The open-plan office is dead, but nobody went home either. Companies spent billions ripping out cubicles to build collaboration palaces, then spent billions more forcing everyone back to fill them. The desks stayed empty either way.
What the numbers really showed is that the office was never about productivity β it was about proximity. The companies that stopped pretending otherwise are the ones that actually figured out what to do with the real estate: fewer desks, more reasons to show up, and no one tracking badge swipes.
There is no going back to how it was. There is only figuring out what the office is actually for.
