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I certainly expect the HR heads of the big tech companies know each other and talk now and then. Even if they're not colluding in some illegal way, I'd actually be a bit surprised if they weren't discussing COVID-related matters.

To be honest, I’d be way more pissed if my HR and Facilities teams weren’t talking to their peers in the industry and sharing learning/best practices throughout all this.

Not HR, but their finance teams got together and decided what needed to be done to protect their real estate investments.

An office doesn't cost less just because there are people using it.

No, but it certainly means they're getting at least some use out of the money they're spending versus what is effectively just lighting money on fire.

That is just the sunk-cost fallacy.

There's no need to collude when you can just notice how the wind is flowing; expect a flood of these announcements over the next weeks.

Apple didn't just decide to do it because Google did, they'd already decided it was coming, and perhaps moved up the announcement now that someone (Putin? Google?) took the news cycle.