I went into this article with my pitchfork ready to go, but I think it's actually pretty insightful in its own way. We've changed and the world has changed. W

I went into this article with my pitchfork ready to go, but I think it's actually pretty insightful in its own way. We've changed and the world has changed. Work from home has changed what we expect from our work experience, and for those that want to go back to the "before time", the world has also moved on. I see those that are 100% happy working from home as the most well-adjusted folks. The rest of us are catching up. I'm one of those catching up. I've previously loved my in-office life, and a dynamic office environment was one of the main reasons I took a job in late 2019. The office itself was great, the team was close-knit and we constantly had great random work and non-work related conversations. All of that more than offset the typical job stressors. With the pandemic, favorite lunch & after work hangouts are closed, only 1/4 to 1/2 of the team was in the office at any time, and any random conversation needed to quickly transition to a video chat or be well-documented so we wouldn't lose the benefit of input from others. In short, the in-office experience left a lot to be desired. It wasn't worth the commute. My company had no problem with full/partial remote, but without the office environment, it was basically a less satisfying, more stressful job than before, so I moved on. In any case, I know people (I'm in my mid-forties, as are most of my close peers) on all parts of the "happy to be back" to "never going back" going to the office spectrum. For all of them, things are different and uncomfortable, and it's taking time to rebuild routines and expectations of what life could be. People AND the world have moved on, leaving lots of us looking for the right ingredients for happiness and satisfaction in our work lives.