Work-from-Home Era Ends for Millions of Americans

Saw this coming a mile away. Businesses aren't just going to forget about all the money they waste on buildings they continue to have to pay for, even if people aren't in them. Not to mention these businesses not wanting to be WFH prior to the pandemic, they almost certainly didn't adapt WFH and have a universally positive experience. WFH was always going to be held hostage behind the economy.

Personally, I think many people aren't as productive from home as in the office. I also believe many people are unproductive from an office. Neither is a panacea, and treating WFH or in office as a binary comparison means we all lose.

"Share of businesses with workers on-site most of the time neared prepandemic levels in 2022, Labor Department finds

Some 72.5% of business establishments said their employees teleworked rarely or not at all last year, according to a Labor Department report released this week. That figure climbed from 60.1% in 2021. The survey showed about 21 million more workers on-site full time in 2022, compared with the prior year. An establishment is defined as each business location—such as an individual restaurant in a chain.

The new number is also close to the share of establishments—76.7%—that said they had no employees teleworking before the Covid-19 pandemic, and that were open in February 2020, the Labor Department said. Employers recently have begun pushing harder to get staff to work on-site more often, as recession fears prompt an increased emphasis on worker productivity."