[whopa]

I 100% agree: people are different and have a continuum of preferences. However, a frequently brought up point is that remote really only works well if the organization is "remote first", which excludes people who prefer to work in the office the majority of the time. The other way around seems to marginalize people who prefer working from home always/frequently. This bifurcates the talent pool, with the ensuing negative consequences. How do we reconcile this?

[benji-york]

I agree with the intent of your post, but want to point out that most people use the term "remote first" to mean that even those who are colocated work in such a way that is compatible with those who are distributed. Therefore, teams can consist of people who want to work together in an office along with team members who are distributed if the entire team embraces a "remote first" approach.

[lod723]

Pulling off that balance is extremely hard to implement in practice though. Usually it swings heavily one direction or the other, so one group is marginalized.

[benji-york]

I completely agree. I'll add that pulling off any good coordinated human activity is pretty hard in general.