I once worked a job that was hybrid: 3 days remotely, 2 in the office. A nice balance, though I prefer to be fully remote.
There's an internal announcement email in our inboxes one morning; the company hired a new CMO and they're being flown out to our office to meet the team, and we're all required to be on-site for the entire week to “give them a warm welcome.” Nobody is happy to hear this, obviously.
Monday morning rolls around and we all meet the new CMO. Nice lady, very friendly, but it was painfully obvious that even she didn't want to be there either. Our managers announced she would be meeting each and every one of us to learn more about the company and how things worked.
“Normally I've only ever worked remotely, but it's nice to meet you all!” she greets the team in our morning stand up. Immediately after, she retreats to an empty conference room… on the other end of the building… and stayed there all day, every day for the entire week. Nobody ever saw her on the floor again, and she clearly wanted to be left alone to work, which was fine.
So…. why were we in the office again?
I'm convinced this was yet another attempt to try and salvage that good ol' “office culture” that boomers go on about.