Is the work-from-home debate already over?

theguardian.com:

I think we can all agree that, for the most part and thankfully, the worst of the Covid pandemic is over. People are getting back to their normal lives. But does a “normal life” mean coming back to the office? That’s up for debate. And what a debate it is.

Workers at AT&T say they’re being forced to return to the office early and have started a Change.org petition to make their company’s pandemic work-from-home policies permanent. Apple employees, upset with their company’s return-to-office orders, have launched a petition saying the company has risked stifling diversity and staff wellbeing by restricting their ability to work remotely.

Meanwhile a few big-name corporate leaders are pushing back. JPMorgan Chase’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, has publicly complained about remote work and Zoom, which he refers to as “management by Hollywood Squares”. And unlike the Apple employees, Dimon believes that returning to the office will “aid diversity”. Elon Musk has jumped into the debate, telling his employees that he’s happy for them to work from home, as long as they’ve worked 40 hours in the office.

A Stanford economist says that working from home is fueling growth at companies around the world and other studies support his claim, with one finding that 77% of workers reported increased productivity when operating remotely. However, there are other reports that conclude that those who work full-time at home are 70% less productive than those who don’t work from home.

And what about mental health? Many experts feel that working from home has the potential to reduce stress levels because “there’s no daily commute, you can sleep a bit longer, family commitments are easier to manage and you’ll likely achieve a better level of concentration