There is only one agenda in this article, which is that return to work is an oppressive measure imposed by CEOs on employees. The NYT writes exactly what will sell. You and I are simply not its audience. The racism etc is just being co opted.

They want all their middle income job readers to feel comforted by the arguments made and studies cited. It's a shitty transition to go back to an office. I'm sure a lot of workplaces are going to abuse that notion and provide very bad workspaces. But you generalize on scale for such topics only when you know your audience is absolutely not discerning.