Also the divide between people who work in private offices and those who are in cubicles cheek to jowl and wear headphones to specifically block out all the chatter.

And so many of these articles trumpeting the value of in-person work seem to ignore how many workers have been working with overseas engineering teams for decades. My going back into the office means spending 1.5-2 hours a day commuting, to go into a room and conduct the same GoTo Meetings I can do at home, without being exposed to aerosolized viruses or having to wear a mask for 8 hours a day. I work on two different product teams, and we are situated on separate floors. So again, even in the office, my collaboration with them will be over Slack, just like from home. I am at the tail end of my worklife, so my experience and opinions are based on not needing to get promoted and climb the career ladder. But I do not want to go back to the office and if it comes to being forced to do so more than a couple of days a month, I will just retire.