Curious, do the members of your team have activities, hobbies, and relationships they are involved with outside of work? From what I have seen the folks itching to get back to the office are the ones that don't have many outlets outside of work.

On the other hand, for many of us who do have significant non work passions (rock climbing for me) as well as social circles around these activities appreciate remote work because it allows us to structure our lives in a way where such activities coexist with work more easily.

The interesting thing is that for work centered people, remote work has reduced social connections, while for more interdisciplinary folks it can do the opposite.

I have personally worked 100% remote for 7 years now, but before that I lived and worked in San Fransisco. I never attended a Friday night work happy hour because every Friday night I would be in the car driving 4 hours to go climbing in Yosemite.

Now, I can work remotely from a town with great outdoor access and spend my Friday nights hanging around with local friends instead instead of in the car.

Remote work has allowed me to have a more balanced life filled with more things I want to do and less I don't. Have the years of video meetings made my professional career less productive? Perhaps, but I have still worked on plenty of cool projects with plenty of great folks along the way. Some of them have even become close friends. And even if it has suffered, its been worth it!

It sounds more like your friends lived somewhere different than where you lived. You were traveling to see your friends and now you don't have to travel because you live closer to them. Remote work can be good for that scenario but you could've also just fully embraced your true destiny to become a dirtbag.

Remote work basically doesn't change anything for the activities I'd like to do. Mine are centered around major cities, require large amounts of tools and space, or have to be done during the day. Remote isn't a huge factor except for the space being expensive in major cities part. If I have a day-time activity I want to do, remote work does jack shit for that. If I want to go skiing 7-times a week then I'm SOL because work hours are work hours and they overlap with the hours that resorts are open. Until the work you do becomes async by nature - not just remote - a lot of alternative lifestyles are not available. I'm sure the same is true for you as well with climbing. You can get lights and go during the night but I'm sure you'd prefer to climb during the day if you had a choice.

Maybe you could shift working hours by working for a company in another tz? Obviously only if going full remote.

I agree with you remarks on asymc works. but it's going to take new ways to look at how we work

> If I want to go skiing 7-times a week then I'm SOL because work hours are work hours and they overlap with the hours that resorts are open

Start work at 6:00 and head out at 15:00. Hardly doable when in office, but if you work remotely close to lifts.. ;)

You are making some interesting assumptions about non-work interests. I don’t mind working in the office 3-4 days/week, and have plenty of Non-work interests: restaurants, photography, dancing, live music, hanging out with friends. I live, work, and play in the city. I can pursue my social activities within minutes of leaving work.

Thats great that you work and play in the same location, you are lucky!

Now imagine if your office moved to a tiny, faraway town with no food, nightlife, or dancing. Does remote work seem more appealing?

This sounds like a problem with the location of that particular office, not with the discussuion of in-place work/work from home. I live a nice bike trip from work and I cannot stand working at home anymore. And I'm an extreme introvert: I don't yearn for social contact, it's just that my office is very comfortable.

We all have hobbies, relationships etc and there is no doubt all those things have improved so much. Not having our long Texas commutes has been great. People with kids love the extra time esp for those that are college bound. I am loving the time with my family and other hobby projects.

To give you some background, we are an IT shop for an Energy co. so there is a big chunk of our people who have to be at work, physically just because of the nature of the work. As others have alluded, we weren't set up with remote in mind.

I would love to hear how being 100% you've built a network, bonds etc with your colleagues. We have a bunch of new people who dont have the rapport with us or finding it difficult to connect ( a few lunches or coffees, or hang out in the common area could help build )

I should also mentioned the 3 off / 2 in office is something of a peace offering to the non IT part of the business. Most of us know we can be fully remote.

I think small teams, one on one collaboration, and interesting projects are key.

It’s hard to get to know folks when sitting on a big zoom call, but I find working one on one works well for developing a bond.

Once you spend many hours over many months working closely with someone, a bond develops and there is plenty of opportunity to get to know them along the way.

In fact, you can do this just over slack - spend enough time hanging in a chat and people’s personalities are bound to come out.

To be fair, you may be less likely to make a very close friend with a remote employee. But a friendly, productive working relationship is certainly easy to develop, and that’s all that’s necessary for most teams to function well.

