JPMorgan became the latest major company to demand its employees return to the office five days a week, with the mandate going into effect in March. The backlash was swift, with employees taking to an internal company webpage to voice their displeasure.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Much of the issues echo those from employees of other companies that have implemented full RTO mandates, citing the cost of commuting, cost of child-care, and work-life balance.

“The ability to work from home makes it significantly easier with babies at home,” one employee posted on LinkedIn, before deleting the comment. “Taking that away will make it much more stressful to perform parental duties.”

JPMorgan acknowledged that not everyone would agree with the decision, but emphasized that leadership felt it was the right time.

“We know that some of you prefer a hybrid schedule and respectfully understand that not everyone will agree with this decision,” the memo states. “We feel that now is the right time to solidify our full-time in-office approach. We think it is the best way to run the company.”

Putting the studies that show hybrid work leads to happier employees and reduced corporate costs—not to mention RTO mandates have been disastrous and are largely driven by older, out-of-touch male CEOs—JPMorgan’s handling of the criticism is sure to raise eyebrows. The Wall Street Journal goes on to say that JPMorgan shut down employee comments after at least one employee suggested that employees unionize in an effort to better negotiate for hybrid work schedules.

Any perceived attempt to discourage unionization is not likely to go over well, and may even backfire against the firm.

Companies have been rolling out RTO mandates of varying degree. Amazon has been one of the most aggressive, among big tech companies, mandating that employees return to the office five days a week. The move has been incredibly unpopular among employees, with a Blind survey finding that 73% of employees were considering a job change as a result.

Despite such anecdotal evidence, there has been a lack of research and concrete evidence to quantify just how unpopular RTO mandates are, or what impact they have on the companies that enact them, at least until now. The University of Pittsburgh, in cooperation with as The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Baylor University, and Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business have conducted one of the most comprehensive studies on the effect of RTO mandates, and it’s bad news for companies trying to return to the past.

Methodology

The researchers tracked the employment histories of more than three million tech and finance workers via their LinkedIn profiles, comparing movement with RTO policies of 145 S&P 500 firms from the beginning of 2020 through the end of 2023.

Because tech and finance work can often be done remotely, the researchers further narrowed the scope by focusing only on S&P 500 firms in those fields, bringing the number to 57 firms. The study also excluded three of those since they didn’t announce their RTO mandates till after June 2023, and the researchers wanted at least two full quarters to measure the impact. As a result, a final total of 54 firms were analyzed.

For each RTO firm, we consider the quarters before its RTO announcement the pre-RTO quarters, and the quarters during and after its RTO announcement the post-RTO quarters. We measure employee turnover from the first quarter of 2020 to the last quarter of 2023, a total of 16 quarters.

We collect employee turnover data using Revelio Labs, a leading data provider that extracts information from employees’ online profiles on LinkedIn. According to LinkedIn (2024), LinkedIn is most widely used among tech and financial workers. The online profiles contain information about an employee’s employment history, including the start and end dates of each job, the employer’s name, the job title, and the location. Employees can also self-disclose their skills on their profiles, such as proficiency in certain programming languages, software, or processes.

Using employment histories from LinkedIn profiles, we first measure a firm’s monthly turnover rate by dividing the number of employees who left the firm during the month by the employee headcount at the end of the prior month. Next, we adjust the monthly turnover rate by the national average turnover rate, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Finally, we calculate a firm’s quarterly abnormal turnover rate (Abnormal Total Turnover) as the average of the monthly adjusted employee turnover rates for each quarter.

Results

Overall, the study’s results showed a higher turnover rate among female employees, employees with higher skill levels, and managerial employees.

Together, these results suggest that firms are more likely to lose female employees, employees in managerial positions, and employees with higher skill levels. These results are consistent with the concern that RTO mandates can cost firms their most valuable talent (Elliott 2024). They also support the notion that more valuable employees have better outside options and can more readily secure alternative positions at peer firms offering flexible work arrangements.

Executives who believe they can easily replace those employees are in for an even bigger disappointment, with the study showing positions that opened up as a result of employees leaving over RTO mandates were harder to fill.

Consistent with our expectations, the coefficient on RTO is positive and significant (coefficients = 0.239, t-statistics = 3.82), suggesting that it takes firms 23 percent longer to fill job positions following RTO mandates. In terms of days, an average RTO firm takes 12 additional days to fill a position following its RTO mandate. The increased hiring time is a significant cost associated with talent loss due to RTO mandates.

Even more telling, the overall hiring of RTO firms decreases, indicating that many potential employees have a dim view of RTO mandates and avoid companies that enforce them.

Consistent with our expectations, the coefficient on RTO is negative and significant (coefficient= -0.032, t-statistic = -1.84), suggesting that firms hire fewer new employees following RTO mandates. The decrease in new hires indicates that RTO firms have greater difficulty filling vacancies and recruiting qualified new employees after RTO mandates. Of course, an alternative explanation for the lower hire rate is that these firms are intentionally hiring less to cut headcounts. However, this alternative explanation cannot explain the longer time to hire after RTO mandates. Therefore, the two sets of results complement each other, suggesting that RTO mandates increase difficulties for firms in attracting new employees.

Researchers’ Conclusion

The researchers’ conclusion is a damning indictment of RTO mandates.

In this paper, we empirically examine the effect of return-to-office mandates on employee turnover and hiring, using a sample of 54 high-tech and financial firms in the S&P 500 index. We find that these RTO firms experience higher employee turnover rates after announcing RTO mandates. Our findings validate the concern that RTO mandates may induce employees to leave for other firms and are consistent with the overwhelmingly negative employee response. We further find that female employees, more senior employees, and employees with higher skill levels are more likely to leave RTO firms, consistent with RTO firms losing highly valuable employees. Finally, we find that it takes longer for RTO firms to fill new job positions. These firms also hire fewer employees following the RTO mandates. Together, our evidence suggests that RTO mandates are costly to firms and have serious negative effects on the workforce. These turnovers could potentially have short-term and long-term effects on operation, innovation, employee morale, and organizational culture.

Study Confirms What Progressive Companies and Executives Already Know

The study simply confirms what many of the more progressive leaders have already realized, namely that remote work is here to stay and can be a powerful tool.

“I’d say, ‘your employees have options,’” said Dropbox Drew Houston in late 2023, when asked about companies who enforce RTO mandates. “They’re not resources to control.

“From a product design perspective, customers are our employees. We’ve stitched together this working model based on primary research,” he continued. “We’ve just been handed the keys that unlock this whole future of work, which is actually here.

“You need a different social contract, and to let go of control,” he added. “But if you trust people and treat them like adults, they’ll behave like adults. Trust over surveillance.”

Jassy informed the company’s employees in mid-September that they would be required to return to the office five-days-a-week, beginning in 2025. Needless to say, the mandate has not been popular with employees. A Blind survey shows that as many as 73% of employees are considering a job change. The mandate has been so unpopular that some have speculated Amazon is using the mandate to reduce its headcount, effectively engaging in a “backdoor layoff.”

According to a meeting transcript, seen by Reuters, Jassy has denied any such plan.

“A number of people I’ve seen theorized that the reason we were doing this is, it’s a backdoor layoff, or we made some sort of deal with city or cities,” said Jassy.

“I can tell you both of those are not true. You know, this was not a cost play for us. This is very much about our culture and strengthening our culture,” he said.

It’s doubtful Jassy’s comments will do much to assuage employees. In fact, it may anger them even more. If the RTO mandate was an effort to force employees to resign, there would at least be hope that hybrid and remote work would continue once Amazon’s headcount dropped to the desired level.

