After We Get Whipped By China Remember This

You’ll get the same view of the Pentagon from folks who do work in the Pentagon. I’ve been getting earfulls about it.
Their productivity went up because the stupid meetings to show that you are important went down– and people had to actually write down the stuff they wanted you to do, which means they have to understand what they are asking for and a lot of the folks who get others to do their stuff stopped asking for it. Paper trails are a killer for abusive co-workers, especially the blame-shifters.

And those folks who only show up to talk when you are trying to finish something that needs to be done now cannot walk up to your desk while you’re feverishly trying to finish it.

The option of teleworking is the best solution for those jobs that can handle it; you have basically a private office when you have to focus. For things that need to be done in a group setting, you go to the office.
My husband has used this for months, now, and objectively his productivity has gone up. (Yes, with six kids, working at home was less likely to be interrupted than at the office.) Part of this is that when he’s sick, or has an appointment, he can still work.

The other part is that the guys who use to never check their email and would instead spend all day on the phone making calls to get the information they are supposed to request in print (and which was delivered an hour ago in their email box, and they got a text message about on the phone they are physically holding to call) are now actually having to look at their email and discovered that people really do respond a lot faster than they thought. Which means his phone calls are now for things that are actually urgent, rather than lower priority reports. And instead of trying to find the guy who knows someone in a office that might know something, people are actually just emailing the other office directly. (which is part of why the reports have improved in quality)

Poorly implemented teleworking hurts productivity– same way it hurts office productivity if the only way to reach a co-worker is to physically contact them, which means waiting if they’re in the bathroom, at lunch, grabbing coffee, or off physically looking for someone else that they need to talk to.

There are, of course, things that can’t be done by telework– and some folks are emotionally invested in work-socializing. Designing your work around fulfilling your social demands seems about as sensible as the “socializing” argument for sending kids to public schools.

My husband can focus on work because I am handling the kids. Same as I do when he’s in the town office. It’s not like they run feral then.
The $10 yard sale desk I picked up, the old computer chair, and our bedroom door give him a teleworking space– I moved my dresser a bit, it works– which makes it so he’s less available to nag, but still around for emergencies.

If a job is such that people can’t tell that you’re not doing it unless they can see you looking busy, you’re going to end up selecting for actors rather than workers. It is also a job that should be considered for removal, exactly because nobody can tell it’s not being done. The joke about “boss is coming, look busy” is supposed to be a joke, not a business philosophy.
I have a friend who got fired because she made people ‘look bad;’ instead of hanging around gossiping, she did her work and had it filed before lunch. Since the people who spent the morning gossiping were better liked, and if people actually did their work they’d need half as many people which would make the manager less important, she was a disruption and was fired. (She now works from home doing data work for a coffee pod maker in Seattle. Still gets stuck doing other people’s work, but there’s a paper trail, now, so she gets credit.)
My husband has gotten comments at every job he’s been at, how he makes other people look bad– because he gets to work and goes to work.
This makes the people who start to do actual work after lunch, and dump the results on folks’ desks right before quitting time, look bad. Thankfully, in his case, this just resulted in a lot of jokes about sailors in an Air Force office, and really good recommendations when he applied for other locations.

and as human beings we were created to be around other human beings
Oh? So farming is some sort of a moral violation, now? Or all the thousands of other jobs that do not involve being “around people” while you are working?
What percentage of the time, and how close, must someone be for their workplace to be acceptable to you? Is my uncle the electrician, who might see his co-workers for ten minutes at the start and end of the day, and maybe three customers for ten minutes each, acceptable? What portion of the day is one required to spend socializing, rather than doing the work you are paid for so you can get the money to live?
When did this moral requirement kick in, since for most of recorded history people have worked from home or by going to specific job sites, such as “follow those sheep.”

See how silly that argument is? Humans needing to have some level of “there are other people around” to center themselves does not mean that people must work in offices.

You’re an extrovert, based on what you’ve said. Fine, you do you. I pointed out from the start, the option is the best solution. It lets people find the method that maximizes both their interests, and those of the job.
Stop trying to force introverts to be extroverts. It won’t work, and to paraphrase the old joke, it annoys the introvert. There’s a reason that office politics, co-workers and “I am so drained from dealing with people at my job, I may as well be working in customer service” are common causes for bad mental health.
I’m the venting board for a pretty wide selection of people whose mental health improved with the lockdowns– yeah, they’re not allowed to socialize as they want, but they’re not forced to socialize all day, every day, with people they would rather avoid. That is obscene.
If they could keep with the changes that let them actually just do work at work rather than being the emotional support for energy vampires, and be allowed to be around people (or not) as they wish otherwise, they’d be fine.
As states opened up but work places stayed at max telework, I have watched their mental health improve.
And, in some cases, take a nose dive right back down when their office “returns to normal” but with masks and even more social stress.

Secondly, “Stop trying to force introverts to be extroverts.” How am I doing that? I’m not an extrovert. I’m an introvert. I’m not sure how you worked that out from my comment. Office Work environments are made up of all sorts of people, including introverts. Im not trying to push anyone on anyone.

You are quite literally demanding that people work in a rather historically novel manner, because it works for you.

Thirdly, “What percentage of the time, and how close, must someone be for their workplace to be acceptable to you?” Well It wouldn’t matter one bit what is acceptable to me- I’m only talking from observation regarding office centred work having worked in them and still do.

I made an argument based on what you said. I even quoted it.

If “being around people” is more important than the job itself for one job, based on a moral argument– then it applies to other jobs, as well.

Dealing with others at work is a skill set which is learned not given.

Now you’re changing your argument.
Before, you claimed that people should not do telework because “human beings we were created to be around other human beings”– now, instead of an active good, it’s a skill.

I think a great part of the mental health deterioration has been this difficulty to adapt to change and having the uncertainty caused by endless lockdowns and restrictions. Then when things open up having to readjust to another normal, whatever that is anymore…

That does not match the evidence.

Not having to deal with non-work-related social demands from those they did not choose improved their mental health.

While under effective house arrest.

Pause, for a moment, and consider the incredible mental cost that shows to your supposedly superior method. Forced, incredible isolation– many live alone, going to the store or out for coffee, alone, was their social interaction outside of work– was an improvement.

Also, you completely skipped a lot of the arguments I made which directly answered your claims.