Hope you've found a company that values output rather than presence. I run a small company but given the last 18 months have had to come to grips with the idea that I might have to return to normal employment. Losing my freedom to go for a walk - or go to the gym to work through a problem - is a huge fear of mine.
I'm utterly convinced that long walks in the woods is my secret sauce and that without it I'll degrade as an engineer massively.
I switched jobs after COVID hit, and I realized just how much of the presumed benefits of office culture didn't really exist.
On paper, my previous employer only valued impact, and employees were able to choose their own schedule.
But work from home was explicitly discouraged in very clear terms, and I have been pressured to increase the overlap in office time with my team "for my benefit". That coming from people responsible for my performance evaluation and making hiring decisions felt a lot like "...or else".
It is also for my benefit, I guess, that I got a seat between my manager and my team lead during an office move (open-floor layout). I didn't mind, because they are both excellent people, but it feels a bit weird in retrospect.
We are all remote until 2022 at the very least; I don't expect mandatory office presence 40 hr/week ever coming back.
At some point, the CEOs will have to come to terms with office space being a sunk cost; and either downside, or provide more space for people who do come into the office.
Having in-person discussions with many people at once is still a killer app for physical offices; latency issues inherently make videoconferencing clumsy. But two days a week should suffice for that, at best.
I'm utterly convinced that long walks in the woods is my secret sauce and that without it I'll degrade as an engineer massively.