I work in tech & I want to return to the office

I’m constantly discussing with my co-workers about how they don’t want to return to the office. We were just randomly mandated a return to office requirement last week effective in July and I am somewhat excited about it. I graduated from college in 2015 and had swapped offices with this company 3 times in NYC so I have 5-6 years worth of in-office experience.

The people I met, the places I went for lunch or dinner & drinks after work, the things I saw (solar eclipse in central park w/ coworkers), the small interactions w/ the coffee shop employees and workers or the people with their doggo’s waiting in line for coffee. The feeling of coming into the office hungover after staying out late with coworkers or coming into the office after a really long late night deployment sucked, but it was what we used to jokingly call “friendship through shared suffering”. Being the “regulars” at restaurants/bars and chatting with the owners etc.

When you would have meetings, people would actually pay attention instead of staying on mute, no camera on working on something completely non-related to the meeting. Walking over to a different department to ask a question instead of waiting for someone to reply to a message or email after a whole day, leaving you on read. Rolling your chair over and pair-programming / debugging next to each other taught you shortcuts for applications you both use because you watch the person using the computer, not just their screen.

Sure, its a 2 hour round trip commute for me and in the past we had the flexibility to work remote if need be on a pretty open policy. Sure, I’m single and childless w/o a dog/cat etc. so responsibility is low at the moment. I understand people with SO’s or children have completely different schedules they need to deal with and childcare is expensive. They want to spend more time together, understandably.

However…. if we all just shelter inside and shun away these interactions, as much as people say it doesn’t happen, we lose a sense of community and comradery. We become excessively self-centered (not everyone, just saw this in myself and others).

Am I alone in this thought? Am I alone in the idea that siloing ourselves in our comfortable spots isn’t something that is good for society or our individual social skills?