The remote work debate is missing the point - and it's costing you
Why WHERE you work matters less than HOW you work
Most people think they understand how work works.
They assume the office builds better culture. That being present equals being productive. That following your job description is the path to success.
These assumptions feel like facts. They're not. And if you're building your career on them, you're building on quicksand.
While everyone fights about WHERE work happens, those understanding HOW work actually works are quietly pulling ahead.
The myths
LSE professor Raj Choudhury studies how work actually happens. His findings destroy the assumptions we hold.
Take office interactions - they're way more limited than you think.
"Most office interactions are limited to the 20-30 people sitting around you. You rarely bump into someone from another floor or building."
That serendipitous collaboration everyone talks about? It's mostly myth.
Learning by osmosis? This inadvertently reinforces power imbalances and hidden biases. Picture a trading floor. Women and minorities often couldn't get close enough to hear key conversations. The boys were elbowing for position around the main terminal. Learning happened - but only for some.
Performance measurement? It's always been broken.
"Managers track inputs - hours online, number of meetings - instead of actual results."
The story of firm gave higher performance scores to people who spoke more in meetings, regardless of whether they contributed anything useful is, frankly, not surprising.
These problems exist everywhere.
Investment banks during COVID kept brutal hours but lost what made them bearable: shared suffering that created team bonds. Much of what we called "office culture" was just making dysfunction tolerable.
Companies tried virtual watercoolers to recreate connections. But Raj's research showed they only benefited people when they shared demographic characteristics with senior leaders.
Even when we engineer fairness, the same power dynamics persist.
The reality
Meanwhile, Turkish engineers control power plants from Istanbul. Brazilian factory operators manage production lines remotely using digital twins. They're redesigning how work happens.
GitLab operates 1,400 people across 65 countries with everything documented publicly. Meaning everyone is kept in the loop.
"At GitLab, documentation isn't a side-effect - it's the work."
The US Patent Office let examiners work from anywhere. Productivity increased, staff turnover dropped, application quality improved.
And while everyone debates office policies, they're missing the point. This goes beyond where you work.
People assume ticking boxes leads to success - wrong, linear careers are dead. They assume expertise equals job security - wrong, knowledge alone hits a ceiling. They assume working harder gets you noticed - wrong, leverage matters more than effort.
Right now, there are two groups. Those building new skills, experimenting with AI, adopting fresh ways of doing things. And those waiting for things to "go back to normal."
The Career Expiration Trap catches people who mistake assumptions for facts.
What to do about it?
This week, strip away assumptions and redesign how you work.
Start with the actual objective - what does the business really need to achieve?
Figure out how you can uniquely contribute using your specific combination of skills and experience.
Design when and where you work around your output, not your schedule.
Get the support you need from people, systems, and technology.
Find ways to multiply your impact through tools and processes that scale your work.
Stop assuming. Start redesigning.