The RTO Wars: Why Companies Keep Losing This Fight
Ghost towns have better occupancy rates than most corporate offices right now. Photo: Unsplash
Remember in 2020 when companies were like “We’re all in this together!” and “Remote work is the future!” and “We trust our employees to get things done from anywhere!”? Fast forward to 2025 and those same companies are threatening to fire people who won’t come back to the office five days a week.
Amazon did it. Dell did it. AT&T did it. Even the federal goverment jumped on board. And you know what’s happening? People are quitting. Or quietly ignoring the mandates. Or showing up to empty offices to take Zoom calls they could’ve done from home.
Nearly half. HALF. That’s according to Pew Research data, and honestly I’m surprised it’s not higher. After proving for years that remote work actually works, employees are being told to give up their flexibility because… reasons.
Maya’s Take:
The Numbers Are Not In Management’s Favor
Here’s what’s actually happening with RTO mandates: According to a University of Pittsburgh study, companies that forced employees back to the office full-time saw “abnormally high turnover.” And not just any turnover — they lost women, senior staff, and their most skilled employees at disproportionate rates.
“Not the people you want to lose,” as one researcher put it. Which is putting it mildly.
Meanwhile, remote job postings on LinkedIn make up only 20% of listings but get 60% of applications. People want flexibility that badly. They’re willing to fight for it.
And despite all the mandates? The national office vacancy rate is still sitting at nearly 20%. So companies are forcing people back to offices that are still half empty anyway. Make it make sense.
The Silver Lining:
The Real Reason Companies Want You Back
Let’s be honest about what’s really going on here. Some executives are saying the quiet part out loud — they want RTO mandates to be a “stealth layoff.” Make conditions bad enough that people quit voluntarily so you don’t have to pay severance.
Amazon’s cloud boss literally told employees who don’t like the five-day RTO policy that they could leave. This is not about collaboration or culture or productivity. It’s about real estate investments and middle managers who are scared of becoming obsolete.
“There’s a lot of people talking about RTO as a very simple answer for fixing a lot of very complicated and complex problems within organizations. If we think we’re going to wave the magic RTO wand and fix some really fundamental problems in our organizations, we’re going to be pretty disappointed.”
That’s from workplace consultant Sam Spurlin, and he’s exactly right. You can’t fix bad management, unclear goals, or poor communication by forcing butts into chairs. You just make people resentful AND unproductive.
What The Data Actually Shows
Here’s the thing — there isn’t actually strong evidence that in-office work is more productive. A study of a call center in Turkey that went fully remote found agents handled 10% more calls than before the pandemic. A study of a Chinese travel agency found that employees allowed to work from home two days a week were 33% less likely to quit.
Thirty-three percent! That’s not a rounding error. That’s a massive difference in retention.
Maya’s Take:
Who’s Winning This Fight?
Smaller companies, actually. The data from CNBC shows that while big companies can afford to lose employees by forcing RTO (they have name recognition and can still attract candidates), smaller companies are using flexibility as a competitive advantage to poach talent.
Which means the best workers — the ones with options — are increasingly going to companies that respect their autonomy. The five-day RTO companies are going to be left with whoever can’t find something better.
I’m not saying offices are completely useless. There are genuine benefits to in-person collaboration, especially for onboarding new employees, brainstorming sessions, and building relationships. But three days a week hybrid? That gets you most of those benefits without destroying everyone’s work-life balance.
The companies that figure this out will thrive. The ones that don’t will spend the next decade wondering why they can’t retain good people.
Biscuit, for the record, is strongly pro-remote work. He’s gotten very used to having me home during the day. He would like everyone to know that productivity is highest when you have a cat sleeping on your lap while you answer emails.
