[tazjin]

I wanted to go back to the office up until a few months ago, but then I escaped from lockdown countries and have now actually re-established a proper social life.

The interesting effect of this has been that said social life, which in pre-lockdown days involved many people from work, is now 100% happening with friends from other contexts.

This has made my work relatively less relevant in my life than it used to be: It's no longer a part of my identity, it's no longer a driver for socialisation, it's just a thing I do for some hours during the day. A change in environment has also meant that instead of spending my evenings at tech meetups or pubs I'm instead out scuba diving, working out and so on.

Overall I don't feel like returning to what used to be normal and have pointed this out at work. One response I got was "maybe that feeling is why they want you to come back", but the threshold for where that would've worked on me was crossed months ago.