I'm sure a lot of management likes having the ability to walk the aisles of the cube farms and oversee people directly....even when they have little to do. So that's a part of it. Part has been that politicians have been putting a lot of pressure on companies to try to force workers back into the office because commercial real estate is dying and big cities are starting to feel some pain too.
A lot of companies sign long term leases for office space so you've got to wonder if they don't start dramatically downsizing their office space AND you've got to wonder too as people become more and more comfortable that they are going to be able to work 100% remote sustainably when they start moving away from big cities. Some already have, but it hasn't turned into a flood yet. It easily could. And a lot of the ones who would be moving away would be more highly paid White collar types cities rely on via taxes and other spending to essentially pay the bills for everything.
That's the boat I'm in. Give it another year or two to let me become convinced I can do this permanently and I'll move to the outer outer outer suburbs or even further away. Why should I put up with the higher crime, pollution, traffic, taxes and expense of city life if I know I won't ever have to commute into work again?
“I’ll move to the outer outer outer suburbs or even further away.”
I am retired now—but I made the move to the sticks first—and then got lucky that my employer figured out that remote work made sense for us.
That was more than ten years ago...
The key to remote work is to fire the stupid managers that can’t figure out how to manage remote work.
Once they are gone most white collar businesses gain in efficiency, save on real estate and related overhead and improve employee morale.