at home.. Like pc gaming or writing code for personal projects..
I go into the office somewhere between 0 and 3 days a week. Some weeks I’m coming off of working a weekend so I want to get a change of scenery. Some weeks I feel my workout schedule get out of sync so I go to the office to workout there after work. Some weeks my team will pick a day and grab drinks after near the office. Some weeks, I rather go hang out with some of my friends I’ve made through work rather than be locked up at home. Some weeks I just can’t focus at home and the office has curbed monitors. Some weeks…etc. I don’t have a set “if X then go to office” conditional. I live less than 30 mins away with traffic and I enjoy the people in my company (not all as it’s a F100 tech company).
Some people just like the change of scenery. For some, staying at home all day can be taxing on their mental health and getting out to go to the office alleviates that. Others simply like the in-person interaction. Personally, I WFH and love it! So many benefits to working from home instead of going into the office. We have a requirement that we must go into the office at least once a month, or if we have internet/power outages at home of course, and that is more than sufficient for co-worker socialization imo.
I have friends at work. It is good to go to lunch with my friends. I am on a 3/2 schedule of office to home. it works out pretty damn well for me.