So much horrible stuff is lost, too. Commute, distraction, ambient paranoia and discomfort, resentment, etc. The bullshit where someone comes in with the flu

So much horrible stuff is lost, too. Commute, distraction, ambient paranoia and discomfort, resentment, etc. The bullshit where someone comes in with the flu and everyone else gets sick, progressively, over the next month. And the huge things: inclusive workforce (people with kids/sick relatives, mobility or other disabilities, etc. -- this will predominantly hurt women). Visa problems largely eliminated. Global talent pool. You could make up for the positives by having scheduled in-person sessions with your team (if you live genuinely remotely, do it for a week or two at a time, or longer; if you live in the same metro, do "in-person Wednesdays". A pathologically bad environment is an open plan with a bunch of disparate teams in the same space. Coworking spaces across several (potentially competing!) companies are the worst, but in a larger company, having relatively separate teams in the same space is almost as bad. Open plan is pretty much a personal instapass. If it's not worth spending +$1k/mo per employee on office space (even in the worst markets, it's +100sf/mo, which is about $500-700/mo), the employees are probably not contributing much value. Being in an environment where people are making $3-5mm in value is key. Don't be a junior callcenter employee (even those are moving remote, for cost saving reasons). Exceptions for temporary onsite engagements with clients, or something crazy like "we're on a warship" or "enroute to Mars", or <10 people in a single office during early days of a startup, but volitional shitty open plan is just insane. (Unfortunately this basically rules out the majority of Silicon Valley companies these days.) I do agree that corner offices as status for useless mid-level managers are ALSO bad, but the correct solution is offices for all, or at least anyone who wants them, some kind of dynamic environment, etc. It's entirely reasonable to have ICs in offices and managers in open areas. Anytime someone complains about recruiting/hiring/retention in a company with work-in-office, open plan, one or two high cost locations, it's hard to not bring this up. A few companies at a time can get away with it, but not everyone. It would be an easy way for companies to differentiate themselves in hiring; if even 25% of workers would rather have a private office, you would get first pick of those employees.