I agree that the comments you've cited are a bit ridiculous.
But it's also important to acknowledge that pre-Covid, only a tiny fraction of jobs were remote at all. People who preferred remote work had very little choice in the matter. Our society assumes that commuting to work and sitting in a cubicle (or worse) is fitting for 99% of the work force.
So what I mainly see here aren't the comments you cite, but a "ugh but I like the office", which gets very little sympathy from me in a society where, virus aside, the majority of jobs are office-only. Like, the world is already tipped in your favor.
To put it into perspective, I was so desperate for a fully remote job that I took a $50,000 salary for it when I was making $130,000 in Austin, Texas. Now I live in South America on a beach doing exactly what I want to be doing.
I don't like the optics of calling Covid a "good thing", but it must be pointed out that it got offices (like my former job) that were adamantly ass-in-seat only to go remote-only. It spurred fundamental (hopefully lasting) shifts in our work culture. And a lot of them were a long time in the making and waiting. How many of these companies that were firmly ass-in-seat are now fully or mostly remote realizing that the sky isn't falling? I hope we reach a better equilibrium.
Ideally our employment options would have something for everyone without you needing to go for a $50k job to get what you want. Another culture change I'd like is for WFH options to come with a signing bonus to get your home office sorted out, something that's sorely lacking.
It's also time for us to raise our voices and be heard. If we pro-remote people don't say anything then companies could easily think that everyone wants to go back to the way things were.
There has to be a balance though. I'm desperately missing the office and have experience moderate depression for the first time in my life working from home. Atm everything I read is 'WFH is the new normal' or 'we'll never have an office again'. If the balance goes too far to home working then folk like me will need to start clamouring for offices. There needs to be a balance and acknowledgment of each others preferences else this will become a crazy unhealthy culture war.
Something that might bear considering, is what is the office providing you that can't be served some other way? Socializing can be served outside of work (friends, hobbies), Work structure or a dedicated work space can be created without requiring a company office (pay consideration for co-working space or re-allocate commute costs/proximity premiums to a larger living space with a dedicated room for work). For most companies, if they are paying for an office, they are going to require people to come to them. Remote folks lose the main thing they want, the ability to work remote. For the office preference folks, the reasons are varied and can often be solved for sans office.
Americans have increasingly depended on work for connection and meaning as various non-work social institutions have withered. It is probably a bad thing that work is a core social network for a lot of us, and we should all attempt to diversify our networks.
It's tough to have lots of non-work social networks, especially when you work full time and have children/a family.
It's completely understandable that work has taken such a central place in many people's lives. It's probably not ideal, but it is completely understandable.
I actually have a large social life outside of work, far more than the majority of folk I work with. Unfortunately that's all gone atm and unlikely to return until covid is completely over.
As to space, co working isn't the same as an office and having an home office requires moving and spending a lot of money. Many of us don't have expensive commutes that offset that cost
I expect full remote will be quite rare. On the other hand, I also expect that at many companies I do expect a new normal where many/most people are not in the office on a given day so the office may be there but the prior office experience will not.
I've day-dreamed about doing this exact same thing. Moving down to Costa Rica, drinking out of a coconut and working on the beach indefinitely. How do you like it? How long have you been doing it?
Not OP but I've been doing it in SEA for about 5 years now. Usually I stay in one place place for 6 months or so then take 6 weeks off to travel until I find a new beach to work from while sipping coconuts, but I'm feeling more like being settled now and I've been in Vietnam for the past year (bonus: no covid here). There are large communities of like minded people out here doing this, lots of couples in their late twenties and thirties and even a few families. Not to mention the local culture and people are amazing.
For myself, it allows me to work freelance part time and work on my own projects which are far more interesting to me than working for other people, which I couldn't afford to spend time on back home.
The biggest pain point is visas - depending on the country you'll probably have to do a border run every one to three months. Also, technically, you'll be working illegally but at least in SEA this is ignored as there are loads of co-working spaces that cater to the digital nomad crowd and nobody official has ever complained about any of them to my knowledge. The countries presumably view us as rich long term tourists. Thailand is the first country to make moves to legitimize this with a (very limited) working nomad visa.
I hope in the future more places will do this as this movement grows.
But it's also important to acknowledge that pre-Covid, only a tiny fraction of jobs were remote at all. People who preferred remote work had very little choice in the matter. Our society assumes that commuting to work and sitting in a cubicle (or worse) is fitting for 99% of the work force.
So what I mainly see here aren't the comments you cite, but a "ugh but I like the office", which gets very little sympathy from me in a society where, virus aside, the majority of jobs are office-only. Like, the world is already tipped in your favor.
To put it into perspective, I was so desperate for a fully remote job that I took a $50,000 salary for it when I was making $130,000 in Austin, Texas. Now I live in South America on a beach doing exactly what I want to be doing.
I don't like the optics of calling Covid a "good thing", but it must be pointed out that it got offices (like my former job) that were adamantly ass-in-seat only to go remote-only. It spurred fundamental (hopefully lasting) shifts in our work culture. And a lot of them were a long time in the making and waiting. How many of these companies that were firmly ass-in-seat are now fully or mostly remote realizing that the sky isn't falling? I hope we reach a better equilibrium.
Ideally our employment options would have something for everyone without you needing to go for a $50k job to get what you want. Another culture change I'd like is for WFH options to come with a signing bonus to get your home office sorted out, something that's sorely lacking.