This is the main thing I've noticed - the people who talk about how there is something lost in how work gets done haven't changed how work gets done.
You can't just move to being remote without rethinking how you do everything. People were forced to be remote with COVID, but corporate essentially just tried to port the way things were done to remote, and on realizing it didn't work as well, want to move back.
A few places are doing things correctly and building specifically for remote work.
I honestly believe this is why we have such stark disparity in studies.
100% this.
I've been remote since covid. First job was transitioned and I mentored and onboarded people. It was alot of screen sharing, and messaging back and forth. This was no different (but better) then onsite where they would cram into my cube and try to take notes. Remote made this 100% better.
Next company, I was the new guy and there were issues getting up to speed. Nobody really owned the onboarding process and this "remote first" environment had alot of technical debt and poor documentation.
Now I'm at another remote first company, and it's great. I know who to ask and I get answers real-time or asynchronous, depending on what needs to happen. People are responsive and regular meetings keep us on the same page.
Documentation is stressed and kept up to date.
We're 100% remote and this is absolutely key. You need to be deliberate about designing your operational processes around remote work. That means when you onboard someone you don't just dump them in a slack account and tell them to follow a doc. You pair them with someone until they're ramped up.
You can't just move to being remote without rethinking how you do everything. People were forced to be remote with COVID, but corporate essentially just tried to port the way things were done to remote, and on realizing it didn't work as well, want to move back.
A few places are doing things correctly and building specifically for remote work.
I honestly believe this is why we have such stark disparity in studies.