>Discussing our team's latest Python problems over a coffee. Looking over at their screen and then asking them why they look like they want to beat someone over the head with their keyboard repeatedly.
Yes. People miss that.
> Guessing people's emotions in a heated Retro from their body language.
Noone misses this shit.
> Grabbing dinner with a few colleagues after a long workshop meeting in the evening and then realizing that, aside from all the differences we might have about static typing in programming languages, we all like the same exotic progressive metal bands.
Miss it.
> On the contrary, many are screaming in outrage if asked to come to the office even for a single day a week and threaten to quit.
Noone gives a shit if you go into the office or not - just like you shouldn't give a shit if they choose to stay home.
> Then there are people who work mainly to get paid and do not care to invest themselves beyond what is necessary. But are those really the majority?
This has nothing to do with WFH. You mentioning it here almost makes it seem like you think WFHers don't give a shit. I hope that you are not of that opinion, because that's very short sighted and won't make people happy.
> Have I been under some weird form of Stockholm Syndrom where I actually enjoyed something that was pure torture to most? Have a lot of people realized they don't actually like being among other people, apart from their closest friends and family?
No. Most people like positive, in-person social interactions. But people on either side should still fight for choice. It reminds me of access to abortion rights. The team that is fighting for choice here is not saying that either everyone gets an abortion or noone does. Its that each person can choose how they want to work. People need to learn to respect others who make a different choice.
> And finally, I feel no one else is realizing that they are happily hacking away at the amazingly well-paid branch they're sitting on.
Outsourcing has been a thing for decades. People need to be good at their jobs. Don't treat your location as a competitive moat.
> All in all, there is a gnawing feeling in me that Covid made a significant dent on the once fun (Berlin Startup) tech working culture for good. And worse, I suspect there is gonna be more consequences down the road for the tech job market at large that few people seem to see.
Covid is a pandemic. There is also a war going on. The current cycle of cheap debt is coming to a close. These are not fun times.
> I know that "the office" is a bad place for a lot of people. There may be product managers that ignore the noise-cancelling headphone stop-sign and make you lose your stack of thoughts just to ask if the dev app URL is still the same it was yesterday. There can be bad managers and unpleasant situations all around. But shouldn't we rather work on fixing those things instead of making them bearable by just turning off a camera in a Zoom meeting?
The fix is simple: allow people to choose to work from wherever they want.