1) Ironically, just before COVID a decent number of companies decided to transition to "hot-desking" policies where employees aren't in the office 5 days a week

1) Ironically, just before COVID a decent number of companies decided to transition to "hot-desking" policies where employees aren't in the office 5 days a week, and rather than having an office or cube, you have to sign up for a random desk each day you come in. The cognitive dissonance when these companies impose "return-to-office" policies is huge. They already made a decision that it's not worth renting enough real estate to have employees in the office 5 days a week, so most of their arguments for the value of in-person work are transparently hypocritical. 2) in some cities (I live in Boston) the commute has gotten much worse than pre-COVID, at least on Tuesday through Thursday. Return-to-office policies aren't asking employees to return to their prior mode of working - they're asking them to spend an additional hour or more commuting than what they originally signed up for.