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Comment by riffraff | Hacker News Reader

I am not trying to be dismissive, I understand missing people, but why can't you support people around you in a remote environment?

You can pair with someone, or have informal chats, or plan some online game with your colleagues, have presentations in your team around work or non-work related things, setup a book club.

It is harder and not as good as in-person interaction, but maybe you can get some good out of it.

EDIT: sorry, I am re-reading this and please be assured my intent is not to say you're "wrong", but just to offer some minor remediation ideas that might be helpful.

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I very much disagree with this. I agree with the top level comment, remote work is not for me. I understand that some people work well with remote work, but for some reason people who like remote work seem to not understand that some people prefer working in the office. I don't think that these kind of things replace an in person environment, and I'm really looking forward to when I can go back into the office.

I like doing programming at home but talking to people in the office. Trying to connect with someone over zoom is the most worthless exercise

but I did not disagree with the top level comment nor you, I completely agree that remote work is not for everyone, I only wanted to suggest some things that can help making it more bearable.

Hey, thanks, I can feel your good intentions.

It's hard to put a pin on why it feels like more than you're seeing. Part of it is that I'm asking for so many of these de novo supports when coworkers are so much more independent. The fixes happen easily, but need comms and planning that mostly only brings marginal benefits to me. I mostly leaned on ambient energy and indirect attention of others -- e.g., my best "need to be productive" days came from sitting in a common area and making sure my screen faced out, so my sense of pleasing others kept me accountable. Other ways are possible, but it's hard to reinvent your whole way of managing yourself, esp when it mostly feels like a solitary effort, I guess?

Anyhow, thanks for hearing me out. I know it might not sound like it makes tons of sense. It's a layered failure of all my prior mechanisms for happiness and satisfaction in work

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