Remote work (at least in industries where it's easy to do) as a norm is likely inevitable at this point and companies that push back against it will likely have

Remote work (at least in industries where it's easy to do) as a norm is likely inevitable at this point and companies that push back against it will likely have to change their stances sooner or later. At least as long as tech workers are in more demand than there is supply. If we have another dotcom crash though, things could flip around. What I find unfortunate however is how the high level discussion (yes or no on remote work at all) is preventing meaningful debates on how to best do it, and how to be inclusive of all types of people. The old model was that everyone had to have butts in seat even if it didn't work for them. The new model is that everyone will be remove even if THAT doesn't work for them. "But most companies are giving people a choice!". Not really: the thing about remote is that "one remote, everyone's remote", at least at a team level. As soon as one team member is remote, everyone needs to deal with Meet/Zoom/whatever, conversations all need to happen in front of a screen, you need physical whiteboard alternatives (or at least use devices that project whiteboards), you need to share your screens, you need to be deliberate about all discussions, etc. Some people have real personal issues that makes these things very difficult for them. We're trading one set of challenges for another. I find that remote works better when everyone's remote in a team, and vice versa for in person. But the counter argument is that talent isn't fungible, making this kind of split impractical. More importantly, right now it's very hard to have these discussions at all, because any talk about how to optimize for the various preferences/needs is getting pushed back as if remote was a no brainer that's better for 100% of people with no tradeoffs. Hopefully once people who want to be remote no longer have to be afraid they'll be forced back into the office, we can move on and talk about how to make it better.