Lessons of how not to RTO from corporate America

As layoffs become a subject of public discourse on social media, the approach to The remote office war is entering what feels like its final phase. Layoffs and rumors of layoffs have put workers on the backfoot and employees have pounced with RTO mandates, reduced remote hiring, and remote-focused layoffs. Now corporate America - already dealing with a worker disengagement crisis - is putting on a show of how to effectively get employees back to office.

EY has received a wave of backlash for changing privacy policies to use employee turnstile data to track attendance while Bank of America’s “letters of education” to employees have been decried across the political spectrum. Meanwhile, IBM pursued a more simple “report to the office or be fired” policy, despite having closed offices in several major cities to save on rent costs.

Despite these policies, internal data shows many teams at the RTO-ing firms still have less than 50% attendance records. Research also shows that forced RTO breeds resentment, per a University of Pittsburgh study showing 99% of firms mandating office work saw job satisfaction fall, with no performance gain. 

Companies may feel that an extremely weak white-collar labor market gives them the power to pursue no-holds-barred RTO; an estimated 16% of top performers leave following strict enforcement. With the costs of rigid returns clear, businesses should make sure they have a clear internal rationale behind RTO beyond platitudes about collaboration and teamwork.