Returning-to-office: Just passing trend or here to stay?

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working was not widely adopted. However, the landscape shifted significantly as lockdowns necessitated working from home. This transition led companies and employees alike to recognise that physical presence in an office was not essential for productivity.

Despite the conclusion of lockdowns, remote work remains prevalent, with over 65% of the global tech workforce engaging in full or partial remote work arrangements, according to Statista 2024.

Conversely, some organisations are implementing policies that require employees to return to the office. The debate continues: will the future of work be remote or office-based? Stay tuned for further insights.

It is evident that not every profession can adapt to remote work. Essential roles such as firefighters, police officers, medical practitioners, and construction workers necessitate physical presence. However, most office roles are increasingly viable for remote execution, particularly in today's digital age, where documentation is predominantly stored in the Cloud, and meetings are efficiently conducted via platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

Despite the feasibility of remote work, it is observed that not all corporations embrace this model. Prominent within the technology sector, there is a notable shift towards reinstating office-based operations. This report will explore the entities migrating back to office settings, delve into the underlying motivations for this transition, and discuss the potential drawbacks associated with policies that mandate returning to the office.

Who are returning to the office?

In 2023, many companies presented their return-to-office policies. The majority of tech giants opted for a hybrid approach, allowing their workers to occasionally work remotely. Meta, Amazon, Apple, IBM, Google, and Salesforce require employees to be in the office at least 3 days a week. Workers at Meta, Amazon, and Apple who don’t comply with the return-to-office policies can face termination.

Similarly to other tech companies, Dell employees must work from the office 3 days a week. However, their return-to-office policy differs for hybrid and remote employees. While hybrid workers must follow the policy, remote workers don’t have to go to the office at all. Moreover, according to Dell’s policy, remote workers aren’t eligible for promotion or to change jobs within the company.

In contrast, there are companies that aren’t planning their return to the office. Coinbase, Deloitte, Dropbox, Shopify, and Slack have fully embraced remote work. Remote work is growing far beyond the tech industry. According to Statista, in 2023, over 50% of agency and consultancy workers, 48% of finance and insurance professionals, and 40% of engineering and science employees were working fully or mostly remotely worldwide.

What are the reasons behind the return-to-office trend?

Since many tech giants and corporations are enforcing the return-to-office policy, there must be good reasons behind their decision. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) surveyed 1,500 HR professionals about their organizations’ return-to-office plans. Among organizations that have brought their remote workers back to the physical workplace, these were the top reasons cited:

• Need for in-person collaboration and teamwork
• Workplace culture and employee engagement consideration
• Leadership preferences
• Desire to restore the sense of normalcy and routine
• Employee productivity concerns

Moreover, reasons such as in-person collaboration and productivity are often argued to lead to better business results and increased revenue. Let’s face it: the most important goal for any company is financial growth.

Another less obvious reason behind return-to-office policies is the avoidance of formal layoffs and the negative publicity that comes with them. By forcing employees to return to the office, many workers voluntarily quit their jobs.

Potential downsides of the return-to-office trend

Even though the reasons for the return-to-office trend are valid, companies should be aware of the potential downsides. Here are the downsides of return-to-office policies we’ll cover:

1. Losing high-quality employees
2. Inequality among hybrid and remote workers
3. Hostility between upper management and employees

1. Losing high-quality employees

The most significant downside of the return-to-office trend is losing high-quality employees. Even if companies avoid formal layoffs with their return-to-office policies, they can’t control which employees will quit. About 42% of companies that have issued return-to-office mandates have said they’ve lost more staff than expected, as a direct result. Moreover, 21% of those requiring workers to return said they lost “key” staff members (Kastle 2023).

Considering the advantages of remote working, it will be challenging to compete for top-tier talent without embracing the change. Remote work is the way to attract top-tier talent.

2. Inequality among hybrid and remote workers

Some companies have both hybrid and remote workers. As mentioned above, Dell’s remote workers aren’t eligible for promotion or to change jobs within the company. Enforcing these types of return-to-office policies is pushing remote workers to either transition to hybrid workers or change the company to grow their career. Similarly, Meta’s employees who were hired remotely from the start can work remotely full-time while all the other employees are working hybrid.

Choosing who can and cannot work remotely or hybrid, rather than giving a choice to employees, sparks inequality among the workers. Consequently, inequality can result in losing high-quality employees or overall dissatisfaction.

3. Hostility between upper management and employees

While companies such as Ericsson involved their employees in discussions around workplace arrangements, other companies made return-to-office policies without consulting their workers. Before shaping their return-to-office policy, Ericsson ran surveys and conducted roundtables and workshops with their employees. In contrast, the majority of organisations base their policies on “Because I say so reasoning” rather than data-driven insights

Excluding employees from the decision-making process heightens hostility towards upper management. Instead of collaborating to find an optimal solution, workers and their needs and wants are being ignored.

So, is the future of work remote or in the office?

Ultimately, while some companies believe that enforcing a return-to-office policy will improve collaboration and teamwork, improve workplace culture, or increase productivity, it will probably do the opposite. Employees want to have a say in their workplace arrangements. Whether they prefer working remotely, in a hybrid model, or in the office, there should be an option to do so.

Pushing return-to-office policies, especially without any discussion with employees, will lead to the loss of high-quality talent, inequality among remote and hybrid workers, and hostility towards upper management.

Although companies are aware of the challenges of remote working, there are far more proven advantages to consider. While companies benefit from increased productivity, cost-cutting, and more diversity within teams, employees enjoy work-life balance, more free time, lower living costs, the ability to work from anywhere, and the savings they would spend commuting.

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