[mm007emko]

I worked for a tech startup, well, quite a long time ago. All of us were in the same office. In case of some HR manager reads it: by "office" I mean "office". A room with doors, windows, a couple of desks each dedicated to one person. No open-plan, cubicles, "modern", "innovative" ... no shite like that. The whole team in the same office. In case of some HR manager reads it: by "whole team" I really mean "all developers and testers". It was also in a country with "strong lunch culture" (Czechia). Not as good as in let's say India but still - we all went to a pub mid-day for a lunch. I still miss those days.

When I moved to bigger companies, teams were larger, not necessarily in the same town. And we had colleagues spread across multiple timezones. And not only across EU (we have 3 but the vast majority of countries are in the same timezone as I am). We had colleagues in USA, Canada, EU, India. No difference whether I was in the office or at home.

You probably don't want to hear that but unless the whole team is in the same office I don't want to "return to office" because there is nothing for me in it. It's not worth the wasted time and fuel for commute.