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Yeah... any time people wonder why a workforce won't "just unionize": It is because of shit like this. The moment a person is slightly inconvenienced or needs to compromise, it becomes "Fuck them. They didn't work hard enough. Why should I suffer for that?"

For primarily remote companies? Yeah. There are plenty of people who love to work on site and you can work toward hiring and relocating them. I interviewed three candidates for an on-site sysadmin a few weeks back and we sent an offer yesterday. Great person and I look forward to "meeting" her when I head in for a planning meeting next month.

But that is not what we are talking about. We are talking about companies that were primarily on-site that became hybrid or remote because of the pandemic. Which is a very different situation.

Because, using my example: In 2019, I spent maybe 10-12 hours a week in fancy rooms that didn't have internet access. And, depending on the week, I might help out with fixing issues where physically touching hardware is beneficial another 1 to 6 hours (wasn't entirely my job, but I had the skill set and didn't mind helping out).

Suddenly? The vast majority of my co-workers have a MUCH better work life balance. They are spending time with their kids, not having to commute, eating much cheaper (and better) lunches, playing POE over lunch, etc. But, because I had done some paperwork a few years prior, I didn't get that. Instead, I got to instead spend 20-30 hours a week in the fancy room (because it would be so easy for me to just do the 10 or 15 minutes of work that twenty other people needed to do...) and the rest of my time was being full time "check if it is plugged in".

And I am not gonna pretend I wasn't immensely pissed off when I saw the company slack full of people who were ENRAGED over the idea of having to come in two or three days a week. You know, in my off time because of being in an airgapped room for most of the week. Again, it is "demoralizing"

So yeah. The people who do want to be completely isolated and never get to do anything "fun" will eventually take those jobs. But you also lose a lot of institutional knowledge. And yes, you run the risk of losing the people who can do their jobs entirely remotely. But the vast majority of people still live in the area and can do a hybrid work week. As for the rest? It is a lot easier to hire a new remote employee than someone with the credentials and skillset to do the on-site work...

And considering my old field is relatively small: I know most of my counterparts. Hell, I play Warframe with a couple of them. And we all had similar stories of suddenly getting the shit end of the stick AND being ridiculously isolated. Like, my buddy Greg at REDACTED was outright ignored for a "leadership" role in a new effort for what was literally his specialty because most people making those decisions had "kind of forgotten about" him.

Ignoring the pointless need to open up with an ad hominem:

Yes, there are plenty of fully remote companies and many don't even have an official office location. That does not mean that higher level management and design don't have in person meetings. Maybe they are "retreats" where a cabin in the woods is rented. Maybe it is just hanging out in a hotel room at a trade show. There is still immense benefit to co-location for that kind of planning where even just seeing "Hey, Fred, you look like you want to say something?" goes a long way.

Companies with more democratized management/design models benefit from more co-location. It is the idea of being willing to take feedback or advice from even low level employees because the middle managers know they have insights. And, again, there is a big difference between checking someone's office on the way back from a bathroom and pinging them to ask if they have time for a call. If it is important? You ping them and tell them to call in on their phone. If it is just about thinking? Maybe you check if they are available or you schedule a meeting for later but... you often just don't.

Are there companies that are truly 100% remote where nobody ever meets in person? Sure. And the successful ones are usually built around a core group of people who have known each other for decades. And... those have different management/planning problems.