My two cents: Companies have offered remote/semi-remote roles to highly skilled/productive individuals for decades. SWE's who stayed as ICs often switched to r

My two cents: Companies have offered remote/semi-remote roles to highly skilled/productive individuals for decades. SWE's who stayed as ICs often switched to remote after ~4 years if they built a good rep with senior management. Pre-Pandemic it was common to see "in-office" firms seeking remote talent with rare specialty skills such as DB internals as either contractors or full-time employees. There was usually a tradeoff with these roles that you had to make your own career. Applying this model to junior engineers, open ended collabs, and non-specialist labor doesn't seem to be working all the time. A few trends I've observed. - Some staff are putting in heroic efforts, and some do nearly nothing - Management doesn't have any idea that someone on their team is working 80 hrs/week sitting next to someone working 20. - If an uncomfortable decision must be made, it's trivial to punt on the decision indefinitely. - Teams may view their job as "doing the minimum", it's common to see teams where everyone is silent 24/7. - Engagement is hit/miss. I've heard many of my younger colleagues struggle with finding a social circle in a new country/city/life phase. The only time I see this pattern break is when a project lights on fire - but that is unsustainable.