Aww!

This is what my cat looks like after climbing my pantry shelf, and prying the lid off my crock pot

This is a side point, but I get mildly infuriated when articles like this state “Some leaders say they insist on full-time in-person work because it boosts productivity, despite clear evidence that it does not.” Oh? Clear evidence? I can’t find any. Can you? There are 3 journal articles referenced in that sentence, none of which say anything about productivity. I poked around Google Scholar and find that productivity gain / loss is still unknown, and depends greatly on the work and the field. Do you have to use actual physical stuff in an office? Definitely lower productivity working from home. Do you work with a team that’s all in the same office? Also a solid productivity loss. But if you don’t work with anyone in your office and all your stuff is online? No probably no productivity loss (but I didn’t find a specific reference there).

I’ve seen a ton of posts saying WFH is so clearly better for revenue and productivity, and it’s more about the sunk cost of the office space rented or a boss wanting to lord over his employees. And yes, I like that narrative and it works well for me, but the actual research just isn’t there and it bugs me that it’s stated like a solid irrefutable fact. It’s not! it’s a gray area! it depends!