I have sort of the opposite experience of this compared to many people: I worked from home as a freelancer for a couple decades, then spent a year actually in a

I have sort of the opposite experience of this compared to many people: I worked from home as a freelancer for a couple decades, then spent a year actually in an office job again until COVID forced us all back home again. I’ll admit the first few months or so of being in the same physical space as my coworkers was pretty nice! There were snacks, there was freeform conversation, you’d overhear something at the next desk and join in. We went out to group lunches together and got to know one another, etc — all good stuff. After a while the conversations at the next desk started feeling kind of distracting, the snacks weren’t as appealing as what I had at home, I’d gotten tired of spending $$ on the same lunch, it was a pain finding a conference room or a place to have a quiet phone call… it was almost a relief when COVID hit. (I mean except for the plague part. That sucked. Just the getting to work from home part was good.) Couple years later I feel just as personally close to the people who got hired after WFH as I do with the people I worked with in person, we get the same amount of work done (if not more), and I’m neither more nor less lonely or isolated feeling than I was when I was surrounded by people all day. I feel like I get the same structure and routine in my day from the job whether it’s in my house or theirs, and my house is a lot nicer.