Remote vs Return to Office: The Future of Work

Starting 2025, several multinational corporations have begun calling their employees back to the office five days a week putting an end to the remote working culture.

Since the announcement, the corporate world got divided into two groups of remote vs in-office work. While one set of people find this change unnecessary and frustrating, the other group appreciates the pre pandemic norm and in-person work culture.

There are several factors to consider before making judgement and taking a side.

The Evolution of Workspace

In my opinion, there is a better way of looking at this discussion. Rather than looking at it from the lens of productivity, it should be viewed as part of work-space evolution or the future of work.

It is not a debate between productivity and flexibility. Rather it should be viewed just as any other evolution that has ever happened on this planet. Although this evolution wasn’t intentional – it was catalyzed by the unfortunate circumstances of the pandemic – it is still an evolution.

The rise of AI has offered collaborative tools, virtual assistants, productivity trackers, making remote and hybrid work models more efficient. It’s an undeniable shift in work culture.

Our forefathers worked for livelihood, our fathers worked for stability, and today’s generation works for quality of living. It’s an evolution. And we cannot eliminate work space from this evolution sequence.

Having said that, this post isn’t meant to criticize RTO. It is meant to put forth a reasonable argument, to look at this debate from a neutral angle evaluating both sides.

In my opinion, your work location should now be based on your role type. The one size fits all policy isn’t enticing to the new generation of work force.

Role-Based Return: A Sensible Compromise

If my role requires me to be on the floor, constantly engaging with peers, have influence on processes – then, yes, I should definitely be in office. However, if I’m going to sit behind a desk, conduct meetings online without much in person collaboration beyond a few customary interactions, then hybrid work model is a reasonable ask. 

5 days RTO mandate to all roles will make sense only if organizations are able to show a quantifiable impact in the next few quarters. If productivity isn’t sacrificed working remotely then it is just an orthodox way of management to reject change.

AI and technology shouldn’t be just buzzwords at All Hands meetings or Shareholder presentations to appear tech savvy – they should be leveraged in ways that benefits employers and employees alike.

Having said that, there could also be others factors at play behind the scenes such as passive lay-offs, local vendor businesses like restaurants, local transport that profit from an increase in footfall.

Nonetheless, people are looking for incentives and evaluating if its indeed a value add to get out of the house, spend time in traffic, pay for fuel and parking – and if all that justifies the productivity achieved in office.

If not, there would be brain drain and employees would sooner or later find an employer who meets their working requirements.

At the end of the day, this debate boils down to what the role truly demands. It’s bit of a sensitive debate but making RTO mandatory to all is like asking people to go back to rotary phone giving up wireless cell phones.

What’s your take on RTO? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!