This strategy probably wouldn’t work with big teams where folks float in and out, or for roles where you have to meet new people all the time.

Remote work is great for companies that have a work life balance. But remote work is a bummer at places that expect more than a 40-hour work week. At those places social activity happened over lunch or dinner. Then suddenly we were all locked down with no pre-existing social circle to fall back on.

> From what I have seen the folks itching to get back to the office are the ones that don't have many outlets outside of work.

Not just that, many of those normal outlets have been heavily restricted or even not allowed for the past year. I expect if that wasn't the case, people wouldn't put so much of their unhappiness on the work part of being at home all the time.

I'm a senior manager and also a hardcore introvert. In my many years of office work I would actively avoid having lunch around anyone from the office as much as possible. Lunch is my only alone time when I'm crammed in an office all day.

Super introvert as well, I like my solo time in the office, but some times to make new connections, learn about a new part of the business these small distractions are a good break from the regular.

Lunch time is a me time for me as well. People no longer ask me if I go with them. Many times when I found colleagues eating in the same restaurant, I would just say hello and still eat on my own at a different table. When I have too much social contact my mind goes into overdrive and I cannot focus on anything, so I need time alone to "decompress". At some workplaces it was difficult for people to understand that unfortunately.

How do you balance being a manager, a position that requires heavily dealing and engaging with people, with being an introvert?

One viewpoint I like.

Extroverts gain energy from social interactions. Introverts lose energy. The inverse for time alone.

I’m introverted.

But can be quite social, and even enjoy it. However I absolutely have to have down time after to recharge from it.

Introvert manager here.

Work is hard. Dealing with people is tiring, but I am also skilled at it and it is tremendously fulfilling to help people grow and achieve their personal goals. Some days I really really don't want to have my 1:1s, but that is okay. Being an introvert doesn't mean that I hate interacting with people. It just means that it is somewhat tiring.

I am an introvert and absolutely hate group behaviors and nonsensical smalltalk around lunch time. However I have no issue being a manager and talking to people on 1:1s or with a clean agenda and subject to discuss.

>hate group behaviors and nonsensical smalltalk around lunch time.

honestly im not sure how you can do well as a manager without some tolerance for that kind of thing

If you're managing people with a similar tolerance level then it's an asset.

but you don't get to decide who you manage

I also basically never had a lunch with anyone. Only when everyone travels somewhere as a team building event, but then I do not talk during lunch. Not even as kid with my family, I would always read a book during lunch rather than talking

I completely agree. I have to talk to these people all day, now I'm supposed to talk to them while I eat? Never mind the fact it isn't socially acceptable to actually talk while eating.

I just want to walk, read something interesting and eat.

My friend works as an assembler for a company that does small scale electronic devices and anyone who wanted was given by the company all equipment necessary to complete assemblies at home. He had to sacrifice a part of his living room, but he has all the tools at home soldering stations, microscope, oven etc. company send him parts weekly and collect finished products weekly as well. He seem happy with that, but of course his wife doesn't like that they no longer have a living room, but on the other hand they have more time for themselves.

Not something I have direct experience of, but don't most engineers, designers working on hardware projects spend a similar amount of time working at a computer with a screen, keyboard and mouse as software people do? I assume that the vast majority of them are not in a fab/laboratory/solder station on a weekly basis.

It’s pretty common to have local hardware that you’re talking to, e.g. flashing firmware, programming FPGAs, testing fixes on early stage devices.

There’s various ways to create tunnels for remote services to talk to local devices, but it adds latency and complexity to an already complex workflow.

> just simply have lunch.

I thought I had to be in an office for this as well then discovered this entire room in my apartment full of mostly unassembled food.

You realize you aren't talking about the same sense of the word?

You realize it's sarcasm right?

I see that it is sarcastic in form, but it doesn't address the meaning of the initial comment, which was about sitting down for a meal and chatting, not about food.

That's the joke....

It wasn't funny.

I didn't ask if it was funny. I'm just telling you you're not understanding what the point was.

Does is also have unassembled companions?

That kind of assembly is usually, but not always, handled in a different room.