You haven't gotten any responses here, so I'll bite.

> Do you have an active social circle? Do you have regular, sustained, positive interaction with your neighbors (i.e. do you do more than say hello in passing)? Kids who do sports? A long commute or a short one? A house or an apartment? Do you do your own housework or do you hire it out? When you're in the office, where do you work (e.g. private office, cubicle, open plan)?

I live in the US (bay area), so my responses will be based on that.

A lot of us were forced to work remote for the last year and a half, which is a bit different than (I presume what you did was) deciding to work from home permanently. There are also pandemic-induced factors that might help people to miss the office more than they might in normal WFH circumstances.

> Social circle / neighbors

COVID kind of killed in-person socialization for a year for the cautious, so social circles and activities aren't as relevant here nor as easy to maintain (compared to a 'normal' WFH timeline). I had a couple groups that did online video calls and catchups / games, but all of those engagements slowly tapered off.

It's also a time where it is incredibly difficult to meet new people, as most are either content with their current circle or are not open to engaging with new people due to COVID. This also applies to my neighbors in my apartment building - nobody seems to want to socialize (I've tried a bit).

> Distractions

I think I'm unique in this one in that I have difficulty maintaining focus for a few reasons, but the office isn't one of them. Once I have some headphones on I'm usually fine.

> Marina and [insert other hobby]

A lot of my hobbies I have were/are typically done at home. I like to read, play games, and sometimes watch tv or twitch or what not, with whatever else is my flavor hobby at the time. None of these are good at getting me out of my apartment, though it is nice to take a book somewhere and sit for a bit now that places are open more around me.

> Commute / evenings / scheduling

My commute is hellish. It's the one thing I don't miss about the office. I agree with you here. The only good thing was it being a good time for winding down after work, which still have to do anyway before I have the energy for another activity.

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I find a lot of the people who are satisfied with WFH fall into one or more of the following categories: people who live with others (partners, family), those who have kids[0], some own homes / larger living spaces. Partners and family keep you company. Kids can keep you busy. A larger space is easier to be in for a long amount of time.

I'm someone who lives alone, in around 600-700sqft apartment, in a city where I only know a handful of people (who were in/out of town much of last year), was told to stay inside / social distance until early 2021, with nearly everything around me closed for a long time.

I've spent a year and a half sometimes going weeks without seeing someone I know, and it has been very isolating and quite hellish. And I would even consider myself an introvert. My friends in the area happen to all be couples that are quite happy to spend time together. Things have been getting better the last six months or so, but 2020 was bad. (This point is a bit thin since in a 'normal' non-pandemic world, a lot of this wouldn't be the case. But 'free' socialization is one reason why I miss the office now.)

Seeing other people you work with face-to-face is nice. It lets you take breaks / walks together, grab coffee, lunch, or generally just BS for 5-10 minutes when you both need a bit. That's aside from the working bits where proximity can help. I miss pairing with other developers on my team.

Office perks were nice. My company provided meals, snacks, drinks, etc. There was also a well-equipped gym that was free, better than I can get in my area, and certainly better than what fits in my apartment. And the space is obviously much larger than my apartment.

Working on a schedule helped provide some structure to day-to-day (for me). I miss going into the office because it provided some structure for me that I didn't have to do myself.

I don't have the space to distance work from leisure in my apartment, which can make it difficult to focus. My home is full of many things that are more interesting than what I am working on, so the psychology is against me. Going into the office provided an easy separation here.

So those are the reasons why I miss the office. That was longer than I thought it would be. Sorry for the wall of text there.

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I will admit that some of these are things I could address myself with moderate - large effort. I could be more proactive with friends and neighbors. I could be more disciplined with my schedule. I could try to find better outdoor hobbies. But honestly right now I am just trying to make it by however I can, so some of those seem daunting. I think that's a lot of folks right now.

In hindsight, I should have packed all of my stuff in a storage unit and went to go bunk with some family for a year and work from there. In extra-extra hindsight, if you had told me in 2019 that this would happen, I would have kept living with my roommate instead of striking it out on my own in the fall.

[0] I feel for the parents who relied on daycare / school as a 'break' from their kids and now have had to manage it themselves. I've also had that sympathy worn quite thin from all of the 'WFH must be great if you're single with no kids!' comments I've been seeing for a year. Frankly I'd kill for a spouse and some kids to provide any interaction or structure to a normal day.