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I feel like often article-writers miss the fact of people like your boss: some people just legitimately like being in an office and there's no conspiracy to spe

I feel like often article-writers miss the fact of people like your boss: some people just legitimately like being in an office and there's no conspiracy to speak of. As someone who likes being in an office, I personally feel that everyone becoming permanent WFH basement gremlins is a bad thing overall. Human contact is a good thing, and my observations of people who are 100% WFH is that they almost never interact with anyone outside of their household.

supertofu 3y ago
You do realize that people who WFH have friends and communities outside of work, right?
- mperham 3y ago
  Quite often, the bosses don’t. Their social circle is the company and that’s partly why they so desperately want back in the office.
- kolbe 3y ago
  You do realize companies function better when employees are friends, right? I'm not saying forced daily association is the way to make them friends, but you can see the logic behind trying to encourage it.
  - endemic 3y ago
    I’ve gone out of my way to engage socially with co-workers, and I’m not sure any of those relationships ever progressed to the “friend” stage.
    - kolbe 3y ago
      80% of my friends are ex-coworkers. Some i even made from WFH. So, I think making friends at work is important, but I'm not sure how much being in-person is necessary. Granted, I've seen how our developers rarely make friends with each other, so it may be more of a sales/HR/product thing than engineering.
  - sangnoir 3y ago
    > You do realize companies function better when employees are friends, right? Professionalism and trust result in more productivity - not necessarily friendship
  - intended 3y ago
    For the firm. What does that do for employee salary? It’s a firms way to gain productivity. Especially after preventing you from socializing near your home. Wow, uh, maybe we should be against team building in principle.
manuelabeledo 3y ago
> As someone who likes being in an office, I personally feel that everyone becoming permanent WFH basement gremlins is a bad thing overall Good thing that there are these things called friends, which usually aren’t forced on people like work colleagues are.
- FormerBandmate 3y ago
  People make friends at work all the time, and usually that helps productivity and career success
  - oh_sigh 3y ago
    Surely it helps career success, but does it help productivity? Maybe workplaces would be more meritocratic if people didn't base promotions on who they like to go out for a beer with.
    - brailsafe 3y ago
      In a hilarious and ironic turn of events, at my last job in which I was 100% remote from a different continent, I made an effort to meet my boss in-person for the first time while traveling internationally as a break from the grind. We went out for pizza, and it was completely out of the scope of expectations and purely an effort to play that card and get to know one of my colleagues better. The ironic part is that not had the startup been purchased by a commercial real estate behemoth, but I'd face increasing demands and pressure upon arrival back home, then a layoff. He even paid for the meal even though it wasn't technically a work expense. Communication got incredibly toxic from his end; every sentence infused with inexplicable resentment. It was a very confusing result, and now I'm even less likely to bother meeting anyone in the future. I'm happy I avoided burnout by simply ignoring the toxicity, as petulant behaviour probably resulting from stresses in his own life, but still.
- flappyeagle 3y ago
  I like my colleagues. Many of them are my friends. Work is fun because I get to make projects with some of my friends and we get paid for it.
otherme123 3y ago
I have to deal with double faced people at work on a daily basis, and usually I have to play the game against my will. I hate a couple of coworkers, and they had ruined my day more than once. I don't think that kind of human contact is better than spending more time with my wife and kids. My personal feeling about people eager to go back to the office is that they have empty jobs, but walking around from meeting to meeting, from the water fountain to the coffee machine, and bikeshedding other people's work makes them feel worthy. Of course, they need other people around to have meetings and "work".
lamontcg 3y ago
> permanent WFH basement gremlins Office life and commutes have so completely destroyed our ability to have outside social lives that the solution to not being able to socialize is to go back to the office. Brilliant.
DonsDiscountGas 3y ago
Being forced to interact with people one doesn't like, and having to perform work theater to maintain ones livelihood, is not a good thing for many people. Besides which, WFH means more time with the family (also human contact) and skipping the commute means more time around people whose presence one actually enjoys. All that said, I tend to agree with your point that people pushing RTO more due to their personal ideology (which clearly I do not share) rather than some grand conspiracy around real-estate.
hollywood_court 3y ago
I interact with people outside of my household far more now that I’m WFH. It’s allowed me time to volunteer at both the local library and my son’s school. I’ve grown to become friends with two of my neighbors after living beside them for 8+ years. None of that would be possible if I were still commuting. But I suppose we all have our anecdotes. You just seem to think yours are applicable to everyone.
scj 3y ago
Most WFH experiences at the moment are during the height of the pandemic. When people were told to limit contact with others outside their household. That's not really representative of what it could be.
lusus_naturae 3y ago
I am 100% remote, I socialize after work by playing golf, going to the gym, or going to tech meets. I also get to explore some research topics outside of my day-to-day work by attending some special topic zooms during lunch times. I think the flexibility staves off burnout and helps my problem solving by enabling creativity. If I wasn't remote, I would lose all that to commuting. The basement gremlin comment is unnecessarily judgemental, especially considering that some people have movie theaters, gyms or marble floored, spa-like basements (yes, even the remote, non-elite ones may have that). But I respect that other people's way of work is not for me. I just don't mind if someone else goes to the office, and I would just expect the same courtesy.

