I've had direct reports temporarily assigned to me a few times.  Normally that meant that I didn't manage their "HR" tasks (e.g. time cards), but for whatever reason I needed to step in to help a team achieve a turnaround that was durable enough that the people could be "handed back" to their regular manager after only a few weeks or months and the benefits would continue. I understand management expectations, set team expectations, and manage the team while improving their processes and tools.

I was reading through this week's Economist (4/21) magazine and saw the article " Unlike everyone else, Americans and Britons still shun the office ". As someone who worked remotely 1-2 days per week from the mid-2010s and was 100% remote starting in early 2020, I've got a perspective on working remotely. What caught my eye from the Economist was the penultimate paragraph because it hit home: Maybe, then, the problem with working from home is not its economic impact, but its social one. Put simply, Americans do not seem to be making the most of the time they are no longer spending on their commutes. Socialising and volunteering are both now less common than in 2019; meanwhile, people spend more time “relaxing” and playing video games. All told, the average American spends half an hour longer alone than pre-2020. Using the commute time I definitely experienced this issue when working remotely. My "no-longer-commute" time went to additional childcare in the...