I like my coworkers. I mean it; they're nice people.
But I want to spend time with the people I deeply care about, who share the same hobbies or have a similar vision of the world. I can't express myself freely around coworkers as I can with people I choose to be around in my free time.
It's just hard to be motivated when burnt out by a company that hates it needs you and forces people to do work in a stupid way without autonomy and the goal of fucking their customers
Edit: I'm referring to post-capitalism, not justifying corporate bullshit
Edit: I have no idea what's going on. Clearly someone doing nothing would do things not to be bored.
I can whole heartedly confirm that not everyone needs to have a job to not be bored. My ADHD ass has a whole ton of possible things I can learn the absolute basics too without being productive and moving onto the next shiny thing but work keeps getting in the way.
Learning by itself isn't being productive because it doesn't produce anything. Doing things with that knowledge would be productive.
Keep in mind the context of this thread is work, which gives a context to being 'productive' that is wasting time making someone else money to get a pittance.
Even if I did choose the company I applied to for work, I didn't choose my coworkers, nor did I get to meet them until after I was hired. And, I certainly don't get to choose the customers I have to interact with during my work.
Do you not have a life outside the office? I’m sorry if that’s the case.
No need to subject everyone to in-office mandates just because for some people it’s the only way they get “human contact” (going to ignore the “high-quality” part of your statement lol)
A lot of people don't and I'm convinced that's why they want to go back to the office. It's not that they hate their family, it's that they're boring and bland so not only do they not go out and make friends doing things they love, they're convinced the only way to have friends is to pay someone to be in proximity with them.
I pity those people. On the other hand I have a rich and fulfilling personal life that includes friends, family, solitude, and people I choose to have in my life. I don't need those folks to fuck that up for me by making me see miserable people who need someone to be paid to be their friend.
There are also the people who have bought into the whole define yourself by your work bullshit and they don't value their relationships outside of work.
I think that a lot of those people likely live in a very car dependent, suburban area, and therefore don't get any regular interaction with people outside of their immediate family.
I live in a city, so I have regular infractions with people that I know when I'm out and about: I pop into the butcher shop, coffee shop or green grocer and talk to the employees I know. I walk the dog, and run into friends and acquaintances that live the next neighborhood over, etc.
People in rural areas usually have similar sorts of relationships with people in the area.
Contrast that with the suburbs, where neighbors may know each other to say hello to, but not much past that, and it's hard to build any kind of relationship with the barista at the drive-through Starbucks or any employees at the local Kroger superstore.
You're probably right. I'm in the suburbs and I have to make an effort to do the things I mentioned. It's part of the trade off for living here.
The sole exception was when we had the snowpocolypse a while back and no one had power. The neighborhood got together at my house and we cooked everything that was going to go bad in our freezers on my grills and made sure everyone was eating for days while we waited for electricity. I still don't know most of them more than to just say hello, but we came together when it mattered and that was cool.
Not if you're depressed by the fact that you're losing 2h a day going to the office, wasting 30$ in parking fees and know that your pet is back home stressed out from being left alone for 10h.
So? Even going one day to the office is enough to make some people feel stressed out and depressed. I'm not even talking about people who need specific accommodations that they have at home but aren't provided to them at the office.
That's unusual. You shouldn't be "stressed and depressed" from that. Don't get me wrong, I love WFH, but being unable to enter an office at all is not common.
I think you underestimate the quantity of people that don't feel good about having to show up to work in person or take part in meetings or have to deal with in person social interactions.
Heck, in the grand scheme of things it's more unusual to have to interact with tens of people you didn't choose to interact with because your employer said so.
Am I? I mean I wouldn't be able to tell, of course, but I find that hard to believe. I'm not particularly extroverted myself but it's fine for me. The only reason my team doesn't come in is because of the commute time. And we're IT, not like marketing or HR.
Also "depressed" and "don't feel good" are very different in scale.
you’re losing 2h a day going to the office, wasting 30$ in parking fees and know that your pet is back home stressed out from being left alone for 10h.
Work from home makes it even better than listening to coworkers trying to chat you up when you are working. You can have "human contact" with them on optional outings with the team. A coworker isn't a friend, it's a colleague. They won't stand up for you when you get treated unfairly at work, they won't risk their job to save yours. So unless your "human contact" includes inappropriate stuff, I don't see any benefit to it over staying home with the family you love, cuddling pets and skipping a long daily commute.
The thing being forced on everyone else in this context is a requirement to work in an office instead of work from home. In that context, someone saying high quality human contact is important, implying that is a benefit of being forced into the office and forcing everyone else into the office makes them happy.
Oh, I was just commenting on being one of the people that benefits from seeing others - a vampire. I don't think it's a justifiable reason to force people to go to the office.
Benefitting from being social with others doesn't make you a social vampire. Almost everyone benefits from socializing, to the point that it is assumed to be a shared human trait.
A social vampire is someone who preys on others socially, frequently by forcing others into social situations they don't want to be in. Forcing someone to work in the office so there is someone to be social with is a sign of someone being a social vampire.
Some people have no life outside of work. When you live in a country where you need several jobs to make rent and afford food, I'm guessing this is the standard.
Edit: gee, I guess I hit a nerve? For the record I'm from the country where working hard is illegal, as the joke goes. And very badly that we have antiallergique laws to protect our rights to have a life outside of work. And even here we have to fight tooth and nails to get WFH :/
Yeah, but you have to walk on eggshells when talking to office coworkers. If you're wfh, you don't have a commute eating up your schedule and have more free time for friends.
No "/s" necessary. That notation is for lazy writing. If the OP was being sarcastic, it was poorly communicated and deserves the condemnation. Sarcasm's risky. Do it well and it's hilarious. Do it poorly and get flamed. That's the gamble.
If you can confidently say that your work interactions are "high quality" then I envy you lol. Work people and real people are two different sets of people to me.
