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Galston Daniel Henninger Holman W. Jenkins Andy Kessler William McGurn Walter Russell Mead Peggy Noonan Mary Anastasia O'Grady Jason Riley Joseph Sternberg Kimberley A. Strassel More Editorials Commentary Future View Letters to the Editor The Weekend Interview Potomac Watch Podcast Foreign Edition Podcast Free Expression Podcast Opinion Video Notable & Quotable * Books & Arts Reviews Film Television Theater Masterpiece Series Music Dance Opera Exhibition Cultural Commentary Sections Arts Books More WSJ Puzzles Life Video Arts Video * Real Estate Sections Commercial Real Estate More Real Estate Video * Life & Work Sections Cars Careers Food & Drink Home & Design Ideas Personal Finance Recipes Travel Wellness Columns Your Health Work & Life The Middle Seat Bonds At Work Turning Points On Wine On The Clock More WSJ Puzzles Space & Science * Style Sections Fashion Film Television Music Art & Auctions Columns My Monday Morning Off Brand On Trend * Sports Sections Beijing 2022 Olympics MLB NBA NFL Golf Tennis Soccer Columns Jason Gay Search This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/ the-lonely-office-is-bad-for-america-work-from-home-polarization-professionalism-ambition-mentorship-unity-friendship-zoom-11659033821 Share * Facebook * Twitter * LinkedIn * Copy Link * Opinion * Declarations The Lonely Office Is Bad for America Employees may like remote work, but it tends to break down both organizational and national culture. Peggy Noonan hedcutBy Peggy Noonan July 28, 2022 6:44 pm ET print The Week's Best And Worst From Kim Strassel, Jillian Melchior And Mene Ukueberuwa Listen to article (3 minutes) Where are we in the office wars? I think there's an armistice between the return-to-the-office side and the work-from-home forces. Perhaps hostilities will resume in the fall. Bosses are hoping the old reality will snap back as the drama of 2020-22 recedes, that people will start to feel they need to come back, or can be made to. The work-from-home people are dug in, believing they're on the winning side, that the transformation of work in America, which had been going remote for years, was simply sped up and finalized by the pandemic. In this tight job market they have the upper hand. Employers are fighting for talent: Fire me--I'll get a better job tomorrow, and you'll get 50 hours with HR onboarding my replacement. The balance of power will change if the slowing economy leads to layoffs and hiring freezes. The benefits of working from home are obvious: freedom, no commute; it's easier to be there for family, the dog, the dentist appointment. Less time wasted in goofy officewide meetings. I've wondered if there is another aspect, that office life was demystified by what began in the years before the pandemic, the rise of HR complaints and accusations of bullying, bad language and sexual misconduct. Add arguments over masks and vaccines, and maybe office life came to be seen less as a healthy culture you could be part of and more like a battlefield you wanted to avoid. SubscribeSign In [wsj-logo-b] Continue reading your article with a WSJ membership View Membership Options Sponsored Offers * Target: Up to 60% off - Target Promo Code * Macy's: Macy's coupon - Sign up to get 25% off next order * Michaels: Michaels coupon code for senior - Extra 10% off * Saks Fifth Avenue: $20 off sitewide + free shipping - Saks Fifth Avenue coupon * Wayfair: Up to 15% off + free shipping at Wayfair * eBay: Extra 25% off eBay coupon for your purchases About this article Declarations "Declarations" seeks the truth and then tries to state that truth. The column is published online every Thursday evening and aims to give clarity and humor where appropriate. It is isn't overtly ideological and asks the reader to be open to different considerations. Peggy Noonan Peggy Noonan Peggy Noonan is an opinion columnist at the Wall Street Journal where her column, "Declarations," has run since 2000. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2017. A political analyst for NBC News, she is the author of nine books on American politics, history and culture, from her most recent, "The Time of Our Lives," to her first, "What I Saw at the Revolution." She is one of ten historians and writers who contributed essays on the American presidency for the book, "Character Above All." Noonan was a special assistant and speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan. In 2010 she was given the Award for Media Excellence by the living recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor; the following year she was chosen as Columnist of the Year by The Week. She has been a fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics, and has taught in the history department at Yale University. Before entering the Reagan White House, Noonan was a producer and writer at CBS News in New York, and an adjunct professor of Journalism at New York University. She was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up there, in Massapequa Park, Long Island, and in Rutherford, New Jersey. She is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University in Rutherford. She lives in New York City. In November, 2016 she was named one of the city's Literary Lions by the New York Public Library. 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