8 years, 2 different jobs, of my career have been WFH, exclusively because I was remote. Each time, I thought it as the coolest thing at first, and came to loathe it over time. I tried many of the techniques you’re supposed to (breaks on the hour, dedicated space, put shoes on, etc). But I found that over time, what emerged was that I was working half time all the time. Work and other activities just blurred and I was half present for everything (family, work, faith, sleep, recreation, etc). Advocates are probably just better than me at compartmentalizing. Though I found that many of my also work from home peers seemed to just be skating along as well. I can’t say that everyone falls into the pitfalls, but I can also state that I know I am not alone.

In the late 90s, I was an early adopter of XP. Pair programming and borg like unity seemed really cool. I had a set of motivated peers. We actually had to get lots of special permissions and suffer raised eyebrows to take down some of the cubicle walls on our own time to create a more open collaborative work space. This was really cool at first. Over time, as the makeup of the team morphed, it became less so. What had been open tables of people working side by side, morphed into everyone sitting around the edge facing outwards.

Now days I’m working in a larger lab with two of us as permanent residents and two others that sit in there with us sometimes. My commute to work involves two lights and a seven minute drive to work. I’ve been given the opportunity to occupy a soon to be vacant solo office across the hall and I’ll be jumping on that. Our lab has become a constant cross roads of visiting, much of it not even remotely work related.

After these various experiences, I’ve concluded a couple of things in the final legs of my career journey (I’ve got around 15 years left).

1. Individuals will absolutley work and thrive better if you give each one their own space where their own identity and choices are manifest — this means real walls, a closeable door, the ability to play music (quietly) if they want, sunlight, and plants if desired. I have especially observed this with interns and new hires. They need their own little den to hide in. Most people will appreciate it (in the long run) if the space is actually small enough that while they can express some autonomy/agency, it’s not a large enough space for others to corner you and talk to you because they’re avoiding work.

2. Collaborative desire comes from within a person. When it manifests, you should absolutely enable and support it, but never compulse it. The company will realize cool 1 + 1 > 2 effects if they do. Providing open spaces with tables, boards, at near convenience to said office spaces is a great thing. But you can’t force people into those spaces. “The fishbowls will continue until creativity and innovation thrive” is synonymous with “the meetings will continue until morale improves.”

3. I recognize the above is the least efficient from a logistics point of view for the office planners. Not just one space per employee, but two? And how do you scale it with people coming to/leaving from organizations? I honestly don’t know. I’ve been told for years “how hard can it be? It’s just software?” So to you office planners, I’m passing on this encouragement “how hard can it be? It’s just peopleware?”