I just don't think smart companies can afford to force the employees back to the office right now.

It does feel like some kind of worker revolt. Literally everyone I know wants to quit or do something else. Not like we are talking independent variables here either. If you are already thinking about quitting and your co-worker quits obviously the chance you quit goes way up since your job probably just got way shittier.

I say this as someone who just went back to the office 2 days ago and I love it. Happiness to me is not sitting at home all day with as little interaction as possible.

I think companies are just going to have to play ball with this in the near term as I don't know how they can afford not to.