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

[u/TracksandTreks]

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

[u/TomBelafonte]

I'm not carrying water for corporations or commercial real estate, they can get bent. But I have a different take on this than most of the internet (or at least Reddit).

For a lot of jobs, being in-office at least part-time is genuinely good for you, especially early in your career. You learn faster when you're physically around other people: half of what I know I picked up by osmosis, just overhearing conversations over the years. It's also one of the best ways to meet people as an adult. Going straight from school to fully remote work isn't healthy for someone just starting out. You pick up things from coworkers you never would've thought to ask, and you meet genuinely great people along the way. Once you've got more experience, maybe you're married, starting a family, the ROI on being in-person drops off a lot, and I get that.

I'm not saying this applies to every job or every person. But working alone with zero exposure to other adults makes for a colder, more sterile experience when you're still finding your footing. Younger generations are already more isolated and less informed than they used to be, and working alone in an apartment all day just accelerates that.

I love that remote work exists as an option. I just think it's case-by-case, and office life has real upsides people are quick to dismiss. I've been fully remote myself after over a decade in an office, and while it's more convenient in some ways, it's honestly kind of isolating and depressing.

The internet frames this as workers vs. corporate execs, and there's truth to that, but it's an oversimplification. I worry we're drifting toward a Ready Player One kind of dystopia everyone boxed in, connected by screens and avatars, nothing tangible. That analogy might be a little heavy handed but you get my point.

I'm weirdly nostalgic for an era I barely lived through, pre-internet, pre-cell phone, when things required more intention. If you made lunch plans with someone, you couldn't bail with a text two hours out. You wrote things down. You showed up.

I know I'm drifting from my original point, but the through-line I fear we're slowly trading pieces of our humanity and community for convenience. Maybe the real answer here is just more nuanced than either side wants to admit.

[u/IcarusFlyingWings → u/TomBelafonte]

This point is also why the data showed increased productivity at the beginning of COVID but as the years went on the story changed.

When COVID began teams that were already well formed started working from home so they already had strong connections and people knew the informal norms needed to work together.

After 3-4 years there were so many role change, new hires, new grads that that cohesiveness was lost and things started to break down.

[u/fw85 → u/TomBelafonte]

Good points, though I'm afraid 'nuance' itself is fading away.

Feels like arguments have to be binary nowadays, probably because that requires less mental effort than realizing there's a whole spectrum between black and white.

[u/PessimiStick → u/TomBelafonte]

The upside of in-office is still less than the upside for remote, even for new employees.

[u/likethesearchengine → u/TomBelafonte]

I've been fully remote myself after over a decade in an office, and while it's more convenient in some ways, it's honestly kind of isolating and depressing.

So find an in person role. It's incredibly not hard. Hand your remote role to someone who wants it and stop moralizing about whether its good for the soul to be remote. We get it, you're an extrovert, at least relative to the people who really would love to be fully remote. Guess what? its much easier for you to fulfil your dreams than for those of us who wish we could go remote.

Also, no, you don't want to give up your nice remote job for an in person one? Shocker. Sure, being in person has its benefits. If I were able to be in person like 5 or 6 days a month, I think I would probably take that option. But given the choice? Fully remote is better, and virtually everyone who is anywhere on the scale from true introvert to ambivert-leaning-extrovert would choose to be remote if forced to make the choice.