Remote work conundrum

I am an engineer and have been working remotely since the pandemic started. Initially, it was great as I could save time by not commuting to office but now I feel like I am missing out on something. I don't know what it is but I just feel like I need to be in an office environment to thrive. Maybe it's the social aspect or the structure of having set hours, but whatever it is, I can't seem to find the same level of motivation when working from home. Anyone else feeling this way? Any tips on how to make remote work more productive and enjoyable?

I have been on a permanent wfh role since covid. Yes, been 2+ years since I stepped into an office. I stay alone and have little expenses but also 0 social life. Friends are all spread out. Not on any dating app because its exhausting. Can someone just talk about any impacts on their personal life from work life? Does anyone here feel a void too? I’d love to connect.

I know this is not what majority of people like to listen, but for people coming from other cities with no friends and poor social skills, working remote or hybrid starts taking a toll on your mental health. The isolation it brings is so overwhelming. You feel trapped and frustrated, when there's no one to talk to. Sometimes, I feel the quality of life of our kind of lower than street vendors at least they have people they can talk to. I just hate the way we are wired to be social animals yet find it overly difficult to connect with people.

I was in a remote job from 2020, until last year where I was laid off in November. Then when I started searching for new companies my priority was to work on site, but again I got a remote job. My problem is living in the house 24*7 make it dull after sometimes and you forgot the line between personal life and work life. All I did was waking up in the bed and then opening laptop and vice versa in the night. Plus you don't have social interaction. Now I have become an introvert living in my own room and it takes enormous energy to go out and meet people. Is remote job really worth it wasting my 20's sitting in the home ? How are you folks coping up with this thing?

I'm in an Indian crypto startup about 1y5m into existence and our product is in early beta right now. I've been a part since about 1y3m. I was the first hire. The reason I'm considering a switch is because i was told we're a remote first company at the time of interviewing and after my joining they switched to in-office and all hires after me were required to relocate. They haven't made it a requirement for me yet. I can't relocate, but now everyone except me is in-office and there's always a disconnect between me and the team. Decisions and discussions are done without me and I'm just told what they concluded. Sometimes even deadlines are set without informing me about the task even and i have to work/manage according to them. I'm also technically the senior-most person after the CTO/manager (all others are either freshers or 1YOE). This has sort of restricted my growth as there's no one to review my prs or someone i can have a deep dive technical conversation with. By how much I understand the manager and team are happy with me and my work. Also, I'm possibly the highest paid dev even as compared to the ones with the similar YOE. I'm a frontend/fullstack engineer and the quality of work seems fine but i feel i could be doing and learning more in my field. The culture and WLB has changed slowly for the worse as compared to when i was hired. Stuff like the leave policy and the whole in-office thing are the negatives. But the manager doesn't ping me much regarding my work so that's a plus. Switching doesn't feel ethical as the majority of the code is written by me and we're an early stage startup. Not to mention with layoffs happening all around and a possible recession around the corner, it's not the best choice to switch i guess. Any suggestions would be helpful! If your company is hiring please let me know that as well. TC - ₹18lakhs pa YOE - 1y4m + 1y6m if you count startup contract work as exp

Anyone here working remotely as a data engineer? How did you do it ? Is it good or bad ? Whats your opinion? Really want to know more about this .