Technology

I work in a bar, and I love seeing most of my coworkers. I obviously can't speak on the WFH aspect, as it'd be impossible for me, but enjoying the company of the people you work with isn't a foreign concept, especially in the service industry

Mmmm I am a childless man, and I live by myself, and I am 100% cool with that, and feel fine. But to be fair, I’ve got a pretty good circle of friends, and a really strong core friend group.

I’m not going to deny that some people enjoy going to work and enjoy interacting with their coworkers, but this feels like it’s missing the forest for the trees. What about the affects commuting has on one’s civic engagement in their actual community?

“There’s a simple rule of thumb: Every ten minutes of commuting results in ten per cent fewer social connections. Commuting is connected to social isolation, which causes unhappiness.” https://archive.ph/2020.02.27-211238/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/04/16/there-and-back-again

i'm skeptical of any study that concludes anyone would rather deal with all the bullshit of working in the office rather than wfh

no one goes to work for the "community," which can also be gotten literally anywhere other than work

sounds like something corporate slavedriving senior executives decided they wanted a "study" on to prove people want to work in the office

In office, I'm a chatty bitch. I have a habit of maybe over-socializing. For sure, my productivity goes down in the office. Oh, and people listen to me just as much WFH as they did in the office when it comes to work stuff.

At home, I can just turn on some music and focus on what I need to get done. I can work on my 20+ jira points I have every god damn sprint. Meetings (ad-hoc or planned) already cause delays for me and I'm already working to much (the highest so far, has been a 16-hour day).

I don't miss the 'sense of community' because there isn't one. Plus, most of my co-workers live in different states, and many in different countries. There's no in-person collaboration even if I'm in the office. It's still everything done over chat/video call.

My company, like so many others, went back on everything they said about WFH. They used to say how great it was because they could find talent from anywhere instead of being arbitrarily constrained by location. Like, obviously, the best talent doesn't just happen to live next to you. Then it moved to hybrid, for those all important in-person, face-to-face collabs and synergy and all the other bullshit LinkedIn BS you can spew. And now, they're doing RTO full on and even shaming those who work from home or would want to. Full-on bully tactics in meetings too. Even started shaming the upper mgmt, because their excuse was "well, other companies are doing it" so I hit back with the "if other companies were committing fraud, would we?" a spin on the "well if everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would you" I grew up hearing all the time. I actually brought that up in a corporate meeting, they never responded, so I'm taking that as a yes.... yes they would and will, so long as they figure they can get away with it (or the penalties don't outweigh the profits).

And then I find out Tim Walz (Minnesota Governor) is also for RTO... so I emailed his office, letting him know just how utterly disappointed in him I was, and to not expect my vote ever again.

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox. I'm just truly passionate about this. WFH, I'm far less miserable on a day-to-day basis. Working in the office, I was in multiple car accidents going to and from work (none of which I caused). I've been in exactly 0 since WFH. No longer spending 1-2 hours a day just traveling, so I can work remotely, in an office. If I ever win the lotto, I'll be rich enough I could run for president and one of my pillars would be pushing businesses to utilize WFH if the position can do that. Fewer cars on roads, means less congestion for those who have to be onsite. There should be a noticeable decrease in vehicle-related accidents and fatalities.

Why can't your workers be your workers, your family be your family, your friends be your friends?

what is this study? why does the article not link to it and the data? what is the sample size, located where? waste of time post, downvoted.

I'm childless and all I can say is fuck community.

They miss the sense of community because we no longer have 3rd places to hang out. For those unaware:

The Great Places Erased by Suburbia (the Third Place)
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=VvdQ381K5xg
https://youtu.be/VvdQ381K5xg

Would they equally write 'mothers' vs. 'childless women' in another article about remote work, I wonder.

Nah there's no propaganda that will get people to think working in the office every day is in any way better to having freedom again

I've been working from home with my older family members since COVID started and I've been pretty happy since it's always been my goal. I've also had a knee injury for the past 3 weeks, and it's potentially prevented me from making it worse, and allowed me to continue working. I've almost been working remotely for the majority of my career, which is kind of cool to think about. I like working from home, but I understand not everyone likes it.

Honestly, I'd probably sooner retire from tech and work something else if I was forced to go back into an office with no possibility of getting a remote job.

For a lot of disabled people it’s remote work or starve to death.

I would love to work remote, but the nature of my job kinda conflicts with that (field service engineer).

That said, I actually like my coworkers quite a lot (there's only 4 of us). This is the first place I've worked where I genuinely feel like we all care about each other's well-being. I was in the hospital for a few days back in March and they texted periodically just to check how I was doing. Wishing each other happy father's day/birthday/anniversary/etc, congratulating baby births, invited to kids' birthday parties, and other things of that nature. Not just surface-level stuff, either. I would hang out with these guys.

Stop the fuck with "sense of community" and other crap.