In-person offices compress the time from question to answer, accelerating execution and alignment.
When you’re co-located, micro‑decisions happen in seconds—a quick glance, a tap on the shoulder, a sketch on the whiteboard. Decades of organizational research (from the classic Allen Curve to recent Microsoft Research on remote work networks) shows proximity drives richer, more frequent collaboration and reduces siloing. That immediacy shrinks coordination costs, resolves blockers before they metastasize, and keeps cross‑functional teams moving in the same direction. In a world where speed compounds, those minutes and hours add up to real competitive advantage.
Face‑to‑face collaboration reliably sparks more and better ideas.
Creative work thrives on shared attention, physical artifacts, and energy in the room; you can feel when a whiteboard session catches fire. Laboratory and field studies, including work published in top journals, find that virtual channels narrow attention and idea space compared with in‑person brainstorming. In the office, people riff spontaneously, notice nonverbal cues, and build on half‑formed thoughts that would die on mute. The result is more divergent thinking early, followed by faster convergence on high‑quality solutions.
Offices supercharge onboarding, mentorship, and tacit knowledge transfer.
So much of real expertise is tacit—tone, timing, judgment—that is absorbed by shadowing, overhearing, and quick side‑coaching. Proximity lets new hires model veterans in context, ask the “small” questions they would never schedule, and get timely feedback that reshapes their habits. This accelerates ramp‑up, strengthens professional identity, and expands internal networks that later pay off in opportunities. For early‑career talent especially, the office is an apprenticeship engine you can’t fully replicate on a screen.
The office creates healthy boundaries, routine, and a sense of belonging that protect well‑being.
A consistent commute and workplace ritual act as psychological bookends, signaling when work starts and when it’s truly done. Telemetry and surveys from recent years show remote setups often blur time, pushing more after‑hours pings and creeping work into personal space. Being on‑site restores clearer norms around availability and gives people face‑to‑face social support—the small laughs, check‑ins, and camaraderie that buffer stress. That structure makes it easier to work intensely at work and be fully present at home.