Are all the corporations trying to promote in-office work as a justification for buying offices in an attempt to hedge against inflation with property?
I wonder how the conversation on remote/hybrid/local office would go if real estate was not a financial instrument...
Check out Revolutionary Road by Yates for someone writing about it in the context of a recognizably modern office environment of the late 50s / early 60s (book published in 1961). The whole work-side portion of that book revolves around "boreout" and an office culture that normalized and enabled work-avoidance, this was already familiar territory for office workers then. I guarantee you can find earlier examples.
On another note:
> “What they don’t realize is that they’re draining people. You don’t need to see people’s faces at every meeting,” Grant says. “Particularly if it’s a smaller group of people who know each other well. Going cameras off is actually a great way to let people recharge, and then they show up more excited to connect when they do.”
I have to assume anyone who thinks having a camera trained on your face while looking at a wall of Brady Bunch videos of people who appear to all be staring at your neck is at all comparable to actually being in a physical meeting sitting around a table, haven't spent much time reflecting on it. Yeah, it's draining and awful in anything but tiny doses, and frankly creepy as hell.