Ask HN: For those who can choose to go to the office, and go, why do you go?

loneliness

It can depend on the job being done. For example, during board bringup, it can be convenient to be on site so I can plug in scope probes and stare at traces.

It is also nice to occasionally have an opportunity to get lunch with colleagues. From these social interactions, one may learn things about your colleagues that may be helpful in future technical discussions and debates. It can also be an opportunity to learn about impending bad (or good) news that cannot be shared on a potentially recorded medium.

I go to the office to hang out, interact with people, ask junior colleagues what they are working on, and mentor them.

Home working is great for concentration, but the serendipitous conversations only happen in the office

When I took my current job, my family lived three time zones away from the city where the office is, but we've since moved (for largely-unrelated reasons), and now I come in every day. It's simple: my wife and I can't both work from our open-plan townhouse, and I am the more willing of us to commute - it's a pleasant walk, thirty or forty minutes.

The office might be kind of lousy, if it saw heavy use - just a big concrete box with a lot of open desks, no dividers at all unless you count the glass-walled conference rooms. But there's only one other person who comes in every day; the space is built for thirty, but even on Tuesdays and Thursdays there are rarely more than six or eight people here. It's quiet enough that I rarely bother with headphones.

To answer your question, it seems obvious: private offices are better than cubicles, taller walls are better than shorter ones, cubicles are better than open-plan layouts, and dedicated desks are better than hot-desking. Does anyone claim otherwise?

Disclaimer: I'm not a developer, but a data analyst in a very small ecommerce company and fulfillment center. I do quite a bit with light-to-medium automation and "development", as needed, but my skill level at anything development related is probably at the level of a hobbyist.

For the workers that are capable of working from home, my workplace asks us to be in the office only on Thursday morning each week. This gives us a consistent time to do things like having our company-wide meetings or social events like company sponsored meals, fun events, etc.

During COVID, I was perfectly happy working at home. My workplace ensured that I had a desk setup that matched what I had in the office, and my home "office" was removed enough from the chaos of the rest of the house that it worked well.

My decision to start going back to the workplace was in the middle of 2022, when all the COVID related stuff finally started calming down and things like mask regulations started to relax. Some of my decision was due to needing to work in a location where I couldn't distract myself by going and doing things around the house. I had started to do that more and more frequently, mostly due to my ADHD and the fact that the novelty of working from home had worn off.

But another really big part of my decision was because I REALLY did miss seeing my coworkers in person. I'm in this rare unicorn situation where I absolutely love what I do, I love the company I work for, and I love the people I work with. Being there just makes me happy at all levels. This isn't even about an "ideal office setup" in the strict sense you're thinking of. I'm currently in my own office, but I spent the first 3.5 years working in an open office with 3 to 5 others, and that was just as good.

I know a lot of people that have that "Sunday Dread" about having to go to work on Monday, but I honestly get almost giddy Sunday evening knowing that I'll get to go to work the next morning. The really funny thing is that I consider myself to be a pretty extreme introvert. But all in all, I'm well aware that this whole outlook is extremely uncommon, so it's probably not truly considered a "blind spot" on your part, but more that I'm just an outlier.

I'm probably more social than most devs. I've had many opportunities to work fully remote and never liked it. Hate it, in fact. It's hard for me to stay focused, healthy, and motivated when fully remote.

I prefer an office that I can go to 2 or 3 times a week. When that isn't available, I'll find a coworking space and treat it as an office, even though nobody there is technically a coworker.

Just the ambience of having other people around being productive really helps me stay on task. And it's nice to be able to have lunch with them, get a beer afterward, etc. It's also really nice to be able to ride my bike to work and back and get a bit of sun and exercise every day, vs being cooped up in a bedroom-turned-office all day.

I don't like private offices (for myself) because they are too quiet and lonely. Much prefer cafeteria style seating with no dividers. Of course it's also nice to have a few desks in more private areas so people who need quiet to focus can go there, or to take calls in. I actually really enjoy open floor plans, but I would never force someone to use that if they didn't. I think private offices should just be reservable hot desks for people who really need/want them for the day, and those people should also just be allowed to WFH.

What I'm getting is that people are fundamentally different and the same office environment that's perfect for one person could be a nightmare for the next, and it should be a matter of reasonable accommodations (both ways) to find a suitable compromise.

If I were in charge, I'd never mandate RTO for people who don't want it. But I'd also try to at least provide a small office for people who DO want it. People like me are often completely left out of the considerations. I guess we're freaks for actually liking our coworkers? Shrug.

