I've been working from home with my older family members since COVID started and I've been pretty happy since it's always been my goal. I've also had a knee injury for the past 3 weeks, and it's potentially prevented me from making it worse, and allowed me to continue working. I've almost been working remotely for the majority of my career, which is kind of cool to think about. I like working from home, but I understand not everyone likes it.

Honestly, I'd probably sooner retire from tech and work something else if I was forced to go back into an office with no possibility of getting a remote job.

sense of community between you and your coworkers, which is a very real and normal thing

No it fucking ain't.

Forcing people together doesn't create community, it creates stress, and resentment, and burnout, and migraines.

“Workplace community.”

Biggest oxymoron I've ever seen since military intelligence.

ALSO miss the sense of community with my coworkers which I used to get from lunches together, sharing the train ride home, or just working side by side at our desks

Oh, you're one of those fucking extroverts.

I can't begin to imagine the extent to which your poor coworkers must have despised you while you constantly bothered them while they tried to work, or have a quick decompressing lunch, or disconnect after a long day of work during the train ride home, the poor bastards. As if work wasn't bad enough by itself.

Why can't your workers be your workers, your family be your family, your friends be your friends?

Well, just from reading that I can assure you your coworkers don't.

Sounds horrible, glad I have no intention of bringing a child into this torturous world.

I guess it's a poor choice of words but there's definite value in workplace camaraderie. Don't let your jadedness fuel the bosses' union busting.

So they ruin it for everyone else.

Unions aren't community.

They're a necessary defence mechanism against capitalism.

Not everyone hates life like you do

Work isn't life.

It's the opposite of life (no, death is just its absence).

hang out with co-workers all the time

Bonding over shared trauma and Stockholm syndrome is not a good basis for a relationship (though there's probably no relationship other than you pestering them while they try to work).

I like my coworkers. They're cool. I just went to acro yoga with one, and go bouldering with another. We show up, talk shit, and get the job done - sometimes it's a good time. Sometimes we get our asses kicked. But that builds camradrie, too.

I will say, this is blue collar stuff. When I worked as a software dev, I definitely didn't care about spending much time with my coworkers.

Humour is a defence mechanism. Altruism is a defence mechanism. And with those two, camaraderie is a given.

Also it would be a sorry state of affairs if workers under capitalism had their defence mechanisms, but not canalisation workers shovelling literal shit.

Being childfree is its own reward.

41 year old male, no kids, no wife or girlfriend, been work from home for 5 years now. I've never been happier and more productive.

I get my sense of community from my friends not my coworkers. This study is B.S.

You know there are always outliers because research often looks at populations in general and not the exact experience of a specific person. Unless it’s a case study but that’s different.

Either way that’s a really good thing for you, the modern world makes it difficult to make and keep close to friends.

hmm, so having or not having kids have impact on your sence of workplace community during remote work?

Does it add up to you?

True, and I was drawing on anecdotal evidence that I didn't elaborate on in my original comment. While I know there are people who do not do well or enjoy work from home, I have yet to meet those people, all my coworkers and friend group are loving work from home.

So a more accurate statement would have been, based on my personal experience along with with coworkers and my friend circle this study is B.S.

It's a wildly different thing, though.

Married vs. unmarried means you have a companion, but you still got the same demands on your life as before. You might have to arrange schedules, but that's about it. Your day has just as much free time as before, you can stay out just as long as before and your social opportunities aren't restricted due to the fact that you are married.

In fact, there's no difference at all between married vs. unmarried and in a relationship vs single. Getting married changes nothing in that regard.

Having kids, on the other hand, changes everything. Now your social activities are limited by your responsibilities towards the child(ren). Can't stay out until 2am if you know the kids will be awake at 7am and will wake you up 3 times in between. Can't take a random day off and do a day trip if the kid needs to be at school that day. Can't visit friends after work together with your partner if the kid needs to be in bed at 7pm. It's a massive limiter on social opportunities.

At the same time, spending time with the kids is pretty great in its own right, and that's what the article touches upon. If you are married but don't have kids, you might get your fill with your partner after work. If you have 5h or so every day with your partner from getting back from work until going to bed, that's a ton of quality time.

But if you return from work at 5pm and the kids go to bed at 7pm, then pretty much all the interaction you get is eating and preparing the kids for bed.

As a father, working from home means I can see my kids grow up, especially in their earlier years. It means I was there when they took their first steps. I'm there when they start talking. I can actually spend time with them, get close to them, be part of them growing up. I'm there when they cry, when they say the funniest stuff. You know, be with them when it matters.

With my wife, on the other hand, as much as I love her, I'm not going to miss a ton of really important things if I'm not around her 24/7. On the contrary, she's happy for any bit of actual alone time she gets.

I think it's funny that I had the opposite experience. My coworkers who had kids couldn't wait to get back to the office, while the few of us youngsters who didn't wanted nothing but to keep working remotely. Probably why those few of us left immediately when it became clear they were going to force everyone back.

oh yea heard this question asked in reddit on multiple instances, the ones that dont stay at home tend to waste time at watercooler chat, gossip,,,etc, not productive work, just that interaction they cant live without.

Yeah, you gotta have friends that are close by and you can get out with or they can come over. If you don't... Sometimes it feels lonely. But to be honest, you kinda get used to it.