Tech CEOs are backtrack on RTO mandates–now, 3% want workers in office full-time
Recent research shows a decline in tech firms requiring full-time office work, with only 3% enforcing such mandates. Most companies now offer flexible work options, reflecting a broader trend among CEOs.
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Recent research indicates a significant shift in the stance of tech CEOs regarding return-to-office (RTO) mandates. Only 3% of tech firms now require employees to work in the office full-time, a decrease from 8% the previous year. The Flex Index, which analyzed flexible work policies across 2,670 tech companies employing over 11 million people, found that 79% of these firms now offer fully flexible work arrangements, up from 75% in 2023. Additionally, the percentage of companies allowing employees to choose their work location has risen from 38% to 56%. In contrast, only 18% enforce a structured hybrid model dictating specific in-office days.
This change reflects a broader trend among CEOs across various industries, as a KPMG survey revealed that only one-third of U.S. CEOs expect a full return to the office within three years, a stark contrast to the 62% who anticipated a return to pre-pandemic norms last year. The resistance from employees against rigid in-office policies has likely influenced this shift. Notably, Amazon faced significant pushback, with around 30,000 employees signing a petition against its in-office mandate. The evolving landscape suggests that tech companies, which are well-equipped for remote work, are increasingly recognizing the permanence of flexible work arrangements.
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27 commentsThere is no logic in RTO for most tech workers. I'm glad they're backtracking.
Edit: spelling
The other underlying issue is outsourcing; it's a bit hypocritical to force an RTO while more of your workers are in another country. We're ramping up another phase of "let's try to hire cheaper workers overseas" as well as "nearshoring ", so the remaining people have less need than ever to come into an office.
I personally am sympathetic to the idea that most people are more engaged and more productive when they are working together, in person. While I certainly don't miss the commute or office politics, I do miss seeing colleagues in person, and I felt I would often learn things faster when it was easier to have impromptu discussions with others. I also just kinda felt like I cared more.
But the point is, while I sometimes wish I could hit the "return to 2019 button", that world simply does not exist anymore, and it never will. Like some of the comments here point out very well, I know lots of folks who have been forced into RTO, and then just spend the majority of their time in the office on Zoom calls because many colleagues are still remote - the whole thing is nuts.
Enlightened management just needs to realize that as much as they may want to "wave that magic want", it ain't gonna happen. The world has changed, and it's much better to accept the reality of remote work than pretend you can do a "Superman spin the world backwards" trick. At the same time, I think employees should realize the risks with remote work - after nearly a quarter century in this business I've finally seen a real explosion of off shoring since the pandemic, and I think it (obviously among many other factors) is having a real downward pressure on software engineering salaries in the US.
(1) 79% of Tech firms are Fully Flexible
Tech has the highest concentration of Fully Flexible firms across industries. Only 3% of Tech companies require Full Time In Office for corporate employees.
(2) Employee's Choice is the most common Tech policy
56% of Tech companies have an Employee's Choice model, meaning the company has offices but employees aren't required to to go into them. That's up from 38% of Tech companies having an Employee's Choice model in June 2023.
(3) Fully Remote is decreasing in prevalence in Tech
23% of Tech companies have a Fully Remote model, meaning the company does not have any offices at all. That's down from 37% in June 2023.
(4) Structured Hybrid Tech companies expect you in office 2-3 days per week
85% of Tech companies with a Minimum Days / Week requirement expect employees in the office either 2 days or 3 days per week.
(5) Tech company office policy varies significantly by size 90% of Tech companies with 500 employees or less are Fully Flexible; just 7% are Structured Hybrid. On the other hand, 23% of Tech companies with 25k+ employees are Fully Flexible; 74% are Structured Hybrid.
(6) Fully Remote adoption varies significantly by company size as well
42% of Tech companies with 100 employees or less are Fully Remote. That percentage drops to less than 4% for companies with 1k+ employees. All Tech company sizes have shifted away from Fully Remote since June 2023.
“Flex Report 2024”
https://www.canva.com/design/DAGLBzph2Ro/N8J1ayHcoxw4RjdoAHj...
Problem is, we were literally 2 engineers available to attend the office while the rest (~8 people) were remote.
Eventually i resigned and now (while i was the person with the most technical and product knowledge of the company) the rest of the engineers are following, there is a risk for the company that will leave them with literally 2 or 3 engineers, while they need at least 10.
To this day, i still can't fully understand what was on his mind that he essentially broke apart something that was working and delivering and now he may end up with no engineering team at all.
Is that what they teach at MBA school? Just do what everyone else is doing.
The higher ups don't seem to care about this detail nor do they seem to pay attention to the fact that we have had 100% attendance in the office since the policy got implemented, me and the other managers are most definitely not just fudging the numbers and giving everyone a 100% score for office attendance!
1) Quiet quitting is primarily the result of disengagement. It is typically an organization failure and not an IC problem.
2) More than a fifth of the workforce was laid off early in the pandemic, causing issues with teams.
3) The pivot to massive hiring during the pandemic tended to ignore the need to be careful about changes to teams and their need to gel.
4) There was an impedance mismatch between individual KPI's and business needs that had been building for years, mainly due to Goodhart's law that also caused disengagement.
5) While RTO mandates were bad enough, firing those who advocated for who they thought was important taught workers that speaking out was forbidden, leading to even more disengagement.
6) While CEOs are back tracking, very few are doing anything that helps an organization recover from this engagement problem.
Obviously it is more complicated with activist investors, who sometimes had real estate interests forced the hand of some companies, but after seeing that it really failed as a tricky way to do a RIFF and had high costs that had a long tail, they are changing their story without any acceptance of their own role...same as it ever was.
In my experience it takes way longer to get a company to start working as teams, with a shared purpose, than most people expect. Typically 2-5 years in my experience to get most of the org in that mindset.
But that is without the very public and visceral impact of RTO related firings, with no communication from Leadership to say they changed course and that the efforts failed to align with core values etc...
It is festering, not fading. I turned down two EA jobs in the past 6 months because, as a guardrail/runways EA, there was no way to stay aligned with the CIOs goal and build that sense of shared purpose that would provide value.
I am sure that they ended up finding a ivory tower/cop EA, which will just exacerbate the problem.
I am sure that there are some Quants in BSG/McKinsey like firms that will blamed for this in a pile of books in a few years....
But C*Os must have known that when they fired people advocating for RTO targets that were important, they must have known that employees would start to delegate up and become less engaged.
We could use this crisis to help uplift Managers past their traditional role...as to be honest their need for new tools and tactics has been ignored for way too long.
But while CEOs are backing away from RTO mandates, there is little to no evidence that many are making serious efforts to repair the damage.
/rant
I personally mourn the loss of a proper full-time office lifestyle, because I've always been remote, and now I will never know what it's like (hybrid is a joke because you're in the office but you still have to get on zoom calls).
But I do understand it.
at least I moved to where I can bike to work so I'm in the best shape of my life. That is the major gain
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The workers have spoken: They're staying home
Employees increasingly favor remote work over office return, exemplified by Dell's failed initiative. Benefits include no commute, work-life balance, cost savings, and flexibility. Companies prioritizing control risk losing talent. Office vacancies rise, signaling a remote work trend.
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