[hifromLA]

More of this propaganda? Remote work exposes issues that were previously covered up by being in person.

Society has become increasingly alienating and lonely, going into an office is just a way of papering over that.

Companies haven’t built strong cultures around communicating and mentorship, going into an office is just a way of masking that.

Personally I have worked with and felt camaraderie on distributed teams with people I’ve never met in person. I know it’s possible, but it requires doing things differently than business as usual.

[bodge5000]

Couldn't agree more. I remember when I was working in an office and I'd be invited out to social events with my colleagues outside of work, to the pub or whatever, and I almost always turned it down. I got on really well with them, but just being in the office used up my social energy.

When I started working from home, the situation flipped. Suddenly I was the one often organising these social trips, because my social energy was no longer being used (as much anyway, I was still talking to people regularly, possibly even more so). Working in the office was convenient, I could fill my social needs without even doing anything, but it wasn't real. I wasn't actually socialising with people or seeing friends, I was just sitting near people for 8 hours and that tricked my brain into filling that bar.

Personally, I decided I'd rather than inconvenient truth than a convenient lie. Though real socialisation is a lot more difficult, it's also a lot more fulfilling.

Not saying this is the case for everyone certainly, but that's how it's been for me.

[space_fountain]

What do you mean when you say mask? To me it sounds like your listing things an in office culture helps with. Yes we could absolutely in theory do different things but do you think the society and companies that have been failing are going to?

[lacrimacida]

Big companies who can’t manage remote work in their corpoate structures are trembling in their pants, remote work companies have the potential to eat their lunch and so are pushing this propaganda while they’re scrabling for a new footing.

[synergy20]

sadly the reality is that remote companies that do well is still rare, and large corporations have employees onsite are doing better, and they get even bigger and keep expanding.

I like remote work myself, but if I'm the boss, I might change the idea 180 degrees. It's difficult to stay focused and motivated all the time WFH, it's human nature, sigh. At the end of the day, the company has the upper hand and has the say so they're demanding employees returning to offices more and more now. In two years I predict most of us will "have to" get back to offices.

[sottol]

In my experience people watch YouTube in those corner bench sections, talk gossip for an hour at the cooler and take personal calls in the meeting rooms. Let's not pretend that everyone works all the time and is focused at work. Productive people are mostly productive no matter where, with +/- a couple percent favoring one setting over another.

[alexfromapex]

Society's complete lack of concern for psychological safety or building community is the real problem (at least in the US). Political offices and processes need reform before the world can be fixed. Then you might see people happily going into offices.

[repeekad]

Going to an office likely helps this actually, when remote we only interact with people explicitly which is much more of an echo chamber than sitting at lunch and casually joining a conversation about politics you never would have had online

[LaGrange]

> casually joining a conversation about politics you never would have had online

Yes, what will surely improve my mental health is a workplace conversation about how I should be exterminated. Fantastic idea.

[repeekad]

I think in person discussions are much healthier than online ones, because there is a human being sitting across from you rather than a screen name

If your conversations involve people wanting you exterminated… I think in person vs online is even more important. It’s not possible to argue that kind of stance in person unless they’re a crazy person, in which case just avoid those I guess

[LaGrange]

> If your conversations involve people wanting you exterminated… I think in person vs online is even more important. It’s not possible to argue that kind of stance in person unless they’re a crazy person, in which case just avoid those I guess

See in some settings I can avoid them. But transphobic sexist weirdos are not only incredibly over-represented in IT, but also I kinda don't really get to choose my coworkers.

So yeah, I'll stick with work from home, and I'll have, you know, actual friends otherwise. _Some_ of whom _may_ happen to be coworkers past or present.

[repeekad]

For example, you found it necessary to personally attack me in another thread, so I think we found where some of the mental health issues actually come from

[LaGrange]

This comment is funny, because it _is_ a personal attack, meanwhile I didn't even realize you're the same person.

[LaGrange]

> The data points above can lead to a hypothesis that remote workers desire more job security because, without strong in-person connections, it's easy to imagine becoming a layoff statistic.

This is such a clear "are we the baddies" line it hurt XD