Work from home is dying, we’ve seen it with our own eyes, here’s why.

For many businesses, the answer is becoming increasingly clear: yes, work from home is on the decline.

Over the last six months, we’ve worked with a range of ambitious brands, and we’ve noticed a pattern. The businesses that have encouraged teams back into the office, even for just a few extra days each week, are often moving faster, making decisions quicker, and growing more rapidly than those operating almost entirely remotely.

That isn’t a criticism of home working. It has its place. It offers flexibility, can improve work-life balance, and suits certain roles exceptionally well. But when growth is the priority, we’ve consistently found that being together in the same room creates an advantage that’s difficult to replicate online.

However, we have first hand experience knowing that the unfortunate reality is; people extend their weekends with the Monday and Friday WFH.

Friday because an easier ride, an earlier switch off, and Monday is a slower start. Of course, there’s many people who take advantage of this flexibility, having that extra few drinks on a Sunday, waking up at 8.55am on a Monday, rolling into your meeting.

Businesses are losing precious hours every week. 

During and just after COVID, when WFH felt like a privilege, most people did work hard, appreciating that flexibility, but we strongly feel that this has been taking for granted now. Many people are too used to it, so we frequently see people ‘looking’ like they are working, but in reality they are just checking in on Slack or Teams, to then take the dog out, do the washing, pick up the kids at 3pm, and so on.

Before COVID, we were in the office, 9am-5pm, no excuses. Business owners got more hours out of their staff.

The biggest difference is communication.

Imagine you have a quick question for your designer, developer or marketing manager. In an office, you turn your chair, ask the question, get an answer in 30 seconds, and carry on. Problem solved.

Working from home often looks different. You send a Teams message. They’re busy. They reply 20 minutes later with a partial answer. You respond with another question. Before long, you’ve exchanged ten messages or booked a video call that could have been avoided entirely.

Multiply that across dozens of conversations every day, and those small delays become a significant drag on productivity.

Collaboration benefits too. Some of the best ideas don’t happen in scheduled meetings. They happen while sketching on a whiteboard, overhearing a conversation, or gathering around someone’s desk to solve a problem together. Those spontaneous moments are much harder to recreate through a webcam.

For creative businesses especially, energy is contagious. Designers inspire developers. Sales teams share feedback with marketers. Leaders spot opportunities in real time. That momentum builds naturally when people work side by side.

Of course, there are successful remote-first companies, and many individuals thrive when working from home. But for businesses trying to scale quickly, our experience suggests that regular office collaboration gives teams a meaningful competitive edge.

So, is work from home dead?

Not entirely, but we think that day is coming.

From what we’ve seen, businesses that prioritise face-to-face collaboration are often the ones accelerating ahead, while those relying heavily on remote working can find themselves moving at a slower pace.

In business, speed matters. And sometimes, the fastest communication tool isn’t another app or platform. It’s simply walking over to someone’s desk and having a conversation.