Particularly in larger companies, there has been a noticeable return to requiring workers to work from the office following the COVID-19 pandemic. Mark Ma, an associate professor of business administration at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh, and Yuye Ding, a PhD student, have investigated this pattern. They have looked at the sociological and economic effects of working remotely as well as the recent initiative by businesses to get workers back into the office, which frequently irritates workers.
Ma contends in an interview with Heise that, in an increasingly digital work environment, making workers come back to the office merely serves to irritate them and does little to increase productivity. He does concede, though, that when done voluntarily and with team support, in-person work can be advantageous and promote improved coordination and teamwork.
Ma suggests that high-performing individuals who have proven their efficacy when working from home should be allowed to continue doing so, rather than having everyone in the office. He thinks that by keeping brilliant individuals who might otherwise look for work elsewhere, this strategy will ultimately benefit both employers and employees. Ma also suggests regular in-person team-building exercises to keep the company's culture robust, which is essential for efficient idea generation and problem-solving.
The apex of this tendency appears to have passed, even though several businesses required employees to return to the office following the pandemic. According to surveys done in 2024, the majority of CEOs no longer place a high value on being at the office. Businesses learned that workers might be quite productive when working remotely during the pandemic. But other managers still have misgivings about working remotely, which is why they are advocating for going back to the office. Employee morale may suffer as a result of this lack of trust since it conveys to staff members that their managers do not believe in them.
Despite the fact that telecommuting can lower overhead and space requirements, big businesses are eager to have their workers return, which raises the possibility that control and power are more at play here than price. Ma points out that many businesses implemented return-to-office policies in response to stock price drops, conveniently utilizing remote work as a handy scapegoat for poor performance.
Despite the fact that there is still a high demand for remote work—many office spaces in major cities like New York, San Francisco, and Germany are vacant—managers continue to hold the view that having workers in person will enhance cooperation and business culture. But instead of working together with coworkers, a lot of workers who have returned to the office say they spend most of their time working alone on their computers. The ineffectiveness of such mandates is called into doubt by the lack of a discernible distinction between office and remote work, as well as the frustration employees experience when compelled to return.
Workers are accustomed to the increased productivity and benefits of a work-life balance that come with working remotely, such as the ability to better integrate work and family life and avoid lengthy commutes. Dissatisfaction results from these agreements being disrupted by an enforced return to the office. Additionally, there's a perception that missing work could impede professional growth.
In the end, Ma thinks that if workers are forced to return to the workplace on a permanent basis, a lot of them would start seeking for other professions, and the ones that stay might become less motivated. Home offices are still common because they provide a better work-life balance and lower rates of burnout, despite their drawbacks. There is no discernible productivity difference between working remotely and in an office, and working from home can be just as alienating as the distractions of open-plan offices where employees frequently wear headphones to focus. Ma advises that teams pick how many days they want to work in the office and leave the rest of the time flexible so that employees can choose their preferred work environment, even though human contacts can be beneficial to companies.