I'm using my throwaway account because this involves a family member. Anyways, a family member of mine works high up in the USA federal gov. They use to have them travel every few weeks as they are higher up in the gov. Without naming places, we live in another state than where they are station. They often have to travel to where they are station to grab one of the cars to go to DC for meetings, and at times they might have to fly to 2 or 3 cities in 1 day going to different meetings.
When they are at where they are station, they work 99% on their computer or they are in meetings. Sometimes the people they are meeting is on the phone somewhere else. I remember a few times they were told to come in to do a meeting, and he and 2 other people were there, and the important person was on the phone. Sometimes his boss didn't even show up.
After the virus they did constant test to figure out how fully remote work is doing compared to normal times. What they found is a 20% increase in productivity, they are a solid year or so ahead of schedule, their keeping more people, the cost dramatically dropped, and so on. They were even telling me to day if they were on the road they would've had to flown to Germany, then in a few hours somehow went to DC, and a few other places (meaning without remote they physically can't be as fast and as productive). Each trip was costing an average of several thousand on the low side, and obviously this isn't a thing on fully remote. There is less/no time in messing with packing, travel, and setup.
And then with this idiotic gov preaching about green, complaining about gas prices, etc. What the studies were showing is the majority of use of cars is to go to/from work, and remote takes them off the road. It saves the gov on the road messing up due to use, and it is more green. Because less cars are on the road, this takes away a lot of the demand for gas which helps lower the gas prices and other economic factors like food which heavily depend on gas prices. And so on. (so note this when Biden, AOC, etc say they are green or they are working on lowering the gas prices. In fact, do me a favor and push this part hard. Maybe it will force them to start pushing for remote work)
Anyways, every few weeks I hear about how his boss (or more so someone up the ladder) wants them to go back into the office. They are saying BS like it makes people happy, you can gather more info between each other, etc. All that BS. And today they announced to thousands the same BS, and even admitting how remote is productive, but people will feel more happy at work. In the past when my family member and others question this in asking for studies proving this, the other side gets PO and they don't even look at the studies showing what remote work does.
Anyways, in the meeting they wanted all the workers to come to work at least 1 time a week. Note many moved, and many are walking out the door. In fact, due to these idiots they had the most amount of people quitting and retiring because they don't want to go back. My family member looked into it and found out the reason why they wanted people to go back to work 1 day a week is the current policy is if they hire someone as remote. Then the job can get pay of the main area. However, since no one there was hired as remote, after some time the pay has to match where they are primary at. And instead of just changing the policy which is a simple thing. They want people to move back.
What is also coming up is some of the people own/invested into rentable land in the area. Much of it commercial land. When you have such a large workforce in the area, they become a renter or they shop at the places which keeps the rent coming in. So the uppers are screwing the people in yet another way. And what is coming out is this is extremely common between Google, FB, investment firms, and so on. Like this is happening both in the public and private sector.
Anyways, when my family member has to physically show up along with all the other people, go on trips that can easily cost $11k just due to the nature of it, and so on. Know, this is tax payer money being wasted all because the anti-remote movement and the middle management that shouldn't have a job in the first place.