quote:
Is anyone arguing for never going back to an office or training ever again? People that have been working from home for years still go to shite with they're coworkers at least annually.

I spent the first ~7 years of my career working in “remote” roles where I only went to the office for meetings and/or training. Not exactly the same situation because I was still driving to work in the field (at customer locations) but similar enough to say yes - it worked just fine. I got to download with people at the office whenever I went in, meet people in other departments face-to-face, hear about success/failure stories, etc.

However, the experience would have been a lot different if there had been no full-time office personnel. Now the only people present in those meetings would be my department. There wouldn’t be much point in going to an office or headquarters for training if nobody worked there - they might as well just do the trainings remotely.

In my current job, I have an office but don’t necessarily need to go there every day. My job requires me to facilitate/attend customer meetings (usually at their locations) so I still wouldn’t be 100% WFH, but I could certainly choose to have my home be my primary work location.

But I choose to go to the office because being immersed in the business is hugely beneficial for my job. I pick up on everything else going on in the company, problems people have run into and their solutions, and updates about what’s going on with various customers across the region. Some monthly newsletter is a poor substitute for that type of exposure IMO.

quote:
WFH means you work from home unless there is a reason to go to an office. Training, client request, monthly meeting, etc.

I also think this touches on another issue, which is that many people conflate “work from home” with “remote.” A lot of folks have taken “work from home” to mean move wherever you want because you don’t work at the office anymore. There’s a difference between working from home while being available to go to the office when necessary vs. working remotely and having to travel for any in-person meeting.