While employers can ultimately do whatever they want, people hired remote prior to covid should remain remote. I think its sad when remote hires are caught up in the return to office drag net. These individuals were typically hired due to a lack of a local skill pool so the employer hired remote to find the talent. Its simply counter productive to try and make them move local and will result in the same problem eventually and the employer will be forced to hire remote once again.

Having said all that, the author misses the point on tax incentives being the driver of this. I know of many situations where the employer could care less about tax incentives and the overall cost of the return to office mandate. If they cared about money, they would sell or tear down their corporate HQs like many have. For some, its about what the c-level believes will make them successful. You can argue they are right or wrong in their belief, I'm in the wait and see camp of what this looks like in five years to see what we learn by trying different things.