> Instead of being a productivity wonderland, the office is more like a productivity black hole, where collaboration, socializing, mentoring, and on-the-job tra

> Instead of being a productivity wonderland, the office is more like a productivity black hole, where collaboration, socializing, mentoring, and on-the-job training thrive, but focused work gets sucked into oblivion. In fact, research shows that the office is detrimental to productivity. My experience corroborates this. My team is spread across 4 or 5 cities, 2 countries, 2 continents, and 6h difference. I know none in the office, and yet I still have trouble getting work done because people can’t respect others and speak loudly. I shouldn’t need to wear headphones 8h a day just so I can have some silence when I can work remotely at a library, or in my apartment. I shouldn’t need to wear a sweater or warm clothing in the middle of the summer because people need to have the AC as low as they do. Let’s not forget the need to scramble to find a meeting room because the teams are as fragmented as they are. It’s absolutely insane. All of these get worse because of forced RTO. when attendance was sparser, I enjoyed it a lot more.