Some of the best relationships in ny life have been with people I've worked with. It's the one thing I miss a lot since we started working from home.

Still not worth going into the office, lol. The freedom is too good. But working from home does sort of mess up the work/life balance. I'm basically always on call these days and don't have a set routine.

Sometimes that means not working much for a day or two and then working until 11pm on others. Whereas at the office I typically left at a quarter to 5 and turned work off in my brain until tomorrow 9:30am after the first coffee at work.

Having said all that, I encourage people to try and be friendly with their coworkers. Networking and friendships are valuable things. Both for your career and also just fulfillment. I found that the consistently best way to get raises and promotions in a company is simply to have most people you interact with like you.

And that really isn't hard to do, just takes a bit of authentic conversation and positive vibes. Seriously. If you want to make more money and advance your career - be likeable. It will get you a magnitude more than hard work alone. (Although of course hard work doesn't hurt)

No it is not your introvert side it’s the side that knows your value. You know you can provide the same (or more!) value out of office than you do trapped in some fucking open floor plan that’s constantly loud and distracting.

This is just corporate bullshit for “go fuck yourselves we want more control over you and want to do it in our fancy building again”

They want to usher in bullshit like THIS: https://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-chase-employees-describe-fear-mass-workplace-data-surveillance-wadu-2022-5?op=1

and THIS: https://web.archive.org/web/20230329152820/https://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-chase-is-tracking-zoom-calls-workplace-activity-using-wadu-2022-5

It makes me wonder if there's a deeper reason besides the real estate thing, that compels CEOs to try to bring workers back to the office.

Consider: If you're at the office, you form stronger attachments to your coworkers. You're more likely to make friends with them and so on. You create bonds. Another way to say this is: you create ties that bind you to your job.

Now, you could use all those extra commute hours to make friends with non-coworkers, and then you don't lose much in terms of social life. But if you did that, you'd want more time with those friends. You'd have bonds that pull you away from your job instead of into it. There's a reason employee satisfaction surveys always ask if you have any friends at work.

If you have the time and motivation to form friendships outside of work, you're going to want more time outside of work. And things like 4-day work weeks. And unions will help you get more time away from work, too.

CEOs don't want you to form bonds outside of work. Only inside of work. Marry your job, they say. Come worship here, as it is a church.

nope! It's not just an introvert thing! I work with extroverts that have actual friends OUTSIDE work they do not miss office work either. I won't lie and say it's all roses, but WFH is way better than the alternative and blaming the extroverts isn't the problem. THere is indeed a third more insane human outside the intro/extrovert spectrum, the officevert. or something.