We keep framing this as a productivity question when it is really a power question. Executives want bodies in seats because that is how they learned to manage. The productivity studies are just ammunition for whichever side is commissioning them. Meanwhile the actual workers figured out long ago that a mix works best — some days you need the office for collaboration, some days you need your couch for deep focus. The companies that let teams decide for themselves instead of issuing mandates from the top are the ones getting it right.

I managed a 40-person engineering team through the transition and back. Productivity went up on paper for the first year because people worked longer hours, not smarter ones. By year two we saw burnout spike and the junior engineers were falling behind because they lost all the casual learning that happens when you sit near someone senior. The real answer is that remote work is productive for experienced individual contributors and terrible for anyone who needs mentorship or spontaneous collaboration.