I'm not an introverted misanthrope, I like to combine times of very deep work and reflection and social interaction. Office environments offer plenty of the latter, and very little of the former, so WFH suits a lot of us average people who love to do at least a part of deep intellectual work.
> mental health get's a problem because routine, excercise, experiencing new things and stimulation, and socializing are missing because everybody is staying at home
1. All kinds of mental health issues were shooting up before the pandemic
2. I see the exercise thing repeated by all proponents of working in offices. It completely befuddles me... I go to crossfit 4x a week and golf 3-4x a week, going to the office would only get in the way of this. There are no two ways about this: you have severe imagination, discipline, or motivation problems if the only thing making you move your ass is going to a physical office.
3. I don't know what kind of office you go to "experience new things", but I worked in a large video games company where the culture was dope and we'd play Mario Kart after lunch, and "new things" faded as quickly as anything else. I think this applies to pretty much any office setting.
4. I physically interact with people at crossfit and golf, with my family and friends, and with small business owners (ex: my coffee dude) every day... Again, if your idea of WFH is not talking to anyone for days on end, there may be a conceptualization problem here.
> you are replaceable, transactional human resource
You think the shareholders ever cared whether you go to the office, other than how it affects their EPS? I'll grant that being in an office could make a marginal difference in a round of layoffs if you're particularly ingratiated with some superiors thanks to regular physical interaction, but other than that, we were all just numbers well before WFH.
> I'm really worried about our ability to socialize here.
You should possibly have more faith in the agency of human beings.
> But fun fact: I have no feeling nor connection towards those remote employees.
I employ remote people in my business, from Colombia to Ukraine. I care about them. I empathize if they tell me they have a problem. I otherwise meet customers, potential partners, and all kinds of people through video chat every week. As with anything, the mileage varies: some people leave me indifferent, some people I really connect with, a few irk me.
But if you have no feelings whatsoever towards any people you work with remotely, I don't know what to tell you.