With Jassy confirming that the RTO mandate has nothing to do with headcount reduction, and is an effort to return to pre-pandemic norms, employees have little hope their voice will be heard. That hasn’t stopped them from trying, however, with hundreds of employees recently writing a letter to leadership to express their dismay with the company’s decision-making process, and especially with the lack of data behind it.

“We were appalled to hear the non-data-driven explanation you gave for Amazon imposing a five-day in-office mandate,” the letter begins, as seen and reported by Reuters.

The employees went on to say that AWS CEO Matt Garman’s comments that nine of 10 employees were in favor of the mandate were “inconsistent with the experiences of many employees” and are “misrepresenting the realities of working at Amazon.”

The fact that Jassy feels the need to once again address the mandate is an indication just how unpopular it is—and how much it may cost the company in the long run.

Amazon sparked controversy when CEO Andy Jassy announced a full RTO mandate, requiring employees in the office five days a week. The company further exacerbated the issue with poor communication, with some employees finding out about the decision via news articles instead of management.

In what has become a common theme with Amazon’s RTO mandates, employees are accusing executives of once again making decisions without any data supporting the benefits.

“We were appalled to hear the non-data-driven explanation you gave for Amazon imposing a five-day in-office mandate,” the letter begins, as seen and reported by Reuters.

Employees were especially perturbed by AWS CEO Matt Garman’s assertion that nine of 10 employees he spoke with supported a full RTO mandate. Employees said the statements are “inconsistent with the experiences of many employees” and are “misrepresenting the realities of working at Amazon.”

In his comments, Garman made clear that employees who were unhappy with Amazon’s decision should quit.

“If there are people who just don’t work well in that environment and don’t want to, that’s okay, there are other companies around,” said Garman.

“By the way, I don’t mean that in a bad way,” he added. “We want to be in an environment where we’re working together.”

Amazon Refuses to Acknowledge the Data

It’s easy to understand why employees believe Garman’s statements are misleading. The data has consistently shown hybrid work leads to happier employees, and those employees work harder than employees who are required to be in the office five days a week.

In fact, according to a study by Microsoft, employees working remotely worked an average of 10%. Similarly, a Chinese study before the pandemic showed that remote workers are approximately 13% more productive than in-office employees.

“I think it’s because people are motivated to keep the arrangement, and so that motivation drives the productivity. They want it to work,” said Tammy Allen, a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of South Florida.

“I think 80 [percent], 90 percent of employees are very responsible and work well whether they’re at the home or the office,” said Matthew Bidwell, an associate professor of management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Despite the evidence showing the benefits of remote and hybrid work, Amazon executives have continued to push for a return to the old ways, all the while admitting they have no data to support their decisions.

“I think it’s just time, it’s time to disagree and commit. We’re here, we’re back — it’s working,” said Mike Hopkins, SVP of Amazon Video and Studios, about a return to the office. “I don’t have data to back it up, but I know it’s better.”

Jassy doubled down even more during a previous RTO mandate, attempting to liken the company’s lack of data to support such mandates with the innovative decision to launch AWS.

“There was no data when we were deciding to pursue AWS, which was quite different from the rest of our businesses at that time, that we were going to be successful. In fact, most people thought it was nuts internally and externally,” Jassy said during an internal meeting.

“Those were judgment decisions by our leadership team,” Jassy continued. “And that is what’s happened here. As a leadership team, we’ve decided that we will be better for customers and for our business being in the office.”

Amazon Has Destroyed Employee Trust

Beyond the lack of data to support the benefits of RTO mandates—not to mention the data supporting the exact opposite—Amazon’s approach to the entire issue has destroyed its employees’ trust in the company. Early on in the pandemic, Amazon embraced remote work and reaped the benefits.

The letter sent to Garmin linked to a company blog post from 2020 in which Garman touted how effectively AWS was running with its employees working remotely. The letter went on to accuse Garman of breaking “the trust of your employees who have not only personal experience that shows the benefits of remote work, but have seen the extensive data which supports that experience.”

The issue is further amplified by the fact that Amazon made promises to employees when hiring them, assuring them they would be able to remain remote. In many cases, employees who joined the company under those conditions live too far away to make commuting feasible, while others have family or health factors that similarly impact their ability to be in the office.

Unfortunately for the company, its pattern of reneging on previous promises is directly undermining some employees’ willingness to make any kind of sacrifices to meet RTO mandates.

“I was not complying,” an employee named Ben said about the previous three-day-a-week mandate, citing a three-hour commute as the reason.

“I decided not to make life choices as Amazon can fire me at will anyway, and I do not want to make long-term life changes because some manager decided I should start going to the office when I was hired virtual and promised I could work from wherever I want,” he added.

“My months of struggling to make three days a week are over, and I know that my time at Amazon has to end,” an employee named Laura said after the five-day mandate.

“Honestly, I’ve lost so much trust in Amazon leadership at this point,” she adds. “I’ve been updating my resume and portfolio, and rage applying to new jobs on LinkedIn.”

Other Big Tech Companies Are Not Following Amazon’s Example

As further proof of Amazon’s misguided attempt to roll back the clock and return to pre-pandemic norms, the company’s two biggest rivals have reaffirmed their commitment to hybrid work in the wake of Amazon’s decision.

Scott Guthrie, executive VP of Microsoft Cloud and AI Group, reassured staff that Microsoft had no intention of implementing a full RTO mandate as long as employees remained productive.

Similarly, a Google VP responded to a question from employees during a recent “TGIF” (Thank God It’s Friday) monthly meeting. The VP said the company’s existing system was working, and no changes were planned. CEO Sundar Pichai added that the existing system would continue as long as remote and hybrid employees remained productive, echoing Microsoft’s approach.

With a Blind survey showing that some 73% of polled employees are considering a job change in the wake of its RTO mandate, Amazon may soon find itself unable to retain or attract the talent it needs to remain competitive at a time when Microsoft and Google are making major inroads against its cloud business.

Companies large and small have issued RTO mandates, with three days in the office becoming the accepted norm. A few, such as Amazon, have issued far stricter policies, requiring employees to be in the office five days a week.

According to CBRE’s 2024 Americas Office Occupier Sentiment Survey, the vast majority of companies are failing in their efforts to enforce their office mandates.

Approximately 80% of organizations have a return-to-office policy, but only 17% actively enforce these policies. This disconnect between policy and enforcement contributes to the gap between employer expectations and employee behavior: 60% want employees to work in the office three or more days per week, but only 51% of employees are in the office that frequently. Thirty-four percent of respondents anticipate closing this gap by increasing attendance. Space sharing remains top of mind to align with new utilization patterns and optimize portfolios.

Interestingly, the number of companies with an RTO policy increased only slightly from 2023, going from 78% to the current 80%. Even more telling, barely more than half of companies measure compliance with their mandates, and very few enforce it.

For the companies with an office attendance policy, measurement and enforcement strategies vary. Fifty-one percent of respondents with a policy report that they mandate attendance, but only about 45% measure it, and only 17% consistently enforce it. This disconnect is a factor in the continued gap between employer expectations and employee behavior. While policies are important for clarification and guidance, they are not guaranteed to drive compliance, especially without enforcement.

CBRE’s findings indicate that trying to force compliance without understanding the underlying opposition will only lead to negative outcomes.

At the same time, holding employees accountable to mandates can create negative outcomes if employers don’t strive to understand, and remedy, the barriers blocking more frequent office utilization. Employers who remain frustrated with lack of office utilization should explore the underlying challenge in order to deploy the right lever for change.

CBRE’s Findings Reaffirm Hybrid Work Is Here to Stay

Despite some companies’ insistence on returning to pre-pandemic norms, data increasingly shows that hybrid work is the future and RTO mandates are often disastrous. Some governments, such as the UK, are even endorsing remote work, saying companies need to stop being obsessed with a “culture of presenteeism.”

