Unrelated to the WFH vs. Office topic (WFH works for me, but I am an open source lifer and used to distributed community - and got amazing friendships out of it), but: This is a mindset I never understood or could relate to.
Doesn't it make you depressed that you need to spend 8+ hours of your life on something you don't really care about? It's time you don't get back, ever. For me the #1 req for a job is that I care and think it's worth doing, because it's part of my life.
I'm not attacking your values there, I'm just wondering how you can be OK with the time loss. I think it also reads on having a healthy relationship with the employer as an employee - do your best not to waste my time.
I believe it's best for people to learn to separate their employer from their identity.
The fact that you can't work at a place unless you get some shot of dopamine associated with the perception of "this is worth it" doesn't mean everyone has that particular hang-up.
Ultimately, what do you get out of "this is worth it"? You don't get anything. Or, rather, the important thing you get is a paycheck, just like everyone else.
You'll answer, "I get the satisfaction that..." That dopamine addiction isn't any more meaningful than a cigarette hit.
When our ancestors were out hunting mammoths I imagine there was one who said to the others, "I hate this shit. Don't you think we should be spending time doing something we like?" And his friend said "Meh. It's not bad, and I like to eat."
I just don't feel particularly attached to it. If I was RIFed tomorrow, I'd be anxious about finding a new job, but wouldn't feel any great sense of loss.
FWIW, my career started in 1999, so I barely got my feet wet before the dot-bomb implosion (followed my 9/11, acquisition by a PE group, then 2008, then ownership change to another PE group, etc). It's blatantly obvious that C-level, BOD, etc only have the interests of their employees in mind while that happens to align with their own self-interest. I'm just a cog in the machine. I'm ok with that - I'm a well paid cog and it lets me do things like travel the world, buy expensive toys, and live on a golf course.
Yeah, I hate the loss of time, but haven't found a good alternative. I don't want my hobbies to become work - I think I'd just end up hating them.
Eh, I met my wife at a running club. My longest-term friends were made prior to work. My current friends are mostly from cycling and camping. I'm not social with any of my co-workers.
they do not feel identified with the company anymore. It's just a job.
I felt this way when I was at the office, and I feel this way now that I'm WFH. My job funds the rest of my life. That's it. Why should I get attached to a job? It's a fickle thing - the owners can fire me on a whim. It's a not a social relationship, it's a purely monetary one - in trade for cold hard cash, I do some work. There's no long-term contract there. There's no expectation that this will last indefinitely. I get paid, I do work, and hopefully the owner gets her new Tesla (or boat or whatever)