Yes, the company suffers a little. The humans who make up the company however gain considerably.
A person who puts the well-being of a company above that of the humans comprising it is one who has lost some of their own humanity.
Teleworker friendly companies attract better workers from a much wider area, remote workers are more productive, the company is more flexible in terms of growth, and has lower overhead. Yet, incompetent management needs a new fad to seem like there doing something which is why company cycle back and forth though this issue.
PS: On top of all that it makes it harder for lazy employees to seem like there working. Those long hours posting on Facebook pretending to slave for bosses who just cares about the appearance of work stop being so useful.
Honest question: Why? Please be detailed. I could explain all the things that keep my home work from feeling lonely, but it'll be easier for me to stick to things relevant to you if i know exactly what is on your mind.
> Of course I have a five minute commute.
Five minutes from exactly where to where? Living room sofa in normal clothes to office desk with computer switched on and work software running? The exit of your apartment complex to the external door of your office building?
I'm sure you're being a little ... optimistic about your timing there.
> Of course I have a five minute commute.
You're suggesting people move from a place where they may be near the things they enjoy in their life, to work. That is not an improvement, that just shifts the pain from one end to the other.
In no particular order you need to: get a job 5 minutes away. have your spouse do the same. hope that your company never moves or you never lose your job. purchase/rent a house large enough for 7 in a nice part of town in the part of town that meets the above parameters. Hope that the school zoned to said house is of good quality or find a private school that is also close by. Turn down offers for advancement in the name of organizing your life better. Uproot the kids and spouse when any of the above conditions cannot be met.
And my commute is 2+ hours each way. I would not trade it for working from home.
On the other hand, it is quite naive to claim that establishing an office in your living space, where you may only be disturbed for important things (hey how does not getting disturbed actually work out in your office?), is somehow a worse deal than throwing away an 8th of your week on commute. ( (2.125) / (24*7) )
That is only barely remotable, if at all. Bringing that up in a conversation about fulltime remote working is off-topic. It's as if you'd written "i work on a construction site, and let me tell you, moving those metal beams is hard via my ipad".