> It's that, unfortunately, they have enough hard numbers to know most people do their best work with a boss physically breathing down their neck.
While the conclusion — that most people do their best work when in the office — may be correct, why do you think that the cause of that is the boss breathing down people's necks rather than, say, more efficient collaboration among team members?
My personal observations of my team over the past couple of years are that people are much more engaged, issues get resolved much quicker, and information radiates much better when team members are co-located. This is something that many were in agreement on before covid.
It may be more efficient collaboration among team members. The end-result is the same: more output for the same cost if people are congregating.
> This is something that many were in agreement on before covid
This is an excellent observation worth highlighting: Google's belief stems not just from pre-COVID / post-COVID observation but from the relative output of teams that were same-office colocated vs. inter-office located, necessitating videoconferencing, chat, and email to get work done. Now that you highlight that, I think my reasoning is in error and it's probably more about collaboration being easier in-person. But inconveniently for those who don't want to work in person, the end-result is the same.
Not to mention how body language helps resolve so much surrounding tone when saying something in person. Telling someone to do a thing face-to-face can easily be neutrally charged. The same sentiment expressed in text can carry more weight - feel like an order and appear as if it is more urgent leading to stress
While the conclusion — that most people do their best work when in the office — may be correct, why do you think that the cause of that is the boss breathing down people's necks rather than, say, more efficient collaboration among team members?
My personal observations of my team over the past couple of years are that people are much more engaged, issues get resolved much quicker, and information radiates much better when team members are co-located. This is something that many were in agreement on before covid.