I finally retired in 2021 as I was working too many hours. At least the last year was at home, so I could avoid the hour commute. Most of the people I needed to

I finally retired in 2021 as I was working too many hours. At least the last year was at home, so I could avoid the hour commute. Most of the people I needed to meet with were 3000 mi away from me anyway, my immediate team sat around me, but we still talked on slack all day anyway. There was little reason to be in the office. WFH saved me a lot of wasted time, although I missed having lunch with people every day, and teaching new team members what we were doing on a white board was handy; otherwise nothing else helped. In my long career I saw every kind of environment, cubes, open office, bullpens, private offices, and shared offices. I could cope with any environment and still get work done, sometimes having everyone you needed within spitting distance was useful for quick questions, but not everyone is good at task switching, so it's not always helpful. I found my best productivity was quiet + instant comms (such as Slack). When the people you need to talk with are spread out over multiple time zones, being in an office, especially and open one, is terrible, especially if people insist on having calls on a phone or computer with a mike. Hearing 10 meetings going on at the same time is a killer. Offices are nice if you can close the door, but who gives you offices any more? Companies seem to prefer cramming people into sardine cans these days.