> The management want return to office and that's it.

I believe this is the truth. I worked for a startup 20 years ago and the founder told us all to come in early in the morning and look as busy as possible, because key investors were touring the office. He told us that they wanted to see where their money was going and we need to play our part.

Normally we worked nights and weekends at home and in the office, but the management class actually want to see us sweat IRL.

Another part of this is the management class has a herd mentality. If they see another dominant manager with some modicum of success do something, they will mindlessly copy it.

Usually peoples' wants are explainable. It's certainly not uncommon to be able to explain one's wants when their implementation affects others, especially in a negative way.

"I want you to return to the office."

"Why?"

"Just do."

Is so unfulfilling a response that it's stupid on the part of management to not have even a noble lie explaining why it's so.

My desire for the bottom of my taps to be descaled is not explainable.

I can make up reasons - I can say, it looks better because it's more visually ordered, it's shiny and it looks nice, family and friends I invite over have this arbitrary bias too and so they'll look more kindly on me... etc.

But at the end of the day I just want the taps descaled and my cleaner does it for me.

It sounds really as if what it comes down to is that you want more ownership over your job than what is being offered. Amazon are saying, explicitly, this is our decision, agree or disagree, we're doing it.

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. This is a great explanation of your perspective.

For what it's worth. I tend to agree that most explanations of desires are post hoc rationalization or justifications. It's nice to encounter someone who's honest with themselves in that way.

I agree, but I think what it actually comes down to is this -

I deliberately use the cleaner example because - I'm hiring a person to clean my tap. They might disagree with my reasoning for cleaning it. At the end of the day, I don't care what your opinion is on tap descaling, I want it done, so you either do it or I'll find someone who will.

The management doesn't owe you a reason for preferring in-office work. It's not an unreasonable request, it's not illegal, they're not assaulting you or degrading you or something like that.

Why would the threshold be set at assault? It can simply be a battle of preferences and all all parties can use whichever framing devices they want to ensure their will is executed.