The curtain was pulled back and people realized the lies they were being fed by companies.
Turns out the business won’t fold if people are remote, and if you’re out sick that immovable deadline gets…moved.
Spoiler alert: purchasing power fell way more than 30%, so we are actually lucky things work still as much as they do.
The number of TPS reports filed is not the actual value to the economy, but it gets counted in the GDP.
The biggest negative from WFH was it being more challenging to onboard new folks (a legitimate concern). It's less easy for someone new to pop into your cube, ask a question, and then get back to it. Now they have to do it through IM, or schedule a virtual conference. It's not all that much harder...just a bit of additional friction since things are more asynchronous. Maybe the senior engineer you need to talk to is sleeping in late and then working late and you're doing the opposite.
I'll add one additional negative is that WFH may interfere with our natural need to be social. This is extra hard on extroverts, but I think even introverts are impacted. They may be quiet, but I've talked to many that don't miss the disruptions or commute, but do miss just being around other adults to a degree. Some introverts struggle to find social outlets outside of work (especially outside large cities), so they spend a lot of time alone and naturally get lonely and this impacts their mental health. Everyone is different though and none of this is significant enough to force a return to office.