There's a lot of vested interest in making people go back to the office. First, in large corporations, there's an entire army of middle managers that essentiall

There's a lot of vested interest in making people go back to the office. First, in large corporations, there's an entire army of middle managers that essentially do nothing but political machinations, micro-managing, and are the very definition of "market inefficiency." This has been accepted as a necessary evil of mega-corps but remote work threatens this delicate balance. Second, there's also a lot of external pressure that pushes the office building as a bastion of productivity. From commercial real estate landlords to agents to contractors: many livelihoods are reliant on the exorbitant inefficiencies of office real estate. I remember when I was working for Edmunds.com, our new offices were better than Google's (the company spared no expense on the suspended rotating Corvettes[1] and free delivered lunches). But just a few years later (I had quit a year prior), over 100 employees were laid off[2], including several friends. Their jobs may have been secure had it not been for the $XX million dollar "new office" project that mostly served as an Instagram photo op. In short, I think the argument in posts like this is oversimplified. It's not just "are people more productive from home?" -- the research has already been done on this, and we've all just been unwitting Guinea pigs for over a year now. The answer is a resounding "yes!" -- but that's hardly the only consideration. [1] https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/edmunds-coms-new-headquarters-makes-a-splash-on-silicon-beach.html https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/edmunds-coms-new-headquarte... [2] https://www.dailynews.com/2020/01/27/edmunds-com-to-lay-off-122-workers-at-its-santa-monica-office/ https://www.dailynews.com/2020/01/27/edmunds-com-to-lay-off-...