Squeaky wheels get greasee and whatnot but I feel that if the bosses/supervisors/etc think that only the noisy busy people are doing anything then they're not particularly good at their jobs XD

Meanwhile due to office space considerations (I think there's more staff on or something), J now only needs to go in once a fortnight (previously he was going in thrice a fortnight), there's been a team reshuffle so he doesn't have to be in meetings (done by video) unless it's actually relevant, think he touches base with the bosses every so often, and is otherwise thriving and much more productive as a result. They have a pretty good remote work setup though, there's video meetings whenever there needs to be meetings and a bunch of text chats (including a lot of social not-work-related ones, like there's ones where they share pictures of their dogs) so I guess while the people that love office interactions would be suffering if they're still being forced to work from home the ones that do better with less interaction are finally getting a chance to thrive.

ps (I hit reply too quickly and enthusiastically XD) I read your story out to youngest and he agreed that people are idiots.