I worked for a company pre-pandemic where I had more or less the best of all worlds. The company was already split between East Coast and West Coast, so meeting

I worked for a company pre-pandemic where I had more or less the best of all worlds. The company was already split between East Coast and West Coast, so meetings from conference rooms in the office were often the same quality as meetings from anywhere remotely, since Google Meet had always been there to connect both coasts. As a result, we never needed to have specific days "in office" or "you can do what you want"; as long as you could attend the meeting, you could be wherever you needed to be. I found just as much value on days in the office as days elsewhere, but the biggest value was that every day it was my choice. Then the pandemic hit and we lost the office, and naturally I discovered the downsides of being permanently remote. Today's "compromise" of forced "in-office" and "do what you want" schedule doesn't strike me as inducing the best collaboration based on what individual teams and groups need.