Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong, I agree with you. It’s not worth forcing people to work in the office for the occasional time I want to ask a coworker a question. I wouldn’t trade the extra time I get with my family for anything, not to mention money saved on gas and food.
My point was that there are still hurdles to overcome, and those will be different depending on the industry and office. I work for a firm somewhere between small and mid-size, and we really did have a good culture where it was easy to collaborate and ask questions without it being too much. But we’ve struggled to connect with new hires in the same way remotely.
There’s a better solution than forcing people back in the office, but there are still growing pains. And it seems like many companies just don’t want to take the time to find solutions, and just revert back to how it was before.
I really only see two issues with remote work: the difficulty of training and onboarding new employees, and the lack of social interaction with coworkers.
That second one is probably more controversial because some people just don’t care about that. And that’s fine. But for me, I’m spending a significant portion of my time at work. I liked being able to chat with coworkers while we worked. It’s not the same on Zoom.
Training is a significant issue that will vary depending on the job and the industry, but so far I haven’t seen a good substitute for in-person training. The actual onboarding can be done remotely—you don’t need to be face-to-face to review the employee manual. But in my job, being able to turn to the person next to you and ask a question is huge.
After that, though, the arguments against productivity are bogus and there’s no good reason to force people into the office.