Employees fight return-to-office mandates

The Future. Despite WFH arrangements becoming commonplace during COVID, employers are now reeling those perks back in, asking employees to show up in the office or face termination. Unsurprisingly, workers are pushing back. But with the job market hitting a brick wall due to recession fears, it’s a conflict that most big, team-based, competitive employers could likely win.

Home vs. company office
The office is now a work-culture battleground.

• Companies such as Amazon, The New York Times, Google, and even Zoom are pressuring employees to return to the office, despite extolling the values of remote work at first.
• The model employers are trying to implement would have employees come into the office at least three days a week, enforced by employee badge swipes.
• But employees are pushing back, stating the badge swipes are micromanagement and many have already moved to different states and developed new, more flexible routines.

Yet, the tide may ultimately favor employers. A survey from Monster found 75% of workers would relocate if a job wanted them to, while the other 25% would rather quit. But there’s a wrinkle. If employers want to attract new hires, 40% say having access to remote or hybrid work is a “motivating factor.”

One company is trying to have it both ways. Food giant J.M. Smucker is introducing “core weeks” — 22 weeks a year when employees need to be in the office for some of the days; the rest they can be home. The schedule means employees really only need to be in the office an average of six days per month.