In the months following return-to-office mandates, an increased number of senior employees departed Apple, Microsoft and SpaceX, often to work for competitors.
My manager didn't care for it when I pointed out that making us go into the office three times per week was equivalent to an approximately $5,000 pay cut. Not including wear and tear on the car.
Because while you're commuting, that's effectively "company time" you're not getting paid for. If you work 8 hours a day and your commute is half an hour each way, then you're taking 9, not 8 hours a day out of your schedule for work. That's an extra ~250 hours a year you're taking out of your own time for work, whereas with an "instant commute" WFH, the moment you logoff becomes personal time again.
I even used to be bothered by that quite a bit. Now I've been working from home for so long that it wouldn't cross my mind, even if I thought about commuting...
I've been hybrid even during COVID, because sometimes I have to go in and test, but recently there's been a mandatory RTO push, and it's absolutely absurd thinking about all the work I could be doing between getting ready to head out the door and getting to the office. It's straight up 2+ hours of wasted productivity any day I could have been WFH but decide to go into the office.
We even had people showing hard data their teams are less productive in-office, but I shit you not, management just said "They feel like it'll be better". Literally managing based on feelings > facts, which I'm sure our shareholders would love if they found out.