The RTO Revolution: Is Full Time Return to the Office Imminent?

It seems there’s a new bandwagon rolling through town. A trend that is proving surprisingly unpopular with talent. I’m talking, of course, about the 4-5 day return to the office mandates that are hitting the headlines.

Amazon’s 5-day RTO policies have caused quite the stir in the press. Apple is demanding at least 3 days in the office per week, threatening “action” against those who don’t comply. Disney staff are fighting back on a 4-day RTO mandate. And other household names are mandating more time in the office too – with Walmart, Asda, Salesforce, Zoom, British challenger bank Starling, and more reportedly ramping up pressure on staff to return.

Not long ago, we were all singing the praises of working from home. There were even murmurings that a 4-day work week would become the norm. Many of us agreed that “objectives completed/progressed” was a more meaningful metric than “time on the clock”.

So what changed? Why do organisations suddenly want to party like it’s 2019 again? What could 4-5 day return to office mandates mean for the organisations who enforce it? And what could it mean for the wider employment market?

How We Got Here

Well, it all starts with COVID-19. Employees suddenly having to work from home during the pandemic brought with it many home truths about work-life balance. 

Working from home became our “new normal” for a time, and many workers discovered bountiful productivity and morale gains – no mean feat in the face of a global disaster. Employees didn’t have to spend hours commuting with their face in someone’s armpit for hours of their life. They could take better care of their own personal needs by going for a run or catching up on household chores in their lunch break.

As working from home consistently started to present its many benefits, many workers sensed a state of pro-worker upheaval on the horizon. With the pandemic rumbling on and WFH pretty much mandated, this put a lot of power in the hands of the employee – even as restrictions eventually ceased. Were we experiencing the future of white-collar work?

It was an opportunistic time. After a while, organisations were even experimenting with 4-day working weeks. It all looked very promising.

The Current State of Play

So what does the current workplace look like?

Data shows that Brits have well and truly adopted a hybrid working environment. Those working to a hybrid model have shown an upward trend, slowly rising in the aftermath of lockdowns to 27% in 2024. 41% of employees worked exclusively from their place of work in 2024, though this has dropped significantly from its peak of 60% in March 2022. 14% worked exclusively from home as of 2024.

US figures paint an even more remote-friendly picture, with 20% already working remotely and 98% expressing a desire to work remotely at least partially.

I personally think this makes a lot of sense. Hybrid working models present employees and employers with the best of both worlds.

The Rise of Return to the Office

This leaves many of us wondering why the tides are turning all of a sudden. Though not all RTO mandates are demanding a full Monday-Friday, 9-5 return, it does feel like this would be many employers’ ideal, and any 3-4 day mandates are merely stepping stones towards this goal.

Let’s not forget that WFH policies benefitted employers as well, especially during the height of the pandemic. It boosted employee productivity and satisfaction; opened employers up to a larger potential talent pool; and presented opportunities to reduce premises-related overheads.

Yet some employers still weren’t happy. Managing remote teams isn’t easy when you’re used to looking over people’s shoulders to monitor performance. It’s also hard to flag and combat toxic behaviour at a distance. It can also be a struggle to maintain company culture and camaraderie when everyone’s remote.

So let’s explore employers’ reasoning for returning to the office. Their arguments generally fall into 4 categories:

• It will increase productivity.
• It will boost collaboration efforts.
• It will foster good company culture.
• It will enable better career development.

These arguments aren’t entirely baseless. Yet it does feel a little odd that all pro-RTO employers seem to be singing from this same song sheet. Surely announcing such a significant – unpopular – change should be a little more nuanced between different organisations.

How Unpopular are Return to Office Mandates?

Are RTO mandates really as unpopular as they’re being made out to be? Well… yeah, they are.

ResumeBuilder figures state that 80% of employers have lost talent because of RTO mandates and that most workers canvassed wanted to be in-office 3 days or fewer per week. 73% of Amazon’s corporate workers are thinking about leaving following the retailer’s announcement of its 5-day mandate. And in a notable individual RTO backfire, Walmart brand Sam’s Club even lost their CTO over Walmart’s own 5-day mandate.

We could wax lyrical about how workplace flexibility benefits workers but I would especially like to highlight the positive boon that WFH policies are for workplace diversity. It simplifies the school run for many, especially for single parents. Marginalised individuals can work late without having to worry about discriminatory abuse on public transport during their late commute home. Remote working policies have been welcomed by many individuals living with disabilities or neurodivergence who would struggle to attend in person otherwise.

But that aside, many people have been perfectly productive, engaged, team players throughout the working from home phenomenon – so why go back? And why now?

Why RTO Now? The Candidate-Employer Market Tug of War

Since COVID-19, candidates and employees have enjoyed a market that has been largely in their favour. Individuals were freer to take their pick from different employers. However, with corporate belt tightening, a cost-of-everything crisis, and politico-economic tumult, the cards are now stacked far more towards the will of employers.

