The Rise of In-Office Remote Work
The alternative to working from home is often logging on in a sea of mostly empty cubicles.
Recent orders from companies like Home Depot, Instagram, Fidelity, and TikTok for their employees to return to the office five days a week signal a broader push for stricter return-to-office mandates. Despite these policies, they don't necessarily reduce remote work. Many employees now commute to the office but still spend their day on video calls with colleagues in different locations.
The modern office often resembles a sea of empty cubicles, with only a few people in person. Surveys show that on most office days, most employees have at least one remote team member and frequently hold exclusively online meetings. The commute to the office may not offer much more than a different backdrop on video calls. While in-person connection can spark creativity, boost mentorship, and make work more meaningful, remote work has become so prevalent that even brief exposure to it can diminish these benefits.
Two remaining remnants from the pandemic era hinder the return to full in-office work: geographic sprawl and bad habits. Teams now span multiple locations, and job postings list multiple office locations more frequently. Additionally, many workers have grown accustomed to focusing on their own tasks, seeing office interactions as distractions.
As a result, fewer people are commuting to the office, leaving colleagues to participate in Zoom calls remotely. Reestablishing in-person collaboration may be difficult, as scattered colleagues and the convenience of remote meetings make it hard to recreate the spontaneous connections and benefits of an in-office environment.
Written by urgent.news from The Atlantic's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
