[DiggyJohnson]

I had this issue and the only way I could solve it was moving to a primarily in-office company. This was the best thing I ever did for my mental health.

Not trying to start a big debate over the whole issue, but just sharing that I felt very similarly to you ("massively affecting my mental health") and that it was solved by doing the obvious: going back to the office.

No amount of socializing outside of work or hobbies or 1:1s during the workday sufficed for me.

[charlie0]

It would be interesting to see what happens when all the extroverts self select for in office work and introverts self select for wfh.

[nvarsj]

I did the same as DiggyJohnson. And I'm introverted. Even introverts need human connection and interaction. And in my experience, being in an office is easier for an introvert.

Being 100% remote for several years was terrible for my mental health. As to why... well, a lot of it was precisely because I'm introverted.

As an introvert, it's a lot more draining to do the explicit communication required to work remote effectively. Maybe 10% of people can work effectively over written comms. As a lead, I had to schedule zoom calls and make explicit face to face time to make any of it work. In an office setting, this happens more naturally and is a lot easier.

On top of that, I found at a 100% remote company it seems more common for people issues to happen. When you are only interacting over text most of the time, misunderstandings seem to happen more often.

I found it very draining to fix these issues. It was much harder than if we had been in an office together, where we could just have a quick chat and fix sensitive topics. It's also more obvious in an office setting when this stuff happens and so you can sort it faster.

[DiggyJohnson]

Well said, I appreciate you sharing this. I consider myself almost completely neutral on the extrovert / introvert scale, but when it comes to this topic, there’s a lot of spurious assumptions made about the type of person that prefers to be in office. It strikes me as caricature.