Let's Talk About Work From Home

The thing about working in tech is that we're almost always remote logging into the servers we use, so a lot of it is remote in the first place. 

Obviously that doesn't account for interacting with your team, and especially when you're new and learning it helps to have someone co-located, however... 

On my first team, we had someone living in the next state over who was full remote. I never actually saw her in person. 

When I changed projects within the company, most of my team lived 12 hours away in Texas. 

One lived in New Jersey, and was also fully remote. A couple of others were in Georgia. 

For my current team, most are in Texas. 

There used to be a couple of people that worked in different teams of the same project who lived where I do, but two have left and I rarely ever saw the third. 

The point is - I pretty much work remote, whether I am physically in the office or physically at home. 

I spend much of my time on remote calls with my team or other people we work with... Even when I am at the office. 

Let me add a few more details, too. 

The local office consolidated into one building, let go some people, and is entirely flex seating. 

I have no desk that I can configure how I want and keep it. I mean, there's few enough people there that I probably could and nobody would mess with it, but it's not really 'mine'. 

Second, our client sent us their own laptop to work on. 

In other words, I have two work laptops. One for my company, and one for the company we support. 

And all those flex seats are only configured for one laptop. 

When I work at the office, I have to bring a charging cable for at least one of those laptops. I have to bring a headset. Since I don't want to keep switching which laptop is on the docking station and which isn't, I also have to bring another mouse and keyboard. 

Oh yeah, and I've been using an ergonomic keyboard for years now. 

In other words, it's a real pain. And when I do so, it's just so I can sit at a desk...

And remotely call my colleagues in Texas.

Or remotely log into one of our servers.

And maybe chat a bit with people from other teams, supporting other clients. Or eat some of the snacks and goodies in the break room.

A few other things -

I am good at my job.

I have received a couple of bonuses already, and a raise outside the normal period for raises.

I have solved problems that have stumped our team for quite some time.

I have been able to figure out what was the root cause for an issue multiple times.

And my boss (in Texas) has absolutely no idea if I am in the office or not. Not unless someone on site (HR cough cough)

Notices and says something.

And I guess what I am getting at is this.

I, like many, have been pressured to come to the office at least three times a week.

And it is entirely possible I will be fired from my job because I don't want to do a pointlessly performative action simply because they say so.

A part of me knows this is stupid, and I probably should just suck it up and go in. But going through that hassle, just to do exactly the same things I do at home - with absolutely no benefit - bothers me.

And I guess, when you come down to it, it's a bit of a test -

Does the company want people who blindly follow even the stupidest of policies?

Or do they want someone good at their job?

(And if anyone wants to hire a DevOps engineer to work remotely, I might be in the market sometime in the future.)