I originally wanted to go back to the office because I'm a weirdly social person. Eventually my work told us to come in 3 days a week. They told us "it's the best of both worlds!" That's when I realized that hybrid is actually the worst of both worlds. I don't get to have a consistent daily routine. I have to constantly lug all my equipment back and forth between work and home. I don't get a dedicated desk. Everyone is coming in just to take virtual meetings from their desk all day, so it's really loud. I would rather everyone be at work 5 days a week than three, because then we would all be there, so meetings would be in person again.

My manager rebelled against upper management and had us just come in one day a week, and honestly, I think that's fine. We just don't get hardly any work done that one day. But we are seeing each other's faces, which is what upper management wants. They say it's good for team building and collaboration, and I see the merits in that.

Half the team still doesn't even do that. I mean, one member of the team lives 2000 miles away from the rest of us. One has a newborn baby. One has kids that she needs to pick up from school at 3 every day. Another guy has worked at the company for like 15 years and just refuses to come in because he knows they won't fire him. Another guy is 2 months away from retiring, so what's the point?