In this qualitative study, we sought to understand what accounted for the widespread post-COVID resistance to returning to previous ways of working. We interviewed 46 knowledge economy workers whose organizations had transitioned to fully remote work in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a grounded theory approach, we found that the collective transition to remote work afforded our interviewees the opportunity to compare their remote and co-located work arrangements, notice contrasts between them, and realize that a new model for work was possible and desirable. We discuss the implications of our findings for designing work and offices in the future, given that what began as a temporary solution may, in the perspective of our interviewees, prevail as the new normal. We also theorize the implications of our findings for understanding the conditions under which individuals may make new sense of their work and organizations and resist that which they previously normalized.