Amazon is already learning this, with a recent Blind survey of 2,585 Amazon employees showing that 73% of them were considering looking for another job. Some 80% of those surveyed said they already knew of peers who were looking for another job, while 32% knew of someone who had already quit.

Some Amazon employees have stated they have no intention of complying with the RTO mandate, opting to be fired instead.

Companies Have a Trust Issue, and RTO Mandates Are Making It Worse

Trust is at the heart of the issue, and companies are reaping what they’ve sown over the last few years, beginning with the mass layoffs that hit the tech industry during the waning days of the pandemic.

As we wrote then, companies were destroying the trust of their employees, something that would eventually come back to haunt them. We quoted an article by Business Insider’s Sawdah Bhaimiya.

“Every time I see a notice in the news that such and such technology company has cut X percentage of their workforce, I don’t forget that,” Danny Allen, chief technology officer at software firm Veeam, told Bhaimiya at the time. “So you’re sending a message that also has a brand impact that you don’t necessarily want to be associated with.

“Employees remember and people looking for jobs remember how organizations acted during the economic downturn.”

Allen went on to explain exactly how the layoffs would hurt companies, with the second way being the most important in this context.

“One is simply the loss of innovation, cutting resources,” said Allen. “You’re cutting your investment in future technology, that’s number one. Number two, when you cut 10% of your workforce, you’re sending the message to your employees that we care more about money than we do about you.

“And employees have a long memory, so if you’re cutting people that uncertainty is very disconcerting.”

Amazon is a good example of exactly the phenomenon Allen described, with many of those reluctant to return to the office citing a lack of trust in the company’s leadership, a lack of trust exacerbated by broken promises about the future of remote work.

“I was not complying,” an employee named Ben said about the company’s previous three-day-a-week mandate, citing the three-hour commute he faced as the reason.

“I decided not to make life choices as Amazon can fire me at will anyway, and I do not want to make long-term life changes because some manager decided I should start going to the office when I was hired virtual and promised I could work from wherever I want,” he added.

That last part of Ben’s statement is critical, as doesn’t trust any sacrifice made for his job will pay off over the long haul. His sentiments were echoed by others.

“My months of struggling to make three days a week are over, and I know that my time at Amazon has to end,” an employee named Laura said after the five-day mandate.

“Honestly, I’ve lost so much trust in Amazon leadership at this point,” she adds. “I’ve been updating my resume and portfolio, and rage applying to new jobs on LinkedIn.”

As Ben and Laura’s statements illustrate, Amazon’s leadership has lost the trust of its employees, first with mass layoffs that underscored the transience of jobs in the tech industry. Trust was further eroded by promising that some roles would remain remote or hybrid, only to then renege on those promises and demand employees return to the office, even requiring them to relocate if necessary to comply.

Compliance Will Continue to Be a Problem

As long as companies continue to ignore the data—which shows that remote/hybrid employees work harder and are more productive—companies will continue to struggle with efforts to force compliance with RTO mandates. Companies that do enforce them will reap the results, losing top employees and struggling to attract new talent.

Change management is the art of taking organizations through all types of transitions minimally disruptively and with maximum employee engagement. Here’s how to guide your workforce through organizational changes with confidence and success.

Catch our chat on navigating workforce management during big changes!

Understanding the Need for Change

Effective change management begins with a clear understanding of why the change is necessary. The communication of why the transition is necessary will help employees to see the big picture and how it aligns with the goals of the organization. Transparency is thus very vital; leaders should be able to paint a compelling vision of the future and explain how the change will benefit both the company and its employees.

First, there would be explaining the reasons for the change, the outcomes anticipated from this move, and how the various aspects of the organization will be affected. The first step in communication lays out a smooth transition by allaying potential fears and laying a foundation of trust.

Using Helpful Software for Change Management

Software tools can help a great deal in managing organizational change. For instance, the absence management software is very valuable during transition periods that might influence the scheduling and attendance of employees.

Absence management software allows the organization to track employee absence efficiently. This may be especially needed during times of change, such as in restructuring when jobs or work teams may change. Such software would ensure that when any employee is absent, this must be noted and managed so as not to create any potential gap in cover.

Engaging and Involving Employees

Employee engagement is a very crucial factor in any change initiative. Engaging employees by involving them in the process and listening to concerns can do this. Where involvement exists, valued opinion by the employees results in supported and positive contributions to the change.

Consider setting up a change ambassador program in which some employees can champion the transition. The ambassadors will help to communicate the benefit of the change, give feedback, and then further assist their colleagues in adapting to the new processes. In this way, engagement helps the employees own the process and aids attitude building toward the change.

Managing Resistance

After all, a very natural reaction is resistance to change. The most important thing, though, is that it needs to be listened to proactively. Such a way of recognition of the root of resistance-whether caused by fear of the unknown, loss of job security, or merely discontent with the change-allows for more specific strategies to be developed in order to overcome such resistance.

Address resistance through information, support, and employee involvement in the change process. Build in opportunities for employees to express their concerns and provide constructive ways of dealing with these concerns. Acknowledging and dealing with the concerns will reduce the resistance and build acceptance.

Monitoring Progress and Adjusting the Plan

Change management is a process rather than an event. Monitor the progress of the change on a regular basis and be ready to make any adaptations that are necessary for its successful completion. Regularly assess the progress of the change and whether it’s meeting the desired objectives.

Elicit responses regarding experiences from employees and find out if there is any cause for concern. Act on this feedback in order to make further changes in the plan of change and resolve any issues. In this way, the process of change becomes flexible and responsive, which keeps the transition on track and the employees supported.

Celebrating Success and Recognizing Efforts

Celebrating milestones and successes along the process of change helps to keep momentum and enhance morale. Recognize the efforts of those employees who have accepted the change and have contributed to its success. Celebrations, whether large or small, reinforce positive behavior and demonstrate appreciation for the hard work which the team has invested.

Conclusion

Effective change management plays a vital role in taking your workforce through organizational transitions successfully. You will have confidence to lead transitions by knowing the need for change, creating a strategic plan, engaging your employees, managing resistance, and monitoring progress. Remember, while processes change, space should be left so that an environment can be created where your people feel cared about and valued. Change management can therefore be smoother if the approach is considered to be thoughtful and proactive, and thus making your organization stronger and resilient toward change.

According to Entrepreneur, the question was posed to Google management during its latest “TGIF” (Thank God It’s Friday) monthly meeting. The query was specifically asked in the context of Amazon’s RTO mandate.

Catch our conversation on Google’s Commitment to Hybrid Work!

In response, a Google VP assured employees that the current system—three days a week in the office—was working and the company was not planning to make any changes. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai added that the current system would remain in effect as long as employees remained productive, especially when working remotely.

Google and Microsoft Are On the Same Page

Google’s stand is very similar to Microsoft’s. In a meeting with employees, Microsoft VP Scott Guthrie similarly assured staff that the current hybrid work solution was working, and the company would not change it as long as productivity remained the same.

That stance is not particularly surprising from Microsoft, as the company has long been a proponent of hybrid work, even releasing studies showing the improved performance of remote workers.

“If you make the time to do it right, your employees will be more engaged, more productive, and more connected, even when they’re miles away,” Keith Boyd, a Microsoft IT senior director, wrote in an August blog post. “And they’ll be far less likely to leave for a competitor who has a more sophisticated and flexible model than you do.”

Amazon’s Stance Will Cost It

In a highly competitive market, in which top talent often decides where to work based on perks behind just a salary, Amazon is putting itself at a significant disadvantage. Microsoft and Google, its two biggest cloud rivals, will clearly have a leg up when it comes to attracting new workers compared to Amazon.

