Is it really such a crisis that the peasants want to work from home?
For many years companies paid consultants oodles of money to help them foster better work cultures. Those with deep pockets, and perhaps with one eye on their egos, paid architects to design signature headquarters for all their employees to spend all their working hours busily being acculturated. It was expected that the result of these grand designs was a workforce that was engaged. Presumably an engaged worker is one rather like an engaged fiance or fiancee who (in theory) focuses their gaze laser-like on their intended spouse, and is not distracted in their quest to commit marriage. Of course, it is possible that an engaged worker is one who is currently on another call, probably to a recruiter. I suspect, in most cases, employers were thinking more along the lines of marriage than separation when in their engagement drives. Working from home  Now we find ourselves back in a situation perhaps not unlike the turning point of the late middle ages when the black death wreaked havoc on lives and economies. Some have argued that the peasants then did well due to labour shortages occasioned by death, and even enjoyed improved diets due to changing priorities in food production. Today, business types are worrying themselves about a crisis of culture disengagement. It turns out the peasants do not want to return to the office. The latest notable example of this appears to be at Apple who have recently introduced a hybrid working model as an experiment. This apparently involves working in the office Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, with the option to work from anywhere for two weeks a year.