Company bans employees from working from home on Fridays because the office felt empty: 'I’m commuting an hour each way again purely for vibes.'

They made that switch based on feelings instead of facts or figures.

Over the past couple of years, more and more companies have been asking their remote employees to return to the office five days a week. In 2020, it felt as if working from home would be the future of white collar employment, but good things can only last so long. The hybrid model has defined the first half of the 2020s, and many employees and companies thrive under this system. It gives employees the option to work from home a couple of days a week without completely abandoning the office culture that can be so conducive to productivity and a positive work environment. It's truly the best of both worlds, so why are so many companies insistent on leaving it behind? 

One might assume that employees have been taking advantage of the freedoms that working from home affords for too long. Maybe there are too many "overemployed" people who secretly hold 2 or 3 full-time remote jobs and do mediocre work at all of them because they're spread too thin. Maybe the cost of commercial real estate is just too high to justify leaving it empty for an extra day of the week. 

If you ask me, most employers return to the office because they like the look of an office full of employees. It appears to be more productive than the alternative, and it's easy to value appearance over substance.