Leaders typically cannot define the “why” of in-office work.

And … they don’t believe they have to define it, which is where the brawls and distrust come from.

The takes become tedious

It seems like we’ve been going on two years now discussing the whole return to work thing, i.e. the office hokey pokey, and the takes are definitely getting tedious. In both directions, it appears the “WFH Revolution” eroded trust. Executives think: “These peons don’t want to work hard like I did.” Junior people think: “Why am I driving 25 minutes to an office when I can do most of this stuff from home?” A rational person thinks: “Why do we talk about all this so much when only about 40% of people can truly work from home anyway? Do you want the bartender on the corner working remotely?”

While it has been fun to watch all the tripping-over about “defining the culture,” what’s really happening here is The Hammer of Hierarchy. I haven’t seen any single compelling reason for return-to-office in any media outlet in 20 months. Not a single one. Here’s the common ones you see/hear, of course:

• “Collaborative culture”
• “Spontaneous interaction”
• “Build the team”
• “We are a team and need to be…