Boston-based company requires remote North Carolinian employee to work from a coworking space 2 days a week: 'I do the same work I do at home from a louder room with worse coffee.'

Why are they requiring her to do something so tedious with no follow-up?

I find great value in working alongside others. I get so much more done working in a cafe with my friends than I do working at home laying in bed in my pajamas, and a lot of Work from Home evangelists don't want you to believe that! Personally, I am susceptible to peer pressure. If my friends are sitting around a table quietly working from the cafe, I'm going to do the exact same thing. If I am home alone and left to my own devices, there is a nonzero chance I will spend 3 hours of the workday catching up on the most mindless Instagram Reels known to man. Some people aren't built for working from home five days a week, and that's okay!

I think there's a certain personality type that can really handle working from home exclusively and thrive in that environment. They are disciplined, motivated, and not easily distracted. They don't need someone peering over their shoulder and keeping track of them to do good work. If someone has been working exclusively from home for years and thriving, forcing them to return to the office probably won't make them a better employee. If anything, it's going to annoy them and make them think about how they used to get all of their work done while sitting on their couch, and now they have to spend all of this extra time and money commuting.

Not all companies have mandatory return-to-office policies. Some of them have something that's much more irritating. The employee in this story has been given two options for his remote job: move to the city where the company is based, or work at a coworking space in his area for 2 days a week. The choice seems obvious, but you can't underestimate how annoying a coworking space can be when you don't need it to be as productive as you are at home.