Companies are now hiring a lot less than they were. Ravio figures show that overall hiring rates are down by 15% across the entire European tech industry. Despite a pandemic rebound peak in May 2021, Irish hiring rates have declined to slightly below pre-pandemic levels. Vanguard data shows that US employers are hiring at the slowest pace since June 2020. Now, it seems, it’s employers who can now “take their pick.”

With these figures in mind, I can’t help but wonder whether many organisations have strategically (read: cynically) waited for the tables to turn in their favour to start making demands on attendance that workers are now powerless to refuse.

Understandably, these mandates are brewing a great deal of employee resentment, disengagement, and distrust.

Why Does the Workforce Resent RTO, Really?

It’s simple. Remote and hybrid working options are a workplace benefit. They’re an incredibly favourable part of employees’ overall compensation. And once benefits have been given, it’s nigh on impossible to take them back. Removing a benefit is akin to slashing pay, removing dental cover, or clawing back the use of company cars.

This resentment and despair becomes multiplied when employees originally chose a position purely because of its generous remote working policies.

The True Potential Cost of Return to Office Mandates

I feel that organisations who mandate a hostile “come back to the office, or else” approach are going to have quite the shock on their hands when they realise the costs it’s likely to incur.

We’re already seeing the fallout of these mandates. Talented, loyal employees are looking for opportunities elsewhere. Years of loyalty and camaraderie between employee and employer is withered overnight. Besides, it can cost between six to nine months’ of a role’s salary to find and onboard a new employee – and up to 213% of their salary if you’re replacing a senior exec.

Forcing through such an unpopular policy without at least consulting with the teams who will be affected is incredibly unfair on those teams. And viewing remote and hybrid working as the benefits they are, RTO-mandating employers should consider balancing that removal of a benefit with the addition of another meaningful benefit in its place.

The Problem of Post-Return Culture, Trust, and Toxicity

Despite “bolstering company culture” being one of the main reasons companies are keen to get employees back in the office, there’s a real risk of it doing the opposite without a frank examination of company culture.

In some workplaces, trust can be in very short supply. It’s no secret that some employers have a harder time trusting their employees than others. This mistrust often fosters hostility in workers, who simply can’t thrive when they’re being micromanaged or when information is being withheld from them.

One of the reasons postulated online about why employers are mandating maximal RTO is that they don’t trust their employees when they are working remotely. If this is true, then I would remind those organisations that trust is a two-way street. If you don’t give it, you don’t get it in return.

I fear that a poorly handled, non-self-aware RTO mandate, rolled out in an already low-trust environment, could actually exacerbate the lack of trust in that organisation. Where there is no trust, could these employers be nurturing a growing culture of tattletales, snitching on their colleagues for not showing up for their mandated days per week? Could RTO add more fuel to the fire of gossip, mistrust, and enmity?

Even in high-trust environments, return to office mandates need to be properly managed as the transitional period they rightfully are. Not everybody is itching to be back in the office 2019-style, so not everyone’s going to show up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed from day one – especially those who have become accustomed to the relative “goblin mode” of total or partial remote working. Some workers will need patience and support to get up to speed.

So if mandating a return to the office is such a hassle to do responsibly, why are organisations doing it? Well, there’s a particularly interesting study which highlights some employers’ true RTO intentions.

Is RTO a tactic to reduce headcount and save costs?

A recent BambooHR survey disappointingly discovered that a quarter of VP and C-Suite executives and a fifth of HR professionals “admit they hoped” for voluntary turnover following RTO mandates. 37% of leaders in the study believed that layoffs in the past 12 months were due to too few people quitting in protest of prior RTO measures.

IT Pro makes no bones about these figures in their coverage:

“Companies know staff don’t want to go back to the office, and that may be part of their plan.”

Though this is just one survey, and leaders seeking voluntary turnover are far from 100%, it’s certainly worth being aware of as we navigate what the job market has to offer going forward.

WFH vs. RTO:
One Recruiter’s Conclusion

My own opinion is that hybrid working is the ideal scenario, with workers in the office at least once or twice a week. However, there should be some flexibility here too; employees hired on remote agreements may live too far away to commute too frequently, and disabled and/or neurodiverse individuals should be trusted to call their own shots. Employers are also obliged to honour fully remote COVID-era contracts.

But what does the RTO shift mean for candidates who are currently on the market and weighing up their remote/hybrid options? Especially those higher up the chain of command? Well, hybrid working has very much become the norm in “white-collar” roles, and is largely what I would encourage those looking for work to expect.

Job postings for completely remote roles are falling, so competition for them is rising. LinkedIn reports that as of January 2024, there were twice the number of applications to remote roles than there were remote roles available. Data from Cord echoes this somewhat, finding that remote positions received 44% more applications per position compared with hybrid and fully onsite roles.

With this in mind, and seeing how some people would rather re-enter the job market than comply with more stringent RTO mandates, what might this mean for the job market?

Will employers concede and accept that the workplace flexibility cat is well and truly out of the bag? Or will employees and candidates feel increasingly drubbed into 5-day RTO compliance? I’ll certainly be watching from the sidelines, helping candidates where I can.