Ask HN: Why don't I see gold at the end of the remote working rainbow?

People will probably eventually learn to integrate things like video chat, multiplayer 2d environments or AR/VR etc. into a work collaboration system.

It's weird that so many assume that it's either physically in the office yucking it up or just completely disconnected and not using any internet communication tool at all.

Why not suggest something like a Discord server with a voice channel? Or try the new Meta Quest Pro for like a fifteen minute meeting every day. Or any of the various projects related to making remote work more social.

Or set up a weekly real life meeting at a coffee shop. Or playing some game online like Rainbow Six Siege. Or anything.

Exactly this. My last in-office job was an open floorplan where I had over fifty colleagues in my direct line-of-sight. The only conversations that took place in the open office were about sports or Game of Thrones—real work conversations happened in conference rooms (when they were available). One team decided to turn a small open area near my desk into their own "conference room", but the rollable whiteboards they used as "walls" didn't block any sound, especially from their speakerphone.

I feel for you. I loved WFH at first for the first year. Then I noticed how much less I got to socialize and much less fun I was having fun at work in general. Every day felt the exact same.

To my luck my company decided on a more office focused approach now. We only do 1 day a week remote, I don't even take that 1 day usually.

But that's just me. I don't have a wife or kids at home that maybe increase the benefits of working at home. Everyone has their own situation. Currently this is what works for me.

I would just recommend look for companies that encourage working from an office, if you want to work that way. You can't demand your workplace suddenly implements Rust everywhere either, you should probably switch jobs if that is so important to you.

Check my profile and email me if you like ;)

Or I guess to make it slightly more explicit:

- prior to the pandemic and the surge in remote work, people were already talking about how offices are set up in a way which can be unnecessarily miserable, but crams more people in the same space, minimizing real estate cost per head.

- but even though in my city, there's now a giant glut of vacant commercial office space, I've yet to see a single company make the pitch: we'll give you a private office if you come in to work face to face.

- things become clearer if we frame this using a term with some history: working conditions. White-collar workers that have never unionized are now pushing for greater control of their working conditions. A partial list of grievances has been a subject of public discussion for years. Some employers are willing to deal with remote work as a bundled solution to multiple issues, but so far I've seen no employers who are willing to meaningfully compromise on what the office looks like.

> I am in the US. Let it drop then, I will adapt by becoming a digital nomad. Maybe I will move to Mexico or Argentina for the better life there.

This is the high technology equivalent of what middle class America has been going through for the last couple decades. Imagine telling a machine operator in Ohio, "sure, we're going to lose all the manufacturing jobs to China. You just need to move there and you'll live like a king!" I suppose it sounds great if you're 26 years old and follow #vanlife on Instagram, but for most of us it's a little more complicated than that.