The genie is out of the bottle. Anyone who could do 80%+ of their job remotely isn't going to want a job that requires being in an office. Executive "leadership" can either lead or be late to the party.
Yes, we get it. Charlie wants to get rid of people, but he's going to lose a lot more than the number he wants to lose. People have options, remote is going to be the way to attract talent.
All credit goes to @giz+1g0eQd6x.
@OP Thanks for the repost!
There may be tax benes, but that's a short term issue as buildings will continue to be sold and leases expire and are not renewed. The real strategic motivation is to rid the company of the old guard. The execs are all gone, but that's not good enough, there's still to many mid-level career employees around. Getting rid of them will negatively impact the company, but they view that as a short term issue as well. Once the "cultists" are gone, the utopian WF will rise from the ashes. It's total nonsense, but that appears to be the plan.
It's not about employee convenience, they have commercial real estate to use in order to get 100% tax write off of office space.