Return-to-office mandates are rolling in across the globe as leaderships’ response to… every workplace problem they face. Higher-ups are longing for the pre-pandemic norm, and are filling up their offices as a fix for all the issues facing the workforce. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy will be making working from the office full-time mandatory starting January, claiming that it will strengthen their office culture, and make for more effective collaboration, says the Financial Times. But now, 73% of employees are considering quitting, according to a survey by Blind.

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Once upon a time, being at the office solidified employee relationships and promoted innovation and learning, but not as much as leadership would like to believe. Even when five-day office workweeks were the norm, employees were still complaining about poor training and dwindling productivity.

So perhaps being at the office is not the key to a faultless work environment. Unfortunately, despite evidence that flexible hours and remote work options were “actually more productive, not just in terms of hours worked, but literally in output,” says writer Brigid Schulte in her book Over Work, CEOs will only take advice from other CEOs, creating a “leadership echo chamber.”

Is leadership pushing RTO for the right reasons? David D’Souza, director of profession at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, says that the insistence upon RTO is a distraction “from critical conversations about productivity, flexibility, job security, fairness and balance.” He added that some human resources executives blame pressure from management “due to personal preference or nostalgia.”

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