In addition to having more success in attracting top talent, Microsoft and Google will be able to retain their talent far better than Amazon. In fact, Amazon employees are already applying for other jobs, with a survey by anonymous professional forum Blind finding some 73% of polled employees are considering leaving the company.

“My morale for this job is gone, gonna totally check out till PIP,” one employee said, referring to Amazon’s practice of giving an employee a low evaluation and setting nearly impossible goals until they fail and are let go.

Another said their “plan for next year is badge minimum needed Mondays and Fridays and come in as usual the other days.”

“My months of struggling to make three days a week are over, and I know that my time at Amazon has to end,” an Amazon employee named Laura said. She was hired during the pandemic and assured remote work would remain an option.

“Honestly, I’ve lost so much trust in Amazon leadership at this point,” she added. “I’ve been updating my resume and portfolio, and rage applying to new jobs on LinkedIn.”

Laura is by no means alone in her sentiment.

“I was not complying,” an employee named Ben said, citing the three-hour commute he faced as the reason for not coming in the office during the previous three-day-a-week mandate.

“I decided not to make life choices as Amazon can fire me at will anyway, and I do not want to make long-term life changes because some manager decided I should start going to the office when I was hired virtual and promised I could work from wherever I want,” he added.

Microsoft and Google Know Something

It’s important to point out that big companies rarely, if ever, do something purely for the sake of being magnanimous. Microsoft and Google are not continuing to support hybrid work purely because their employees want it.

There’s clearly a reason, and likely several, including the following:

• Employees are happier when hybrid work is an option, and happier employees are more productive.
• Hybrid work can significantly reduce the need for office space and real estate.
• Hybrid work can reduce the number of other perks companies provide, since hybrid work ranks so high on employee wish lists.
• Flexible work arrangements are a major recruiting advantage, giving Microsoft and Google an opportunity to poach top Amazon talent.

It’s likely there are even more reasons why Amazon’s biggest competitors are not following in its footsteps, not the least of which is they are seeing the fallout Amazon is experiencing. The longer Amazon continues to push its RTO mandate, the more that fallout will grow, and the company could find itself at a competitive disadvantage against its biggest rivals.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff famously said, “Office mandates are never going to work” in mid-2022. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen was even more emphatic about the monumental shift remote and hybrid work is having, calling it a societal turning point.

“It’s potentially an earthquake,” Andreessen said in mid-2022. “It’s potentially one of those things that in a hundred years, people could look back and say, ‘That was a real turning point for how society developed.’”

Amazon may be demonstrating just how much that shift is having an impact, and how unwilling employees are to go back to the old way.

According to Business Insider, Scott Guthrie, executive VP of Microsoft Cloud and AI Group, is reassuring employees they are in control of the company’s remote work policies. Specifically, Guthrie said the company would not force employees back to the office unless their productivity dropped and forced the company’s hand. Two employees who were present at the meeting reported Guthrie’s remarks.

Catch our chat on Microsoft staying flexible while Amazon demands office returns!

As BI points out, Guthrie’s remarks are in line with previous statements company executives have made about the importance of remote and hybrid work for their employees’ well-being.

“If you make the time to do it right, your employees will be more engaged, more productive, and more connected, even when they’re miles away,” Keith Boyd, a Microsoft IT senior director, wrote in an August blog post. “And they’ll be far less likely to leave for a competitor who has a more sophisticated and flexible model than you do.”

Microsoft Continues to Be a Strong Proponent of Remote/Hybrid Work

Since the pandemic forced companies to turn to remote work, Microsoft has emerged as a major proponent of the shift. The company even conducted a study showing that employees worked an average of 10% more when allowed to work remotely.

In yet another survey, Microsoft said many of its peers were plagued by “productivity paranoia.”

“Many leaders and managers are missing the old visual cues of what it means to be productive because they can’t ‘see’ who is hard at work by walking down the hall or past the conference room,” wrote Microsoft. “Indeed, compared to in-person managers, hybrid managers are more likely to say they struggle to trust their employees to do their best work (49% vs. 36%) and report that they have less visibility into the work their employees do (54% vs. 38%). And as employees feel the pressure to ‘prove’ they’re working, digital overwhelm is soaring.”

“Productivity paranoia risks making hybrid work unsustainable,” the company added. “Leaders need to pivot from worrying about whether their people are working enough to helping them focus on the work that’s most important.”

Microsoft Likely Benefiting From Amazon’s Misstep

Microsoft is likely benefiting from Amazon’s recent misstep, as Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced a five-day-a-week RTO mandate. The response has been severe, with 73% of the company’s employees wanting to find another job.

To make matters worse, 80% of the company’s employees said some of their peers were already looking for a new job, with 32% saying they knew someone who had already quit.

Still others were reluctant to make major life-changing decisions in response to the mandate out of fear they might still lose their jobs anyway.

“RTO blanket policy is crazy, particularly for those of us who were hired remote and FAR from an office. I have kids and family here so unwilling to relocate,” a verified Amazon professional who identifies as a parent said in response to the mandate. “Even if I didn’t there’s too great a risk I’d be laid off in 6 months anyway so why risk a move?”

In the wake of the mandate, some employees say their trust in Amazon’s leadership—and its reneged promises about remote and hybrid work—have reached a point where they no longer have any interest continuing with the company.

“My months of struggling to make three days a week are over, and I know that my time at Amazon has to end,” an employee named Laura told Fortune.

“Honestly, I’ve lost so much trust in Amazon leadership at this point,” she added. “I’ve been updating my resume and portfolio, and rage applying to new jobs on LinkedIn.”

Only time will tell if Amazon’s RTO mandate is successful or if it costs the company as much as other companies’ mandates have cost them.

Either way, it appears Microsoft is learning from Amazon’s misstep and is eager to avoid the turmoil its rival is currently going through.

Jassy announced employees would be required to come into the office five days a week, sparking major backlash. According to a survey by the anonymous professional forum Blind, some 73% of employees were considering applying for new jobs after the mandate.

Catch our talk on Amazon’s RTO mandate as a ‘negotiation game’!

Fortune is reporting that employees are beginning to do just that after coming to the conclusion that their days at Amazon are numbered.

“My months of struggling to make three days a week are over, and I know that my time at Amazon has to end,” an employee named Laura told the outlet.

Laura was hired remotely during the pandemic, and she was assured she would be able to continue working remotely. She views the company’s RTO mandates as a betrayal, with the company reneging on its promises. As a result, she has no desire to put forth the effort to comply with the mandate.

“Honestly, I’ve lost so much trust in Amazon leadership at this point,” she adds. “I’ve been updating my resume and portfolio, and rage applying to new jobs on LinkedIn.”

Adding to the sense of betrayal is the fact that Laura found out via news article, rather than from her manager.

“At first, I didn’t quite believe it,” she told Fortune. “After all, who expects to get career-altering news from a news article instead of your employer.”

“Which, to be honest, is a pretty horrible way to find out about something that’s going to impact your life in a huge way. I really, really would have liked a personal communication from my manager, but that didn’t happen for a couple of days.”

Amazon’s RTO Mandate May Be a Negotiating Ploy

Some are not convinced Amazon is really trying to force people back to the office five days a week, believing the mandate could be a negotiating ploy.

Amazon previously passed a three-day-a-week RTO mandate, but many employees were not cooperating.

“I was not complying,” an employee named Ben told Fortune, citing the three-hour commute he faced as the reason for not coming into the office three days a week.

“I decided not to make life choices as Amazon can fire me at will anyway, and I do not want to make long-term life changes because some manager decided I should start going to the office when I was hired virtual and promised I could work from wherever I want,” he added.

Experts have told Fortune that the five-day-a-week RTO mandate could be a negotiation ploy designed to get employees to commit to the three days a week management originally asked for.

