Business leaders around the world are coming to the conclusion they don't need all office workers to actually be in the office to achieve their revenue and profit targets. The giant working-from-home experiment has shown that staff can be just as productive – if not more productive – working remotely. And the majority of employees, it seems, can be trusted.

But by the same token, few CEOs back a full WFH model, which begs the question: when social distancing rules ease and the world goes back to "normal", what is the optimal amount of time employees should spend in the workplace, where they can bounce ideas off each other in person and engage in the all-important water cooler chat?