supertofu 3y ago

You do realize that people who WFH have friends and communities outside of work, right?

mperham 3y ago
Quite often, the bosses don’t. Their social circle is the company and that’s partly why they so desperately want back in the office.
kolbe 3y ago
You do realize companies function better when employees are friends, right? I'm not saying forced daily association is the way to make them friends, but you can see the logic behind trying to encourage it.
- endemic 3y ago
  I’ve gone out of my way to engage socially with co-workers, and I’m not sure any of those relationships ever progressed to the “friend” stage.
  - kolbe 3y ago
    80% of my friends are ex-coworkers. Some i even made from WFH. So, I think making friends at work is important, but I'm not sure how much being in-person is necessary. Granted, I've seen how our developers rarely make friends with each other, so it may be more of a sales/HR/product thing than engineering.
- sangnoir 3y ago
  > You do realize companies function better when employees are friends, right? Professionalism and trust result in more productivity - not necessarily friendship
- intended 3y ago
  For the firm. What does that do for employee salary? It’s a firms way to gain productivity. Especially after preventing you from socializing near your home. Wow, uh, maybe we should be against team building in principle.

manuelabeledo 3y ago

> As someone who likes being in an office, I personally feel that everyone becoming permanent WFH basement gremlins is a bad thing overall Good thing that there are these things called friends, which usually aren’t forced on people like work colleagues are.

FormerBandmate 3y ago
People make friends at work all the time, and usually that helps productivity and career success
- oh_sigh 3y ago
  Surely it helps career success, but does it help productivity? Maybe workplaces would be more meritocratic if people didn't base promotions on who they like to go out for a beer with.
  - brailsafe 3y ago
    In a hilarious and ironic turn of events, at my last job in which I was 100% remote from a different continent, I made an effort to meet my boss in-person for the first time while traveling internationally as a break from the grind. We went out for pizza, and it was completely out of the scope of expectations and purely an effort to play that card and get to know one of my colleagues better. The ironic part is that not had the startup been purchased by a commercial real estate behemoth, but I'd face increasing demands and pressure upon arrival back home, then a layoff. He even paid for the meal even though it wasn't technically a work expense. Communication got incredibly toxic from his end; every sentence infused with inexplicable resentment. It was a very confusing result, and now I'm even less likely to bother meeting anyone in the future. I'm happy I avoided burnout by simply ignoring the toxicity, as petulant behaviour probably resulting from stresses in his own life, but still.
flappyeagle 3y ago
I like my colleagues. Many of them are my friends. Work is fun because I get to make projects with some of my friends and we get paid for it.

otherme123 3y ago

I have to deal with double faced people at work on a daily basis, and usually I have to play the game against my will. I hate a couple of coworkers, and they had ruined my day more than once. I don't think that kind of human contact is better than spending more time with my wife and kids. My personal feeling about people eager to go back to the office is that they have empty jobs, but walking around from meeting to meeting, from the water fountain to the coffee machine, and bikeshedding other people's work makes them feel worthy. Of course, they need other people around to have meetings and "work".

lamontcg 3y ago

> permanent WFH basement gremlins Office life and commutes have so completely destroyed our ability to have outside social lives that the solution to not being able to socialize is to go back to the office. Brilliant.

DonsDiscountGas 3y ago

Being forced to interact with people one doesn't like, and having to perform work theater to maintain ones livelihood, is not a good thing for many people. Besides which, WFH means more time with the family (also human contact) and skipping the commute means more time around people whose presence one actually enjoys. All that said, I tend to agree with your point that people pushing RTO more due to their personal ideology (which clearly I do not share) rather than some grand conspiracy around real-estate.

hollywood_court 3y ago

I interact with people outside of my household far more now that I’m WFH. It’s allowed me time to volunteer at both the local library and my son’s school. I’ve grown to become friends with two of my neighbors after living beside them for 8+ years. None of that would be possible if I were still commuting. But I suppose we all have our anecdotes. You just seem to think yours are applicable to everyone.

scj 3y ago

Most WFH experiences at the moment are during the height of the pandemic. When people were told to limit contact with others outside their household. That's not really representative of what it could be.

lusus_naturae 3y ago

I am 100% remote, I socialize after work by playing golf, going to the gym, or going to tech meets. I also get to explore some research topics outside of my day-to-day work by attending some special topic zooms during lunch times. I think the flexibility staves off burnout and helps my problem solving by enabling creativity. If I wasn't remote, I would lose all that to commuting. The basement gremlin comment is unnecessarily judgemental, especially considering that some people have movie theaters, gyms or marble floored, spa-like basements (yes, even the remote, non-elite ones may have that). But I respect that other people's way of work is not for me. I just don't mind if someone else goes to the office, and I would just expect the same courtesy.