The phenomenon of zillions of corporate workers acclimated to working from the Office and pivoting to remote work at the start of 2020, was contingent on the dystopian pandemic. At first, the work-from-home adjustment took a toll on the trust between both employer and Employee. Gradually, the indefatigable productivity bore fruit and post-pandemic, more companies started weighing in on allowing employees to choose from the future work trends of a hybrid culture or adopt unassailable remote work policies. 

But now, companies are reducing remote work, mounting on the decisions of industry-leading CEOs, who are quietly reneging on earlier pledges. Major corporations including Starbucks, Twitter, and Disney are backtracking on flexible work and obliging employees with the newer return-to-office guidelines. 

According to a January 2023 report from Monster, half the strength of the employers who claimed that flexible work arrangements burgeoned their growth, with 33 percent even planning to embrace permanent virtual or hybrid models, have flipped their opinions.  

With fears of recession hinging on a ticking tock amid massive layoffs, the pendulum of power is oscillating back to the bosses, the CEOs who will have a final word on the future trends of 2023 – and more companies are carpe-dieming the moment to welcome the return to office slump.

Remote Work Vs Office Productivity: Who Wins?

Salesforce was one of the first tech companies to have decreed that “the 9-to-5 workday is dead” when it announced a permanent flexible working model in 2021. Fast forward to 2023, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who once criticized the return-to-office mandates, is backpedaling his boat from the waters of post-pandemic productivity. Benioff’s comments seem to stem from the onus of ‘empirically’ knowing that new hires would perform magnificently if they’re in the office for being onboarded, trained, meeting new people, and harmonizing with the company’s culture. 

“Our hybrid approach empowered leaders to make decisions for their teams about where and how they work.”

Post-pandemic, after years of resisting returning to the office, many employees rediscovered the unexpected perks of working from their desks. People had quietly begun to change their minds a little, and not hate the office slump – finding themselves drawing boundaries between work and life and catching up with colleagues vis-à-vis. 

“The social interaction and feeling of being a part of something collective were forgotten because people had not experienced it for ages.” 

While some were willing to announce their gaiety to their bosses, most wanted to sit on the quiet sidelines to not jeopardize the few advantages they had wrenched from the lockdown. If the pandemic had served good things to the corporate sector, then flexibility, autonomy, work-life balance, and choice were among them. 

“We don’t want to tell our bosses and jinx the flexible working model.” 

So how will employees now react to understanding that their hand may soon be forced despite the productive intentions? 

Increase In RTO Requirements May Repeat The Great Resignation 

The labor market continues to reap tight – there are 1.9 unfilled positions for every job seeker. Yet, high inflation coupled with massive furloughs, has pitted employees in angst.

Previously, HR managers had less leveraging power during the hiring shortage, but now they lead the negotiations – especially when the focal point is office attendance.

“Execs were scrambling to retain workers, fearful of losing talent if asked to return to office, because employees had made their distaste for office crystal clear.”

But with the shaky economy and pandemic-turned-endemic, companies and their CEOs have harkened back to the authority complex. At the start of the pandemic, companies were forced to offer remote work accommodations as means of emergency measures, but senior corporates believed it wasn’t sustainable for longevity. 

But another concern that could swing the employees back on the autonomy pedestal, is the increase in RTO requirements. According to a study, employers remaining ambiguous about their remote working policies are 2.3x more likely to lose employees, by virtue of non-transparency. 

“And more RTO requirements can be blamed to trigger another murky undulation of the ‘great resignation’. 

Remote job opportunities are drying up and if the five big tech companies announce that employees are required to report to office for five days per week, the workers will lose their freedom of choice and flexibility, because other companies will follow suit. 

While there is nothing wrong with a company admitting to having committed to an RTO strategy, maintaining employees’ trust and transparency should remain paramount for any company. And as a benefit to companies, if employees quit over RTO requirements, they can never be mired in cancel culture’s backlash amidst layoffs and also cut costs somewhere. 

“Stricter mandates are being imposed, as a sneaky way for companies to reduce their headcount and not be liable to paying employees severance.” 

Now, companies have started to rethink the concept of remote work policies prompting the return to office slump which will continue to be divisive among employees with varying preferences. Yet, many industry analysts maintain that companies must attempt to seek a middle ground with employees and offer flexible work schedules.  

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