The Return-to-Office Backlash Is Growing

2025-05-31

On May 22, after years of remote work, more and more American employees are returning to work in the office. But they complain that this change is affecting their wallets. After experiencing a slack work model during the epidemic, many American companies are now seriously asking employees to resume offline work. Since January 2, 2025, Amazon has required employees to work 5 days a week, and large companies such as UPS, JPMorgan Chase, and Boeing have also required at least some employees to return to the office all week. Companies have taken different approaches to employees who do not comply with the regulations. Some directly fire them, such as the media group Publicis Media, which fired dozens of employees who did not obey the office work requirements in October; some issued warnings, such as Starbucks, which claimed that from the next month, employees may be fired if they are absent at least three days a week; and some companies will provide severance pay to employees who refuse to work regularly.

From the perspective of employees, they have mixed feelings about this. More than a dozen people interviewed by the Wall Street Journal who lost their jobs due to the requirement to return to the office said that being fired was not the most difficult thing to accept. What is really hard to let go is that they may lose the opportunity to work remotely or hybridly forever. Some employees find it difficult to adapt to the requirements of returning to the office due to factors such as family and living costs. For example, Nathan Vance received severance pay from the developer of the dating app Grindr in April because he did not agree to move from Washington State to the company's office in San Francisco. Considering the high rent and his reluctance to leave his current life, he chose to accept the severance pay, rely on savings and retirement accounts to live, and wander around looking for jobs.

Business owners have different considerations. Dan Kaplan, a senior expert at a multinational consulting firm, revealed that in a closed-door meeting of senior corporate executives, they believed that they had made enough concessions to employees. If employees did not meet the minimum requirements for on-the-job, they could only go their separate ways. This also indicates that the conflict between business owners and employees is further intensifying.

According to job market data, the proportion of remote positions on LinkedIn has dropped sharply from 18% at the beginning of 2022 to 8% today, and these positions are extremely competitive, attracting 40% of job applications on the platform. The job search website Indeed also reported that the proportion of remote work on its platform is about 8% and the salary range is low. This further illustrates the scarcity of remote work positions and makes employees more passive when facing the company's request to return to the office.

Returning to the office has become a challenge currently faced by companies and employees

As more and more companies put returning to the office on the agenda, it can be foreseen that employees will need to re-adapt from the home office mode that has been implemented for more than a year to returning to the office state, and will face problems such as moving and child care.

At the same time, some employees choose to resign because they are unwilling to change the status quo and return to the office, which will further aggravate the shortage of talents in the company. When companies require employees to return to the office, they need to be clear about the changes and impacts that this will bring to employees' spirit and emotions, practical feasibility and finances, and be prepared to respond positively.

Under the trend of returning to the office, employee welfare policies need to remain flexible

Since the outbreak of the global epidemic, the employee benefits provided by companies have been forced to change due to factors such as lockdowns and remote work, and have changed from traditional practices such as free work meals to more flexible methods, such as providing employees with mental health care and child care support.

With the trend of returning to the office, companies will need to reconsider how to adjust welfare policies to attract and motivate employees, and maintaining the flexibility of employee welfare will become the norm.

Under the hybrid work mode, the functions, proportions, and equipment of the office need to be replanned

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), as more and more companies adopt a hybrid work mode that combines remote work and office work, the functions, proportions, and equipment of corporate offices need to be replanned.

Practice has proved that it is still crucial to return to the office at a certain frequency under the hybrid work mode, which is more conducive to the cultivation and dissemination of corporate culture, and can enable team managers and employees to inspire each other and trigger creative brainstorming.