It seems to mostly be driven by managers who are not part of the productive class and therefore can’t perceive the hit to productivity and WLB the office incurs

It seems to mostly be driven by managers who are not part of the productive class and therefore can’t perceive the hit to productivity and WLB the office incurs. If you spend your entire day in pointless meetings anyway, then yes, maximizing your commute time and “random office conversation” time is a rational choice. And it’s not like you can measure the productivity of the code monkeys anyway so who cares?