[BergTheBold]

I'm not a researcher, but I do have some thoughts on this. Some managers assume that if they can't see you, then you aren't working. This is possibly true for some employees, but I believe bad employees aren't only bad if they work from home. They're likely just bad employees all the time and now they can't be monitored. People want to "get back to normal", which could include working from a shared office. However, there can be disagreement on whether what used to be "normal" was really good for everyone. Also, managers need to manage. That is, some people think their job is to make up rules, so if they make up more rules then that gives the appearance that they're really working hard. There are some real benefits to sharing an office. It can make some types of meetings easier to facilitate. It can be easier to get to know your coworkers if you're in the same place.

[ejb999]

I personally hate having everyone working from home - how many times have you been on a zoom call with a team, someone gets asked a question, and the inevitable response 'sorry, I was multi-tasking can you repeat the question? (i.e. they were doing something else unrelated to the meeting) - it happens over and over on a daily basis on calls I am on.

If these people were all in the same room, they wouldn't get away with it for long - but somehow it has become acceptable.

That said, I am a big believer in WFH for people that cam manage their time and dedication just as well as if they were onsite - but so far, in my experience, that is about 20% of people.

[daveoc64]

I've never had that happen.

Your team is either incredibly rude, or they're too polite to say that they're zoning out because the meeting is a waste of time.

[ejb999]

right - and rude people wouldn't be tolerated in an in-person meeting, on a zoom call, especially without video - a lot of people don't pay attention or engage like they would in person.

[bluefirebrand]

In my experience, people zone out or check their phones all the time in in-person meetings.