The huge mistake of Return-To-Office (RTO) policies

Enrique Dans

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Enrique Dans

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3 min read

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Aug 19

IMAGE: Sean Pollock — Unsplash

More and more companies are regretting having implemented return-to-office (RTO) policies for their employees after the pandemic.

While outfits like Meta or Zoom, once distributed work pioneers, have forced staff to spend a couple of days a week in the office, leading some to claim that distributed work is dead, others are learning the hard way that the five-day, eight-hour office week is obsolete and that there are more rational ways to get things done after being hit with waves of resignations and protests by angry professionals.

The fight for the freedom to work from anywhere is just beginning, and companies that force their workers back behind their desks are seeing with their own eyes that their decision is not just the result of sticking to an outdated work culture, but goes against any kind of responsible approach. What’s more, it’s an environmental disaster: once again we’re seeing rush-hour traffic jams, generating pollution and frustration among people who have experienced distributed work and who are tired of managemetn unable to adapt to new and better ways of working.

The vast majority of people do not want to return to the office, and those with in-demand skill sets refuse to work in companies that try to force them to do so. This generates a Dead Sea effect, whereby organizations hold on to untalented staff unable to establish their independence. Younger professionals increasingly negotiate on the basis of being able to work from home, or wherever.

Some companies are still sticking to the myth that distributed work is less productive or that it stifles innovation, when the reality is that it cannot be evaluated on the same basis as traditional models, and that a change of such a dimension and so positive for all involved (and for the planet) requires a complete cultural change, which many companies and the useless people they have as managers are unable to imagine. These are the organizations that will not be able to attract talent.

Distributed work does not mean lower productivity or less innovation. If done well, in fact, it means the opposite: more satisfied and motivated employees, who perceive a culture of trust that allows them to organize their lives better, and which, with the right tools, leads them to feel much more useful. Cultures that focus on the return to the office are demonstrating their obsolescence, and will end up paying for the mistake of forcing their employees to do something they don’t want to do.

So, if you run a business and want to create unnecessary in the medium term, focus on annoying your team by forcing them to sit in a traffic jam or crowded train in the morning and another in the afternoon, instead of giving them the freedom to work wherever they want. And see how well that goes.

(En español, aquí)