[abap_rocky]

The pandemic really helped me confirm that I prefer the office.

I always sought to establish a clear distinction between my work life and home life and the enforced work from home due to COVID has made the two blur to a point now where I feel like I've lost all rhythm. Now living through a pandemic itself has a way of disrupting the rhythm of life but I feel that the collapsing of space into a singular living and work area doesn't help matters.

Another unexpected thing I've found that I missed while working from home is a commute. Now I imagine a person's opinion of their commute is highly conditioned on the mode of transportation but in my case it's a mostly relaxing public transit ride where I had 20-30 minutes of unstructured time to read, listen to a podcast, or just zone out. It similarly helped create additional space to separate the work life from the home life.

This second point on a commute would probably completely change if I had a 90 minute drive in bumper to bumper traffic. If that was my life, there's a good chance I'd find work from home preferable.

[TehShrike]

I've been working from home for ~9 years. We live a short distance from town, so I use small grocery runs for about the same purpose as you were using commutes. Drive for 15-20 minutes listening to a podcast or thinking, do something useful, then drive back.

Hard agree on a clear distinction between work life and home life. I require an office in the home with a door that closes. When I am in the office, I am working. When I leave the office, I am not working. The closed door separates my work life from my home life.

My kids are trained not to come into the office, and my wife respects the boundary and messages me instead. I don't work from the living room or dining room. (I've tried, and I can't do it anyway, I become nearly useless to both the family members trying to talk to me, as well as my employer.)

[mdorazio]

100% agree on the non-separation of "home" and "work" being terrible. It's easy to say "just don't work after 5/6/whatever" but in practice not having a physical separation between "this is where I work" and "this is where I don't work" makes that mental switch damn near impossible. I've ended up working far more hours since the pandemic started than I did previously, and when I'm "done" working, I'm still thinking about work and can't even summon the energy to work on hobbies. I'd love a private office in a co-working space, but as I posted in the "problem you want solved" thread earlier today, those are stupidly priced for individuals. Would love to hear how other people solve this.

[jjav]

> in practice not having a physical separation between "this is where I work" and "this is where I don't work" makes that mental switch damn near impossible.

A good way to enforce this separation is by hardware. (This has many other benefits as well.)

I have a work laptop which is for work only (provided by employer). I switch it on at 9am and I turn it off when the day is done. My own machines are mine, no work or work-related communication happens on them, ever.

While these machines are only a few feet away from each other, once the work laptop is off, it's off.

[jasonkester]

This seems like a common issue. Surely by now there must be a software package you could install that forcibly logs you out of work slack, email, etc. at 5pm and doesn’t let you check it again until 8am.

Or am I going to have to start a new SaaS?

[johnwalkr]

I feel the same way. Most of my commute is sitting on the train and I read on my phone during that time and then don’t have much urge to do this throughout the day. Working from home, I will always sleep a bit longer instead of make time for this, and then throughout the day I am constantly taking 5-10 minute breaks that waste time but done actually feel like a break. Even after so long of WFH, I haven’t managed to find my groove without the structure of going to the office.

[signaru]

same. home has been the place for my side projects so having work stuff take over my real estate has been invasive.

home maintenance and electricity is also conveniently ignored by my employer (internet bills are flat so I don't mind). someone else does and pays these back in the office. staying at home longer means it gets disorganized faster, especially with work stuff thrown into it.

i had also always hated remote (micro-)management, even before the pandemic. now that's not just the norm, that's the only option. there are a lot of things that are not communicated verbally/textually. a lot of details get overlooked as we are only using documents as a guide instead of the actual stuff that is being built/developed. things look nice on paper, but the reality is full of duct tape solutions. there are also a lot of decisions that can be made better if you are at the workplace seeing the actual work.

it's also kind of insulting to do "extracurricular" work that would have been tolerable in the office. i had spent hours making "educational" presentations that had nothing to do with product we are developing, only because it had been a tradition in the workplace. when i'm doing stuff at home it's hard not to question whether it is ultimately meaningless.

[alvatech]

I am just like you. I used to also maintain a clear distinction between home and office. Also, I like driving and 45min(2 way) commute was therapeutic to me.

[philwelch]

I think the trick is to separate your home office from your home-home well enough to create compartmentalization.

The President of the United States has worked from home for centuries, but the Oval Office and West Wing are well separated from the residence. “Oh, but I don’t have room in my West Coast studio apartment to do that.” If you’re working remote, why are you in a West Coast studio apartment?