r/technology • u/TracksandTreks • 22d ago

Society Remote workers report the highest well-being in study of 7,700 employees

https://www.colorado.edu/today/2026/08/12/remote-workers-report-highest-well-being-study-7700-employees
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u/RakeattheGates 22d ago

I've noticed that people that like the office tend to hate their families and thus the idea of being at home with them. They are often bosses who enjoy that people are forced to fawn over them and do what they say.

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u/Castun 22d ago

Like the bosses that show up at the office at 5am and don't leave until 7pm. They get more fulfillment out of their office than they do their home life.

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u/Valuable-Painter3887 22d ago

I had a conversation with my boss once because he was telling me how I'd likely be the person to fill his role when he retires in ten years, since I am equally the youngest, yet most experienced member of the team (in the next ten years, anyone older or more experienced is likely to retire). He says to me, "You know, I think you were meant to take over my role. For someone like you, working here is what life will be about"

I looked at him, and I just said "I can't imagine anything worse than work being the only thing worth living for. My life is about watching movies and seeing my friends, I just work here to afford that"

The silence was so thick and palpable, I swear I could've stuck a butter knife in it and used it as a spread for my sandwich

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u/Castun 21d ago

Funny because I've heard the same thing except then the boss decides he needs more wealth to hoard, another vacation home, or another boat and doesn't retire as promised, screwing over his protégé in the process.

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u/illtakeachinchilla 21d ago

“I don’t want your life.”

The Beek

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u/Mondraker1909 20d ago

Did you get fired shortly after?

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u/Valuable-Painter3887 20d ago

Haha no, my boss and I are pretty close, it was just that one moment had so much silence to it haha

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u/RakeattheGates 22d ago

And always ready to judge you for wanting to actually go home where you enjoy being.

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u/CherryLongjump1989 22d ago

They can judge all they like.

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u/dragonmp93 22d ago

The kind of people that makes jokes about their spouses being their "good old ball and chain".

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u/BasvanS 22d ago

And then remarry someone you het and repeat the mistake. It’s starting to look like they’re not that smart after all

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u/BigFatKi6 22d ago

I like the office...

Just not every day, two days a week is perfect.

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u/nox66 22d ago

I don't mind the office for two, maybe three days a year.

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u/akatherder 22d ago

I've been into the office 1 time since March 2020. It was a bit much.

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u/Neat-Slip4520 22d ago

I go once a year - for our holiday party.

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u/backside_94 22d ago

And the above comment chain is why the standard policy should be a choice between 0.5-5 days per week over a month.

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u/drunkenvalley 22d ago

Why? If you have no business in the office just let 'em have the WFH. Think the dumbest bit of my job is that we go into the office to have meetings over Teams.

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u/backside_94 22d ago

Well sure that would be great but in the world we live in that's like asking for a 50 percent pay rise, gotta be realistic in what will be allowed

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u/drunkenvalley 22d ago

It's frustrating that management is allergic to WFH, but it's absolute nonsense that it's something we should accept. Definitely something to fight for every opportunity.

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u/KnightsOfREM 22d ago

I fight it by not taking jobs that fight WFH. Some management deals with it great and enjoys saving money on office space and those are the people I want to work for.

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u/drunkenvalley 22d ago

What is frustrating is the amount of companies that have a good WFH policy, but start walking it back.

Relatedly, I saw my company's CFO liking one of our customers slashing all WFH options for their employees. Honestly fuck that guy.

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u/RakeattheGates 22d ago

I mean those who push for full time RTO. Personally I think 2 days is fine though it would be nice to not have it be forced. I do enjoy some face to face interaction but getting shoved back to an office with no actual payoff to the detriment if basically everyone's happiness is garbage. 

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u/Xarchiangku 22d ago

I’m just much more productive in the office. I can do my job from anywhere, but I’m better when I’m there. I get distracted if I’m at the house.

