[jolux]

It’s funny because I feel like I’ve been reading article after article recently about how working in offices is dumb and they can’t imagine why anyone would do it anymore unless they were zombified corporate stooges. My feeling is that working in an office makes it possible for me to separate work from the rest of my life, and my commute (about 30 minutes, soon to be fifteen or less via public transit once I move) nicely bookends it, separating it off from the rest of my day. I have been dying to go back to the office since April 2020.

[philliphaydon]

I saw a comment in the Apple thread where someone said people who don't like WFH hate their family, or themselves. Which was a shocking comment.

I love spending time with my family and daughter, but I get paid to work to support my family, and working from home makes me feel distracted.

I thought working from home would be the best part of a job, but losing the separation of work/life, going from avoiding meetings to looking forward to them for social interaction with my co-workers, missing the lunch time outings with co-workers, the chit-chat, asking for help or being asked for help.

I've come to really miss working in the office. I was WAY more productive, kept better hours, and coming home from work to family was great.

[thanatos519]

^ This. Going to the office was my social life, because I'm an expat and the office was full of other geeky expats. I even went to the office when the rest of my team was in another timezone, but I had lost all opportunities for pair programming. When 100% WFH hit, I was talking about maybe 2 days a week in the office being the right balance, but now I'm thinking I could WFH effectively a maximum of 1 day a week.

[Cthulhu_]

It's the first / second / third place theorem; first place is your home and family life, second place is the workplace, and third life is leisure and social activities like the pub.

It's a really mixed bag for me. I finally left my previous job, even though I could finally work at HQ (instead of being sent out to customers) after a few years, and it was a very cushy HQ office with really fun colleagues and all that. On the other hand, they didn't have the work that gave me the gratification I wanted from a job.

I got a different job where the work is pretty much perfect, but the office is bad (basic linoleum rent-an-office with bad chairs and ventilation, although I do have my own office). I've been working from home since march last year and I never really feel like I want to go to the office. I might again now that the temperatures are going up, they have AC.

Yeah there's more distractions from the family, but at the same time it means I can do a lot more to look after them - my girlfriend had an appointment yesterday but also a migraine, I was there to take her to it instead of her having to suffer driving or canceling it, for example.

[anthropodie]

I guess finally it comes down to individual choice.

Let people choose where they want to work from!

[flukus]

Problem is, many of the reasons people prefer in-office require the rest of us to be in the office. Some are manageable, if you like the social aspect there will be others like that and they can be social together. Others like "better collaboration" really require a decent chunk of your immediate team to be there.

[anthropodie]

I mentioned this in other comment thread.

If people who want to work from office find themselves in empty office then they need to adapt to this new paradigm shift the same way rest of us adapted to loud open offices where anyone can walk up to anyone and interrupt the flow.

Some people adapt to whatever reality is while others force their responsibility of adaptation on their peers/environment.

[weird-eye-issue]

It depends on company culture. Some places are "remote friendly" and some places are remote friendly.

[flukus]

> My feeling is that working in an office makes it possible for me to separate work from the rest of my life

This is seems to be pretty common, can you explain why it's so hard to separate?

Generally I start the work day by turning on the work computer, when I'm done I turn it off and anything beyond that is the sort of rare exception I would have logged in from home for even if I was working in the office. That and a couple of other little rituals like switching coffee mugs and wearing pants gives me all the separation I need.

[tehbeard]

Most of us don't have a separate room for an office, or might be stuck using our own equipment (pc, phone) for our job now, which blurs the lines on home/work.

[zimpenfish]

> which blurs the lines on home/work.

I set up a `work` account on my laptop which helps to give a distinction because it keeps all of "my" stuff away (although I will confess to logging into HN as me from the `work` account...)

Lacking a distinct room is tricky but I got a little folding desk that's designated as "work" - when it's up, it's work time. Otherwise it goes down the side of the couch/chair.

Not the same as commuting to an office but little things that give a slightly brighter edge between home/work.

[jolux]

Yeah, I have to work in the same room that I sleep in, and I only have one monitor and one desk.

[anthropodie]

I understand.

But if you could choose permanent work from home would you really work from the same room? In my case, I would ditch my apartment go back to my hometown build a home with a dedicated office.

[Ekaros]

Moved back to my hometown with above median wage. Still can't afford 3 rooms... So no office for me. Just not realistic in some parts of world. Unless I'm willing to move far away from the town itself(everything is relative, European distances for towns are short).

[jolux]

I wouldn’t choose it because I don’t like it. I’m not going to change a housing situation I like a lot just to make it easier to work from where I live. That’s the opposite of work-life balance, to me.

[lnenad]

I'm in the same boat, 15 mins to work. I like the separation aspect, and the social aspect as well. Can't wait to go back.