Starting my new job tomorrow and with it a return to regular (2 days a week) commuting for the first time since March 2020. Bit of an unusual feeling, in a way I'm more apprehensive about the 'weirdness' of going into a massive open plan office and not knowing anyone than I am the actual job itself. My manager is based overseas and I won't have my own team yet, so I have visions of sitting down at a random desk and not speaking to anyone face-to-face with different neighbours every day, but let's see how it pans out. I've never been faced with this before, joining a new company has always been either remote (of late) or basically sitting with a team consistently 4-5 days a week so you get accustomed to the environment a lot quicker.
I started a new job in May - my last 3 years have been fully remote, hybrid before that, hybrid with multi national teams before that.
My manager is based in the same office, There are 240 employees and around 120 places, so everyone who wants to come to the office has to book a hotdesk. My team is just 5 people, most of whom rarely come to the office. We're a standalone team and we have no working relationship with the other teams in the office, other than central functions like HR and procurement.
With the exception of one Czech guy, everyone speaks German other than me.
The teams I work with are in Switzerland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Italy and Serbia - so that side of things is all on Teams.
I have different office neighbours every day, some of whom I will never ever collaborate or actually "work" with.
I was really curious how it would feel, particularly being an Auslander who doesn't speak much German.
Honestly, it's been absolutely fine; I have actually quite enjoyed being in the office, and in the summer cycling to the office (30 mins, almost all cycle paths) has been really good too.
Can't be angry at him for taking that opportunity as a new graduate.