I genuinely believe many people who prefer working at home are very young and have not developed social awareness and/or don't feel the need to separate life and work, because their life is their work and vice versa.
Most people that do not want to return to office are still in that phase of their life where they need to rebel to authority to feel alive and will end up being those "middle managers" that they critique today.
Also: WFH as the only possible option is not different from office as the only option.
I don't like going to the office when it rains, but I enjoy going out of my house when the Sun shines or meet my colleagues to have an informal chat on how to progress with some project, it makes everything smoother and a lot of the underground tensions generated by only communicating through video and voice disappear.
The truth is the majority of the workplaces are not "for coders only" and trying to find a balance with other people's needs, for example those people that have to work in presence, it's sign of and good willing and maturity.
You can decide to quit to WFH, IMO that doesn't mean you're standing up for yourself, it only means you're not willing to change your habits.
So, spending hours in a car instead of with my own kids is "mature".
Spending the family income on cars and gas and paying an extra million for a house in order to make commuting even feasible is "mature".
Destroying the environment, wasting precious resources and spewing out poisonous particles that enter the lungs and bloodstream of other human beings is "mature".
And engaging in office maneuvering and chit-chatting instead of producing great value for my employer is "mature".
> So, spending hours in a car instead of with my own kids is "mature".
I spend 15 minutes walking in a park.
Yes, spending hours in a car is not the best choice.
One should ask themselves why they chose to sign a contract with a company hours away by car in the first place.
If that isn't ok, why did you accept?
> instead of producing great value
I think you're giving yourself too much importance and too little to your co-workers who took a break.
That's immature, yes.
And not spending time in the same place will only reinforce the idea that someone is working to " create great value" while others are slacking at coffee machines stealing a salary and being unproductive, only that in the case of WFH it has become "they are home all day doing nothing. it's basically like being on holiday for them."
Which shouldn't be any employer concern, since they're not the ones paying their salaries (and it's probably very false)
In other words: why should WFH be considered more important than chit-chatting at work?
Aren't they two ways for people to enjoy their job more and maybe be more productive or more satisfied?
> Good for you, realisticly not many people are that fortunate to find a nearby opportunity
If that's true, then you can't really complain about it.
But in my opinion if people are willing to resign or accept a (rather big) paycut to work from home, they could have found a lower paid job closer to home.
In my case it wasn't luck, I moved to another city to get the job, but I chose to live at 15 minutes walking distance from the office, because commuting for hours it's not what I want.
It's all about compromises, I believe anglophones say "you can't have your cake and eat it too"
> but remote work opens endless opportunities for me.
that's true also for companies.
Why should they hire someone from US and not someone somewhere else where the pay is lower?
But if you want to separate life from work, you can work in whatever place you'd like. Coworking space, cafe, personal office etc. Then you don't need to live near your company's office, and can choose the best possible place to live and work for you and your family.
or you can chose to work for a company whose offices are not two hours away.
coworking, cafes, etc are not really suited to actually work, especially of your work requires some kind of concentration or secrecy (an NDA for example)
Personal office in house is the worst combination of them all IMO.
Not that I do not work from home, I did it for good part of my life, it's just not for everybody.
You have also to consider that having their parents around all day could be the worst possible way to live for teenagers, it makes more sense only when they are small kids, but in my country we have parental leaves and specific holidays to take care of that.
I think the best option is to have possibility to work in any company, and live in any place. You don't want to limit your job opportunities just because they are far away.
Now tell people from Mexico that they can't go to work in US because immigration laws, but Americans can go work there because they just need an internet connection and you can serve them drinks while they sit on the beach.
Any company is 1% thinking, many companies hire only local workers because it's their market.
Take into account timezones and you can't possibly work for Australians or New Zealanders while living in Europe, unless there's an office in Europe that coordinates the efforts with HQ.
I've worked for long time with US based companies from GMT+2 and it's been exhausting at times. Wouldn't do it again if I can avoid it.
Some things look better on the surface than they really are.
I genuinely believe many people who prefer working at home are very young and have not developed social awareness and/or don't feel the need to separate life and work, because their life is their work and vice versa.
Most people that do not want to return to office are still in that phase of their life where they need to rebel to authority to feel alive and will end up being those "middle managers" that they critique today.
Also: WFH as the only possible option is not different from office as the only option.
I don't like going to the office when it rains, but I enjoy going out of my house when the Sun shines or meet my colleagues to have an informal chat on how to progress with some project, it makes everything smoother and a lot of the underground tensions generated by only communicating through video and voice disappear.
The truth is the majority of the workplaces are not "for coders only" and trying to find a balance with other people's needs, for example those people that have to work in presence, it's sign of and good willing and maturity.
You can decide to quit to WFH, IMO that doesn't mean you're standing up for yourself, it only means you're not willing to change your habits.