Apple's director of machine learning resigns due to return to office work

I definitely agree. The WFH zealots risk a backlash because they seem incapable of acknowledging that there are benefits of working in an office.

I still think if the commute wasn't a factor then working from home wouldn't remotely be a thing. Eliminating the commute is a pretty huge benefit though (unless you happen to live really close to work, which some people do).

I don't know this but it sounds to me like a typical case where the senior engineers are the ones who really know how things work and they are also the ones doing the actual coding (which is probably why they prefer to work from home since it's much more productive). Then there's a bunch of manager types who only talk and write powerpoints who have a bunch of ideas that are divorced from reality. But they imagine that the people-actually-doing-the-work are the problem.

I honestly think almost everyone should be required to code themselves, at least part time. That would clear out the parasitic office-politics talkers and bring power back where it belongs: to the people who actually know something, but don't have time for scheming because they actually work.

Warning: Hot Take.

Not all jobs require you to form meaningful relationships with colleagues and those relationships can be kept at a distance.

I'd hate to have "friends" on the workplace.

> I have similar logic, but reach an almost opposite conclusion. I genuinely believe many people who prefer working at home rather than an office have unfulfilling work lives and struggle to form meaningful friendships/relationships with colleagues.

This take makes no sense at all.

If people had unfulfilling work lives they would not be threatening resignation to preserve the work life they loathe, and they would definitely not wait out for diktats to return to the office to switch jobs, specially in a supply-driven market which is today's job market.

More importantly, if people had a hard time forming meaningful friendships at the office then they would not stay remote, where it's easier to get ignored, nor would they stick around a toxic corporate environment that makes it difficult to be integrated and feel welcomed.

> I genuinely enjoy interactions with my colleagues during a work day, and wouldn't want to replace that with staring at a screen for 7.5 hours of my day or only talking to them via Slack. I have a great social group outside of work, but that doesn't diminish the value of enjoying the company of people I work with too.

Your personal anecdote is great, but ignores the fact that even in the office the majority of us are paid to stare at screens for over 7.5 hours a day, and are criticized if you spend even 0.5 of that time doing anything other than staring at the screen.

The foosball table recruiters are always boasting about is just for show, and is always unused.

> Sure, it might technically be more productive if I just locked myself in a room and worked intensely on my own for my whole career and only communicated through a webcam, but that doesn't seem particularly enjoyable to me personally.

That's precisely the point that the OP stated: people who prefer working in an office tend to have unfulfilling social lives or bad home lives.

They need the office because it's their way to fill the void in their lives and escape their personal problems.

In the office they surround themselves with people who, for the sake of keeping things professional, have no alternative to exchange pleasantries and treat them cordially, something they don't get anywhere else. Thus they waste hours per day commuting just to have a shot at those irrelevant social interactions they fail to get anywhere else.

In contrast, those who prefer to work from home do have far better and more fulfilling things to do at home. They don't need to waste precious personal time commuting, and instead spend it in more meaningful ways.

More importantly, let's not forget the age old trope of retirees finding themselves in the pit of despair because by losing their job they lost their life and reason to live.

> I think your post paints a false dichotomy

Nope. Never said it is "always a choice between working from home and commuting huge distances to an office in a city you hate".

It is a counterpoint to the original comment that hypothesizes that most people who enjoy working from home do so due to some social deficit.

> people who don't find it as easy as others to form relationships with colleagues in real life

If you read my comment carefully you would notice that I mentioned I already have great relationships with my colleagues that have persisted through remote work. So not sure where that inference is coming from.

Second, I am not going to take it the wrong way, but your comment makes it seem like you have some insight into a complete stranger's life without any information to go off of. I would probably not be so overconfident in making such statements about someone else's life.

Putting that aside, your reasoning seems incomplete. Why does finding socializing events at work stressful imply someone doesn't find it easy to form relationships with colleagues in real life? Surely it depends on how the colleagues behave in those settings and the nature of those events does it not?

For example, grabbing lunch with a coworker is very different from contrived board game events where everyone is trying to compete for who the smartest person is and people make awkward comments linking their board game talents to their work competence.

> experiencing sexual tension if there is a worker of the opposite sex

I don't feel the need to debate this point at all. If you are a human with a healthy mental and hormonal profile and are around someone you find attractive, you will inevitably find yourself in a situation where you need to suppress certain feelings that may be sexual in nature in order to work with them. It can be done and is usually done without a second thought, but it takes effort and is a lot easier to do over video conferencing. It is human to have certain impulses, be it sexual, status oriented or fight/flight related when you're physically surrounded by people. They need to be dealt with effectively in order to be productive and even keeled.