Yes. My productivity started out somewhat lower, but by now is much lower. Moreover, most of the time I just don't care about things that I used to care about. I'll realize, "this is something I would argue that we should do in a different, better way in the office," but will rarely put in the effort to do that now.
I live by myself in an apartment in a city, and while I do have a good work from home setup, it doubles as my gaming PC setup. I agree that living in the suburbs or a rural area would help, but it's not the only significant factor for me.
One is being on an established team versus a new team. The first couple months I was on the same team I'd worked with in the office, a fairly small team with good intra-team social connections. My productivity was lower, but only 20-30% lower. Then I switched companies as my previous employer was having major problems (which were unrelated to covid; the writing on the wall started to become clear in January). I've never met my team in real life, and while they seem like a team I'd enjoy working with in the office, I derive very little social satisfaction from my interactions with them. For most of the latter half of last year, the only thing keeping my productivity at about the 50% mark of 2019's levels were fairly frequent pair programming with a couple colleagues, one of whom has since left. I'd estimate my 2021 productivity levels so far to be 20% or less of my 2019 levels.
The other is non-work-related social interaction. Throughout the summer and fall I'd regularly meet up with friends at parks (and occasionally elsewhere after several months once it became apparent the containment strategy had failed), but that fell by the wayside starting around November, in part due to cold and in part due to the caseload hitting record levels at that time and being more cautious. Other than one friend who caught and recovered from the virus in March, I didn't see any friends or family for about two months. That definitely increased burnout as well. I've found that working remotely, I need at least two lengthy social interactions per week to maintain mental health, and that hasn't happened in too long.
I've already let my managers know that I plan to take a leave of absence once travel is feasible again. I've considered resigning as well, but at this point I'm not convinced having more free time would be a good thing, with so few ways to spend it. Work itself isn't the main problem, so much as the lack of social interaction, so I may well stay and keep earning some money at least until it warms up and I can spend the time on outdoor activities again.
I am thankful that the new job I started is local, so assuming I stay, eventually I'll be working from an office. There's no way I would stay at a position that was permanently remote.
I live by myself in an apartment in a city, and while I do have a good work from home setup, it doubles as my gaming PC setup. I agree that living in the suburbs or a rural area would help, but it's not the only significant factor for me.
One is being on an established team versus a new team. The first couple months I was on the same team I'd worked with in the office, a fairly small team with good intra-team social connections. My productivity was lower, but only 20-30% lower. Then I switched companies as my previous employer was having major problems (which were unrelated to covid; the writing on the wall started to become clear in January). I've never met my team in real life, and while they seem like a team I'd enjoy working with in the office, I derive very little social satisfaction from my interactions with them. For most of the latter half of last year, the only thing keeping my productivity at about the 50% mark of 2019's levels were fairly frequent pair programming with a couple colleagues, one of whom has since left. I'd estimate my 2021 productivity levels so far to be 20% or less of my 2019 levels.
The other is non-work-related social interaction. Throughout the summer and fall I'd regularly meet up with friends at parks (and occasionally elsewhere after several months once it became apparent the containment strategy had failed), but that fell by the wayside starting around November, in part due to cold and in part due to the caseload hitting record levels at that time and being more cautious. Other than one friend who caught and recovered from the virus in March, I didn't see any friends or family for about two months. That definitely increased burnout as well. I've found that working remotely, I need at least two lengthy social interactions per week to maintain mental health, and that hasn't happened in too long.
I've already let my managers know that I plan to take a leave of absence once travel is feasible again. I've considered resigning as well, but at this point I'm not convinced having more free time would be a good thing, with so few ways to spend it. Work itself isn't the main problem, so much as the lack of social interaction, so I may well stay and keep earning some money at least until it warms up and I can spend the time on outdoor activities again.
I am thankful that the new job I started is local, so assuming I stay, eventually I'll be working from an office. There's no way I would stay at a position that was permanently remote.