I recently argued that return-to-office mandates aren’t really about productivity; they’re about control. Ironically, my article published smack-dab in the middle of a September inflection point of increasing office time requirements, a phenomenon Owl Labs dubbed “hybrid creep.”
And now, perhaps shockingly, I’ve started a new job with a team that (gasp!) has an office. When I wrote my argument against RTO, I had no inkling that I would soon be back in an office (part-time) myself. I am now basically in a live experiment. So far, it’s changed how I feel about the idea of going into an office. It hasn’t changed my view on RTO.
A lab for truly flexible work
My new team has a completely flexible work-location approach. There is an office, and we can come in if we want to. But there’s no requirement or badge-swiping.
Those of us who are local also collaborate daily with colleagues in drastically different time zones—Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC). So our overall team is distributed enough that in-person work can’t be our organizing religion. That makes my current situation a fascinating window into what happens when people are free to optimize their work model to their life needs, versus an imposed framework of what a workday is mandated to look like.
When in-person time is voluntary, rhythms emerge instead of rules
I’m seeing that when location is genuinely a choice, people start building rituals.
There’s a weekly team meeting for which many people choose to be in the office. There are social opportunities like an annual holiday party and happy hours. And the office itself is an uplifting, interactive place where dogs are allowed, there’s a bar in the kitchen area, and people play music throughout the day.
A few teammates come in more often simply because that’s what works best for them. If someone is visiting from another location, the office fills up as people come in to see them.
In-office time also doesn’t have to be a full day. Many of us have early calls with EMEA, so we take those from home, head into the office midmorning, and leave before rush hour to finish up from home again. A main team meeting is midday, on purpose, to make that flow possible.
A morning Slack that’s more than a status report
Another ritual I love is a deceptively simple morning Slack each person sends sharing where they’ll be that day and whether they’ll be offline at any point.
On the surface, it sounds like basic coordination. In reality, it feels like a daily “good morning” and a window into each other’s lives.
The messages aren’t just “I’ll be online 9-to-5, WFH.” They’re things like “We had a loss in our family, so I’ll be taking the day off”;
“My puppy was sick last night, so I’m working from home”; and
“Headed to a workout midday and will be back online by 2.”
These tiny updates are powerful because they keep us connected and normalize being a human with a life outside work. They also give us opportunities to respond and help cover for each other.
How I’m using the office now
I’m going into the office about two days a week, with my Tibetan terrier Basil trotting alongside me, eager to greet everyone when we walk in. My colleague keeps a laser pointer at his desk; Basil goes wild chasing the dot when we need a laugh break.
I’m trying to schedule one-on-ones for days when others are in, so they’re in-person catch-ups, not just agenda boxes checked off. We get the power of group thinking around a table, friendly greetings, and the ability to take a walking meeting instead of more staring at a screen.
All of this feels like support, not surveillance. No one is proving they exist by punching a proverbial time clock. We go in by choice, which gives me gratitude for the option versus dreading going to an office.
So, has this changed my view on RTO?
Absolutely not. If anything, it’s reinforced my original point that dictating office time is a sign of poor leadership. The benefits I’m witnessing wouldn’t exist in the same way if they were forced rather than organic. The difference isn’t “office versus remote.” The difference is a culture of empowerment versus a culture of control.
In a control culture, leaders start with mandates such as how many days people must come in, and then try to retrofit culture. Any sense of flexibility is granted like a favor.
In an empowerment culture, leaders start with trust and clarity: Here’s what we need to achieve, here’s how we’ll communicate, here are your options of where you can work. Then they let people design their own patterns inside that useful guidance.
In the first model, the office is a compliance tool. In the second, the office is a resource people leverage when it helps.
A growing body of research on RTOs exists
We’re far enough past pandemic-forced flexible work to start seeing how different work-location models perform and their impacts. For example, a large study done at Baylor University tracked the LinkedIn histories of workers at S&P 500 firms and found that when companies imposed RTO mandates, turnover jumped by about 14% and hiring took longer. Even more concerning, turnover was more likely among top talent and those important to diversity (especially women, whose turnover rate was three times that of men).
A separate two-year study of more than 800,000 employees by Great Place to Work found that productivity stayed stable or improved after moving to remote work; what mattered most was leadership quality and trust, not where people sat.
I expect that in the long term, companies that don’t empower their team members with flexible work location will experience enough brain drain that it will be difficult to remain competitive. There must be a better way, and I believe I’m experiencing a version of it.
What leaders can draw inspiration from
You may not be able to copy our exact setup, but you can borrow from these themes:
Replace mandates with rituals. Instead of dictating fixed in-office days, anchor around events such as weekly team meetings designed for collaboration, planning on-sites, and celebratory events that people actually want to attend.
Design for life needs. If you want in-person time, schedule office-based meetings to avoid peak commutes and respect caregiving schedules.
Start micro-updates. A daily or weekly “Where I’ll be” check-in across the team takes only a minute for each person and creates a real sense of presence and care.
Foster inclusion. The office should be a place where everyone feels invited. Ensure that people who are typically remote feel this too. They get invites to all major happenings like holiday parties, a CEO visit, etc. And when someone from another office or region visits, others know so they feel invited to come in.
Make the office earn its gravity. If your office isn’t a place people want to be (no dogs, decent spaces to collaborate, or sense of warmth), fix that before you fixate on policies.
Many keep asking, “How do we get people back to the office?” That’s the wrong question.
The better questions asked by true leaders are “How do we give people the autonomy to choose the best place to do their best work while making the office one of those places?” and “How do we foster a culture that invites people in?”
My current experience is proof that when you take these approaches, the in-office magic happens, no mandate required.
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