Here is a hot take …<p>What if big companies are actually afraid of unions or some other form of organization ?<p>By forcing everyone back to office, it says … I still have control over you. Don’t you dare step out of line.<p>How else can a big company show its power of its workers other than layoffs, and physically forcing them to be somewhere ?
This whole thing is claiming it's about data, but the only data is about retention. It's not that hard to imagine a scenario where you care more about productivity or work quality or any other factor that would outweigh retention. Or, as many have been suggesting, that it's desirable for them to reduce headcount.