The onset of the pandemic has accelerated a shift to remote work. Even in post-pandemic, the figure is likely to remain unchanged. Today, 14% of US workers are working from home full time and is expected to increase to 20% by next year.
A whopping 90% of companies including IBM and Amazon have been implementing return-to-office policies. Some employers are going to extremes to get people back to office, threatening to terminate workers who fail to comply with the policy. Wayfair CEO mandates return to office with a harsh wake-up call to employees. The Boston-based online furniture company also announces layoff, cutting about 13% of its global workforce.
Big tech CEOs are also prioritizing work in-person. Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, is pushing employees for a return to office, citing lack of productivity and collaboration concerns. Elon Musk calls it “morally wrong” for some people to work at home while many had to show up. Marc Benioff, the Salesforce CEO who took a bold stand for remote working by disparaging other companies who were forcing employees back to office, makes mandate return-to-office.
There is a lot of conversation and debate against working from home and working in office. Some experts point out that though remote work certainly saves a lot of money for companies, they still have expenses to justify. There are companies that spend millions on real estate leases for offices that are barely being used. Moreover, it becomes difficult to monitor every employee if they are working from home, which hinders productivity and work flow in the long term. To regain and maintain corporate control on employees, many companies are pushing for a return to office.
Despite this, research suggests that remote workers tend to be more productive and engaged and forceful return to office can lead to employee burnout. Research from the University of Pittsburgh Katz School of Business published earlier this year suggests, “Managers use RTO for power grabbing and blaming employees for poor performance. It hurts employee satisfaction but does not improve firm performance.”
While the future extent of remote work remains uncertain, it is unlikely that work from home will go away anytime soon. Even if the big CEOs mandate a return to office, employees find it more flexible and productive, and it’s going to be difficult to bring them back to office.
