I was a manager at an aerospace company for a bunch of years, just recently retired. One of my takeaways was that, like so many facets of managing people, there’s no single right way to do WFH. I had employees who could WFH 100% of the time, with increased productivity and increased morale. I had employees that fit OP’s description and were super lonely during the pandemic because their whole social life revolved around work. I had employees who preferred WFH, but were much more productive when they could collaborate in person.
I was frustrated that my company insisted on implementing one-size-fits-all solutions, which eventually became 100% RTO. I thought it would have been most effective to let managers decide what worked best for individuals and teams. For many of my employees, I would have asked for a hybrid arrangement, where they came into the office two days a week, with one of those days being common to the team and one being flexible, and the ability for anyone to come in more than that if desired. But I also had employees who either didn’t have a collaborative job, or they collaborated with people at different sites (so had to do virtual meetings anyway), and those people I would have said could 100% WFH.
I was a manager at an aerospace company for a bunch of years, just recently retired. One of my takeaways was that, like so many facets of managing people, there’s no single right way to do WFH. I had employees who could WFH 100% of the time, with increased productivity and increased morale. I had employees that fit OP’s description and were super lonely during the pandemic because their whole social life revolved around work. I had employees who preferred WFH, but were much more productive when they could collaborate in person.
I was frustrated that my company insisted on implementing one-size-fits-all solutions, which eventually became 100% RTO. I thought it would have been most effective to let managers decide what worked best for individuals and teams. For many of my employees, I would have asked for a hybrid arrangement, where they came into the office two days a week, with one of those days being common to the team and one being flexible, and the ability for anyone to come in more than that if desired. But I also had employees who either didn’t have a collaborative job, or they collaborated with people at different sites (so had to do virtual meetings anyway), and those people I would have said could 100% WFH.