And WFH made us aware of how kak it is sitting in an open plan with loads of noise, distractions etc.
My troubles with open plan started some years before the 'rona actually.
In 2015 I found myself having to be in open plan after having worked in my own lab/space for years before that.
That's when you begin to notice what irritates you about other people afresh.
The whole let me WFH thing took swing in 2019, well for me and my team mates, because, as I mentioned, we had no space. What happened was another team had to share the space with us, and many of them were GenZ kids... and they cannot behave, so I told the CEO that either they go or I go, the CEO told me to go work from home, then my team followed and it's always been like that since.
I get a lot more work done from home- as proven. Why? Because my life is simpler due to:
* Not getting to work dead tired and late because of fukking traffic
* Not having to be in a state of anxiety constantly because of other employees who cannot behave themselves or have no manners (includes them making noises, chattering on their phones all the time, chewing gum, letting silent ones go and denying it was them when the smell is fukking rank, fights about the aircon temperature, and gossip about other employees)
* I can put on headphones, music and focus without the distractions of ringing telephones and uncouth employees as detailed above- I get treated like a deaf mute because I am coding away and when they make a noise or jabber then I turn up Pantera in my headphones even more until I can't hear them at all
* Office politics and games because some people have not got enough work to do clearly
* Not being micro-managed and having bosses standing around my desk looking at what I am doing because they think that's somehow going to make it happen faster