Most firms plan office return, but 5-day commute ‘dead’ — experts
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES — Ninety percent of companies plan to return to office by the end of 2024, according to a recent report from Resume Builder.
The survey, which included 1,000 company leaders, revealed that almost 30% of firms would threaten to fire employees who do not return to the office while only 2% of business leaders said they never plan to require employees to work in person.
Major companies like Goldman Sachs want employees five days a week, while Google is considering employees’ in-office attendance in their performance reviews.
Despite the push to return to the office, experts believe the traditional five-day office commute is dead.
“I think the concept of spending five days a week in the office is dead. That top-down, one-size-fits-all approach can lead to a lot of resentment among workers”, said Brian Elliott, an executive advisor on flexibility and founder of the research consortium Future Forum.
“Organizations are risking a real break of trust with their employees,” Susan Vroman, a lecturer in management at Bentley University, added. “Especially for companies who said employees could work wherever they wanted to, how do you convince them that going back to the office is the right thing to do?”
A recent Bankrate survey found that about 68% of full-time workers support a hybrid work schedule, working at least one day a week remotely and the other days in an office.