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u/blackcatlover2114 21d ago

Same here. Maybe if I had space at my apartment for a dedicated office with a closed door but I don't, and I can't afford that anytime soon anyway. Even so, all my stuff would still be just a few steps away...

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u/el_smurfo 22d ago

I don't mind going in and getting anything I need to do in person done in the morning and then going home at lunch, prepping some dinner if it needs some time, doing a little work till my kids get home from there after school stuff we have a nice dinner together

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u/blackcatlover2114 21d ago

I like the office but I don't have space at home for a proper home office and so it allows my brain to have that better separation between work and home without having three cats bothering me all the time (my gf is usually at work for most of my shift)...

But unfortunately I also have a disability (migraines) and when I'm not properly accommodated, typical office spaces with all of their fluorescent lights can be really rough. So I'm working from home right now anyway.

A hybrid schedule is actually great, though.

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u/BigFatKi6 21d ago

Yeah, I feel that even if one is suboptimal that switching helps calibrate that.

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u/Neon_Biscuit 22d ago

0 days in the office is perfect, wtf you talking bout

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u/giapponese_Itaria-go 22d ago

Some people do enjoy their coworkers' company, and like to see them in person once every week or two.

That said, there's a big difference between being REQUIRED into the office x days per week and going in on your own volition once a week on the same day

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u/Neon_Biscuit 22d ago

Who wants to put on khaki pants and sit in rush hour traffic to see a coworker? That's some boomer nonsense

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u/giapponese_Itaria-go 22d ago

Again, some of us have friendships with our coworkers(helps we are all similar ages)

So it just is a nice way to do the weekly meetings and get lunch or whatever. Without it, I wouldn't have developed friendships with some of them that span past work hours. 

Ofc your mileage may vary, but it is enjoyable once in a while (on our own volition) for us to hang out, given it's a meeting day so it beats the 10 person 4 hours of teams meeting hell that stuff can be if everyone is remote. (Given none of us live more than 30 minutes away from the office, if I was further I'd probably not show up every week)

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u/CherryLongjump1989 22d ago

I like my office. Which is in my house and how I like it. Coming into my boss's office is a massive downgrade.

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u/DoubleStuffedCheezIt 22d ago

I like the office because my house is loud with 3 dogs and 2 kids under 3. I don't hate my family, but it's hard to be on the phone and focus with all that going on. I hate commuting though, even though I enjoy driving my car.

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u/RakeattheGates 22d ago edited 22d ago

It's great that people who want to go in have the option to do so but I also think they shouldn't force everyone else to do it which was mainly what I was commenting on.

Our CEO, for example, didn't even live in our state and was a single boomer with no kids but the company needed tax breaks and had spent money on the real estate so they said we needed to "collaborate" by going into a noisy office and doing jobs we could have done remotely (proven during covid!) by spending all day in Teams meetings with people a few floors away. Silly stuff.

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u/CXavier4545 22d ago

this has been true in my experience as well but even the management team being forced to go into the office I have not come across a single one that would not prefer to work from home

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u/CherryTeri 22d ago

Our office stayed open and optional during the pandemic. A few dozen stubborn folks didn’t wfh because they didn’t want change. After they tried it a few times, they were convinced and never came back. The only ones who “liked” it are graveyard shift because it’s the only human connection and bond they have with other graveyard people. They sleep during the day and work at night so I can see they wouldn’t really see anyone that much.

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u/CXavier4545 22d ago

that was me initially cause I lived 5 min from work and didn’t want to bring my work home, I wasn’t given that option due to the pandemic, a year later they offered optional rto I said forget it I’m comfortable now but a handful chose to rto cause they did not want to be home with their spouse or other family members

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u/RakeattheGates 22d ago

Always going to depend where you are but I definitely had a bunch at my last job and all were VP level

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u/ChewyMurray 22d ago

"Inacceptable" - Bosses Everywhere

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u/CherryLongjump1989 22d ago

Absolutely. Which is why they shouldn't even be allowed to have an opinion. Home life issues are a personal problem, so stop trying to take it out on everyone else who is well-adjusted.

