Sure, friends are part of it -- family is the other part of it.

If you don't have either -- filling that void by spending all day in an office sounds even more depressing. I'd focus more on making friends and finding a committed relationship.

There are lots of solutions here outside of working in-person: Find roommates. Start playing sports. Date more. Find an in-person hobby. Volunteer.

What I know is that those first few years of my career in office were the best years of my life. I’ve been scrambling around trying everything to fill the gap left by remote work, I go to meetups, I have family and friends, none of it is as significant as working together with people for the majority of your day.

I’m going back to the office and I won’t take another job that has most people remote.

> What I know is that those first few years of my career in office

In that particular office.

Ive had spells of time like that. Mine were at universities working together in labs.

Ive worked software jobs in companies and startups where the developers sat in the same room all day and didn't speak. Completely unsociable. I found that much more soul destroying than remote working.

And that is waaay better then toxic environment. I will take a social, it is manageable. But seeing someone humiliate or verbally abuse or whatever other on daily basis sux. And it sux even when it is mild, it sux when the place is run by cliques and what not.

> Mine were at universities working together in labs.

Me too! Research labs were the best. Office workplaces grind my soul to dust.

> Remote work left me choosing between fulfilling social interaction or personal time after work, either option leaving me unsatisfied.

Congratulations, you're an extrovert. To me, that sounds like the PERFECT arrangement. 0 pressure to interact with people, but in case everyone is feeling like it, we meet up with friends over the weekend.

I like having personal time to work on personal projects 3-4 days a week. I'm also fine with only 2-4 hours of face to face interaction per week.

>I can’t wait to get back to the office, those were the best years of my life.

Huh. It's wild how different two people's experiences of the same thing can be. I hated the office. I hated commuting. I hated meeting in stuffy rooms. While I like (most) of my coworkers, and enjoy the occasional drinks with them, I could also never see like 99% of them ever again and never even think about it. I vastly, vastly prefer WFH and would trade those "relationships" away in a heart beat in order to have it.

It's hard for me to wrap my head around the "best years" of someone's life being those where they're surrounded by people who think of them so little that the flexibility of doing laundry during the day beats ever seeing them again.

This thread has a healthy mix of both camps, which is pretty surprising to me.

> surrounded by people who think of them so little that the flexibility of doing laundry during the day beats ever seeing them again.

My coworkers have all gone back to the office part time, they go out and do stuff in the city almost every week after work, they go to huge javascript meetups, go to the pubs and clubs, and I'm here sitting alone doing very little because my city doesn't have a large tech scene. Remote work has given me the ability to work senior level jobs which just don't exist here, but it's not enough.

I've decided, I'm packing my stuff and moving state this year primarily so I can work in the office with everyone.

Cool man. Glad you found your people!

I'd say the living situation at home makes a big difference. You may have a good living situation and good social interactions with family at home. The camp that likes the physical office may be a lot more isolated if they had to work from home. It's also the same reason a lot of folks like going to coffeeshops and other public places to feel less isolated while working.