The return-to-office (RTO) war continues to rage—employers cracking down with in-office mandates and employees quitting. “Employees and their supervisors are increasingly finding themselves locked in a stalemate,” Rajesh Varrier, Infosys executive vice president of digital experience, told me by email. “While managers continue to argue for in-office work, employees question how braving commutes and corporate dress codes are supposed to lead to higher productivity.” When Elon Musk employed his RTO policy, employees pushed back, and it appeared they had the upper hand—fueled by the 2022 State of Remote Work report, that said 62% of workers feel more productive working remotely. But more recent data, showing that remote work might not be as productive as originally thought, has led to the “big guns” not messing around.
‘Return To The Office Or Else,’ Say Corporate Honchos
The Unispace Global Insights 2023 study, reports that 72% of companies are mandating office returns. As business leaders zero in on employee productivity and cost savings to cope with the recession, flexibility is a thing of the past, according to Varrier. “Working in the office is not just about execution or production, it is also about establishing social capital,” he notes. “While work can happen anywhere, social capital must be built in person.” More companies are ramping up their RTO mandates to get employees back into the office.
In June, AT&T made the move to have managers back in the office full-time or quit. That same month, Google announced that it was tightening office attendance policies, requiring three days in the office for most staff, and employees that didn’t abide by the policies could see this factored into their performance reviews resulting in backlash from employees. Jenny von Podewils, co-CEO of Leapsome, argues that being in the office is not a competency and therefore should not be factored into reviews. “Employee performance reviews should instead be designed to foster growth and development focusing on outcomes and potential,” she explains. “Rather than making return to office or hybrid schedules so stringent, organizations should enable managers to generate reasons to come into the office by creating opportunities and an environment for collaboration.”
But the mandates are continuing. Amazon required some corporate employees to relocate as part of their mandate requiring workers to be in the office three days a week in July. This month Meta is the latest major company forcing employees into the office at least three days a week, as well as tracking data to ensure compliance with remote work policies. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says failure to do so may result in termination.
In-Office Crackdown Attacking Progress And Growth
Many critics claim that when corporate honchos level RTO mandates, it can be lethal to workplace culture, recruitment and retention plus worker satisfaction. According to Safeguard Global CEO Bjorn Reynolds, in-office mandates are an attack on progress and long-term company growth. “It’s not a shock that as the job market and economy shrink, companies are trying to regain control.” Reynolds argues that work methods and technology have advanced enough to support various work styles. “Failing to embrace this progress might mean missing out on the benefits of technological innovation made over the last few years.”
Joseph Toma, CEO of Jugo, calls leaders reinstating RTO rules, “corporate curmudgeons,” and he doubles down on hybrid work. “Physical interaction can foster creativity, but modern technology facilitates similar opportunities online,” he told me by email. “Productivity is not exclusive to physical presence. The future of business requires innovation and adaptability; if you dismiss remote/flexible work, you’re not seeing how people can work together with purpose. I urge businesses to embrace technologies that allow us to work together with purpose in innovative and collaborative ways regardless of where we live and work.” Neeha Curtis, vice president of global communications at Jugo, also emphasizes the importance of the right technology. “Remote and hybrid work won’t—and shouldn’t—go away,” she insists. “Instead, what needs to go is the archaic technology that isn’t rising to the occasion. We need tools that meet the moment and technology that adapts to our human needs, not video-calling platforms that reflect the opposite stance.”
Cameron Yarbrough, co-founder of people development platform at Torch, argues that knee-jerk demands for a full return to the office are stultifying. Plus, it denies those needing flexibility and work-life balance. “By insisting on a five-day-a-week office commitment, these old-style leaders are ignoring the downside of returning to the office: increased commute time, work/life balance issues, loss of inclusivity and economic impact as workers must move back to expensive metropolitan areas rather than working from cheaper geographies of their choice.”
David Chadwick, founder and CEO of RealResponse, concurs. He suggests that RTO demands are not communicated to employees in a proper and productive manner. “American workers appreciate having the flexibility to work both remotely and in the office,” Chadwick explains. “For instance, when Amazon recently announced an in-office mandate which meant long commutes and a lack of flexibility (especially for parents), many employees took to internal Slack channels and expressed their displeasure at the directive, and some even went as far as initiating a petition against the mandate. We are also seeing a greater number of younger employees that have little-to-no experience working in an office setting and may have reservations and even anxiety about having to work in an office setting.”
Remote Jobs Are Plentiful, Report Shows
Chadwick wonders if RTO crackdowns are shooting employers in the foot. The stats show that workers still might have the upper hand. Business Insider reported that four million people quit their jobs in May. And a Deloitte study of 700 full-time executives found that 66% of those who work remotely say they’re likely to leave their current jobs if their companies require them to return to the office five days a week. And, of course, there’s the younger generations, expecting employers to adapt to their needs, who are less likely to settle. Add to the mix that the July Jobs Report, showed workers preferring fully remote roles are in luck.
According to James Neave, head of data science at Adzuna, they can choose from an abundance of available remote jobs. “On Adzuna, advertised job vacancies in the U.S. tracked 7.5 million in July,” Neave told me. “Looking at Adzuna data, there were more than 700,000 advertised vacancies for fully remote roles in July of 2023. The majority of these fully remote roles were in IT (159,572), Healthcare & Nursing (74,807), Teaching (68,394), and Engineering (66,673). In fact, most jobs paying annual salaries above $200,000 are fully remote roles. We expect businesses will continue posting more job ads for fully remote roles as this year goes on to meet employees’ demands to work from home in the labor crunch.”
Reynolds, a previous proponent of in-office work, has changed his tune and encourages other leaders to rethink their actions. “With the talent landscape now expanded on a global scale and teams adjusted to a new level of autonomy,” Reynolds points out, “implementing a RTO policy now seems less logical than it did in years past.” He now sees how RTO mandates imply constraints; whereas, remote work allows for a re-imagining of collaboration, work schedules, hiring locations and growth strategies. “Flexible workforces have proven to lead to cost savings, increased agility and faster time-to-market,” he asserts. “Companies across various sectors—tech, financial services, manufacturing—have all thrived on flexible, people-centric work models. Applying an office-centric approach to today’s global operations could lead to rigid structures that risk the loss of valuable talent, delaying the exact growth companies seek to achieve.”
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