WFH vs RTO: Why empty offices are at the heart of the return-to-office debate
What do Amazon, Ubisoft, Publicis and JP Morgan have in common? Seemingly not much, but they are all united in their drive to get workers back into the office
For many companies, working in the office is above all a way of making the most of expensive premises. For many companies, working in the office is above all a way of making the most of expensive premises.
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A step backwards for some, a strategic imperative for others, the return to the office is the subject of much debate. While employees take working from home for granted, many employers are now insisting on in-person work to strengthen team cohesion and maximize the use of often under-occupied offices.
What do Amazon, Ubisoft, Publicis and J.P. Morgan have in common? Seemingly not much, but they are all united in their drive to get workers back into the office. After the pandemic and months of hesitation, the trend is now accelerating. For some, like Elon Musk, in-person working is a way of keeping employees motivated and engaged, while remote workers are effectively just pretending to work.
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But for many companies, working on-site is more about making the most of expensive office space. A third of executives questioned in a Resume.org survey* claim that their rental agreements are the main driver behind their return-to-office (RTO) policy. More than half of them admit that these financial commitments weigh heavily on their decisions.
Currently, two-thirds of employers rent space for their teams. Nearly half of these leases run until 2028 or beyond, while only 2% expire in 2024. This contractual inertia is forcing companies to rethink the use of their offices, even if the presence of workers on site is not always accompanied by tangible gains in productivity. Indeed, a Chinese-American study published in June in the journal Nature reports that employees working from home two days a week are just as productive as their colleagues in the office every day.
Nevertheless, 28% of business leaders surveyed by Resume.org plan to reintroduce 100% in-person working for their employees by the end of 2025. Only 2% say they are prepared to limit office presence to one day a week or less. However, for many employees, returning to the office would come at a price -- that of a significant pay rise. According to the latest edition of the “Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes,” US employees working remotely one day a week would be willing to return to the office full-time in exchange for a 9.6% pay rise.
