For background on this topic without getting too specific, I’m an engineer and I typically work in an office. I’m younger and haven’t been in the work force for long but working in office spaces is driving me insane.
Now I understand that work isn’t supposed to be super fun, but I’d like to at least be able to tolerate it. So far I’ve spent a couple years in offices and it’s been miserable. I enjoy what I do as far as engineering. I like the topics, I like the productive parts of what I do. But I cannot stand office spaces. They’re uncomfortable and depressing environments for me.
I feel like spending time working from home would be ideal, but I’d like to hear people’s thoughts and if anyone else has had this experience. Is it something you just get used to?
I agree with pretty much everything here.
My employer is a regional organization, so all our meetings were via Zoom/WebEx/whatever before COVID. Our pivot to remote work was trivial - those that could already had the tools at their disposal (and were likely using them already), those that couldn’t were healthcare providers and had a whole different experience anyway.
I do end up going in once in a while, because it’s only 10 minutes away from home and I already have to drive kids past the office anyway. But once my younger child is in school this fall, I’m not sure how things will change. I won’t have a need to get up early every day, so I might go in less, and possibly work earlier hours.
I’m very surprised that we allowed remote work to continue, but we actually embraced it and made it the standard. We downsized our office space (let the lease expire), and remodeled the space we kept. It’s been good, though it has exposed a lot of issues with our onboarding process. But that’s nothing we can’t work through.