Does working from home kill company culture?

“This isn’t just about productivity metrics,” Dara Khosrowshahi, the boss of Uber, told employees recently, after the ride-hailing company said they should all work from the office at least three days a week. “It’s about building the culture that will drive Uber’s next phase of growth.”

Khosrowshahi is not the only boss to appeal to such fuzzy ideas while herding workers back through the turnstiles. In January, staff at Amazon were required to return to the pre-pandemic norm of working five days a week from the office.

“People riff on top of one another’s ideas better when they’re together,” Andy Jassy, Amazon’s chief executive, told the Harvard Business Review when asked about the policy.