It sounds more like your friends lived somewhere different than where you lived. You were traveling to see your friends and now you don't have to travel because you live closer to them. Remote work can be good for that scenario but you could've also just fully embraced your true destiny to become a dirtbag.

Remote work basically doesn't change anything for the activities I'd like to do. Mine are centered around major cities, require large amounts of tools and space, or have to be done during the day. Remote isn't a huge factor except for the space being expensive in major cities part. If I have a day-time activity I want to do, remote work does jack shit for that. If I want to go skiing 7-times a week then I'm SOL because work hours are work hours and they overlap with the hours that resorts are open. Until the work you do becomes async by nature - not just remote - a lot of alternative lifestyles are not available. I'm sure the same is true for you as well with climbing. You can get lights and go during the night but I'm sure you'd prefer to climb during the day if you had a choice.

You are making some interesting assumptions about non-work interests. I don’t mind working in the office 3-4 days/week, and have plenty of Non-work interests: restaurants, photography, dancing, live music, hanging out with friends. I live, work, and play in the city. I can pursue my social activities within minutes of leaving work.

We all have hobbies, relationships etc and there is no doubt all those things have improved so much. Not having our long Texas commutes has been great. People with kids love the extra time esp for those that are college bound. I am loving the time with my family and other hobby projects.

To give you some background, we are an IT shop for an Energy co. so there is a big chunk of our people who have to be at work, physically just because of the nature of the work. As others have alluded, we weren't set up with remote in mind.

I would love to hear how being 100% you've built a network, bonds etc with your colleagues. We have a bunch of new people who dont have the rapport with us or finding it difficult to connect ( a few lunches or coffees, or hang out in the common area could help build )

I should also mentioned the 3 off / 2 in office is something of a peace offering to the non IT part of the business. Most of us know we can be fully remote.

Remote work is great for companies that have a work life balance. But remote work is a bummer at places that expect more than a 40-hour work week. At those places social activity happened over lunch or dinner. Then suddenly we were all locked down with no pre-existing social circle to fall back on.

> From what I have seen the folks itching to get back to the office are the ones that don't have many outlets outside of work.

Not just that, many of those normal outlets have been heavily restricted or even not allowed for the past year. I expect if that wasn't the case, people wouldn't put so much of their unhappiness on the work part of being at home all the time.