Return to office mandates are a ‘power grab’, study says

Forcing Workers Back to the Office Might Backfire, Says Study

A study shared by the Financial Post has some eye-opening findings about bosses demanding employees to return to the office (RTO) from remote work.

Researchers from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh looked into how this move affects both companies and workers. They found that making people work from the office doesn’t really improve a company’s performance. Instead, it seems like a way for managers to show they’re in charge, and it ends up making employees unhappy.

What Does Coming Back to the Office Do?

The study looked at RTO mandates across 137 S&P 500 companies, and their impact on profits, stock returns, and employee job satisfaction. Poorly performing businesses were more likely to ask workers to come back. These companies, often led by strong male CEOs, felt that working from home was bad for productivity and business.

But the study showed that coming back to the office didn’t boost companies’ profits or cause their stocks to go up. What it did accomplish was to make workers feel worse about their jobs. They didn’t like losing the flexibility of working from home, dealing with commutes, and having less time for personal life.

Workers Push Back on Office Returns

Some larger companies have been in the news for demanding staff work from the office at least 3 days per week.

• Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees last year that “it’s probably not going to work out” for them at the company unless they come in “at least three days a week.”
• IBM said that managers still working from home must move near an office or be out of a job

This hardline approach has led to ongoing protests, in the case of Amazon, and even some employees quitting, as was reportedly the case when Elon Musk banned remote work for X staff (formerly Twitter) in late 2022.

Numerous surveys show that employees really value the option to work flexibly, more than salary and other job benefits. An October 2023 poll found that 60% of Canadians would take less pay to keep this flexibility. Another study by Robert Half Inc revealed that 38% of professionals claimed they would hold off on looking for work elsewhere if their current job offered a hybrid approach.

Good News for Fans of Flexibility

Looking ahead to 2024, fewer employers are planning to make people come back to the office. Only four per cent of CEOs say they’ll ask employees to work from desks at the office, according to The Conference Board. This change is due largely to the fact that companies realize that keeping workers happy is vital, especially when it’s difficult to retain and hire top talent.

Why Flexibility Matters

The study suggests that forcing people back to the office might show there are deeper problems in the company.

“My interpretation is that RTO mandates are often a response to poor recent company performance, perhaps adopted by under-pressure CEOs,” Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University economist and remote-work researcher, said on LinkedIn in response to the University of Pittsburgh study.

And if workers are already unhappy, strict office rules could push them to leave.

Can my employer force me to return to the office?

In Canada, an employer has the right to require an employee to return to an office setting, if it is an established term of their employment.

If the employee was specifically hired for a remote work position, the employer can’t significantly change that aspect of their employment without potentially triggering a constructive dismissal. In such cases, an employee may treat their job as being terminated without cause and may be entitled to a full severance package – possibly as much as 24 months’ pay.

Once an employee has worked remotely for a significant period, it may be considered an accepted term of their employment, making it difficult for their employer to mandate a return to the workplace.

Lost your job? Talk to an employment lawyer

If you have been fired or let go for any reason, contact the experienced employment law team at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP.

Our lawyers in Ontario, Alberta, and B.C. have successfully represented tens of thousands of non-unionized individuals.

In addition to severance package negotiations, we can assist you on a broad range of employment matters, including:

If you are a non-unionized employee who needs help with a workplace issue, contact us or call 1-855-821-5900 to get the advice you need and the compensation you deserve.