While I do think that attitudes towards remote work have fundamentally changed, it'll be interesting to see how things shake out over the next 5-10 years. I suspect that as people start to go into the office more, there will be pressure to do so for your career to advance, in many fields. If your boss's boss works in the office, who is more likely to get a promotion, the person that works from home or the person who goes in and eats lunch with them once a week? In an ideal world, the answer would be "the one who does better work", but we don't live an ideal world.
> as people start to go into the office more, there will be pressure to do so for your career to advance
China's "lying flat" movement is already starting to take a hold in the West, and I think as the reality of climate catastrophe and other systemic breakdowns continue to remain visible in the post-pandemic world, there will be an increasingly large number of people that have absolutely zero interest in "career advance".
I wouldn't be surprised if everything you say happens for the subset that is still clinging to the fantasy that career can create meaning. However I think this group will represent an increasingly small number of workers, especially in the new generation arriving to the work for now.
I think that all depends on how much longer people give money real value.
Edit: And I’m not insinuating people would instead give something like crypto real value. More along the lines that as these economic systems fall apart, the abstractions they were built upon will mean less and less until a house is a house and farmland is farmland and no amount of tokens or gold will buy that from somebody else.
In some cases, those lunches will lead to doing better work. Partly from having better, more full picture of the pressures your grand-boss is facing, from having direct opportunities to ask questions or get guidance, and partly (a minor part probably) from a willingness to give a little bit extra at a critical moment to someone that you have a more personal relationship with.
You can have lunch with someone once a week and still work from home. These kinds of issues are not related, it just requires a different attitude and approach to networking within your own company. No matter what, if you are more social you will make more money. It is not required to be in the office to be perceived well by your peers.
You’re totally right, of course, but there’s a massive power in changing from one default to another. With remote working, the overwhelming default is not “I’ll have a casual lunch with my boss’ boss a couple times a month.” where a 50-person company with everyone on-site, you’re likely to eat with your boss’ boss a couple times a week in the cafe.
