Hopefully the death of the always in, or always out, is what is new. I worked remotely, full time, for several years long before the pandemic. Early enough tha

Hopefully the death of the always in, or always out, is what is new. I worked remotely, full time, for several years long before the pandemic. Early enough that anytime I told someone I would have to explain all the minutiae that Yes, I am able to get stuff done at home. No, I don't need to "get dressed for the office anyway" and "Yes, we have many video calls per day just to keep in touch" and so on. It was fun for a while, but what made it _really_ fun, was meeting colleagues in cafes and the like all over town for regular catchups and stuff like brainstorms. I was at my peak productivity (of my entire career) when I had the choice to stay at home and maximise my "in the zone" time but also was no further than "tomorrow" from being able to have a meeting with the team. Granted, there are caveats to this - having a decent, work compatible, space at home. I have invested quite a bit in ergonomic furniture at home, and have dedicated a small room to be my work space. I also live in the suburbs of a big city, no more than an hour away from the bustle, collab spaces, and coffee shops. What made me leave was over time the colleagues either moved away or left, to be replaced by people further away, meaning those next-to-impromptu meetings became more and more difficult to have. Eventually I felt like I was missing out on civilisation and threw in the towel for a trendy startup gig in the city again. Then covid hit and I'm back to full time remote and it's starting to suck again.