From what I can see, this return-to-office push seems to be mainly a thing in the UK and US. I'd be interested to know if it's happening in other anglophone countries like Australia, Canada, and NZ (I don't follow those countries' politics closely enough to know what's happening there), and whether it's happening in non-anglophone countries.
It's not happening in the non-anglophone country where I live in Europe. Offices are happily sticking with work-from-home or hybrid operations.
My own half-formed theory is that the economies of the UK and US are so financialised that the commercial real estate market is a much more integrated part of rulers' investment portfolios. Basically, they personally lose money if we collectively do the sensible thing and massively downsize our office space to take into account the new ways of working brought about by the pandemic. I mean, we all know they'd happily throw our work-life balance, lack of commutes, improved productivity, lessened pollution, and improved mental health on the bonfire to protect their money, right?
Anyway, there's not really a point to this post, I'm just interested in observations that support or counter my theory that this push is mainly a UK/US thing (or possibly an anglophone one).