1. Bullshit. Show us the data to substantiate your claim.
2. Even if we assume that Rutledge is correct: Is the delta in observable effectiveness worth the cost to employees' lives and their families?
I'm on the side of the engineer who resigned. The CEO's policy is stupid, irresponsible, and/or callous.
I don't think this is relevant or even something which an outsider can easily make claims about.
This isn't a normal situation though and employers who force employees who have the option to work from home to come into the office are just flat wrong here. Or as you said "The CEO's policy is stupid, irresponsible, and/or callous."
I'd go further and say not only should employers support anyone who can working from home do so, they should also support the right of workers who can't work from home to take the time off even if the business isn't closed.
But 2 absolutely outweighs the productivity loss.
1. A lot of folks are being forced into it, rather than it being an option chosen voluntarily.
2. School is cancelled, so kids are home, which can be very distracting for parents (which, for some industries, is a significant portion of employees).
At the intersection of the two observations, I'd caution against extrapolating too much from the recent pain points.
In my experience (I've worked remote for the past 6 years), I'm far more productive working from home than I am in an office.
It's not fair to compare a hasty transition to remote work, and during a period of time with so much uncertainty that surely has a negative impact on concentration and productivity, with a properly rolled-out remote work policy.
It would be like starting a remote work policy right before Christmas and declaring it doesn't work because things slowed down; things are going to slow down whether or not you're working from an office.
Partly it is because some high level members of our team already worked from home, so we already have processes and habits adjusted to that. We already have the habit to just call about every small thing that you would normally say in the office.
Partly because work from home is more intensive, as in, I feel more bad when I am wasting time.
I am working from home at the moment and I am less productive than other times I have worked from home. Part of it is that my partner is also working from home, which means I currently can't have dual monitors like I usually would when working at home or in the office. I think another part of it is that I find myself checking the news far more often than I would normally (though this was also happening over the past few days I worked in the office rather than from home).
“A bunch of us amateurs tried something so I’m now comfortable making absolute assertions about broad generalizations.”