I recently left a team I loved because the business decided it was time for all workers to come back to the office. They wanted me there four days a week, and my two-hour commute each way made my decision easy.

I began working from home nearly 20 years ago, and this was the first time since then that I was in an office regularly with the same team. The project was so compelling that I stayed as the in-office demands grew from no days to two days to three days a week. When the mandate became four days, I hit the eject button.

As a consultant, moving on wasn't a big deal - I always have meaningful work. But my time in the office taught me something important: the biggest challenge of remote work isn't productivity; it's the lack of human connection. There's a harsh truth we don't talk about enough: isolation is fatal to both career and spirit, no matter how good our virtual tools become.

When the camera turns off and the chat windows close, you're alone. No technology can replace the energy of solving problems together at a whiteboard, the friendship that happens during lulls in the day, or the trust built through shared laughter over lunch. These small moments aren't just pleasant diversions - they're the threads that weave us together.

This isolation cuts deeper than we admit. We talk about having a sense of belonging, but that's nearly impossible to achieve when you're separated from your team and only see them on your screen.

Yet the solution isn't as simple as forcing everyone back to offices. Long commutes drain family time and energy. Many have proven they can work effectively from home. The non-stop pressure to be somewhere is debilitating. The real challenge is finding ways to preserve human connection while maintaining flexibility.

I saw my team for lunch today, and it made me miss the collective intelligence that emerges when we're together. Perhaps that's the real lesson here: it's not about choosing between remote work and human connection but about creating spaces - both virtual and physical - where relationships can flourish. The future of work isn't about where we sit, but how we stay connected to what matters most: each other