In the years-long debate over remote work, upper-level executives have often been the loudest — and staunchest — advocates for returning to the office.
But many bosses want to work from home as much as, if not more than, their employees do, according to a new survey of 3,000 American workers and managers from software firm Checkr.
The survey found that 68% of bosses, a group that includes middle managers, executives and business owners, would like remote work to continue in 2024, while less than half (48%) of employees feel the same.
But it's still hard to draw any definitive conclusions about employees' and managers' remote work preferences.
Although some CEOS — including Amazon's Andy Jassy and JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon — have increasingly pushed for return-to-office mandates, other research has indicated that bosses aren't thrilled with the loss of remote work.
More than 80% of executives and non-executives want flexibility in where they work, including a majority (56%) of those in the office full-time, per Future Forum's February 2023 pulse survey. This is true of high-earners, too: A July 2023 report from McKinsey found that one-third of employees earning over $150,000 would quit their jobs if they had to return to the office full-time.
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Workers are also divided on returning to the office. While hybrid work has become the most prevalent — and favored — arrangement among employees, remote jobs are still in high demand.
The disconnect between managers' true feelings about flexibility and the mandates that are being enforced stems from financial incentives and pressure from shareholders or higher-ups to get employees back in the office.
At the will of their boss (or boards)
Money Report
Most RTO mandates come from the top — middle managers need to follow their bosses' orders, while CEOs are beholden to their shareholders — which means leaders can't completely dismiss them, regardless of their personal feelings.
Brian Elliott, an executive advisor on flexibility and the founder of the research consortium Future Forum, points out a strong correlation between companies fielding vocal complaints from activist investors and introducing stricter RTO mandates in the last twelve months.
"If you look at some larger companies, when they were under pressure from shareholders is also when they tended to announce a new RTO plan because someone on their board of directors was unfamiliar with or distrusted remote work as a passing trend," Elliott says.
As for middle managers, a cooling job market from the historic quit rates seen in 2021 and 2022 means they've lost some bargaining power and leverage to push back on RTO mandates, says Molly Johnson-Jones, the CEO and co-founder of Flexa Careers, a global directory of flexible-work companies.
"The balance of power has shifted away from the individual employee and back to the company being able to call the shots," she says. "People desperately want to keep their jobs, so they're willing to do what they're told, even if they don't necessarily believe it."
A 'sunk cost' executives don't want to let go of
The sunk cost of unused office space has been a major factor in executives' decisions to introduce stricter RTO requirements even if they prefer to work from home, says Kathy Kacher, a consultant who advises corporate executives on their RTO plans.
Even nine months ago, companies were willing to eat these costs to recruit and retain talent in a tight labor market.
But now, "Some companies are getting impatient, and want to recoup these large investments," Kacher explains. "So many of my clients have large real estate footprints, and seeing these empty, expensive office buildings is giving executives a lot of anxiety."
In New York City, office space costs, on average, about $16,000 a year per employee, the New York Times reports.
While some companies have decided to downsize or break their office leases post-pandemic, others are hesitant to take the leap, or can't afford to, says Elliott.
"Before the pandemic, a lot of companies signed 10- or 15-year leases, under the expectation of growing their headcounts, and all of a sudden that changed," says Elliott. "Or, they invested thousands of dollars post-lockdown on redesigns to lure employees back to the office, only for those desks to sit empty."
He adds: "CEOs and CFOs are looking at that lease or redecoration cost in their profit and loss statements and fixating on it as a bad financial decision that needs to be course-corrected — and in their minds, requiring people to use the space they're paying for is the best way to do that."
Monitoring employees outweighs bosses' desire to work from home
Nearly four years after the pandemic forced companies to adopt remote work, many bosses still find it harder to manage their employees online versus in person, says Jones.
"How managers want to work as individuals could be different from how they want to work with their direct reports because managing a distributed team is really challenging," she explains. "It's a new, constantly evolving landscape that few managers have training in."
When Checkr asked managers if they would prefer to work from the office more because it's easier to supervise employees in person, most managers (70%) answered "yes."
What's more, the "vast majority" of business leaders say they have seen an improvement in revenue, productivity and employee retention since returning to the office, according to an August 2023 report from Resume Builder.
So while some managers may prefer to work remotely, adapting their management style is "too much for them to handle," Jones adds.
"I'm hoping that within the next year or two, companies will have worked out their ideal balance of remote and in-office days, but until then, there's going to be a lot more musical chairs of people leaving places if they don't agree with their approach," she says. "An RTO policy won't work if it's a lazy, knee-jerk reaction."
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