Five years since the pandemic began, workers have become accustomed to scripts. Their boss made plans to return to the office, but then put them on hold. Then it was shelved again.
In recent weeks, calls to end remote working have been loud and authoritative.
On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order requiring federal department heads to “end remote work arrangements” and require all federal workers to return to on-site work five days a week. He previewed the move in December, when he said federal workers who refused to come into their offices “will be fired.”
Some CEOs who have long been keen to abandon remote work have also announced plans to fully return to the office. Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and AT&T told many employees they must return to the office five days a week this year. Even in pop culture, the office is making a comeback, with “Babygirl” glamorizing the shirts worn by CEOs, “Severance” returning for a new season of dramas that explore the corporate psyche, and popular newsletters like “Feed Me” declaring remote work “obsolete” “.
Some workers who have returned to work voluntarily are eager to resume their pre-pandemic work habits.
Two years ago, Ellen Harwick might have said she wanted to work remotely forever. Last fall, a switch flipped.
Ms. Harwick, a marketing manager for a clothing brand in Bellingham, Wash., spent two weeks working remotely in Portugal while still working Pacific time. Suddenly, she began to crave office chit-chat.
“For me, something changed,” Ms. Harwick, 48, said. She is now back in the office five days a week.
But many proponents of remote work emphasize the benefits it brings to people with caregiving responsibilities and express concern about the total loss of flexibility.
“Finding childcare that allows you to work in an office from 9 to 5 is very challenging,” said Sara Mauskopf, CEO and founder of Winnie, a company that connects families with childcare Provider-connected startups. Her company is completely remote.
Amazon began returning to offices on Jan. 2, when it directed most employees to come in five days a week, up from the three days required in May 2023. was postponed. CEO Andy Jassy told employees in a memo that returning to the office would better allow employees to “invent, collaborate and connect” with each other and integrate into the company’s culture.
“Before the pandemic, it was not a given that people could work remotely two days a week, and that will not be the case going forward,” Jassy wrote.
JPMorgan told employees that in-person working would support better mentoring and brainstorming. The company will begin reopening offices in March.
“We know that some of you prefer hybrid schedules and understand that not everyone will agree with this decision,” JPMorgan wrote in a memo to employees. “We believe now is the best time to solidify our full-time office approach opportunity.”
Many workforce experts note that executives want people back in the office for a while to build culture and relationships. What has changed, they say, is that employers feel they have more leverage because the labor market is no longer as tight as it was during the Great Resignation, when more vacancies became available for the unemployed.
“It’s like another dimension of compensation — in a very tight labor market, employees are getting more, and employers may not force them to come back because they Might want to quit “With more slack in the labor market, employers may be less concerned. “
Sometimes the push to return to the office has less to do with building office culture and more to do with costs. Nick Bloom, a Stanford University economist who studies remote work and advises senior executives on hybrid arrangements, said he has seen some companies force workers back into the office as a way to reduce headcount. One way, because they know that bringing back all employees will encourage some to quit.
「DEI 運動的衰落讓事情變得容易一些，」布魯姆先生補充道，他提到了對企業多元化舉措的強烈反對，並解釋說，女性和有色人種員工往往在調查中表示更多支持telecommute.
Despite these high-profile efforts to get employees back to work five days a week, many other employers are sticking to a hybrid approach.
More than a quarter of full-time paid jobs in the United States are remote, according to data from a Stanford University project tracking work-from-home rates. About three-quarters of Americans who can do their jobs remotely continue to work from home at some point, according to Pew Research Center data.
One reason why hybrid work is so sticky is that employees have made their preference for flexibility clear. Nearly half of remote workers surveyed by Pew said they would consider leaving their job if their employer no longer allowed them to telework. At Amazon, corporate employees went on strike in May 2023 to protest against the RTO.
“We are committed to providing flexibility to our employees and believe a hybrid flexibility approach allows teams to collaborate intentionally,” said Claire Borelli, chief people officer at TIAA, an investment firm that calls employees back every three days. Go to the office.
Some staunch supporters of remote work say the policy has no impact on productivity and helps retain employees. When Yelp’s lease came up for renewal in 2021, the company decided to move locations and sublease a smaller space from Salesforce. The company is now allowing employees to work entirely remotely, bucking the broader return to the office trend.
“At this point, we’ve pretty much given up on the description of remote work — that’s how we work,” said Carmen Amara, the company’s chief people officer.
Ms. Amara said any doubts the company faced about its remote policy disappeared because of the end result. The company reported record net income and profitability in the third quarter of 2024, with revenue down 13% since 2021.
But with big-name companies like Amazon and JPMorgan Chase fully returning to offices and President Trump insisting that federal workers do the same, the commercial real estate industry remains optimistic for the time being, CEO Ruth Kolp-Harber said. Ruth Colp-Haber said.
Workplace safety company Kastle said office occupancy remains unstable at just over half of pre-pandemic levels, and its “return to the office” barometer reflects the ups and downs of remote work since 2020. Condition.
“It takes a while for these things to show up in the numbers, but there is no doubt that the momentum is positive,” Ms. Kolp-Harber said. “We are seeing greater demand for office space for a number of reasons, one of which is large companies requiring working in the office five days a week.”
