My preference is 3 days in the office, I find anything less than that and I struggle mentally. My home starts to feel like a prison and I lose connection with people.
I really value human connection and I just don’t get the same thing online.
Check out meetups! Bars! Reading groups at your library! Gym classes!
But for me it’s not really that. It’s about walking in a place and knowing everyone, having small talk and feeling comfortable chatting.
Work takes up a lot of time, so I prefer to have that along side it. Rather than only in my spare time. I
As for the coworkers not knowing your boss thing, I agree, although in a more positive framing – it can be helpful to have a work social group that isn't in your reporting chain. You can get this at many medium sized and up companies.
I don't necessarily disagree, but I make a slightly different argument, in that, humans will make human connections, whether they like it or not, and the most typical human experience is to make stronger and stronger connections with people you see regularly. Furthermore, depending on the company, there's the desire to be a part of something bigger, there's social conditioning setting in to prove yourself among your peers, there's the desire to not appear like you're lazy.
Where I think you'll agree is that your company will 100% exploit these human aspects of you to get a better margin on the value of your labor vs the compensation they pay you.
Turns out therapy was great, it made me realise that my work place was toxic and since leaving I haven’t needed a therapist again!
But apart from that it seems like the worst of both worlds? You still have to commute there, you can't reasonably expect to have peace and quiet since it's mostly open space (or if it's a closed office, how's that better than staying home?), and you don't even get to see your colleagues.
In my case, what I hate with the office is the commute and the random noise people make (phone calls, chats, whatever). I rather like my colleagues, so it's not like I want to avoid those people specifically.