Ahhh, the old &quot;ideas during casual talking&quot; trope. In all my years I&#x27;ve never seen anything of significance come out of people talking over lunch - for most companies, the concept of unexpected collaboration based on overhearing something in the office just isn&#x27;t true and is mostly not required.<p>I&#x27;m sure that sometimes unexpected collaboration may happen that might have a small tangible benefit to a company but I can guarantee you that most companies do not need this and the benefits of a work from home culture on the whole city and America&#x27;s general mental health will be better than whatever new feature you cooked up over your company provided lunch.<p>imagine the problems working from home would solve: housing costs, high density living, pollution, no commute time, improved communities, improved family life.<p>The odd piece of collaboration that may come out of lunch chat is really not worth the pain that our cities and resident workers are going through. Can&#x27;t afford a decent sized house? Probably because everyone wants to be close to work so you&#x27;re priced out. You&#x27;ll feel the pain when you get married and want kids; very long commute or sub-standard living conditions, great choice...<p>Like you said, I&#x27;m sure small things will be missed but employees having a great standard of living is likely going to do the company more good than not. I do admit that we would need a cultural shift for this to really work though.