I would not go out of my way to live near where I work when my employer can fire me on a whim.

If the office was in a place where I could reasonably expect to find other jobs as well, then that could be part of my consideration, but I would never choose to live somewhere based primarily on whatever my current job is.

>live near your actual office, which your employer already pays for,

I've been in the game for almost 40 years now, and I'll say I've never had an office paid for by my employer that is as nice as that toughshed. I've never been in a dedicated office with a door, except when working from home.

Edit: ProTip: If you are doing concrete, rent a "Mud Mixer". Me an the kids were able to pour the 8x12x5" (130 bags of 80lbs) in well under a day, probably would have been even less if we had moved the bagged concrete to the pour site before the pour happened rather than as we were pouring.

My office suuuucks. All the actual machines are in a dedicated space so we have to hot desk and remote in even if we come to the office. There’s not even cubicles, just rows of desks. I would go out of my way NOT to work there.

Everyone has different opinions about this stuff, but I for one found _working_ in the office to absolutely be the worst part. And since Covid, my workplace has torn down old buildings and reduced square footage per employee, so if I went back to the office it would be even worse.

> In my opinion it's commuting to the office which sucks, and not working in the office

I'm not a fan of commuting either but for me it's definitely the working in an office that sucks

Maybe if it wasn't an open office bullpen style place but I've only worked in places without private or semi private offices, or even cubes

> it seems like it would be ever so much simpler to go live near your actual office

This constrains the companies you can work at to ones with a local office, if you do not want to move house. If you want to live within walking distance of many companies, you could easily be looking at paying millions of dollars for a poor quality house.

There is a happy medium if you like offices (see below): co-working spaces.

> it's commuting to the office which sucks, and not working in the office

Most company offices are fucking horrific - open plan, atrocious coffee, noisy, full of people who won’t stay home when they are sick.