At Amazon they walked off the job. At Starbucks and Walt Disney they launched petitions. At Google they demanded a rethink.
This is how workers at some of the world’s best known companies responded this year to a rule that would have sounded outlandish before the pandemic: come in to the office at least three days a week. Or four in the case of Disney.
Of all the consequences of the new age of flexible work, the one I least expected was this level of corporate rebellion. But it has not been the only surprise. Three years after millions of employees were ordered home, the question of where and when staff work remains remarkably complicated.