If I could keep my current job but swap the remote-ness with someone who works in the office, I'd do that in a heartbeat!

I like the physical act of going some place that isn't home, wearing clothes specifically for work. It creates a "time to get things done" focused mindeset for me.

I prefer going to the office but do not like a completely open office plan. I like to get out of the house and be generally around people but I don't aggressively socialize at work and do prefer at least some privacy there. I don't even explicitly/deliberately seek to collaborate, but in the long run it happens on its own and the proximity to others pays off.

I go in because it helps separate work life from home life, which I find benefits both positively in different ways.

I prefer a hybrid work area with three zones

1. Open plan chaos, lots of people talking and going bonkers

2. Smaller office 3~4 people, maybe your team or people you like more than others

3. Solo office, or hot desk in quiet zone. For deep focus. This one has a great view of the mountains in the area, which I find helps me think.

I bounce around these at my office depending on mood and task at hand. That variety is the main thing I like about our office setup

I didn't mind taking a train to a wework recently. I have a much better connection and overall set up at home, but when I set up similarly as I would at a coffee shop with an ergo keyboard, headphones, etc.. sometimes I'd just like the deliberate act of separating my home space from work. Every day is too much though.

For context, I live with my partner in a 400sq ft studio, and sometimes that's just not at all productive for me, I have to find a place to isolate, and sometimes I'd prefer that to not be a coffee shop. However, if it ended up that going in to work meant more interaction, or sitting in a grey hellscape for 8 hours, it would kill that whole value prop for me. I want to just have the space to completely focus and not be depressed about my surroundings.

Taken to a logical extreme, if being a programmer meant that I'd be exclusively working in a grey cube farm, or a static open office, I'd try much harder to find a different profession.

I go in to my office once a week -- mostly to remind people that I exist in real life. All (most) of the developers try to come in on the same day, I guess to facilitate that personal connection. I could probably take it or leave it, though.

I think this is probably not really in the spirit of what you were asking, but ...

My company is technically 100% remote, but we do have an office that almost on one ever uses, which could not possibly fit everyone if we did want to use it, and we're geographically dispersed across the US and this office is only in one place. It's not in the same state as me.

Nonetheless, a few months ago I did request travel reimbursement for myself and a small team to work together for a week. First, because it was getting needlessly difficult to clear our schedules enough and coordinate on timing to work in an effective manner. Pure async wasn't getting it done. Second, I've been with this company for five years and I'd never actually met anyone else from the company before. It was nice to finally do so. I love remote work, but even with Internet communities, you want to sometimes have meetups once you've known each other for long enough.

If there were an office near me, I don't think I'd go in on any set schedule with a guarantee I'll be there a specific day, but I'd at least drop in sometimes, just to feel like I'm still part of the place and not purely an anonymous mercenary.

I enjoy face to face discussions and whiteboarding sessions on tough technical topics. And I'm a fairly introverted person.

You get 2-3 competent engineers in the same room with no screens, just a whiteboard, and magic happens. No amount of zoom or virtual whiteboards will replicate that experience for me.

Also I don't learn much being remote. Many of my colleagues are 20 years or more younger than me and yet I learn something new every time I have deep discussions with them.

I'm lucky that my commute is 30 minutes each way. I choose to go to office at least thrice a week and a subset of my local colleagues do so too. If the commute was much longer, then I wouldn't go in as much.

Well, first and foremost my job is about 70% hands-on as an electronics engineer. I can and do sometimes do this work from home, but I have better equipment at the office. That's really not what you're asking, though.

When I don't need to be at the office, I can really only tolerate a few days at a time. I need the structured time of being in a physical place with clear purpose and expectations. My home office is absolutely not that.

I actually and truly do real work through my entire day. It's all productive time, maybe like 30 minutes of downtime a day for smoke breaks or dicking around on my phone. I know, I'm a freak. But when working from home I usually get 2-4 hours of real work done. On a personal level, I need to feel productive, be it at work on on my hobbies. WFH days usually leave me feeling dissatisfied and restless. And not to mention my spouse or pets offering distractions and interruptions all day.

Office is nice because we have an extremely small team: 6 total are local, and only two to three are usually in the office at the same time as me. It's quiet, I have few distractions, and I can simply get work done.

