> Also I'm no longer near the people who I actually work with
I think herein lies the divide between people who find the office valuable vs those who don't (or at least part of it). Back in the pre-pandemic days, I worked for large Megacorp1234, and my team was distributed throughout the country. Most people in my immediate office vicinity were not the people I needed to collaborate with to do my job. We were essentially a remotely operating team, who nevertheless all had to have a butt in cubicle for some reason. Being able to occasionally work from home (each specific instance had to be approved though!) improved productivity dramatically.
Fast-forward to today, and I work for a small company. My team and I work next to one and another in a nice, quiet office space, with breakout rooms with whiteboards for noisy collaboration. Team cohesion is good, and we all actually know each other beyond a profile picture on a computer screen. In this environment (which I'm beginning to learn is quite rare), you simply cannot beat the benefits of in-person collaboration. The office does actually provide a real benefit, and I do actually enjoy coming in. As do my colleagues. We all have the option of working remote, yet most of choose to come in more often than not. However let's not understate that being hybrid is a big part of what makes this whole thing work. Pretty hard to beat the flexibility that provides.
So I guess my point is if businesses want people to come back to the office, they need to provide real tangible benefits to actually coming back. I've worked in an office like yours, and if I still did, my stance on the matter would be the same as yours.
I think herein lies the divide between people who find the office valuable vs those who don't (or at least part of it). Back in the pre-pandemic days, I worked for large Megacorp1234, and my team was distributed throughout the country. Most people in my immediate office vicinity were not the people I needed to collaborate with to do my job. We were essentially a remotely operating team, who nevertheless all had to have a butt in cubicle for some reason. Being able to occasionally work from home (each specific instance had to be approved though!) improved productivity dramatically.
Fast-forward to today, and I work for a small company. My team and I work next to one and another in a nice, quiet office space, with breakout rooms with whiteboards for noisy collaboration. Team cohesion is good, and we all actually know each other beyond a profile picture on a computer screen. In this environment (which I'm beginning to learn is quite rare), you simply cannot beat the benefits of in-person collaboration. The office does actually provide a real benefit, and I do actually enjoy coming in. As do my colleagues. We all have the option of working remote, yet most of choose to come in more often than not. However let's not understate that being hybrid is a big part of what makes this whole thing work. Pretty hard to beat the flexibility that provides.
So I guess my point is if businesses want people to come back to the office, they need to provide real tangible benefits to actually coming back. I've worked in an office like yours, and if I still did, my stance on the matter would be the same as yours.