[xxxtemp]

I feel crazy sometimes, because I'm the exact opposite. WFH has been a disaster for me. I just joined a team with a hybrid schedule (3 days in the office). I'm there every day, but it's pretty dead on the other 2 days. If they close the office and go remote-only I will quit on the spot.

[wwweston]

It's not crazy to have a personal in-office preference! I'm very much team WFH but I recognize some people have temperament or home environment that will make WFH difficult. And also that there are sometimes specific types of work and phases of projects that benefit from a lot of in-person collab.

It's probably even reasonable to organize teams around similar styles, preferences, and demands of the actual work output. But it's good to recognize that a LOT of IC roles benefit strongly from greater control over their work environment and time, which can often be achieved via remote (and even a lot of managerial work that's high contact light touch direction can benefit from the tooling and organization required to support remote work).

What's less good is to universalize. It rarely reflects detailed attention to organizational and individual needs and output. It's more like the fad that produced the categorically inexcusable open-plan-office. Where it happens, it's often a cover for something else, or a reflection of limited interest in good management.

[codr7]

Having the option is the point, people are different.

[xxxtemp]

I get that point of view, but for me, being alone in an empty office isn't much better than being alone at home. I'm not trying to force people to be in the office, I just want to find a team where people WANT to be there. It seems very hard to find, but it's also hard to believe I'm the only one in the world who wants to be part of something like that.

[bryanlarsen]

If the team is mostly in-office, the out of office workers become second class members of the team.

[closeparen]

I have a mild preference for working in an office but I'm developing a very strong preference for getting out of the Bay Area/New York/Seattle complex. And unfortunately the in-office jobs at good companies are very concentrated.

[leetharris]

I am very biased as I am from the Austin area, but this is a big reason why I still live here. Everywhere here seems to be very hybrid friendly and the suburbs are close and very cheap in comparison to those 3 cities.

[dumpHero2]

+1 work - life separation is a must. And not everyone can afford a home office. Also isolation is a real threat.

[scarface_74]

If you are working remotely, you can move somewhere that you can afford a home office..

[codr7]

I'm pretty sure few people are being forced to work remotely, it's an option.

[threesevenths]

Can you explain what has not gone well for you? How has it gone for the rest of the team?

[xxxtemp]

To me personally, working remote makes me feel like I'm working completely alone. For me, it's hard to feel like anyone cares what I'm doing, which has made it hard to make myself put in effort. That's a recipe for a downward spiral, which is exactly what my work has been since the pandemic.

I'm not saying the office is some perfect, joyous or highly social place or anything. I just think for me, it makes a big difference to have a place (different from my house) where people come together to work on common goals, and occasionally interact face-to-face while doing it.

[nunez]

you are not alone.

i love commuting and used to travel every week for work and work from customer offices. i intentionally chose this life and absolutely loved it.

covid completely upended this. work travel makes very little sense when most of your employees are hybrid.

for me, wfh has been awful.

it's difficult for me to attach to the mission without physically being with others striving for the same goals. very few people outside of this wild and wacky world of tech understand what i do. i don't really have avenues for vibing on work outside of 1x1 zooms, which are awful (for me).

i can see how it's nice if you spend all day in front of a terminal churning code, but, for me, anything involving other people is just so much worse while remote. body language, dynamism, and humanity are super hard to capture over zoom, even with the camera on. (talking to a camera is extremely unnatural in my opinion; not at all the same.)

it's also extremely easy for work to melt into your personal life, though i've found an old-school workflow that mostly solves for this (separate work phone that's off after hours, being very deliberate about where I work whilst home, etc). regardless, having to be in front of a computer in your own home when the weather's great and inviting outside feels like a mental prison of sorts. the same dynamic exists within the office, but it's _designed_ for that, which makes it different.

while i understand others wishes to be remote, i very much wish i could work in an office (and/or travel every week again).

## preemptions for common retorts!

- "Just make more friends!" can't hang out with friends during work hours. see also: ideate/kvetching about common work.

- "Pick up hobbies!" i have hobbies. i can't do them during work hours.

- "Commuting is awful!" i love commuting.

- "Work at a coffee shop if you need to be around people." i actually do do this, and it's quite nice. i don't work with those people though. i'm still working by myself.

- "Invest in a better home office!" my home office is super sweet. i'd downsize in a heartbeat for a proper office and intend on doing just that when the time comes.

[tensor]

Hacker news is a pretty strong echo chamber for the work from home crowd. When covid hit there were many people at my company who really struggled with working from home. The reasons ranged from having kids or family interrupting them, being stuck in small condos, some of the new to the country employees relied on office time to get to know coworkers and make friends, others just really disliked working alone or wanted physical separation of work and home life.

Often the people here on HN try to make it out that anyone who appreciates or wants to work in an office is evil or stupid or the like, but honestly probably half of people actually want a few days in the office. Comments here are not actually representative of the whole industry.

[mixmastamyk]

Covid was different because school-age kids were home too, which made a larger portion of situations untenable.

[Spivak]

This is a gross mischaracterization of the stance. I want everyone to have an office to go to anytime they want— always, sometimes, never. If you want to make me go to the office we'll have words.

We have forced-office and office-available, no one is arguing for forced-remote.

[apwell23]

oh yea because " I get to spend more time with my kids" and " I am too lonely to wfh" are equivalent .

[unclad5968]

He's ruining it for everyone because he prefers being the office?

[hollerith]

That is uncharitable and dismissive.

[fotedjj]

You’re being downvoted, but exactly.

The persons responses basically amount to: I can’t manage my time and need others to validate what I’m doing.

Take some personal responsibility.