So, holding down a job. Office job, but effectively dealing with customers so the folks payed three times more than me don't have to. Lockdowns kick in, we start working from home. Two years (near enough) of working from home, my quality assessments skyrocket. Who knew that without having to deal with the distractions and idiocy of coworkers in the office environment, I am a happier person and it shows in my work.
Of course, like so many of us who've seen similar, the joy ride's over and WFH is now to be ostracized. The company /own/ the building we work out of, outright. The London office, probably not. But they want folks back in the office and it needs to be 'fair'.
In yesterday as part of my hybrid mandatory requirement to be there. Catch sight of a colleague I'd not seen in ages. We did the small talk casual exchange, as you do, getting a drink and the like. Then I pose him the same question I've posed each person I've encountered in the office. 'why am I here? Shown I can work effectively from home for two years, why do I need to be here?'. (Still haven't had an actual answer)
And then he trudged to the top of a small hillock and started braying about how he enjoyed it. I stared at him dumbfounded as he explained he lived alone and he enjoyed the social interaction at work. I went as far as to say folks who want to work from the office are free to, and should there be an instance where physical presence is required (training with guest speakers, maybe),but unless there's a good reason, it shouldn't be mandatory if they can accomplish their job from home. He doubled down on his arguement that he enjoyed it and it wouldn't be fair if folks were excluded from the mandatory hybrid rule.
So it boiled down to 'I'm here because I have so little going on outside of work I enjoy it here, you're here to make it fair'. I couldn't think of anything more to add to the otherwise fucked conversation and so have them a slow nod and simply walked away. Soured my opinion to see someone I can considered a reasonable person chewing boot leather like it was cud. My other half pointed out it was entertaining to think he said he enjoyed the social side of things and you immediately stopped talking to him, but yeah, what the fuck.
End of the day, no big loss, but ugh. It's bad enough having to turn up, but share space with folks of that mentality is demoralising.