Keeps me on a schedule More places to put books Less interruptions by the family. Travelling to and from provides a moment of context switching between being a parent and being a colleague.

in the remote job, we never did video chat. Maybe that would have helped my feeling of isolation, and create a better sense of community.

I would love to walk a couple of blocks to a free coworking location, and more cities are going to be trying to accomplish this, I think, in order to attract remote workers, reduce traffic congestion, among other benefits I'm certain.

It doesn't solve the 'everyone in the same room' problem but it does get you out of the house.

This.

I even rented myself an office when I was working solo for almost a year before hiring someone, just so I could have a desk, a file cabinet, a printer, and a real office environment to get work done. I lived alone. I still got up in the morning and went to the office, it was good for my productivity and mental health.

I feel that it's important to set up boundaries, or tasks and work will contaminate your personal spaces. I also think that it's just 100x better for communication to have everyone in the same room working together. Nothing beats verbal interpersonal communication.

With that said, I recognize that my opinion on this is 1) entirely subjective and 2) maybe because I'm old.

If it were just me, I think I like remote work, living alone, just fine.

I'm as introverted as the average programmer, but I'll take interrupting coworkers over permanent solitude any day.

As for workers being forced to work remote by bigger companies, a colleague of mine who mostly worked from home because they closed her local office always insisted she much preferred the days she came into the London office, even though she seldom participated in office chat outside formal social events (even in the original office) and was very productive when working mostly at home.

Had another friend who didn't mind the remote work one day a week because we don't have the space for all of you rota at all, but found it a bit weird since he was a quant at a major bank...

I think you don't hear about this because it's the norm and very neutral and fundamental. I don't think most people struggle with commuting, being around people, etc. Of course those things can be annoying. But I put up with the annoyances of participating in the world because it's overall better than the alternative. Which I think describes most people.

Surely you used this phrasing because you wanted to be corrected :)

I've worked both remotely and onsite and I prefer onsite. I enjoyed working remotely for the first two years. Grocery shopping mid-day on a Monday! Going for a run at 11 am! No commute! Cooking whatever I want for lunch! Awesome!

Then it got old and wore down on me. I don't like working remotely anymore. I have worked on a team which was exceptionally well-suited for it: almost all communication happened on Slack, video conferencing was a strong part of the culture, managers didn't try to micromanage, etc. But after a while I felt pretty de-socialized and disengaged from the atmosphere of the company. My work output and productivity were fine, but I found myself really missing human interaction. I staved this off somewhat with meetups and by working in a public place, but it never really replaced what I enjoyed about being onsite at HQ.

I have two (very obviously anecdotal) observations about working remotely. First, most of the people I knew who worked remotely did not adjust their lifestyle to take advantage of that time. They did not exercise any more than their onsite counterparts. They didn't really run any errands in the middle day. I generally observed that their work and play time wasn't really divorced; in some cases they didn't seem to have a work life balance, irrespective of the corporate culture. The time they saved by not having a commute was usually spent doing more work.

Second, most of the time when I voice my concerns about long-term remote work and point out the problems I personally have with it - or the problems I've personally observed - I am told that this is not an issue intrinsic to working remotely. I think that's probably true but not really relevant, and frequently used as a dismissal of people who try to voice legitimate reasons for not working remotely.

With sufficient social supplementation, investment in corporate culture and communication and self-discipline, I think just about anyone can do well as a remote employee. But it's also legitimate to say that you don't really want to make that investment (as a company) or want to do what's needed to avoid working too much and not seeing other people enough (as an individual). Remote work can work very well, but I do not think most people should work remotely.

A service to connect with other remote workers in the same city as you would be really helpful.

But only part of it. Surrounding yourself with strangers you have no connection to, except that you all work "remotely" somewhere, is not the same as being surrounded by colleges you work with face to face.

I think on average remote workers need to be more mature and self-sufficient while at the same time very open to communication. It's definitely harder to hire for.