All around me I am seeing the push and pull about returning to the office. In many situations no one is insisting that you do but rather leading by example that you are not beholden to follow. The argument that working from home can be more efficient and productive does not hold much water as this author points out. Everyone understands the costs and inconvenience of needless travel back and forth but the powers that be don't care so much about the drop in productivity. To me it always seemed like an issue of control - see the person face to face for a fixed period of time everyday, focused on Office business no back and forth dance between Work and Life. Without such control, the worker's proclivities become difficult if not impossible to fathom.
Back in the day when I went to a physical office every day, I was always able to see the signs of a person on their way out months before they actually resigned. Sometimes multiple people demonstrated those signs and it was clear to me that I need to be on the market as well. Learning these signals proved advantageous to me and I am sure I was not the only one able to read them.
Now in a remote setting there are no signals to see or read - atleast not as clearly. The departures provoke much more surprise. The one job that fundamentally changed the course of my life came about at the literal water cooler where I was telling someone my contract would be up in a month and I did not have the best options lined up yet. A guy who had overheard the conversation told me about the job he could not take because it would require relocation but could be a great option for me. He connected me to the recruiter later that day and the rest is history.
People will have different benefit statements for coming to a physical place of work everyday. It varies by stage of life and career, temperament and aspirations. For some of there are very few benefits based on where we are.
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