[brotoss]

I would love to see some empirical evidence surrounding these magically enlightening "water cooler" conversations that managers claim creates value out of thin air, because I am convinced it is just lip service from managers and capital holders to justify their existence

[darkwizard42]

I don't know about empirical evidence but surely personal experience must lend some credence to this topic. It is far easier to just hit a whiteboard with a colleague (all virtual options for this are always a mess) and iterate quickly.

I wouldn't know how we would get empirical evidence but collaboration in the office is definitely valuable...I think the debate now is: is it worth all the downsides of commuting and colocating around high COL areas

[Root_Denied]

"The plural of anecdote is not data" is a saying I feel like I've been using a lot the last few years.

[dudul]

Surely, definitely, and at the end no evidence.

It is also valuable to be at home in a quiet environment.

[__derek__]

Knowing Amazon, the S-team absolutely used real data about productivity/cohesion/resilience for teams that spend more time in the office to make this decision, but they are absolutely not going to share it with anybody else.

[fmajid]

They do seem to be more analytical and data-driven than most, as with their "WBR" methodology, so I would give them some benefit of doubt:

https://commoncog.com/goodharts-law-not-useful/#:~:text=Amaz...

(if you don't have a Chromium-based browser, scroll to the heading "How the WBR Accomplishes This").