Pre-pandemic, I worked occasional days remote. Since March 2020, I’ve been into the office once. All things considered, I find remote work pretty much strictly better.

In approximately descending order of importance, this is because:

• I have no commute. Five days a week, I have ~2 hours more time. This is amazing.
• I have access to everything in my house, which is where I live so I get to have all the things I like/need here. Cooking lunch is great.
• I can go to the shops whenever is convenient.
• I have control over distractions; when I need to focus, chat apps gets closed and music gets played. The equivalent doesn’t really work in person.
• I can go lay on the floor/bed, or go for a walk, or whatever else I need to do to clear my head, or work through something, whenever I want.
• I can listen to dumb music with my open back headphones, drum the table, and dance without driving anyone else mad. Also, loud swearing.

Me, me, me - all these reasons are about control over my own time and mindset. I get to decide more about how my days work, and this is a GREAT thing - for both me and my employer. I increasingly feel that personal wellbeing is an extremely important factor, indeed probably the most important aside from strong fundamentals and experience, of productive knowledge work. In a bad mood, every little thing is a struggle and work grinds to a halt, but in good times I don’t have to struggle against myself as well as work, so everything is easier and more worth doing. Productivity skyrockets as a result.

I don’t need socializing from work - that’s what I have a wife, friends, and family for. I love parts of my work (whenever I get to build useful, interesting things) but strictly try not to wrap too much of myself up in it, as it seems like more people than not that allow work to become the focus of their lives regret it - or should, but don’t realise it.

So yeah - force me into an office, and I will be unhappy, and I will do less, worse work.