Look, I get why people say remote work just changes culture rather than kills it. But that misses the point. The informal, spontaneous interactions — the water cooler chats, the quick over-the-shoulder problem-solving — those are the bedrock of real company culture. You can't replicate that with scheduled Zoom calls. Studies from MIT show that physical proximity is a huge driver of trust and collaboration. Without it, you get silos. People stop feeling connected to the mission and start feeling like freelancers. Sure, you can have a "culture" of Slack messages and async updates, but that's thin gruel compared to what happens in an actual office. It's not the same thing, and pretending it is just lets companies off the hook for actually building community. Remote work is eroding the shared experiences that make culture alive.