As someone who had to sit in crappy aircraft and sleep in hotels once a week until the pandemic broke out it's been a net positive for me. But I appreciate that this is not the case for everyone and that there are large numbers of people that like to work in an office.

Trust me, I've had to work from client sites for weeks at a time on less than a day's notice, take multi-hour hair-on-fire support calls at 3 in the morning from on-site engineers 12 time zones away, and take over productions systems from international teams with zero continuity. I understand! All of these things are terrible to experience, but enforced remote work normalized many of them. The best work environment is working in close proximity with other people who are all in the same time zone as you, who can tell by looking at you that you're too busy to bother at the moment.

> The best work environment is working in close proximity with other people who are all in the same time zone as you, who can tell by looking at you that you're too busy to bother at the moment.

I think that is a matter of personal preference. I - and my colleagues - hail from al over Europe and even though we miss seeing each other in person the productivity is up tremendously compared to pre-pandemic and the lack of travel, positive contribution to climate impact and extra time not wasted on travel have been an definite plus. But I fully appreciate that that is not for everybody.