I have no problem working at all and enjoy the actual tasks I have to do. No problem with it. I like checking customer emails, even when I get three or four in-depth ones per hour, considering what I have to do, and actually being helpful. I like work.
What I don't like, and what reduces my productivity and causes me to be depressed and despondent, is being forced to sit in the same chair for eight hours while I do it. I come to work at nine and leave at six (with an hour unpaid for lunch) and for that eight hours, apart from toilet breaks, I have to sit in the same chair. I hate the chair, I hate the strip lights, and I hate that my boss is constantly there almost next to me. It feels dehumanising and unnatural.
During COVID we had about a month where we were allowed to work at home and my productivity was great. No one could stop me blasting music and walking around when I wanted and I had a nice feeling of flow while I completed my tasks. When I finished at six I logged out and went straight to the kitchen for food, or onto Netflix. It was fantastic.
My point is that so many of us have jobs we actually don't mind… except for the part where we are cooped up. Tons of office jobs don't need us to come in every single day and could give us at least a couple of days working from home each week but they just don't want to. I feel like it's not about a logical position they've taken, more that the boss is paying you so he (my boss is a he) just wants you physically there out of an instinct to surveil and control.
They could let me work a hybrid schedule and improve my wellbeing but they just don't want to. I have discussed this a few times with them and the only reasons I get are very vague ones along the lines of 'The company feels it's better for us all to be here', etc. So I quit. My last day is in December. I can't sit there every day. I need a year off.