Started a new job during lockdown. My work has been very slow at getting us back to the office, it started with just one day a week in August and we are now up to two times a week. The application process said I could work from any of the company's offices (there are three), and I received verbal confirmation before I accepted the job offer that I could work from my chosen office. I was quite open about it during my interview too.
I was WFH when I started and we have been gradually easing back to go into the office. It turns out everyone in my department works in one office (which is quite far from me), and the office local to me that I wanted to work from just has the HR and finance departments working there. My manager said it's fine, although he keeps asking when I'm coming into the office and the number of in-person meetings at the far-away office is slowly increasing.
I like going to the local office, it's good for my mental health to be around others and be out of the house for at least some of the week. But I feel so lonely there because they aren't my colleagues, I say polite small talk but I don't have any of those little interactions that come from talking about work-related things. I also feel out of place and embarrassed, like I'm not supposed to be there. But I also kind of like being there 'on my own' and being able to put my head down and get my work done.
AIBU to go and work in that office? Do you think it's weird for those who work from there that there's a stranger in the office?