It's companies' fault we don't want to return to the office
I think there are two legitimate problems in this article, and the rest is basically a screed.<p>Most legit: the complaint that RTO means “everyone must drive 1-2 hours each day.”<p>Now, this is strictly not true as plenty of people choose to live close to their work, and some people live in places where they can take transit, etc. But most people in most of the United States have to live in a car centric environment pretty far away from the office in order to be able to afford comfortable housing. That is a massive policy failure at all levels of government, and I hope the office crisis hitting so many downtowns forces more governments to deal with it.<p>Second legit point: open offices were taken way too far. It can be a lot of fun to have an open office when you’re a team of six. Having an open office for 600 is hell. Fortunately, this is straightforward to fix, as the authors story about the law office illustrates. Companies that want employees to come back to the office are going to have to provide reasonable working environments.<p>The thing that this author, and so many other, ICs fail to understand is that (a) management is necessary, and is a key differentiator of good companies versus lousy companies, (b) no matter how good the managers are, it is much harder to manage remotely than it is to manage in person.<p>Imagine being an IC software developer and being stuck on dial up. That’s what it’s like to be a manager in a remote environment. Your job is to know your people, to understand how they are doing, and to understand what they need, so that you can help them succeed. While it is possible to do this remotely, it is so very much harder and more intrusive, whereas in person you can just look around and see who is smiling and who looks stressed out without bothering anyone.<p>So sure, cities may whine for offices to come back, but the fact that effective management actually matters to the fate of companies is much more likely to drive return to office than any amount of whining that cities do.