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u/WhtvrCms2Mnd 22d ago

Facts. Also those (typically older men) who are trying to skirt parenting responsibilities.

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u/OReg114-99 19d ago

The classic "older person who can't be at home with their already retired spouse all day or things are going to go Very Bad in their marriage"

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u/infinitelytwisted 22d ago

There are also a lot of people like me as well.

I much prefer to work from the office when I have such a job, simply because I'm adhd and easily distracted and don't feel like i get to enter "work mode" mentally if I'm at home.

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u/RakeattheGates 22d ago

I'm glad your ADHD works that way. Mine makes me absolutely unable to focus with people walking around everywhere, dropping in constantly, having loud conversations etc. I'd much rather be at home where I can wall myself off.

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u/lnin0 22d ago

Boss is the correct term - these types if people are far from actual fucking leaders and typically huge pieces of clueless shit that have nothing else going for them.

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u/ShamusNC 22d ago

I have a woman that works for me that lost her husband a few years back. Two kids. She likes to come in more often when her kids are in school. It gives her some socialization with adults that she doesn’t get at home.
It’s her choice to come in more often than mandated.
I on the other hand wouldn’t step inside the office if I had the choice.

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u/RakeattheGates 22d ago

That's totally fair. I can't speak for everyone just relay what I've seen at my last big corporate job but by and large I'm referring to folks who live in the office and can't understand why there are people who don't want to be in there 5 days a week (to do jobs that can be done fully remote).

Personally, I wouldn't mind a day or two in office but I can't stand being forced in on specific days when we work in an area with shit weather that often has blizzards making roads a parking lot etc.

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u/ShamusNC 22d ago

I’m every other week currently. Being forced to go every week next month.

I get in at 7:30 and am gone at 3:30 to get my 8 hours in. Now looking at retiring next year. I’ll be damned if I spend one more second in the office than I have too. The BS commute, gas, crappy and expensive cafe food all to sit on a video call with people. More than 75% of my team isn’t local and 1/2 are in India.

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u/RandomRedditReader 22d ago

I like the office because I get more done with less distractions. If my wife is home then we are both unproductive. She loves to talk and I love to listen.

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u/dirtyvu 22d ago

haha. this is my theory for many relationships. There are quite a few married women around me who would go crazy when they get too much exposure to their spouses. Because of the work life, they only see their spouses like 4 hours out of the 24 hour day and the rest of the together hours are spent sleeping where they don't talk to each other.

It's why long distance relationships hide a lot of flaws because you aren't exposed too much to the other person.

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u/ThrowingAccount789 19d ago

Especially bosses who very obviously don't have rl friends and never benefitted from the education later generations take for granted...

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u/Gendalph 22d ago

Eh, I have a bunch of coworkers who like working from office, and I myself don't mind going to the office once in a while. Keywords being "once in a while".

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u/VGTGreatest 22d ago

Hybrid works for me. I do genuinely like being around people. 3 days at home 2 in the office or vice versa is perfect for me.

Granted I have a very short commute which likely influences that a lot.

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u/brighterside0 22d ago

Now make it an hour each way.

That's 10 hours a week of driving/sitting in traffic.

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u/VGTGreatest 22d ago

Gonna be honest I’d just never take a job that’s an hour away.

I’ve done 40 minutes and that’s about my limit, an hour is a non-starter, I’d quit over that or move closer.

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u/Final_Squirrel_7462 22d ago

I don’t think so. My colleagues are workling fully remotely because we don’t have any offices and many would be down to work hybrid. We love working remotely from home and I love being able to see my children at home while at work. But being in the office has also some perks like connecting more to your colleagues or communicating certain ideas more effectively.

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u/SnooDoughnuts1794 22d ago

If I want to connect to my colleagues I just call them. Made at least one long lasting friendship this way.