You may have noticed reports about the CEO of Starbucks relocating to Seattle and requesting employees to return to the office four days a week1. President Trump has instructed federal employees to resume working in the office five days a week2. 3M has also mandated office workers to return four days a week3. Additionally, there has been an announcement from the Amazon CEO urging staff to come back to the office4. This indicates a growing trend among companies to increase in-office presence for employees.
Let’s break down some of the key challenges remote work setups face or areas where in-person work is considered stronger, from the perspective of return-to-office campaigners:
- Ability to engage, collaborate, and innovate is stronger in person.
- It is easier to learn, model, practice, and strengthen company culture when employees are in the office together, surrounded by colleagues.5
- New employees are more easily integrated into the company culture in person.
- Misunderstandings and misrepresentations are easier to resolve in person.
- There is a greater tendency to ask ad hoc questions in person than when working remotely.
- Teaching and learning are often easier in person.
- Team bonding is stronger when colleagues see each other frequently.
What do employees genuinely want?
A few months ago, I ran a poll on my LinkedIn network asking where people thrive or work most effectively. Out of 117 participants, over 50% preferred a fully remote setup, while only 4% enjoyed working fully in the office.
After a few days, upon seeing a report about Google’s initiative to force some remote workers to return to the office for three days or risk losing their jobs6, I ran another poll asking whether people would consider returning to the office. Out of 58 participants, only 7% said they would consider returning to the office full-time.
In the following short video, CBC News chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault interviews employees about whether they would prefer the return-to-office initiatives some companies are actively promoting.
Based on these findings and my personal experience interacting with various people over the past decade, here are some of the key things employees actually want:
- Flexibility: Flexible work arrangements from their employer without fearing job loss. This could mean working full-time from home, working from a holiday destination without compromising efficiency, or even returning to the office full-time for the small number of people who prefer it. Flexibility gives people the power to thrive.
- Trust: Employees want to be trusted and given autonomy, rather than being micromanaged. Trust allows them the freedom to experiment, be creative, and bring out their best work.
- Comfort: People thrive when they feel comfortable. Some employees, particularly introverts, may not enjoy being constantly surrounded by colleagues as much as others do. Allowing employees to feel comfortable makes them happier, which in turn leads to more positivity and better outcomes.
- Work-life balance: Whether working from home or in the office, people have responsibilities outside of work. When personal responsibilities are continually compromised, everything else eventually falls apart. The more employees can balance their work and personal lives, the more fulfilled they will feel overall.
- Space: Everyone needs space to think, reflect, or simply reset and approach problems with a fresh perspective. Whether this can be achieved while constantly surrounded by colleagues, even in a “focus pod” in a shared office is down to the individual.
At RemoteWinners, our passion lies in supporting individuals to succeed in remote work, catering to those who desire remote employment and acknowledging those with valid reasons and professions that require on-site presence.
Anjana Silva, The Founder of remotewinners
How employers can help
From the organisation’s point of view, the focus should be on improving work efficiency, collaboration, and innovation while keeping employees happy, rather than simply mandating everyone to return to the office. As an organisation, if you truly want to help your employees, and in return deliver more meaningful outcomes to the world, you can start by asking the following questions:
- How can we support individuals to be efficient while promoting work-life balance?
- How can we build stronger, more personable relationships with employees without crossing professional boundaries?
- How can we improve collaboration and innovation while encouraging diverse ideas?
- How can we help employees achieve their personal goals?
- How can we become the kind of organisation that employees, when looking back, feel genuinely helped them grow, made them happy, and respected their comfort, not just paid them a salary at the end of each month?
These points do not require employees to be physically sitting next to their colleagues to achieve them. The COVID-19 pandemic has already proven that we can work efficiently in a remote setup when the right support and systems are in place. Ultimately, it’s about how well organisations understand their people and how they choose to support them. We live in a world where everything is changing rapidly; what worked two decades ago may not necessarily work in the modern world.
In a Nutshell
So, should you be worried about return-to-office mandates? The answer is subjective and depends on which side of the fence you sit on and your personal circumstance. As an employee, you will undoubtedly be concerned if you feel your values or beliefs are being disregarded in favour of a return-to-office mandate. On the other hand, this could be the perfect opportunity for you to reflect on what truly matters and pursue your value-driven ambitions. From an organisation’s point of view, this is also a chance to reflect on what matters most, beyond simply enforcing return-to-office mandates.
No matter where you sit on the fence, I’m curious to hear what you think. Drop a comment below and share your perspective.
🎯 Need Expert Help?
If you’re facing challenges with remote work, I offer 1:1 coaching and tailored support to help you succeed at remote setup. Whether you’re just starting out, growing as a remote contributor, leading a team, or launching a remote-first start-up, Remote Winners offers targeted 1:1 coaching to help you thrive in a distributed world. We also provide tech consultancy services—from idea-to-product guidance to cloud deployment and cybersecurity reviews—to help organisations strengthen their technology and processes.
If you are unsure where to begin, drop us a message and we’ll be in touch.
Sources
- https://fortune.com/2025/07/14/starbucks-ceo-brian-niccol-return-to-office-4-days-remote-work/ ↩︎
- https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/return-to-in-person-work/ ↩︎
- https://www.axios.com/local/twin-cities/2025/07/08/3m-calls-office-workers-back-four-days-a-week ↩︎
- https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/ceo-andy-jassy-latest-update-on-amazon-return-to-office-manager-team-ratio ↩︎
- https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/andy-jassy-update-on-amazon-return-to-office ↩︎
- https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/23/google-teams-are-including-remote-workers-in-their-cuts.html ↩︎
Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/people-doing-office-works-QBpZGqEMsKg
