At its heart, the battle over remote work is a test of corporate America’s definition of an ideal worker. For decades or even longer, that has been a person who prioritizes their job above all else and has no outside commitments.
It’s “an incredibly powerful story,” said Brigid Schulte, the director of the Better Life Lab program at the think tank New America. “It’s part of our culture. It’s part of our DNA.”
It’s probably not shocking that people who are lower on the org chart tend to be less enthusiastic about returning to the office than the senior leaders and executives who thrived in the in-person Before Times.
“For many C.E.O.s and managers, that’s how they worked. That’s how they succeeded and that’s the only way they know,” Ms. Schulte said. “All of this was completely false; it was totally a fake story we’ve been telling ourselves.”
