In Person: From the Value of Proximity to Better Decisions About Work

In Person by Natalia Emanuel and Emma Harrington offers an evidence-based account of the benefits and costs of working together in person, drawing particularly on research into workplace proximity, learning and collaboration. This critical review examines the book's contribution and its five-factor calculator for guiding decisions about workplace attendance.While recognising the calculator's value as a practical conversation starter, the review identifies limitations relating to its numerical calibration, treatment of competing outcomes and sensitivity to individual and organisational circumstances. Drawing on organisational psychology, it argues for a more conditional approach that considers work design, employee characteristics, contextual demands and the potentially divergent effects of working arrangements on productivity, learning and wellbeing.The review outlines six requirements for more comprehensive decision support and considers how generative artificial intelligence may alter the relevance of physical proximity. It concludes that workplace arrangements should be treated as decisions requiring evaluation and adaptation rather than as fixed prescriptions.