Amazon’s Motives Are Unclear…And That’s a Problem

Ultimately, no one outside of Amazon’s senior management knows why the company is insisting employees return to the office, especially given how unpopular the RTO mandate has been and the backlash the company is facing.

Some have speculated that Amazon is using mandates as an elaborate scheme to thin the ranks of its workforce and maximize its profits.

“It’s not about collaboration,” said John McBride, a former AWS employee. “It’s about maximizing profit margins, minimizing tax liabilities, and cutting the workforce in the most strategic way possible.”

With experts now telling Fortune that they believe Amazon’s plans are a negotiation ploy, it’s clear that no one outside the company really knows what’s going on.

According to Reuters, Dell informed global sales team member that they must work from the office if they are able in the interests of collaboration and to “grow skills.”

Catch our chat on Dell’s global sales team RTO mandate!

“Working remotely should be the exception rather than the routine,” the memo said.

Interestingly, employees who are unable to go into the office—such as those who live too far from a Dell office—are allowed to remain remote.

“Remote sales team members who can’t go into a Dell office should continue to work remotely,” the memo added.

Dell has traditionally been one of the more aggressive companies pushing for a return to the office, a stance that has put it at odds with its workforce. The company forced employees to classify themselves as hybrid or remote, with remote workers ineligible for promotions, as well as consideration for new roles. Needless to say, the move was not a popular one.

“My team is spread out around the world. Almost 90% of the team did the same as in our case there was no real advantage going to the office,” one worker said at the time.

“I benefited a lot from being WFH since 2020 and had a lot of personal growth. I’m not willing to give that up if I don’t have to,” another employee said.

“The more time I have to spend in the office, the less time, money, and personal space I have for all of that,” said another worker, speaking of family time, hobbies, and other qualify of life benefits they have enjoyed. ”I can do my job just as well from home and have all of those personal benefits as well.”

“With the salary that we are receiving, a return to the office would leave a huge hole in our budget,” thanks to commuting and meal purchases, said another employee.

In the wake of Dell’s efforts, nearly half of employees opted to remain remote and forgo advancement rather than return to the office.

In Amazon’s case, its RTO mandate has been a disaster, with 73% of employees considering leaving the company. Only time will tell if Dell’s approach is as disastrous as Amazon’s.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy made waves in mid-September when he said employees would be required to work from the office five days a week, ending the company’s RTO policy. The backlash was swift and severe, with employees taking to the company’s Slack channel to voice their opposition to the decision.

Catch our chat on 73% of Amazon workers eyeing new jobs over the RTO mandate!

Blind Survey Reveals Imploding Morale

Blind conducted a survey of 2,585 verified Amazon employees in the wake of the RTO mandate, and it doesn’t look good. According to the survey, a whopping 91% of employees are dissatisfied with the decision.

“My morale for this job is gone, gonna totally check out till PIP,” one employee said. PIP refers to Amazon’s practice of giving an employee a low evaluation and setting nearly impossible goals they must meet to raise their score. When they fail to do so, they are let go.

Another said their “plan for next year is badge minimum needed Mondays and Fridays and come in as usual the other days.”

Amazon Poised for a Mass Exodus

Even more telling, 73% of employees said they were considering looking for another job as a direct result of the RTO mandate. Four out of five, exactly 80%, said they knew of other employees who were already looking for a job, while nearly a third (32%) said they knew of someone who had already quit as a result of the mandate.

Some employees pointed out how the mandate did not account for those who had been hired for remote positions and were now faced with relocating or losing their jobs.

“RTO blanket policy is crazy, particularly for those of us who were hired remote and FAR from an office. I have kids and family here so unwilling to relocate,” a verified Amazon professional who identifies as a parent said in response to the mandate. “Even if I didn’t there’s too great a risk I’d be laid off in 6 months anyway so why risk a move?”

RTO Mandate Is Hurting the Hiring Process

If Amazon executives think it will be easy to replace any employees who leave, they may want to rethink that stance, as hiring managers are reportedly seeing candidates withdraw from the interview process as a result of the mandate.

A verified Microsoft professional said the following:

Candidates dropping out of Amazon recruitment pipeline in droves

I think the Amazon RTO order scared so many candidates that thousands of candidates are dropping out of Amazon’s recruitment process. I just had an Amazon recruiter blow up my phone and inbox 5 times in the last 24 hours to get me to provide my availability for an onsite interview. I just asked the recruiter why they are rushing to hire and he said the hiring managers are pissed that so many candidates dropped out of the pipeline in just the last 24 hours.

If you doubt that people would turn down an Amazon offer in a recession, remember that most candidates are still employed and likely working remote and were probably given false hope by the dishonest Amazon recruiters that they can ask to work remotely or hybrid. Yesterday’s announcement dashes the hopes of so many candidates who can’t be in the office 5 days a week for different reasons like having a disability or health problems, having childcare duties and commuting.

Unclear if Amazon’s RTO Will Be More or Less Strict Than Pre-Pandemic

A big question hanging over everyone’s mind is whether Amazon’s five-day-a-week mandate will be more or less strict than the company’s work policies pre-pandemic. As the company has increasingly forced people back to the office, it has instituted various badge-in measures to keep track of compliance. In contrast, the company did not have such measures before the pandemic forced a move to remote.

“I’m on the fence. If it truly is like pre-pandemic, then that means it’s way more flexible than the current 3x a week model with badge reporting. If they continue to have badge reporting, then it’s just monitoring us like children,” a verified Amazon professional said on Blind.

While that employee struck a hopeful tone, others have said the new policy is far more restrictive than the company’s pre-pandemic one.

“Please do note that this is (in a lot of cases) significantly more strict and out of its mind than many teams operated under pre-covid,” an employee wrote on Slack after the announcement. “This is not ‘going back’ to how it was before. It’s just going backwards.”

Andy Jassy Is Intent to Return to the Past

As WPN pointed out in our initial coverage of Amazon’s RTO mandate, Jassy is the stereotypical CEO who is currently pushing for a return to the office. Studies have shown that RTO mandates are largely being pushed by older, male, workaholic CEOs who are slow to embrace a changing landscape.

“Because the labor market is looser and there’s more talent to be hired, I think the employers think they’ll be able to get their way,” said Dr. Grace Lordan, associate professor in behavioral science at the London School of Economics.

“This belief of a certain cohort of people, and they are represented across all sectors, that presentee-ism is productivity, for them it’s perfectly rational that if somebody doesn’t want to come into the office then that basically means they’re not somebody who wants to add value to the firm,” Lordan added.

Unfortunately for those CEOs, the reality has been quite different, with many companies losing top employees and struggling to attract new talent as a result. In fact, 42% of companies saw higher attrition as a result of RTO mandates, while 29% struggle to recruit new employees. What’s more, 76% of employees say they will quit to find another job if flexible work is eliminated completely.

Amazon’s Plans May Backfire

It’s unclear what Amazon’s over-arching goal is. The company clearly knows how unpopular RTO mandates are, yet they implemented one of the strictest in the industry.

Some have speculated the company could be purposefully trying to reduce its headcount, pushing out employees who refuse to relocate or return to the office. While that may work in the short term, as the Microsoft employee above points out, it will certainly not help Amazon gain any goodwill among potential employees, given the company is reneging on previous promises that were made when remote employees were hired.

Ultimately, Jassy’s RTO mandate could be Amazon’s undoing, costing it some of its top talent in an industry where winners are defined by their ability to attract the creme of the crop.

With more and more companies opting for remote work, human resource departments and executive leadership teams are scrambling to support their workers. This isn’t to say that remote companies can’t have a strong culture. Supporting their employees by giving them the flexibility to live wherever they want can be a strong motivating factor in terms of recruitment, but that can’t be the only perk that comes with a job. Here are three tips for building a strong company culture despite a distributed workforce.  

