What do NYC Mayor Eric Adams, Elon Musk, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings all have in common? They want this era of remote work to end faster than a streaming service abruptly canceling a beloved TV series despite fans’ earnest objections.
New York City municipal-office employees were recently told in an email that “hybrid schedules of any kind are not permitted,” the New York Daily News reported. Elon Musk made headlines by calling all Tesla employees back to the office for at least 40 hours a week. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings made it very clear back in 2020 that he doesn’t “see any positives” in WFH. But while unequivocal marching orders may get results for some leaders, others are finding that employees are willing to push back.
Tug of war. While companies such as Verizon, Uber, Spotify, and others say they are committed to flexible work long-term, other organizations are summoning employees back to the office full-time—or potentially face “severe consequences,” according to one recent survey of US managers. But when it comes to successfully implementing RTO requirements, there appears to be a no-size-fits-all approach.
Bank of America brought back all employees for the first time since the start of Covid in the first week of June, but is still largely leaving specific RTO requirements to individual divisions, Insider reported. The result so far, sources told Insider, has been some frustration over low in-person attendance and confusion on where to go next.
“There are areas [on the trading floors at One Bryant Park] that are completely empty and areas completely full. It is very binary,” one Bank of America employee told Insider. ”That creates a lot of tension.”
Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the Time 100 summit on Tuesday that he doesn’t yet know what office model will work for his employees, and that he needs to balance his preference for in-office work with what workers want, conceding that virtual office meetings are “not inferior, just different.”
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The HR dilemma. Pushback to RTO has potential implications for HR managers who handle everything from the physical organization of a workplace to staff disciplinary measures. In a survey fielded by ADP in November 2021, two-thirds of workers surveyed in multiple countries said they would consider looking for a new job if an employer forced them to return to an office on a full-time basis.
NPR recently interviewed Jonathan Prueitt, a geospatial analyst who was told if he didn’t return to his tech company’s office, he’d “be processed as having abandoned their job.” And he isn’t alone, as other employers have threatened similar actions against employees who do not want to return to the office. But workers at Prueitt’s employer, Cognizant, pushed back against the RTO push and convinced the company to move the RTO date back by three months.
Zoom out. Despite concerns of a potential recession, workers still appear to have the upper hand right now, as a US-based district president at global recruiting firm Robert Half recently told the BBC, “Retention is a huge issue for all employers right now, and if you take away flexible work options, your employees are going to consider other options.”
While The Ultimatum was a great premise for a Netflix series, it’s ultimately still a wait-and-see game on its effectiveness as a workplace strategy.—KP
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