Ask a Futurist: Why are so many companies returning to office?

We all have questions about what’s next in the ever-changing world of work. By examining current trends and market signals, a workforce futurist can give you valuable insights. 
 
Enter our Ask a Futurist series, where workforce futurist Alexandra Levit shares her thoughts on pressing questions crowdsourced from Dayforce social media polls. 
 
Let’s dive into this edition’s question and Alexandra’s answer.  

Why are so many companies returning to the office, and do you see this as a viable model for the future? 

Regular Dayforce blog readers might already have a clue about my feelings on this. The short answer is no, RTO5 – which refers to working in a single office five days a week from approximately 9 to 5 pm – is not a viable model for the future in my opinion. 

Leaders have to know that the COVID-19 pandemic won’t be the last major workforce disruption. It doesn’t take a foresight professional to realize that ongoing climate and disease crises are likely to make reliable worker presence in a physical location difficult if not outright impossible, either temporarily or more long term. 

Yes, if there’s another pandemic we will once again have to find a way to deploy essential workers to the front lines. But that doesn’t mean that all employees, and especially those who can operate effectively remotely, have to go back to such a rigid way of working now. And I believe that leaders who insist on it are likely to find themselves in a pickle when they have to overhaul operations again. 

So why the short-term thinking on this issue? Well, there’s the psychological element. Baby Boomer and Gen X leaders grew their careers working in mostly physical office environments. As I see it, many aren’t comfortable with anything else and believe they can't adequately control workers they can’t physically see. 

The other reason is a phenomenon I call “L&L.” This stands for leases and layoffs. RTO5 makes sense from the perspective of a leader who is staring down the barrel of a long-term, very expensive lease of office space. It also makes sense if your organization receives substantial tax benefits for locating a huge workforce in a given geographic area.  

RTO5 is also an effective way of pruning your workforce. Today, most employees are looking for flexibility. By denying that flexibility, especially if you’ve had it in the recent past – you’re asking for a lot of voluntary resignations. And sadly, that’s what some leaders want because it’s cheaper and easier than layoffs. 

Personally, I hope this backslide is just temporary. Otherwise, it’s going to get pretty difficult for employers to obtain top-quality talent.