Forced back in the office, but could it be an opportunity for me to do something good/useful?

I was told yesterday that starting in January 2024 I would be expected to spend 60% of my working time in the office. I've spent the last 3.5 years working pretty much exclusively from home and it has changed my life. The past year has been especially rewarding due to the fact that we have been able to spend more time with the children since they are home educated.

If it hadn't been for the COVID scamdemic I would never have had the opportunity to work from home but now that I have experienced it, the thought if going back into the office 3 days a week to be around people who begged to be locked down and who ridiculed and insulted me when I spoke out at the beginning of the scamdemic, is pretty hard to accept.

I was in an online work meeting last week with four or five people I'd not worked with before and I brought up the subject of the mandatory 60% office attendance. This prommpted a 15 - 20 minute conversation which everyone enjoyed and we agreed to meet in person for a chat in the office break area in January.

I remember when I used to work in the office full time, I'd spend quite a bit of time in the break area drinking tea and chatting with others who came in. We had some great discussions about all sorts of topics although sometimes I forgot how how powerful the programming was and would find myself being admonished by a red faced collegue asking me if his granded died for nothing in WW2.

It will be interesting to see how thing pan out next year