In the many jobs I've had I've never seen "things go side ways" because those tricky employees have finally found a way to not do any work! By and large the vast majority of workers have the capitalist cultural logic deeply ingrained in their psyche and personally feel value only when they produce meaningful work. Most people are not trying to get away with doing less, and, at least in my experience, feel the most satisfied and secure when they are working hard and creating visible products of their labor.

When I've seen "things go side ways" it's almost exclusively at higher levels of management when politics create goals other than "create an amazing product". Anyone who has worked both in a large company and a small startups has likely seen the difference between "my boss's goal is for us to create a best in class product" vs "my boss's goal is for him to get L_current +1 promotion".

There are no companies that have failed because the workers have finally figured out how to sneak their way out of doing work. But workers do have a hard time being productive when "productivity" is some weird game that no one will really explain the rules to.

But the logic of blaming workers who get "off track" is a huge part of the culture we need to get rid of to have successful remote work.