I don't think anyone's holding anyone hostage, but it is true that these kinds of things require a relatively consistent corporate culture, because it's fundamentally about how you're relating to the other people you're working with. Showing up to an empty office doesn't really do anything, the point is that the office is where the other people you're working with also are.
I don't think all companies need to operate in one particular way, but getting the sense of belonging and meaning out of work some people want I think does generally require the team/org/company they're at to have that culture.
Well, sure, there are philosophical problems with having to work at all for a living -- but work is required by nature. If one sits and does nothing, one starves to death.
There's nothing in the natural order that says I must starve if I don't report to a particular building every day and sit at a particular desk when the tools for me to perform the same labor at a place of my own choosing exist. Forcing me to do so in order to maintain an employment contract is coercion, plain and simple, and the sooner society destroys that norm the better.
that is what the parent of your post was referring to. You want office fine? You want it nonempty? You want ME there too, by force? now you're holding me hostage
While there might be some benefits of an office just as a separate physical space for doing work, I think the vast majority of benefit people are referring to when talking about “the office” is being physically with the people they’re working with.
“Force” doesn’t seem like the right model here, any more than any other aspect of requiring to work for a living counts as force. (Which you might think it does, but singling out just office/remote as the part that’s by force doesn’t seem like it makes sense.)
