you say remote work slows things down, but, today.... I met with the various teams I oversee (contractors, FTEs). The majority of them live/work in other states and I only see them when they fly to the mothership for an onsite (and many, I will never meet). I work for a subsidiary of a company that has its own mothership in another continent, so much of my work is necessarily remote.

I didn't go to the office this week because my employer said we're in "yellow tier", which means masking up in the office. We're open office, so that means a bunch of people sitting around each other in masks. I didn't have any critical meetings that would have worked best in person.

I talked to my one coworker who is also local (my manager used COVID to move to another state) and we agreed it didn't make much sense to come in since the majority of my coworkers work elsewhere. Why come in if there's almost nobody there?

That said after a few weeks, I do want to visit the office to see a bunch of people in person but it's mainly for social reasons, not because it makes me more effective locally. I have worked on linux/python remotely off hours for decades (and often just not come into the office a few days a week). It really seems like this is ultimately about personal preferences.