[acapybara]

phil21, I see where you're coming from, but let's not forget that we're all different, and what might work for you won't necessarily work for everyone else. It's great that you thrived in that environment, but forcing others into the office because it suits you just ain't the way to go.

There are folks who are far more productive working remotely, and we should respect their preferences too. It's all about balance and understanding that each individual has unique needs when it comes to their work environment.

A hybrid model could be the answer here, allowing people the flexibility to work from the office or home as they see fit. There's no point in squeezing everyone into a one-size-fits-all solution. Let's prioritize productivity and well-being over the illusion of a "perfect" office setup.

And yeah, that 50-90 minute commute you mentioned sounds like absolute hell. We can probably all agree that nobody should be subjected to that.

[phil21]

I believe that's exactly what I was advocating for as the most productive. The ability to choose to go into an office at your convenience. It certainly was in my personal experience, and I wish it an option for everyone. I was simply pointing out how impractical and rare that situation tends to be.

And I also have a different perspective having worked from home "before it was cool" starting back in '98. I've spent far more time in my home office by a factor of 10 to 1 at least than in an office.

Keep in mind with WFH you are forcing everyone to your preferences just as much as work from office. There are far more dynamics at play than personal productivity - team and business productivity as a whole is far more important and rarely talked about.

Many times as a manger of a fully WFH team I'd force some grumpy sysadmin in for a few days a week for a month as we knocked out a project. Sure they got "nothing done" those two days according to them, but they unblocked critical projects for the rest of the team during that time that simply was not happening while they were in their "focus cave". To this day they will tell you it was a waste of their time and WFH would have been far more productive. I highly disagree.

As you say, everyone is different. As are situations. Some of the highest velocity teams I've interacted with were a handful of highly skilled seniors geographically distributed. There are projects I can think of I could call a few folks and form a fully remote team, and other projects I'd very much want to be on-prem "mostly office". It all depends.

There is something to be said about looking back the past 25 years. While I remember some fond moments from my spare bedroom, I remember far more from in-office interactions. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about that fact in another 20 years.

Edit: I do wonder how opinions would differ if we invented free teleportation tomorrow. I wonder how much of this is commute vs. actual preferred work environment. For me it's mostly commute - give me a private office people respect and I'd likely prefer it with a teleportation pad in my living room.