This explains the flood of “how remote work destroys your career” and other pro return to office articles, they are really about keeping office occupancy high.
COVID proved to be a Black Swan event for traditional office work. People were forced to work from home and they didn’t miss the commute or the abusive managers.
Business owners noted the increases in productivity, the absence of worker’s comp claims, the absence of workplace lawsuits, and the possibility of reducing the facilities bill and sending all of that money to the bottom line.
In other news the buggy whip industry collapsed a hundred years ago.
And part of keeping office occupancy, is related to the economic impact of the office workers. These office workers support many businesses in cities, when they go out to lunch, and go shopping in various retail businesses. If they aren’t in the office, they don’t spend any money in the city.