Many company executives now regret their initial return-to-office plans, as 80% say they would have approached it differently if they understood employee preferences. While some firms are requiring more in-office time, citing collaboration needs, others are scaling back requirements due to retention issues. Successful companies like EY are listening to employees, addressing concerns over childcare and commuting, and seeing office attendance rise as a result. However, full office occupancy remains below pre-pandemic levels as hybrid work grows in popularity. It will take time for companies to settle on arrangements that satisfy both employees and management.
The execs at my company continues to say that we’re an office based company, citing collaboration and social reasons. However, I have not heard of a single person below VP level share this opinion.
Luckily, many of us are “field personnel”, and mostly work either in the field or at home. Mandating that we work from the office would mean that we’re “office personnel”, who cannot be required to do field work. I love how corporate definitions make it easier to defend against corporate wank.
While I completely agree with you, they have better lawyers and deeper pockets, so don’t be surprised if they somehow have it both ways.