Some people prefer working from home; others prefer office full time. I think hybrid orgs are going to be viable in some cases, but it’s harder to reap the benefits of in-person if only some are standing at the whiteboard.
In particular if you are a startup and can all fit in one meeting room, the opportunity cost of going remote is huge. For huge companies that need to train lots of new grads, remote can be painful for other reasons. But there are benefits too, and the optimal decision is going to depend on the company culture and work style.
I think it’s a terrible idea for government to step in and define universal rights to flexible work; this is a place where labor supply and demand should price in the preferences.
The government already mandates all sorts of conditions around work practices, right to breaks and special provisions. Given the dissolution of the Unions by vested interests like Amazon, combined with their refactoring and min/maxing things like performance metrics and KPIs for use in downsizing and PIP scenarios, the government is probably exactly the appropriate entity to step in.
> I think hybrid orgs are going to be viable in some cases
I think it depends a lot on the company. If your company was remote to begin with and you go hybrid, unless you happen to have team mates who are local to you, it's very possible you'll still never meet them in the office.
This place I'm at recently mentioned if you're > 50 miles from an office and within a 3 hour 1-way commute it's expected you go into the office at least once a month.
No one from my team is near the office I'd go to, I'd basically be working alone in an open floor style layout while I work remotely with my team mates in the same way I would at home.
Except now there's an extra 4 hour round trip commute and $65 cost ($40 train + 2 meals for a 14 hour day) per visit. Over the year that's $780 and 6 extra work days from travel time just to go in once a month.
In particular if you are a startup and can all fit in one meeting room, the opportunity cost of going remote is huge. For huge companies that need to train lots of new grads, remote can be painful for other reasons. But there are benefits too, and the optimal decision is going to depend on the company culture and work style.
I think it’s a terrible idea for government to step in and define universal rights to flexible work; this is a place where labor supply and demand should price in the preferences.