"I work in electronic trading. I come to the office once a quarter"

I am very lucky. I work for an electronic trading business based in New York City, but I do not live or work in New York City. I live miles outside and I come into the office as little as possible. 

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These days, I usually come into the office once a quarter. It wasn't always like this. Before the pandemic, I was in the office every day. Then I moved further out. I've never come back.

This suits me. The rest of my team are in the office, but one other guy and I held out. It makes no sense for us to come to the office. We're both introverts and we both spend all our time on screens anyway, even when we do make the slog into Manhattan.  

Initially we were also working with guys in India, but they've been dumped since we discovered AI could do their work instead. I feel quite secure in my role because I know I have the experience that would make me hard to replace. 

I make sure that I work hard. At the very least, this is an 8-5 job, but I work more than that. The best thing about continuing to work from home is that I'm able to stop work and immediately do some exercise every day. In the past, I'd just be sitting on a train.

 Now I'm forced to find local things near my home that I can do outside of work. When I do go into the office I make sure to meet with all the team. It works for me - I think partly because they know I'd resign if they tried to make me come back to the office full-time. 

Adam Mangels is a pseudonym

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