There's also the problem of ego. A great many people need the validation of seeing "their" people ensconced in tiny cubicles, available to be summoned into meetings whenever the boss feels in need of some ego stroking. Tim Cooke at Apple seems unable to grasp that the office is now an anachronism; we never expected the CEOs of major banks to be either intelligent or competent enough to grasp better ways of working. So, inevitably, most companies will slide back to the 9-5 office routine because it feels familiar and offers those in management positions the much-needed opportunity to feel superior. Companies that are clever enough not to return to dead-end ways of working, however, will on average ultimately out-perform the stuck-in-the-past companies, so in perhaps 50 years the office will finally be no more. Until then, however....