I suspect I'd feel exactly the same if I just rented a private office for myself. I just need that psychological context switch of being in the place that work happens

At some point, about 15 years ago, I was the only person from my team living on a different continent. I did not need to go to office at all, but I chose to do it for these reasons:

- socializing

- doing some work that required the presence in the office (almost 1000 interviews)

- interacting with some contractors that joined me for a few years. I had to train them, then to be around because I found that me being approachable was making them more productive when they hit any sort of barriers that I could help with

- being in the office was one of the conditions for any career growth

But that's about it, these days I don't have any of these reasons so I barely go to the office, it is a 3 hours drive or at least 1-1.5 hours with the motorcycle (city traffic).

Because I'm a depressed neurotic with substance abuse issues that lives alone. I'm more productive and mentally healthier working around other people than I am working alone at home.

I also can deliver a lot of value by being available to help juniors, unblock production, talk business strategy, and all sorts of other stuff that organically comes up during the workday.

I have a private office where I can shut the door and focus when needed, if I worked in an open office I'd probably have a different view.

Trying to answer all your questions in order.

1. I prefer to meet coworkers in person. Also, lunch at the office is more convenient. Lastly, it's nice to leave work at the office at the end of the day. At home it's hard to "stop" working.

2. Never had a private office, but I am not sure I would need it, unless I had to do many phone or video calls.

3. Ideal office setup (not sure I understood your question right?) in terms of amenities:

- private desk or office w/ lots of daylight

- printer, whiteboards, flip charts

- bookshelf w/ technical literature

- conference rooms for workshops etc.

- lunchroom/restaurants and vending machines available

I worked as an open source developer (remote) between 2011 and 2016. At the end, my social skills were deteriorating (despite a reasonable social life and hobbies) and I was less motivated, disciplined and less productive.

I now work at a company where there are a max of 6 people to a room. I would go in every day except that I have a small child and it's easier in terms of logistics to work at home one day a week.

I am a hardcore introvert. I am not shy and have worked successfully as a manager (and hated it). If you think introvert == shy, look up the definition of introvert. I know several extroverts with significantly worse people skills than me.

Working at the office: - motivates me - makes me happier and less lonely - makes me more productive -- *in the long run* - helps me (a lot) with networking and generating new projects.

While working in open source, I ran into many developers who had been working at home for between 10 and 30+ years, and were very productive. Some people can do this. You must have a thick skin and be stubborn or otherwise single minded -- and it helps if you are not single.

However, I believe that the majority of people will initially be productive when WFHing, for the first 1-5 years, after which a steady decline in both productivity and mental health will set in.

Research has conclusively shown that your social network is directly related to both your health and happiness. The line between this and WFH is really short....

I think it's very productive with devs who need to ship product faster. People need to be building along side each other. Works best for small teams. for large teams not so much. cuts down the speed for decision-making

I work at a fully remote company and I go to a WeWork every day.

I choose to live in a tiny apartment in a dense city and don’t enjoy living and working in the same space. I would rather go into an office than get a bigger place and/or move.

I enjoy the bike/run commutes I’ve had my entire adult life and find they get me ready for work and unwind from work in a way that simply getting out for a walk/bike/run before and after work doesn’t.

For about a year I actually paid for the private office at WeWork but eventually the price got too high and I decided the benefit wasn’t high enough to justify it (I started to have fewer meetings). Now I just use the common areas for my daily work and phone booths when I have meetings. I really like being in the high-energy common area more than in a quiet room.

Up until very recently, I have been going into the office every day since they let us in post covid. I have a very hard time staying focused at home. I also really enjoy having friends at work. Once you have a family, it is really nice to have adult relationships outside of the home, and frankly it's really hard to maintain hobbies outside of work with all the kids activities and house tasks.

For personal reasons I've moved remote this year and it's hard, but I can manage for a while I guess. It is really nice to walk out of my home office and be instantly home, but I find that I have to work longer hours to get the same amount of work done at home.

As for layout, my office had open seating areas for talking, quiet areas, and a dozen or so phone booths for more privacy. I usually just worked in the open collab areas and used my headphones when needed. This has been the way for the last decade prior to covid.

I choose to go into my local office 3x a week by choice despite having a remote team because I enjoy the perks and I like the 'change of pace'.

We get free coffee, snacks, and lunch onsite, as well as having a nice gym. The time I save from getting lunch, driving to the gym, or out or having to buy a bunch of snacks negates the commute.

I go to do things that I don't want to do in my home, I design and build hardware so that usually means things that burn, smell, are loud or make a mess, and when I want to do things like that with others. I do most everything else from home.