Office or WFH? Maybe we need some need both?

This is a big statement. There is no shortage of debate around the WFH issue. Many feel culture, creativity, and collaboration suffer. Other disagree. There is little data to prove that productivity increases in an office environment, or suffers from remote work. While collaboration tools have become better during the pandemic and remote work is more facilitated than ever before, there certainly remains a range of conflicting opinions.

But maybe it’s no so much about trying to assess productivity, rather more about what happens around human energy and face-to-face interaction, about the water cooler, and discussing the score of the game last night. What do humans need? What really contributes to employee satisfaction?

Do human interpersonal interactions stimulate ideation? Do we need in-person relationships to innovate? Maybe the answer is “sometimes”. Which might suggest a conclusion that we need both. That in-office and remote work can nicely co-exist?