[weard_beard]

Why are squishy subjects like, "morale" and "onboarding" suddenly weighted so highly when middle managers might be laid off? These topics are often ignored, neglected, de-prioritized, or laughed at 90% of the time when the bottom line of the company is at stake.

[DiggyJohnson]

Morale and onboarding experience most directly affect individual contributors, not management. I'm not sure I really understand your point.

[weard_beard]

My point is that they affect individual contributors but they are being held up by middle management as the motivator to return to office. This is self serving and largely disingenuous. The real reasons for RTO involve middle management feeling uncomfortable or unable to micro manage in a way that actually impedes productive work.