We’re inching closer to normal life. Microsoft’s announcement that next Monday it will start reopening its Redmond, Wash., campus to employees now working at home suggests that, a year after a wave of companies mandated remote work, the momentum is reversing. If the experience of last year is anything to go by, once one big company reopens, others will follow.
This makes perfect sense. Now that Covid vaccinations are well and truly underway—New York today opened up vaccinations to anyone over the age of 50, for example—the need for people to stay home should diminish. If vaccinations are a signal for people to more comfortably eat inside a restaurant, greet family members indoors and go to the movies, they ought to allow for a return to the office.