When asked questions about how to capture the positives and lessons of the pandemic/lockdown for our working practises, they consistently resort to “we’re a people company” and “can’t wait to have meetings face to face again”. It’s like they lack the mental flexibility to see how well remote working works for many people most of the time, or that they have a deeper reason they’re not sharing for wanting everyone back on site.
Thankfully, I think the cat is far too far out of the bag now, to ever be fully put back inside. We were already losing out on promising hires due to old-fashioned remote working policies; and I suspect that the majority of people will want to retain at least a reasonable degree of location flexibility even if/when Covid is only a memory.