Never complain about the hours. There may be someone in management who doesn't support remote work, who could use such complains to argue against it. Sometimes, when I'm searching to find the right words to say at 4-something-am, I've confessed that I'm a bit tired, but I really try to never mention it.
Most remote employees are not in a such a remote time zone, but I did the same thing when I was working remotely. I never complained about anything related to remote work or my home office situation. Any problems with my home office got fixed quietly. I bought anything I needed and didn’t mention it. The narcissistic managers are still gunning to get their servants back under their boots and they are winning that battle lately. Don’t give them anything they can use against remote workers.
Honestly there are a few things that are driving RtO.
Many large companies that have thousands of employees get huge tax breaks from cities/states to have offices in major metro areas because they 'generate money/taxes' at local businesses. The government is mad that "tech people" don't want to be in their shithole city paying taxes on lunch/coffee/etc 5-days a week so they are suggesting that the companies will lose their tax breaks if they dont push RTO.
Middle managers were shown how useless and unnecessary they are during covid and are fighting hard to keep their jobs. They see forcing people back into the office where they can be "properly monitored" will justify their existence.
There are a LOT of people that suck at working remotely and they are screwing it up for the rest of us. They collect a paycheck and maybe send 2-3 emails a day and log in for an hour or two just to give the illusion they are working. Upper management is not stupid and they see it and are getting tired of firing people that don't work well remotely just to hire someone that does the same thing.
The myth that "hallway/watercooler" conversations drive innovation. Nope, it sure does not. Your best and brightest not being pestered all of the time by your "good enough" employees so they can do their damn job is what drives innovation.
People are "lonely" since most of the social interaction they get is due to forced socialization in the workplace. (Get some fucking friends or go to a coffee shop or something).
Those are the main ones off the top of my head in no particular order. Some people do great work remotely, some are good enough and some are unable to work (even in a office) if there isn't someone checking on them several times a day in-office.
I remember the lonely people. Once everyone got used to working remotely the lonely ones were the only ones who wanted to go back to the office. The rest of us were done with it.
One more thing driving return to office is company cutbacks. There is a lot of that lately. Firing is expensive and sometimes causes legal problems. It’s better if you can get people to quit on their own. They know a lot of people hate the office, and some even moved far from it and would have a long commute or live too far away. Forcing in‐office attendance trims off a few people. It’s also not as bad for morale if people quit because of a RTO mandate.
It explains why some of the office returns have been poorly planned without enough office space, parking, etc. They want the office to be miserable. They can fix the problems after they’re finished shedding employees.
I don't know about the "not as bad for morale" part. I am working at a company that wants all new hires (with limited exceptions) near a main office even thought they have closed most of the offices.
They also want anyone that already lives within an hour of a main office to commute at least a couple of days a month to the office... That no one else is in. Really, not kidding.
This has cost the company some of its best engineers and tech people in a way that is already obvious and causing HUGE pain in all of the product teams/engineering/hardware/etc...
Short sighted stupidity. All of those people that quit? Well, they went on to other companies that were happy to have them remote and they are paid better too. If the company tries to make me move near an office (the closest one is multiple states away) I will be more than happy to just get a new job. I already take a pay cut being remote. Unless they want to increase my pay by 500x, buy me a house and car, only make me be "on-site" a week a month then they can shove it.
The morale hit from losing most of the best people in the company over the last year-ish has been hard and everyone is pissed off and angry at management.