Flexible workspaces where nobody has a fixed desk gets reinvented every five-ten years by some manager coaches that charges way too much for lectures and yet there has been exactly zero employees that want to start their every single regular day in the office looking for a vacant anonymous desk a good distance from the microwave, with a working chair and nobody annoying next to them.
These days, they're selling software solutions, not just lectures. Now they get to charge a subscription fee on top of everything else!
I work 2000km away from the office. I've been there once. When I walked up to the front door for the first time, after 3 years of working there, I was greeted to a locked door and a sign reminding me to "check in on Envoy". Apparently, they wanted me to reserve my desk a day in advance, online.
No one had ever bothered to show me what that was, or how to do that, because I, uh, work 2000km away from the office. And I wouldn't have known which desk was next to the microwave because I, uh, work 2000km away from the office.
Plus you're stuck using your stupid laptop keyboard unless you want to lug a keyboard and mouse around. It's really sucky for people who have carpal tunnel and need special mice and keyboards.
At my job every desk has a docking station with 1 or 2 monitors, a keyboard and a mouse. I actually quite like it. We've also got a "quiet office" to get work done and a "loud office" to take calls and stuff. I feel it's a good solution for companies our size (30-ish people that work from home half of the time).
Can confirm my job at a massive firm is like this, I do lug a keeb and mouse in when i go. But, I pretty much never go in because fuck that and the commute
Sure I can, work in an apartment building and live on the top floor so your office is only 9.8m/s^(2) away. 12 seconds to freefall and 18 seconds at terminal velocity means you can live on the 400th floor and still beat 30 seconds.