Remember the good old days? When office corridors buzzed with the sound of ideas bouncing between senior executives and junior recruits? And the kitchens! New products conceived in the time it took for the kettle to boil. Not to mention all that learning. In the past, a new starter only had to sit within five yards of an experienced colleague to absorb the entire contents of their brain.

Such pre-pandemic nostalgia infused the vision laid out this week by Andy Jassy, chief executive of retailer Amazon, who ordered a full-time return to the office. In a memo, he said the move would make it easier for staff to “learn, model, practice”. It would also “strengthen our culture” while making things like brainstorming “simpler and more effective”.

I don’t want to rain on anyone’s rose-hued parade. But in ancient times — five years ago — employees would also bitch about silos, poor training and productivity. Remember offices on Fridays? No, me neither. What about off-site meetings because headquarters was too stultifying to produce new ideas? Sadly, yes.