I WFH, every year one of the goals that the rest of the team decides is that it’s “so great” to see each other in person. The past few years haven’t worked out but one did. I spent hours in a couple of airports, the huge expense for the company, I spent days away from my family, and for what? So you could look me in my same face you would see if we turned cameras on every once in a while? My husband says I’m being weird, but I legitimately want to know, what is the benefit? I hate being there and have to play nice so you can…look me even closer in the face?
It seems like the difference in this thread is people that like their work vs people that hate it. It seems like the latter is in the majority.
I like my work but I see my coworkers similar to the people I see on public transportation. Limited, friendly interaction when needed. Never consider your work colleagues as more than that. It’s creepy.
Yep, I really enjoy my job too and I even work with some really good people but I keep my personal life… personal. It’s not like I hide my personality and life from my colleagues but I’ve got enough friends that I don’t feel like I need to add any more to my inner circle.
Depends on where you work. My colleagues are brilliant, I’ve made lifelong friends at my work place but then it’s quite a radical work environment so attracts interesting people. I’d be gutted if I couldn’t see them every week.
So why not hang out with them outside of the workplace?
Obviously I do, some of them are close friends now. But being around 100 people I really like for 27 hours a week is really good for me. During the pandemic I only went into the physical office once a week and it made me realise how much I appreciate that kind of socialisation.
A “radical” work environment? What do you work for, the Red Army?
Not far off, it’s a worker co-op 😆
It’s not as cool as you might think it is. You’re still operating in capitalism
Yeah we all are mate, neither of us have much choice in that 😆 Doesn’t mean it doesn’t attract wonderful people.
Not important
We’re talking about why people like working with people face-to-face, so how is that not important? 😆 It’s pretty much the only factor that matters to me in terms of wanting to work in the physical office or not.
Or people may like the technical side of their work but hate everything else.
I’ve seen people in technical roles that love to do technical design work, but they are middling at it because they don’t cross-learn from others nor do they choose to do the bare minimum in coordination before turning in a submission.
And we have written in the job description that the role includes cross-discipline coordination and direction of less knowledgeable staff, so it isn’t like it isn’t part of their job like they claim.