[fartcannon]

My experience with offices is literally the exact opposite. They're like high school full of corporate nonsense, cheerleading and other childish behaviours.

My work from home life, with my beautiful wife and child at arms reach, is a miracle.

[stank345]

Yeah, my office isn't really like that. It's quite quiet (more so than I would like if I'm being honest). The culture is engineering-biased and not bro-y. It's also a B Corp, so for profit but with a mission. I think that helps create a positive work environment since coworkers self-select as people who want to have a positive social/civic/environmental impact and generally are thoughtful and respectful people.

Honestly, for me I think I just need to move my body through space and talk to people to be happy. I'm probably more gregarious than your average developer, but definitely still an introvert and talking to people all day would be exhausting. Still, I need some social interaction. I feel like WFH was in some sense easier (could sleep in later, for example) but I just felt like I was withering away. I was craving some sort of variety, some stimulation, seeing different things and people. Being surprised by things! I missed all of that. Video calls are a poor facsimile of human interaction and the whole pandemic period felt dehumanizing.

[fartcannon]

Sounds nice.

Video calls are as pointless as the requirement for face time. If your team members require constant vigilance to be effective, you need to get a new team. If your manager requires face time, your manager needs to reconsider what their purpose is.