[joaodlf]

I love coming in to the office.

Granted, I live a 20 min walk away. The walk in is through a beautiful county park, surrounded by nature.

Most of my colleagues who live further away have stopped coming in. Understandable, I wouldn't want to get in a car to get here, traffic in the UK is horrible.

It's all about personal circumstances, really. Living close to my workplace, having access to a nice office that is (now) mostly quiet, I quiet enjoy the new work culture :).

[tapanjk]

> Granted, I live a 20 min walk away. The walk in is through a beautiful county park, surrounded by nature.

This is likely the reason you love coming into the office. The fresh air, greenery in the park, and the walk that gets your blood flowing ... emotionally you _should_ be in a better place. Compare this with someone who commutes 30 minutes in traffic, and they will arrive at the office in a worse emotional state.

It took me a long time to realize that in addition to the team culture, my happiness/satisfaction at work depends a lot on my commute and the ambiance at the office (quiet and comfortable is good; noisy and cramped are bad).

[chrisjc]

More of a reason for those that used to commute to take some of their reclaimed time to take a stroll/exercise during their normal commute hours... maybe even doing some of the things they would have done in the car or on the train like making calls or listening to podcasts.

Of course I'm a hypocrite for not exactly doing this myself... instead I take a short drive to pick up coffee in the morning. There's no traffic (esp at 5am) and it's quite a beautiful location. It at least helps define somewhat of a boundary between work and home life for me.

[Gigachad]

The office is not as bad as people make it out to be. Its commuting that really sucks. I used to hate working in the office and then I moved to an apartment next to work and I decided to walk in even while WFH was an option because I did slightly prefer going to the office and being with everyone.

[silicon2401]

> The office is not as bad as people make it out to be

Correction: "[my] office is not as bad [for me] as [other] people make [their offices] out to be [for them]"

Every office I've worked in has been horrible to work in. I hate being around other people, the random distractions of office noises/smells/etc, and I hate not having control over my environment so that I can be comfortable. For people like me who specifically want to not see other humans unless they're family or friends, it really is that bad.

[civilized]

> For people like me who specifically want to not see other humans unless they're family or friends, it really is that bad.

Thank you! I'm going to use this.

Other than my family and friends, the humans I regularly deal with are somewhere between terrible and mediocre. If they weren't, they'd be my friends.

[silicon2401]

Glad to get validation/confirmation that there really are multiple of us out there in the world lol. It's discouraging that people are either completely ignorant or are willing to deny that others are different, including in how much interest we have (or don't have) in being around others. I feel the same as you about people and hope we continue to have options expand for controlling who we interact with

[nvarsj]

Exactly my feeling. I love working in the office, but I hate any kind of commute. Commuting in London is particularly atrocious, but I guess it could be worse (any US city apart from NYC).

[l72]

My office is also a 10 minute bike ride or short bus ride away, and I never minded going in previously.

My company is allowing permanent work from home, however, we are keeping our office, as not everyone has a great home office set up.

However, my company actually expanded during the pandemic, and we don't actually have enough desks for all the employees. Instead of increasing our office space, my company decided to move to an open seating. This makes sense, as people are just now coming and going on their own hours.

I suppose this is fine for some people, but it really isn't ideal for developers.

I have _my_ keyboard and _my_ mouse that I want. I'm not lugging this into the office anytime I come in. I really prefer working on my snappy workstation, with my standing desktop and perching chair.

I don't drink coffee, so the office coffee machine isn't useful to me, but I do like to have cups of my preferred yan cha (loose leaf tea), which means I need a kettle and tea pot (Making tea is part of my ritual that lets me take an important mindfulness break).

I was previously able to mostly accommodate myself, since I had my own permanent desk and storage space. But now that I don't, I rarely come in, and it is usually just for a meeting, lunch, or to have some facetime with colleagues.

I don't see myself wanting to do serious work from the office, as the space is no longer designed for that.

[newsclues]

Commuting can suck. I’ve commuted by car, no fun.

I’ve commuted by foot through a park, great but when it’s -20c not so great.

I’ve commuted by bike, a 60 km round trip through a big city, and loved it… the exercise, being outside and the time alone to think. 3-4 hours of riding was the best part of the day.

Until winter came and I had to make the trip on a train and I got sick and hated the noise and people.

[prepend]

This is the big thing for me. I have a 40-60 minute commute to drive in. Vs being able to walk downstairs in 30 seconds.

It’s also good for family flexibility where I can take 10 minutes to drop off a forgotten lunch and that would be a 90 minute drive.

[smoe]

I don't exactly love the office but prefer it. I like to have a strong separation between working and living space/time. I have a room in my apartment that I could use as an office, but I rather use it for hobbies than work. Even when, almost a decade ago, I was freelancing and could work from wherever, I worked from home only an hour or two in the morning before moving somewhere.

That said, me wanting this separation is probably not stronger than a bad commute. It is currently a 15min stroll. Before that, it was an 45min train ride, but in Switzerland where trains are quite comfortable and I could use the time to work, do some admin, listening to podcasts, read a book or chat with friends.

Definitely not in favor to require people back to the office and thus force them living nearby. I like for people to have options.

[iso1210]

My office is between my kitchen and the bathroom so the commute isn't exactly onerous

However when the sun is shining I'll take a 20 minute walk a few times a day through the country, or I'll take an 40 minute long walk to a nice cafe for lunch.

If it's pissing it down then I won't.

Working from home doesn't stop me from choosing to go for a walk, or run, or bike ride, or horse ride, before starting work.

[tokai]

Is it not possible for you to go for a walk from the office?

[chrisjc]

Probably, but part of the point they're probably making is that they can spend the time normally used for the commute to take the walk.

[iso1210]

I don't have an "office", but in my experience, and when I do visit various offices around the world, offices tend to be surrounded by buildings and traffic and shops, and tend not to be surrounded by fields, mountains and lakes

[greedo]

My office is next other office buildings, with a few scraggly trees planted in the parking lot. Not exactly a great area to enjoy nature.

[stn_za]

Imagine being able to take a walk anyway without going to the office?