Join our chat on building a strong company culture in a remote workforce!

1. Know What Your Employees Value

What employees value has changed over the years. Before, it was all about having that corner office and perhaps an occasional free lunch. Today, individuals are looking for better work-life balance. They want a company that prioritizes their mental well-being, which can look like working remotely all or part of the time. Employees crave a sense of purpose in their work knowing that what they are doing matters and is valuable. 

Of course, every company is different. Those working for a remote tech startup team will have different priorities than an international corporate law firm. While human resource departments could guess or assume what their employees want, there are more concrete ways to understand their values. 

HR analytics, which is simply the process of collecting and evaluating employee information to make informed decisions, is one way to gather useful insights. Companies want to know what they’re doing right and how they can show up better for their employees. Analyzing employee surveys and yearly performance evaluations allows HR departments to make more informed decisions. This can benefit both employees in terms of their well-being as well as companies looking for better retention rates and a happier workforce. 

2. Encourage Collaboration 

Collaboration can lead to better communication amongst teams, improve productivity, and spark creative thinking. When individuals are working in silos, they may not have the same thought process as they would talk it out with a colleague. In an office setting, these conversations tend to happen naturally when others are asking how their day is going or what they’re working on. However, it’s less likely to happen when employees are spread out across the country or the world and speaking via Slack and other internal communication platforms. 

Your first thought may be to assign group projects. However, forced group work may bring up similar feelings of when the teacher mandated collective assignments in high school. For most people, that’s not the most enjoyable experience. To avoid this scenario, you want to look for ways that teammates will start to collaborate naturally. During team meetings, ask everyone to share a win from the last week related to a certain project or task. This can promote team learning and may even lead to side conversations amongst teammates who want to hear more about another’s project.  

The one challenge of collaboration in a distributed workforce is time zones. It’s rare for everyone on your team to be working in the same geographical location. You may even have some international employees who are working while the majority of the team is already logged off for the day. Asynchronous collaboration may be beneficial in these instances. Encourage your team to utilize shared documents, which allow for commenting and suggesting modes. Project management tools can also be advantageous as everyone on the team can work together to collaborate on a single project or goal. 

3. Celebrate Achievements

It’s all too easy to accomplish a goal and immediately move on to the next objective. However, celebrating achievements can improve your company culture by boosting morale and strengthening relationships. By spotlighting individual team members or the team as a whole, you’re placing value in their work. This shows that what they are doing is valuable and being recognized. 

While you may not be able to gather for cupcakes in the conference room, there are ways to celebrate no matter where people are physically located. During an all-hands meeting, have a designated slot of time to remotely pat someone on the back. A different employee can be recognized during each meeting for their recent work and efforts. For an individual team, a manager could have everyone log off an hour or two early on a Friday after a project is accomplished. 

Remember, it’s not always the size of the gesture, but the fact that you’re taking a moment to reflect and acknowledge an individual or team for their work. Sending someone a Venmo to buy themselves a coffee after completing a challenging assignment can be just as meaningful as a shoutout at the next team meeting.    

Takeaways

A strong workplace culture matters. It makes the difference in terms of hiring, retention, and overall productivity. Keep these tips in mind as you navigate the many challenges of a distributed workforce.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer recently threw his weight behind remote work, with his spokesperson saying companies need to stop perpetuating a “culture of presenteeism,” and focus on “on improve productivity.” The statements were some of the most high-profile government endorsements of remote/hybrid work and the right to disconnect.

Listen to a podcast conversation on the benefits of remote work. Not ‘Presenteeism.’

In an interview with The Times, Reynolds built on those statements, emphasizing that remote work was an important tool to keep employees motivated.

“I think it’s important to stress that good employers understand that workforce, to keep them motivated and resilient, they do need to judge people on outcomes and not a culture of presenteeism,” Reynolds said.

The official then contrasted the Labour government’s embrace of remote work with the previous Tory government’s war on trend.

“Jacob Rees-Mogg made this big thing as business secretary [in] declaring war on people working from home,” he says. “That’s pretty bizarre given the economic position the country was in and the real business agenda that needs to be pursued.”

Flexibility Is the Key

Reynolds acknowledged it doesn’t have to be either/or, with flexibility being the key to success.

“I think there are times when it is absolutely necessary, it’s legitimate to need the workforce in the office,” he says. “You’re basically learning from more experienced colleagues on the job.

“We’ve had flexible working laws for quite some time in the UK,” he added. “I think where people reach agreement with their employer … it does contribute to productivity, it does contribute to their resilience, their ability to stay working for an employer.”

Ultimately, however, Reynolds told The Times that he sees remote and hybrid work as a boon for the UK economy.

“A lot of businesses will say their motivation for being a workplace that offers this is because it opens up a much wider group of talent that they can recruit … there are real economic benefits to be had from the UK adopting this approach.”

CEOs Should Take Note

Unfortunately, some CEOs—especially older, male, workaholic CEOs—still value presenteeism over productivity.

This was on full display Monday as Amazon CEO Andy Jassy demanded corporate employees return to the office five days a week. While framing the RTO mandate in the context of returning to pre-pandemic norms, employees were quick to point out that the mandate was actually far more restrictive than the company’s requirements before COVID forced a transition to remote work.

“Please do note that this is (in a lot of cases) significantly more strict and out of its mind than many teams operated under pre-covid,” wrote one employee on the company’s Slack channel. “This is not ‘going back’ to how it was before. It’s just going backwards.”

Amazon is, predictably, facing significant fallout from Jassy’s mandate, but the company is far from the only one. In fact, the data shows that RTO mandates have largely been a disaster for companies, with such companies experience the following issues:

• 42% experienced higher attrition.
• 29% struggled to recruit new employees.
• 76% of employees are willing to leave a job if flexible or hybrid work is removed completely.
• 80% of executives regret how they handled RTO mandates.

Meanwhile, studies consistently show that remote and hybrid workers are more productive and work harder than their in-office counterparts. In fact, according to Microsoft remote employees work an average of 10% more. Similarly, remote workers are 13% more productive on average. Unfortunately, Microsoft found that many executives are driven by “productivity paranoia,” rather than trusting their employees.

“Many leaders and managers are missing the old visual cues of what it means to be productive because they can’t ‘see’ who is hard at work by walking down the hall or past the conference room,” wrote Microsoft in their report. “Indeed, compared to in-person managers, hybrid managers are more likely to say they struggle to trust their employees to do their best work (49% vs. 36%) and report that they have less visibility into the work their employees do (54% vs. 38%). And as employees feel the pressure to ‘prove’ they’re working, digital overwhelm is soaring.”

Unfortunately, until CEOs adopt a progressive, productivity-oriented approach to their employees, more companies will experience the kind of backlash Amazon is currently facing.

Jassy issued a memo on Monday demanding that employees return to the office five days a week, after several smaller adjustments over the past few years. The mandate rolls back several years of remote and hybrid work at the company, and employees are not having it.

A significant point of contention is Jassy’s assertion that the latest RTO mandate reflects a return to pre-COVID norms. In fact, some employees say the mandate is actually far stricter than conditions ever were before the pandemic, according to Business Insider.

“To the BI reporter who will inevitably quote mine this channel today,” an employee wrote on Slack. “Please do note that this is (in a lot of cases) significantly more strict and out of its mind than many teams operated under pre-covid. This is not ‘going back’ to how it was before. It’s just going backwards.”

Listen to a podcast conversation on Amazon’s RTO mandates. Viral discontent!

Another took issue with Jassy’s mandate in the context of Amazon’s long-standing leadership principle about being the best place to work.

“What ever happened to ‘Striving to be Earth’s Best Employer,” wrote the employee.

