The yearslong return-to-office battle has seen corporate leaders use layoffs and productivity-tracking software as a pretext for accountability against fears that remote employees are hanging out in their pajamas doing nothing. More recently, major companies like Amazon and JPMorgan have instituted five-day-a-week attendance mandates, even when they know those announcements will face significant employee and public backlash.
“It’s disappointing that so many companies are mandating return to office,” Brittany Pollari, talent partner at Awin Global, an affiliate marketing platform, wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “Remote working isn’t necessarily life-changing itself, but the flexibility is.”
Despite the RTO pronouncements of some high-profile employers, the majority of companies seem to have landed on a hybrid model, according to Gallup. Recent research also suggests that organizations are continually adapting—a survey by Lucid Software found that 74 percent of companies have changed their policies in the last four years. Stanford economist Nick Bloom recently foundthat …