No Stupid Questions

You're not being weird. Some people like face to face, some don't. Not everybody's the same and to claim that would be naive. Unfortunately, there are more people who enjoy face to face than not, and most of them work in management: management is interacting with people --> you have to like interacting with people to be at least a passable manager --> the chances are much higher you enjoy doing that face to face --> management makes decisions --> face to face is valued.

Same goes for salary: management is there to delegate work --> they are disconnected with the day to day of workers because they don't do their work --> management sees workers as less qualified than themselves --> logically never would pay those "less qualified" same or more than themselves. Management makes decisions so guess who gets paid more...

It's just how things shake out. If workers become management, they too forget how things are and slip into the same pattern observed above. It's just unfortunate how the human brain works.

ive worked on remote and office teams and i think that the asynchronous remote workflow can be more efficient and more easily measured. there's a paper trail for every conversation that happens. but you also enable dickheads who don't like to work when you pair them with managers who have no idea what's going on. ive worked on teams like that too.

Not to say that being in an office is better for everyone, and I think people should be able to freely choose a working style that fits them best. There are a few benefits of in person meetings and gathering, here are some I thought of.

A: To make sure You didn't outsource work assigned to you to someone in a foreign country for a fraction of your salary.

B: To bring up the whole team in one place to look at something, and/or socialize in a way you just can't over a virtual call.

C: To cross-communicate between departments more, and proactively avoid silos of information on multidisciplinary projects.

D: Meetings and calls can feel more transactional when done virtually than in person, there's less ability to talk about other stuff besides a brief bit of small talk at the beginning or end.

E: Extroverted people feel lonely with prolonged work from home just as much as introverted people get tired out from being around others for long.

F: A manager needs to get more than just a verbal answer on something. Someone can easily just say "yeah yeah everything's fine", but there's stuff with unspoken body language that can be gauged much better in an in-person conversation.

I share the same opinion as you. My job is mostly remote, but I am required to come to the office (2 hour drive away) once every month or two (which has mostly come down to company meetings once every 2 months).

On the bright side, they book me a hotel room and compensate me for gas and wear-and-tear on my car, but pretty much when I get there, it's a normal day with a scrum meeting almost first thing, which we do virtually almost always anyways, and then the same work I'd be doing at home, just at a cubicle. We sometimes go out for a group lunch, but most of the time we're on our own (I don't really eat lunch so I just grab a coffee), and then we have the company meeting which could 100% just be done virtually. My only real interaction with anyone in the office is greetings when people walk in and that's pretty much it.

I'm with you, I really don't see the benefit, and I know I can't complain much because it's not very frequent, but it's still 4 hours of driving (which btw, I think I'm expected to not count as "work time") and it doesn't benefit me or anyone else I see anyways.

I think its the older generation, boomers and above. They always need someone to talk to

Its nice to meet the team, start nornal conversations not necessarily bound by work.
Getting to know the people in a way video calls rarely can fscilitate.
BUT how often depends on the team, the distances, the company, and most importantly how often this happens.

I really like my WFH, but its not a full WFH job, so we meet for important events like sprint planning every few weeks.
But thats only 1-2 hours away and most of the commute is long distance train, so i can work that time and still get paid.
Its nice seeing the team and other people in the company i would have never seen, it could be a bit less for me, maybe once a month would be better..

I also think many people only have their work colleagues as contact and little real friends to meet with outside of work.. after all one is paid and theother time you have to maintain your life constantly.

It's hard to trust someone I've never met. I don't want to travel either but I want to understand the people I work with in a way that's only possible when we share space.

It's work. It's not always fun but that's too be expected.

I have a slightly different perspective that hasn't particularly been mentioned yet.

I think you agree that communication with your spouse and friends is better in person than online. Otherwise, why do you live together with your spouse? That's the argument of the meet-in-office folks.

However, the difference is that you don't care about or hate your job and/or coworkers. Other people, who push for these meetings, do not feel like this. Hence they enjoy the higher quality of relationship offered by occasional in-person time, but you don't.

Airports? Days? I live 30 mins walking distance from my office and I'm still not bothered to go there.

We do this sometimes but just people who live near the city lol! I can't imagine doing a meet up where you had to fly somewhere and my company sure as hell would never pay for it!

Seeing everyone in person can be kind of fun because we can have a real conversation that's not being monitored... We mostly talk shit the whole time lol

We like it

I'm actually shocked to find how many people agree with the OPs sentiment, but maybe there's something about the demographics of who's using a FOSS Reddit alternative or something. I'm not saying everyone is wrong or has something wrong with them or whatever, but I entirely agree with people finding this valuable, so maybe I can answer the OPs question here.

I've been working remotely long since before the pandemic. I've worked remotely for multiple companies and in different environments. I am extremely introverted and arguably anti social. I tend to want to hang out with many of my friends online over in person. But that doesn't mean I think there's no advantage at all. To be honest, when I first started remote work, I thought the in person thing was total bullshit. After a few meetings my opinions drastically changed.

I've pushed (with other employees, of course) to get remote employees flown in at least a few times a year at multiple companies. There are vastly different social dynamics in person than over video. Honestly, I don't understand how people feel otherwise, especially if they've experienced it. I've worked with many remote employees over the years and asked about this, and most people have agreed with me. Many of these people are also introverted.

I think one of the big things here is people harping on the "face" thing. Humans communicate in large part through body language - it's not just faces. There's also a lot of communication in microexpressions that aren't always captured by compressed, badly lit video. So much of communication just isn't captured in video.

Secondly, in my experience, online meetings are extremely transactional. You meet at the scheduled time, you talk about the thing, then you close the meeting and move on. In person, people slowly mosy over to meetings. And after the meeting ends, they tend to hang around a bit and chat. When you're working in an office, you tend to grab lunch with people. Or bump into them by the kitchen. There's a TON more socializing happening in person where you actually bump into other people and talk them as people and not just cogs in the machine to get your work done.

I find in person interactions drastically change my relationships with people. Some people come off entirely different online and it's not until meeting them in person that I really feel like I know them. And then I understand their issues and blockers or miscommunications better and feel more understanding of their experiences.

Maybe things are different if you work jobs with less interdepencies or are more solo. I've always worked jobs that take a lot of cooperation between multiple different people in different roles. And those relationships are just way more functional with people I've met and have a real relationship with. And that comes from things that just don't happen online.

Im honestly really curious how anyone could feel differently. The other comments just seem mad at being required to and stating the same stuff happens online, but it just doesn't. I do wonder if maybe it has to do with being younger and entering the workplace more online or something. But I've worked with hundreds of remote employees and never heard a single one say the in person stuff to be useless. And I've heard many say exactly the opposite.