Still others expressed their desire to be PIP’d, a term used when employees score low in evaluations and are given nearly impossible goals to meet, before being fired when they can’t meet them.

“Can I negotiate my manager to PIP me,” an employee wrote. “Take my money and leave?”

“So if I go in 5x week, that means I can leave my laptop at work right? There’s no reason to bring it home,” another person wrote.

Still another employee took a jab at Jassy’s time as CEO, in the context of what it means for the company.

“It’s day 1169,” wrote the employee in reference to Jeff Bezos saying it’s “always Day 1 at Amazon.” The phrase is a term Bezos used to reference the startup mentality Amazon needed to maintain, emphasizing being “curious, nimble, and experimental.” In contrast, Bezos described Day 2 as the phase where a company would drop into “stasis,” “irrelevance,” and an “excruciating, painful decline.”

Jassy and other employees had to have known the RTO mandate would be unpopular, but the reaction so far could portend a disastrous decision that could end up costing the company far more than anyone imagined.

Like many companies, Amazon switched to remote work during the pandemic before settling into hybrid work in the aftermath. Unlike many companies, however, Amazon has been hell-bent on returning to the old ways, steadily forcing employees to return to the office more and more.

Listen to a podcast conversation on Amazon’s back-to-work mandate. Could it backfire?

In his latest memo to employees, Jassy says the company will now require corporate employees to be in the office the full workweek. Jassy framed the decision in the context of maintaining the company’s ‘unique culture.’

Our culture is unique, and has been one of the most critical parts of our success in our first 29 years. But, keeping your culture strong is not a birthright. You have to work at it all the time. When you consider the breadth of our businesses, their associated growth rates, the innovation required across each of them, and the number of people we’ve hired the last 6-8 years to pursue these endeavors, it’s pretty unusual—and will stretch even the strongest of cultures. Strengthening our culture remains a top priority for the s-team and me. And, I think about it all the time.

Two areas that the s-team and I have been thinking about the last several months are: 1/ do we have the right org structure to drive the level of ownership and speed we desire? 2/ are we set up to invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other (and our culture) to deliver the absolute best for customers and the business that we can? We think we can be better on both.

After discussing the company’s organizational structure, Jassy dropped the hammer on remote work.

To address the second issue of being better set up to invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other and our culture to deliver the absolute best for customers and the business, we’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID. When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant. I’ve previously explained these benefits (February 2023 post), but in summary, we’ve observed that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and, teams tend to be better connected to one another. If anything, the last 15 months we’ve been back in the office at least three days a week has strengthened our conviction about the benefits.

Before the pandemic, not everybody was in the office five days a week, every week. If you or your child were sick, if you had some sort of house emergency, if you were on the road seeing customers or partners, if you needed a day or two to finish coding in a more isolated environment, people worked remotely. This was understood, and will be moving forward as well. But, before the pandemic, it was not a given that folks could work remotely two days a week, and that will also be true moving forward—our expectation is that people will be in the office outside of extenuating circumstances (like the ones mentioned above) or if you already have a Remote Work Exception approved through your s-team leader.

Jassy Personifies a Bygone Era

The decision is sure to stir up a firestorm within the company. Jassy previously drew fire from employees earlier in the company’s RTO plans, saying there was no data to support the decision.

“There was no data when we were deciding to pursue AWS, which was quite different from the rest of our businesses at that time, that we were going to be successful. In fact, most people thought it was nuts internally and externally,” Jassy said at the time.

Not only did Amazon executives not have data to support RTO mandates, but the data actually shows that employees are more productive and work longer hours than employees working in the office. To make matters worse, RTO mandates have led to mass resignations, with some companies struggling to fill some of their most important roles as a result.

In fact, the data suggests that the main reason some companies are pursuing RTO mandates is strictly because of workaholic CEOs, likely older males, who are out of touch with the modern workforce and misinterpret employees’ desire to work remotely.

“Because the labor market is looser and there’s more talent to be hired, I think the employers think they’ll be able to get their way,” said Dr. Grace Lordan, associate professor in behavioral science at the London School of Economics.

“This belief of a certain cohort of people, and they are represented across all sectors, that presentee-ism is productivity, for them it’s perfectly rational that if somebody doesn’t want to come into the office then that basically means they’re not somebody who wants to add value to the firm,” Lordan added.

Enlightened CEOs Embrace the New Normal

In contrast to CEOs like Jassy, some corporate heads recognize the value remote and hybrid work bring, both in productivity and employee happiness.

Dropbox CEO Drew Houson emphasized in late 2023 that his company would not embrace RTO mandates, and companies that did embrace them would do so at their own peril.

“I’d say, ‘your employees have options,’” Houston said when asked what message he had for his peers. “They’re not resources to control.”

“From a product design perspective, customers are our employees. We’ve stitched together this working model based on primary research,” he continued. “We’ve just been handed the keys that unlock this whole future of work, which is actually here.”

“You need a different social contract, and to let go of control,” Houston added. “But if you trust people and treat them like adults, they’ll behave like adults. Trust over surveillance.”

Similarly, Atlassian CEO Scott Farquhar highlighted the fact that he worked remotely most of the time.

“I work from home all the time,” Farquhar said in 2023. “I might come into the office about once a quarter.”

“I still work really hard and I work with the teams who are around the world and Australia,” Farquhar added.

Farquhar said his company had not seen a productivity drop and, much like Houston, emphasized the need to trust employees to do their job, rather than try to regulate their location.

“Their work is a vocation not a location and so we expect people to be able to work from home, from a cafe, from an office, but we don’t really care where they do their work – what we care about is the output that they produce,” he said.

Unfortunately, some old-school CEOs like Jassy have not yet got the memo, trying to force people to return to yesteryear’s normal.

RTO (return-to-office) attempts continue in some industries, despite pushback, lost employees, and ongoing evidence that remote and hybrid work is highly effective. UK phone company Nothing is one of the most recent to pass a full RTO mandate.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Downing Street is calling out a “culture of presenteeism,” saying it hurts productivity. The government is working to add a “right to switch off” as part of workers’ rights reforms Sir Keir hopes to pass.

“The focus behind that is on improving productivity,” said Sir Keir’s spokesperson.

“Good employers understand that for workers to stay motivated and productive they do need to be able to switch off and a culture of presenteeism can be damaging to productivity.

“So it’s about making sure we have the right balance between making the most of the flexible working practices that we saw following the pandemic, with also having appropriate arrangements in place to ensure that people can stay productive.”

The new reforms are aimed at making sure employees don’t burn out.

“It’s about ensuring that we’re not inadvertently blurring the lines between work and home life and about ensuring that people have some time to rest,” the spokesman added.

The proposals are a refreshing acknowledgment of what has become the new normal—and the fact that the new normal works well—rather than a blind drive to return to the past.

Nothing is working to set itself apart in the crowded Android phone landscape, trying to become “a generation-defining company.” Nothing is taking cues from Apple and Samsung and focusing on polished designs and delivering a cohesive experience.

According to Pei’s LinkedIn post, remote and hybrid work is not compatible with those goals.

First of all, we make physical products where design, engineering, manufacturing and quality have to collaborate closely together to deliver products to our users. This does not work well remotely.

Second, creativity and innovation are really key to us winning against bigger companies. Not only in products, we also need to solve difficult problems and do more with way less resources than competitors in all areas of our business. This does not work well remotely.

Lastly, our ambition level is different from many peer companies started at the same time. We are not looking to create a good business that gets acquired by a big company, we are looking to realize our full potential of becoming a generation-defining company. And we’re really serious about moving fast. Remote work is not compatible with a high ambition level plus high speed.

Pei said the change wouldn’t affect normal flexibility that users enjoy.

