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Return-to-office mandates continue to feel like high-level math equations that even the business world\u2019s brightest can\u2019t solve.<\/p>\n
Amazon,\u00a0JPMorgan, and\u00a0AT&T\u00a0are among the most recent companies to require a full-time RTOs. But some of these mandates have faced obstacles, including a lack of office space and dissatisfied employees.<\/p>\n
Amazon, for example, said in September, it wanted its 350,000-person workforce in the office by early January. As of February, many of their offices didn\u2019t have\u00a0enough desks\u00a0to accommodate the return, leaving many employees continuing working from home. AT&T had a similar\u00a0issue. In response to JPMorgan\u2019s RTO mandate, employees expressed their outrage on an internal\u00a0platform. The company then disabled comments. Some\u00a0JPMorgan\u00a0and\u00a0Amazon\u00a0workers have also signed petitions protesting their employers\u2019 requirements.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s missing from some of these RTO plans is the recognition of a cultural change, said Jennifer Moss, workplace strategist and author of\u00a0Why Are We Here?: Creating a Work Culture Everyone Wants<\/em>. The post-pandemic workplace should combine lessons from the pre-pandemic and pandemic-era models, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we\u2019re trying to get people back into the office, we still are executing the office in the same way that it used to be,\u201d Moss told HR Brew. \u201cWe just can\u2019t jam the toothpaste back in the tube.\u201d<\/p>\n Recognize the new environment.\u00a0<\/strong>Improved collaboration, culture, and productivity are often cited as reasons for an RTO, Moss said, but being in the office won\u2019t necessarily help employees achieve these goals.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are going into the office, unfortunately, it feels very much like what it feels like to be at home,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re still on Zoom, and you\u2019re still spending your day doing the exact same things you could be doing at home. It feels very arbitrary.\u201d<\/p>\n To facilitate this new era of work, employers should embrace a model Moss called \u201cthe third office.\u201d Instead of \u201cpushing\u201d for employees to go back to pre-pandemic norms, she said, employers should consider how they can incorporate the benefits of remote work, like autonomy and flexibility. To that end, a hybrid approach, she said, typically works best.<\/p>\n Moss also urged mindfulness around how the physical office space can affect employees. If a company doesn\u2019t have enough desks, for example, she said HR leaders should rethink how employees work in the office, and create quiet or collaborative spaces outside of the open floor plan.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [third office] is a place where you have challenging discussions, where you learn to network, develop soft skills, be able to have team building, build up that social energy and that cohesion,\u201d she said, adding that these activities were undervalued pre-pandemic and lost during the pandemic, and should be part of this new era.<\/p>\n Eventually, however, companies that require five days in the office should offer employees their own dedicated workspace, Moss said. It may seem simple, but being able to personalize a desk is something that, she said, may help employees feel more connected to their workplace.<\/p>\n Identify and communicate the play-by-play.\u00a0<\/strong>Some executives want RTO to alleviate their own \u201ctrust issues,\u201d without considering how it might affect employees, according to John Frehse, the global head of labor strategy at consulting firm Ankura.<\/p>\n \u201cYou only trust me when I\u2019m in the office. You don\u2019t trust me when I\u2019m at home. What kind of a worker and employer relationship are we dealing with?\u201d Frehse told HR Brew.<\/p>\n Sujay Saha, an employee experience strategist and founder of consulting firm Cortico-X, emphasized the need for a plan. \u201cDon\u2019t make the decision and then try to figure it out, how do I make that decision happen for people\u2026that is the biggest problem in a lot of this,\u201d Saha said. He suggested HR start by identifying employees\u2019 \u201cpersonas,\u201d like whether they\u2019re working parents or belong to the sandwich generation. This can give HR a sense of employees\u2019 needs and schedules, which can help inform what kind of RTO might make sense.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are pros and cons in all of this, so the most important thing that we can tackle is how we do it,\u201d Saha said. \u201cMaybe there is a pace at which you could do it\u2026Reduce the pace and give people that mental adjustment time that is needed genuinely, to take care of their lives before you change [their lives].\u201d<\/p>\n Frehse also advised against focusing an RTO announcement on the enforcement and repercussions of not following the mandate. Instead, communicate the steps and value-add for professional growth.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s both culturally and intellectually lazy to announce a certain number of days of return to office each week, without listing in heavy detail the reasons why\u2014not just benefits for the business, but the benefits for the employee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Saha agreed. \u201cDon\u2019t do it, just for the heck of doing it\u2026Be clear about why you\u2019re doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n This <\/em>report was originally published by <\/em>HR Brew.<\/p>\n A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on February 28, 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n #employees #office #jam #toothpaste #tube<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Return-to-office mandates cont… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[6891,1199,625,6893,763,426,6892,1596,6894,6895],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Join us at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit <\/strong>May 19\u201320, 2026, in Atlanta. The next era of workplace innovation is here\u2014and the old playbook is being rewritten. At this exclusive, high-energy event, the world\u2019s most innovative leaders will convene to explore how AI, humanity, and strategy converge to redefine, again, the future of work. Register now.<\/div>\n