Yes, but at the same time, it is absolutely, immensely true for me, and I doubt I'm in a minority small enough for OP's point to not have some merit.

Absolutely, I'm getting very tired of the constant hacker news posts telling me that working from home is the future, that I'm getting twice as much done in half the time. I'll tell you what I have, I have chronic back pain from my uncomfortable dining room chairs and chronic anger at the fact I can't get timely answers to my quesitons.

Some people like working from home, fine, but for many of us it's just not right.

Getting a good home-office setup is critical here. In my previous house I had a separate office and enjoyed working from home. In my current house we do not have a separate room (adding it now) and I can't get anything done there (doesn't help that the kids are home from school).

On the response times, if your office is one of constant interruption for that, then you can simply just have video conferencing on all day rather than just for meetings. This helps with "Hey Bob, what's the answer to this?". It has the same level of distraction as being in the office and just interrupting each other all the time. (which is awful for some, and useful for others)

Maybe just buy a decent chair?

I picked up a liquidation sale Aeron on Craigslist - totally worth it.

Also I’ve found it easier and faster to zoom since everyone is remote (don’t have to try and find an open meeting room).

For real, I also have chronic hip pain and bad ergonomics make it worse. I also bought an aeron for home and it's a life-changing chair. My company provides me with a high end steelcase leap in the office, which is another great choice if you can find a cheap one.

Better yet, switch to standing!

I tried that - really didn't like it.

I've been happy with the Aeron chair and getting up pretty often to wander around a bit.

Peculiar world view this. A good chair costs $300, and is tax-deductible. And you can pick one that fits you perfectly. Why are you under the delusion that your co-workers are there to service your query queue ? Figure out how to help yourself. Avoiding interrupting pesky colleagues is a major reason working from home is such a pleasure.

People defend this self-serving behaviour in the name of 'teamwork' and it needs to be called out.

> A good chair costs $300, and is tax-deductible.

No, if it's for remote W-2 work, it's not. If it's used exclusively for your own business, it is. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated home office deductions for people who are not self-employed.

Dang, that's correct. Man that sucks.

Still able to deduct those in Canada tho: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individ...

You need to put some real money into good home office furniture, if you work there permanently.