The first 2 months of lockdown, I was crazy productive, working till midnight every night. Then little by little I'm slowly finding it harder and harder to concentrate. My productivity has fallen enough that my manager has called it out. So, at this point the commute and my eating habits have been the only thing that has significantly improved from this WFH lifestyle.

Working until midnight will probably do that to you.

Unless you are some kind of super-human (which unfortunately most of us are not), I'd replace probably with definitely.

Also, long hours are not equal to productivity, and believing that they are is a quick route to burnout (which sucks, and you should try to avoid).

Sounds like you are in dire need of a break!

You're telling me!!

Go take one-two weeks off if you can, seriously. Even if just to stay in your area, maybe do some park/nature walks. The reset truly helps. The need for vacation didn't go away because of quarantine.

Heh, an amusing thought.

If you've watched Red Dwarf, the entire reason that Rimmer was brought back as a hologram, was so that Dave would not go insane.

And another crew member could have been brought back, but Holly determined that Rimmer would be best. The conflict, you see, was required.

Many here decry the "waste of time" of being interrupted. Their attention divided. Yet you're indicating that after a few months of endless, day long shifts free of interruption, productivity has dropped a bit.

It appears for some, Holly was right. You need a Rimmer.

Productivity has nothing to do with how long you work... but working until midnight does sound like a recipe for burnout. You should take a break to reset, as soon as you can!

Why do you work until midnight and blame WFH for that?

You need to find things you enjoy outside of work and follow a normal schedule.

Inversely, if my employer will not allow me to be remote, I will look for another job.

I think people need to realize that human interaction exists beyond the office.

That's a hard opinion to push during a pandemic. I might be ok WFH during normal times (I strongly suspect I'd dislike it still) but atm it's nigh impossible to get enough human interaction outside the office.

While yes, we're living through a pandemic. Nobody is suggesting these things should/can happen during the pandemic. People need to decouple WFH and pandemic thinking though.

Also, I think we should fully support what's suitable for people. I want to work remotely, but I want you to be able to work the way to prefer as well.