Some may be worried about flexibility, but this is no different from pre-COVID. This is a company for grown ups, so if you need to be out of office to deal with some issues, we trust you to make the right decision. In fact, some roles like sales and PR need to be out of the office meeting with customers and press regularly.

Pei acknowledged that the decision was controversial, and that it meant Nothing would no longer be a good fit for everyone, but emphasized that employees and the company would need to find options that were a better fit.

We know it’s not the right type of setup for everybody, and that’s OK. We should look for a mutual fit. You should find an environment where you thrive, and we need to find people who want to go the full mile with us in the decades ahead.

This takes effect two months from now. In our next Town Hall in London, we can take live questions if there are any.

The vast majority of companies have come to accept hybrid work as the new normal, with most CEOs coming to terms with the new reality.

Schmidt caused quite a stir when he criticized Google’s efforts in the AI industry, saying the company had fallen behind its rivals because it was more concerned with providing work/life balance than it was with being competitive.

“Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning,” Schmidt stated at the time. “The reason startups work is because the people work like hell.”

It appears Schmidt has had a change of heart, or at least someone prevailed upon him and convinced him that such comments were less productive than he may have thought they were. Whatever the case, Schmidt retracted his comments in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.

“I misspoke about Google and their work hours,” Schmidt said in an email to WSJ. “I regret my error.”

CEOs, and ex-CEOS, have increasingly been under fire for being out of touch when it comes to the topic of remote work. Research has shown that any remaining push to return to the office is largely being driven by workaholic, older male CEOs who are trying to recapture a moment in time that is increasingly in the rear view mirror.

“Because the labor market is looser and there’s more talent to be hired, I think the employers think they’ll be able to get their way,” said Dr. Grace Lordan, associate professor in behavioral science at the London School of Economics.

Among those executives who pushed for a return-to-office, 80% regret how their company approached the topic and wish they would have handled it differently.

“Many companies are realizing they could have been a lot more measured in their approach, rather than making big, bold, very controversial decisions based on executives’ opinions rather than employee data,” said Larry Gadea, Envoy’s CEO and founder.

Despite some CEOs trying to recapture traditional office norms, the vast majority have accepted that hybrid work is here to stay.

“The mental well-being of the workforce and preventing burnout remain priorities,” says Paul Knopp, KPMG US Chair and CEO. “In the ongoing future of work debate, the pendulum is swinging back to hybrid work as CEO expectations for a full return to office decline.”

Given the wealth of data supporting hybrid work, it’s little wonder that Schmidt walked back his comments.

“Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning,” Schmidt stated bluntly during his talk. “The reason startups work is because the people work like hell.” His comments come at a time when Google, despite its reputation as a tech leader, faces growing competition from AI-driven startups like OpenAI and Anthropic, which have gained significant ground in the AI space.

A Stinging Critique of Google’s Work Culture

Schmidt’s remarks reflect a broader debate within the tech industry about the impact of remote work on innovation and productivity. While remote work has been embraced by many companies, including Google, as a means of providing flexibility and improving work-life balance, Schmidt suggests that it may be undermining the company’s ability to compete in fast-paced, high-stakes sectors like AI.

“If you all leave the university and go found a company, you’re not going to let people work from home and only come in one day a week if you want to compete against the other startups,” Schmidt told the Stanford audience, emphasizing the need for a more intense, in-person work environment to drive success in startup culture.

Google, which has adopted a hybrid work model requiring employees to be in the office three days a week since 2022, has faced its share of challenges in the AI arena. The company was slower than some of its competitors to launch an AI chatbot, trailing behind OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT. Additionally, Google’s own chatbot, Bard, and its more advanced AI tool, Gemini, have encountered technical issues that have drawn criticism.

The Remote Work Debate in Tech

Schmidt’s critique is not an isolated view among tech leaders. Other high-profile executives, such as JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon and Tesla’s Elon Musk, have also voiced concerns that remote work policies could weaken company performance. Musk, in particular, has been vocal about his belief that working in the office is essential, insisting that employees spend a minimum of 40 hours per week on-site.

The impact of remote work on productivity remains a contentious issue. While some studies have shown that remote work can boost productivity by up to 24%, others suggest that it may hinder innovation, particularly in fields that require close collaboration and rapid iteration, such as AI development.

Google’s current CEO, Sundar Pichai, has maintained the company’s hybrid work policy but has also introduced stricter measures to ensure compliance, including tracking in-office attendance and incorporating it into performance reviews. Despite these efforts, the company has struggled to regain its lead in AI, with investors expressing concern over the hefty expenditures on AI and the lack of clarity on when these investments will pay off.

A Legacy of Leadership and Innovation

Eric Schmidt’s influence on Google during his decade-long tenure as CEO, from 2001 to 2011, is well-documented. Under his leadership, Google expanded from a promising startup into one of the most powerful technology companies in the world, with a dominant position in search and online advertising. However, his recent comments suggest a deep concern that the company’s current trajectory may not sustain the competitive drive that once defined it.

Since leaving Google, Schmidt has continued to be a prominent figure in the tech world, co-founding Schmidt Futures with his wife, a philanthropic initiative that funds science and technology research. He also chairs the Special Competitive Studies Project, a nonprofit focused on AI and other emerging technologies in the U.S.

Google’s Ongoing AI Challenges

Google’s struggles in AI are not just about internal culture but also about the external pressures and competition it faces. The company has been playing catch-up ever since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, which quickly captured the public’s imagination and set a new standard for conversational AI. Google’s response, with tools like Bard and Gemini, has been met with mixed reviews, with some critics pointing to issues with bias and technical glitches.

Despite these setbacks, Google remains a formidable player in the AI landscape, with its AI-driven tools contributing to significant revenue in divisions like Google Cloud. Yet, as Schmidt’s comments underscore, the pressure is on for Google to not only keep pace with its competitors but to reassert its leadership in the field.

As the debate over remote work continues, Google’s experience may serve as a cautionary tale for other companies navigating the balance between flexibility and competitiveness in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. The question remains: Can Google overcome the challenges posed by its current work culture to reclaim its position at the forefront of AI innovation?

According to the latest research by Digital Directory Express, New Mexico takes the top honors for those looking to work from home, thanks to the fastest internet speeds in the nation, combined with relatively low electric and gas costs. The state boasts average internet speeds of 505.6 Mbps, well above the national average of 319.82. Meanwhile, internet and electric fees average $146.48, less than the national average of $197.59.

Similarly, North Dakota comes in second with internet speeds average 451 Mbps and internet and electricity costs coming in a bit cheaper at $143.32. Washington rounds out the top three with 408.2 Mbps and $144.62 in utilities.

On the other end of the spectrum, Florida comes in dead last with the slowest internet in the country, at a mere 93 Mbps. Meanwhile, internet and electricity costs are well above the national average, coming in at $262.17.

Interestingly, New Mexico’s neighbor Arizona is the second worst. Although it has a decent 230.4 Mbps average internet speed, it has the highest electricity and internet costs at $275.19 per month. South Carolina rounds out the bottom three with 221.4 Mbps and $235.57 per month.

“Just over one third of workers in the US now work from home, according to Pew Research Center, and it’s a trend that shows no signs of slowing down,” Sam Rogers, spokesperson for Digital Directory Express, said in a statement to WPN. “But it is striking to see the inequality across different states when it comes to basics like internet speed, which is absolutely vital for home working, as well as the need for affordable cooling and heating (depending on the season) when you’re staying in the house all day. If we want to mobilize what is now over 14 percent of our workforce, it’s important that states invest in improving key issues like internet speed and work to make bills manageable, especially in a heatwave that is forcing households to increase their spending on Air Conditioning to stay cool and function in the home.”