Some workers are getting WFH back by making the office unbearable

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES — Some workers are quietly winning back remote privileges not by negotiating with managers but by making in-office days so unpleasant that supervisors find it easier to let them stay home, according to a recent analysis from INC. 

Workers game RTO rules through deliberate irritation

“Off-putting employees are discovering that their less-than-congenial behavior may have an upside for them: the opportunity to work from home,” Korn Ferry wrote in a blog post examining the trend. 

“Managers enforcing return-to-office policies may be less inclined to insist on the regular attendance of workers who are not engaged,” Korn Ferry added.

The firm characterizes the archetype as “Bob” — an employee who deploys low-grade irritation as a systematic strategy for reclaiming flexibility employers have scaled back.

Korn Ferry’s tactics inventory for the office Bob includes arriving late to meetings, asking questions relevant only to himself, complaining about workloads, and questioning the validity of company projects — all calibrated to stay just below the threshold that would trigger an HR complaint.

Rewarding Bob has costs that outlast the peace

“The risk is that Bob’s bad behavior is not only tolerated, but rewarded,” said Mark Royal, senior client partner and engagement expert at Korn Ferry. “It just becomes harder and harder for people to collaborate.”

When Bob’s attendance dropped below a required four days a week, his manager responded by doing nothing.

Granting Bob the remote work he pursued through annoyance risks generating resentment among engaged colleagues who also want flexibility but chose not to game the policy.

Korn Ferry warns that managers considering the path of least resistance should also ask hard questions about whether keeping a divisive employee on board at all — whether remote or in-person — still makes sense.

Korn Ferry senior client partner Tamara Rodman offers a final caution for managers tempted to grant remote status as a solution: “Annoying people, unfortunately, exist virtually as well.”

For BPO providers, the “Bob” pattern is a warning about what RTO mandates without cultural foundation produce. In offshore delivery settings where remote-first and hybrid arrangements are the operating baseline, the conditions that enable passive resistance — disengaged workers, under-managed behavior, policy enforcement gaps — are not hypothetical; they are structural defaults unless explicitly countered. 

BPO operators who build accountability into distributed work models — rather than relying on physical presence as discipline — are solving the problem Korn Ferry names: managers who avoid hard conversations until absence becomes the easiest option.