I drive 40 minutes to sit in a room alone because the office has a "minimum presence" policy
I want to describe my Tuesdays and Thursdays so someone can explain to me how this makes sense.
I wake up at 6:15. Make coffee in a thermos because i won't have time to drink it at home. Get dressed in office clothes for the first time since Sunday. Drive 40 minutes on the freeway in traffic that makes the 40 minutes feel closer to an hour.
I badge in at 8:05. Walk to my assigned desk on the 3rd floor. Nobody from my actual team is in the building. They're spread across Austin, Portland, and one person in Dublin. I sit down, open my laptop, and log into Zoom.
I spend the entire morning on Zoom calls with people who are also not in the building. Or not in the same building. Or working from home because their presence days are different from mine.
At lunch I eat a sandwich in the break room alone because the two people I actually like on this floor come in on Mondays and Wednesdays.
After lunch I have 3 more Zoom calls. I could mute myself and hear my own voice echo off the empty cubicles around me if i wanted to. I don't because that would be depressing.
I leave at 5. Drive 55 minutes home because the afternoon traffic is worse. Sit in my driveway for a minute because I'm annoyed and need to not bring that energy inside.
The company calls this "maintaining team cohesion." I have not had a single meaningful in person interaction on a presence day in 5 months.
Can someone who makes these policies just explain what exactly they think is happening?