I suppose Google's argument could be: if I am going to allow remote work for this role then let's go the whole hog and move the role off-shore. There also a lot

I suppose Google's argument could be: if I am going to allow remote work for this role then let's go the whole hog and move the role off-shore. There also a lot of comments in this thread confusing large organizations with individual ineptitide. Don't blame individual managers for spending time in internal meetings unless you only have 10 people working there. It's hard to organize corporations and get people behind the mission especially with a tendency to "insubordination" , also evidenced in the comments here. While many people are more individually effective working alone (at home) corporations are more effective when people work together and have more chance collaborations. IMO, the commute issue is a problem that most US cities have sucky public transport that many people won't use. The only exception is NYC. Solve that and commuting could be less stressful.