In recent months, major employers—Target, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Disney, Google, and more—have ramped up their return-to-office (RTO) policies, demanding staff come back full-time. But the response? Not what they expected.
According to the latest data, even as companies tightened policies, actual office attendance only nudged upward by about 2% compared to last year. That’s despite a roughly 10% jump in formal RTO mandates—showing that mandate alone doesn’t move behavior.
A Stanford-led study confirms what many suspected: the hybrid work model is here to stay. While companies talk tough, employees are simply ignoring the mandates. In fact, two-thirds of U.S. firms still officially support hybrid setups, and many with five-day-a-week policies on paper are operating more flexibly in practice.
This disconnect is echoed by anecdotal reports—facial-recognition and badge scans at major firms reveal occupancy levels in mandated offices that are similar to those with hybrid models. In essence, when employees are trusted to deliver results, they choose flexibility—and it’s working for businesses too.
Bosses can continue insisting “be here or else,” but so far employees have decided otherwise. As remote work normalizes, the path forward lies in adapting—not reverting.