It was never about productivity or the worker. It's a well studied thing that there's a steep drop in productivity when moving from closed-offices to open plans

It was never about productivity or the worker. It's a well studied thing that there's a steep drop in productivity when moving from closed-offices to open plans. I think it's a foggy cloud of reasons this came to be such a fad, from cost savings in floorspace/etc., to managers wanting to micro-manage butts-in-chairs, to the cargo-cult-esque promotion of it, etc. In America, color me "not surprised" that it takes something outstanding like COVID to move the needle in the corporate sector.