My friend's job pays him enough he could lease his own office near where he lives.
He has all the "toys" he needs, space for his own research and he doesn't have to waste time to commute.
My view is that offices were a thing because there was no technology to do otherwise and back then equipment was too large / expensive to be kept at employee's place.
Now only reason to go to office is to artificially maintain property value so landlords don't lose money.
Often the owners also have shares in the business and influence this return to office aka sustain my property portfolio nonsense
> Now only reason to go to office is to artificially maintain property value so landlords don't lose money.
Bingo! Many companies are invested in real estate, and having the ticking time bomb of empty offices vs unsustainable office rent finally implode would be bad financially. Hence, the push everywhere to return to the office.
The benefits of being in a physical office disappeared 20 years ago. COVID accelerated the formation of globally distributed teams. To now go back to commuting 2-3 hours a day, just to do your Zoom calls from and office desk, is insanity.
My "office" is a converted deep (e.g. bedroom) cabinet, with a sliding keyboard tray and some shelves sawed out. My chair rolls in and fits within it, so the whole thing can be closed off when not in use. And that's because I want a large fixed screen. I think as people stay WFH, people will find ways of packing office spaces into smaller spaces. But people will also take advantage and move further out to get more space.
I know of some start ups where employees got paid local co-working spaces, so they can go to any nearby where they live if they don't have space at home or don't want to work at home, but don't want to commute. There are solutions in between.
My view is that offices were a thing because there was no technology to do otherwise and back then equipment was too large / expensive to be kept at employee's place.
Now only reason to go to office is to artificially maintain property value so landlords don't lose money.
Often the owners also have shares in the business and influence this return to office aka sustain my property portfolio nonsense