I think the same arguments could be made if you swapped in-person for remote (nearly) throughout. There are those of us who prefer remote work and have been told that we must spend dozens to hundreds of hours a year just commuting in order to be more productive. "Finally", more companies are acknowledging our POV and optimal work style after years/decades of talking about it -- I think that's why there is so much enthusiasm around remote work these days.

The pendulum may have swung too far, on that I'll agree.

The funny thing is that I got my "start" in programming doing things remote. Open source development, and in the 90s, IRC, MUDs/MOOs, etc. I have all sorts of collaborators and friends I've actually never met in person. And we were pretty productive.

But that's not how $work went, when it went remote. All the open sores just festered and got worse. I know for a fact multiple projects delayed or faltered because of the remote move and the impact it had on productivity. And I'm sure it wasn't restricted to Google, but industry wide.

I mostly agree with you, but we should remember that the shift to remote happened abruptly due to an unprecedented, immensely disruptive pandemic. This was not a controlled experiment where we can automatically attribute any issues that emerged after the shift to inherent flaws in remote work.

That said, I think your experiences with the limitations of remote are valid and shouldn't be dismissed, although I personally am extremely committed to remote.

I'm committed to remote, too, because the alternative (local pseudo-feudal crappy employers who generally underpay) is worse. But now on my own terms and with an employer I choose rather than the half-assed way that it was attempted at Google. And without my kids at home.

Probably, actually, I'll end up renting a desk out of home somewhere nearby.

Sounds like we both survived the pandemic with young kids at home. I for one won't be getting the t-shirt.

I agree with some qualifiers. I think some of us went all out with 'its just better' due to incessant onslaught of corporate propaganda telling me spending 2 hours in traffic is akin to meditation and 'me' time. Those ridiculous statements caused a lot of people to go into messaging overdrive that, arguably, lacked nuance.

Personally, I can attest that in person has some advantages over remote ( training comes to mind ), but I agree with the gist of the article that a lot depends on the audience ( some people don't need constant hand-holding ). And that is just two facets without touching the fact that not all jobs can be remote ( although a lot could be ) and some industries are ran by, well, old people who only know of one way to do things.

Is it harder? It can be. My team was fine, but some of us were already fighting for off-site schedule pre-pandemic.

After pandemic started, I made an obvious prediction that we will see some differentiation in companies ( full remote, hybrid, in person ). Workforce already voted for what they want ( remote jobs see 3-4 times the applicants ), but it is a larger cultural shift and companies would love to keep remote as a carrot for 'top performers'.