Rob Davis, President and CMO at Novus Media.

A Jeff Bezos-led organization made a surprise decision in October that affected many people’s lives. No, not the Washington Post deciding not to endorse a presidential candidate (paywall): I’m talking about Amazon, which Bezos founded and where he now serves as executive chairman, and the decision to order employees back to the office five days a week in 2025.

This decision was surprising to me given what studies and surveys have repeatedly confirmed: Many employees are happier in virtual or hybrid environments.

Amazon ordering employees back to the office full time in 2025 reignited what I thought was settled, especially considering how overwhelming the data is in favor of hybrid or remote work:

• A University of Pittsburgh study covered in Fortune found (paywall) that 99% of companies studied that instituted a return to the office policy had a drop in employee satisfaction.
• Half of Dell employees reportedly chose to stay remote when the company said only those who returned to the office would be eligible for promotions.
• According to Unispace research (via The Hill), 42% of companies with enforced return-to-office mandates experienced higher employee attrition than expected.

In fact, many tech companies are leading the movement to return to the office—even Zoom (on a hybrid basis), the exact company known for making full-time remote work work during the pandemic.

I must admit I’m a bit surprised that many corporate giants are mandating a return to the office. But it’s not just them; companies of all sizes are weighing their options. A former ad agency colleague of mine who I recently ran into at a conference pulled me aside and, after some pleasantries asking about kids and life, whispered: “They’re making us go back to the office!”

Currently, 18% of Fortune 500 companies require full-time in-office work, according to Flex Index (via Forbes). That leaves 82% that have some form of hybrid or remote work and, therefore, could hypothetically make a similar decision to Amazon’s.

There is a case to be made for working in person. Some cite the “serendipitous” interactions that can lead to unexpected ideas and opportunities. And that can certainly happen. A quick stroll through a modern office with rows of cubicles of employees wearing headphones and staring directly ahead at a screen would call into question how prevalent that really is, though. Others cite the ability to ensure or enforce productivity. My response to this is: Okay, but is there a different way to motivate people than threatening or monitoring them? Others cite improved mentorship and training, stronger company culture or better communication as reasons for returning to the office. These are all reasonable debates to have. For those considering a return to the office, here are some points to work through:

1. You might not be thinking “objectively”: In other words, are you literally defining what the objective is to require going back to the office? Many leaders make the change to “work from office” without being clear about the desired outcome. For example, are you solving for better collaboration across certain teams, or training, or something else, other than a vague “it will be better”? Clarity on that will help ensure the best approach is designed to deliver on the specific goal(s).

2. You could be trading employee satisfaction for proximity: Humans tend to prefer choices. And once they’re exposed to a better way to do things, they won’t be happy if it’s taken away. The author of the University of Pittsburgh study suggested that virtual work was used as a scapegoat for issues the company was having. That’s not a healthy environment to create for your managers or your workers.

3. You could be unnecessarily creating fault lines: One in five employees aren’t following their company’s return-to-office directives, according to Resume Builder. The fallout is simple: Executives will have to manage the challenges that come with some employees following the rules and others who don’t. They will have to either discipline those employees who don’t come into the office and/or their managers who enable it, including the nuclear option of firing them, or let it go and potentially create intra-office bitterness.

4. You may not realize the reality of new technologies: We all know about Google Meet, Zoom and other video apps. But there are also whiteboard apps, project management apps and communications apps that allow both real-time collaboration and asynchronous communication.

5. You’re not exploring smarter ways to use the office: Dropbox, another company enabling virtual collaboration through file sharing, reimagined and redesigned its office space to become Dropbox Studios, a mix of large conference rooms with versatile layouts, classrooms with movable furniture, and places to hang out.

But more important than a redesign is the act of encouraging people to use the space how they see fit. For example, your sales team could pick one day a week where they all go in, get lunch and use that time to collaborate—not just sit at their desks in silence.

Empower your teams to use the space in a way that maximizes their time together.

6. You may not realize that the cited benefits of the office are often attainable virtually. Enterprising organizations can easily use technology or specific meet-ups to engineer the “serendipity effect” of ad hoc connections that can sometimes lead to new connections and new ideas. Virtual mixers, coffee chats, mentor meetings and technological solutions can replicate those unexpected moments and opportunities. Remember Chatroulette (the PG version of it)? It wouldn’t take your operations people and your IT team much to create an internal version of this.

Each organization is different, and I wouldn’t be as bold to say that full-time office attendance is the wrong policy for everyone. But those who want to pursue it may need better reasons than saying creativity or productivity suffers virtually. I just haven’t seen it in our environment. I encourage every organization to think long and hard about a return to office that tries to return things to what they used to be. Those days are not coming back. And for those companies that force a new policy that negatively impacts their workers, those employees may not come back, either.

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