My question is: how did people not realize this before the pandemic?
The workers of Silicon Valley (and other urban centres) literally created and sustained this problem all by themselves: "You have to get to Silicon Valley!"
People realized it. It was companies that were resisting it. I remember looking for remote work pre-pandemic and it was WAY harder, now it's more a default.
I'm in Uruguay, South America, so the pandemic has been an incredible boon to me. I even got a remote team management position !
I went mobile over a decade ago. Had some work travel to do, and it made so much sense I basically reorganized, ditched a desk phone (literally put it into a drawer, left VM announcements that I do not do VM, and have not had one since), setup a nice backpack with the goodies and never went back.
Through that time, I setup a home lab and just did more and more there, until about the only thing that matters is where stuff to work on actually is and whether I can move it.
People noticed it, but companies also knew what defense learned: long-term planning efficiency plummets when working remotely. And that goes for whether you're just two different in-office design centers working together, or if the entire team is remote. I'm sure companies are starting to see the decrease in quality and efficiency of project planning and management starting to show now which is why they're looking to return to offices.
My question is: how did people not realize this before the pandemic?
The workers of Silicon Valley (and other urban centres) literally created and sustained this problem all by themselves: "You have to get to Silicon Valley!"