Why do companies want to return to the office?

look they are pretty good about it to be fair, but also there are times when im not in a meeting and im happy to see them, im just making the point there are distractions at home and in the office, to say its impossible to work in an office because distractions isnt credible imo.

There's not one overall answer: as the replies here show, reasons include from being a cheap way to avoid redundancies, to commercial real estate changes, management discomfort, needing to develop social skills, actual poor performance, needing to mentor inexperienced employees (who often don't know they need mentoring and think they're doing fine) - and grow them into jobs that they don't even know about yet.

In your case, I wonder why the company has you in Ireland doing that job. Surely there's someone in Poland or Romania who could do it more cheaply. But still they keep you, for some reason - possibly as part of maintaining a core of staff in Ireland. I'd guess the reason for wanting to see your face regularly is related to this, even though this isn't part of your regular tasks or targets.

But they still need the best talent, and if the best talent want to WFH then what…

Then the best talent leaves to somewhere that does offer WFH. Eventually the company decides to either a) change its policy or b) just tolerate a certain level of turnover. As more and more companies go back to the office, the options for full WFH will get less and less, so the problem will take care of itself to some extent.

Like, this is how employment works. The employer sets the T&Cs, it's up to the employee to accept them, negotiate a better deal, or not take the job. WFH is just another condition of employment, like annual leave or pension contributions.

People do realise, that back in the day, lots of office workers had their own office, or partitions which allowed them to put their head down, and work uninterrupted.

Then, completely unrelated to covid, most companies removed the majority of private offices, and re-designed their buildings, at a great cost, to become more open plan.

It's almost as if, they realised then, the benefit of collaboration from having people working closely together

There isn't some crazy conspiracy here. As others have said, if there was truely no value in having people in the office, lots of companies would have gone against the grain, and offered 100% wfh contracts to attract talent. This isn't, and hasn't happened.

People need to realise that they work for a company, and not the other way round. If you dont like it, no one is forcing you to stay

The push for back to office is down to lack of trust, which is justified in some cases.

WFH works well at my site but in the US it is a disaster. Many people are uncontactable for long periods. What is happening is a lot of these individuals are working multiple jobs simultaneously from home, making huge money. They do these jobs half ass and if they get fired from a job it is irrelevant. Because of the US experience every site must return to the office.

I wonder if people take fewer sick days when they are wfh.

anecdotally not commuting means you can work even if you aren’t feeling 100%

It's also to do with managers who love being at work. There is a subset out there of people who live to work rather than the other way around, and were delighted when they were able to get back into the office once the covid lockdowns lifted. The problem is that an awful lot of those people end up being the decision makers for those who work to live, and feel everyone will be delighted to be back in the office too.

On days like today now with the snow everywhere, I'm sure there'll be loads of companies who will be delighted that staff can work from home. It's all about flexibility on their terms.

What would happen if there is another pandemic similar to covid or natural disaster or war etc and people refuse to Wfh? Contracts say work place is office. Would the company still has to pay wages if one refuse to wfh and office is closed or unreachable?

Well it kinda proves my point too. Stripe taking up MORE office space means they want their brand to be seen, physically seen in Dublin city centre. Rather than having no office space and all their staff sitting in their kitchens or in front of the tv at home.

Also, and I didn't want to say it last time for fear of being set upon, but a large number of people who are wfh will be swinging the lead and not putting in much effort. I know I'll be told that if the works getting done, then the company should be happy, or else they need to introduce ways of monitoring exactly what home workers are actually doing for 8hr per day.

No.

Same as with covid and snow days, there is no legal obligation on an employer to pay you for days when you cannot work because the business is closed.

But business is not closed. You can wfh but refuse it. It's not your fault office closed. You are willing to go to office but you cant. There is nothing in the contract says you have wfh if something unforseen happens.

What if millions of workers said they didn't want to wfh during covid? After all it's not their fault offices closed.

My point is people helped companies to survive during covid and now being bullied to get back to office for the work they can probably do better at home with less distraction.

With respect, the housing crisis, decentralization, poor public transport, and traffic aren't your employer's responsibility. Neither is car emissions, the climate crisis etc that other posters have mentioned.