Not an employer but the answer is obvious: control. It is true you can get some organic team-building and spontaneous collaboration but the cost of that is so

Not an employer but the answer is obvious: control. It is true you can get some organic team-building and spontaneous collaboration but the cost of that is so high, it's no justification. Not having to commute, being able to live in a lower cost area, having flexibility to run errands, etc are of such monumental value to people. But the real lesson here I think a lot of people are learning to their surprise is that tech companies are really no different to any other companies.. Moves like forcing you into the office and all the entails (commuting, face time, regular hours, no real breaks, unpaid overtime) has the same motivation as layoffs for the "recession": to suppress labor costs. 15 years ago we had collusion by Apple, Google and otehrs to suppress wages through collusion not to "poach". Now? Other companies laying off 5-10% of staff gives every other company the freedom to do the same. It's all the same: to suppress labor. So forcing you into the office is both about control and increasing organic attrition. Some people have made new lives in the last 2 years and can't just come back to the office. A certain paercentage of those will quit. Great. No severance. Many tech workers with so many good years and high-demand for our services have fallen into the trap of thinking they're somehow above the adversarial (exploitative) pressures other people are subject to. Fancy offices, Herman Miller chairs and "free" food play into this delusion.