Over the past several years, there have been numerous articles written about the continuing Return to Office (RTO) trend. Almost all focus on what employees are giving up with RTO. Indeed, there are many things that employees will lose. The most obvious losses resulting from RTO are the loss of flexibility that comes with working from home (WFH) and loss of time from commuting into the office.
Very few articles, however, focus on the benefits of RTO. Given that the multi-year RTO trend is rising, I think it’s time to look at the bright side of RTO, so to speak. But first, let’s look at where we are in 2025.
By the end of the first quarter of 2025, numerous large corporate employers as well as the federal government had already called their employees back into the office in greater numbers. Calls from the federal government were a result of the change in administration while the corporate sector was affected mostly by labor economics: there are simply more job seekers than open roles, and hence less incentive for employers to offer flexible work arrangements. Despite this situation, remote or hybrid jobs are still in high demand by prospective employees—just 20% of LinkedIn postings are for those jobs but they receive 60% of the applications.
From the employee’s perspective, the appeal of WFH is still strong. A Korn Ferry survey of 15,000 global professionals revealed that although 59% of respondents reported working full-time in an office, just 19% considered that an ideal work model. The vast majority preferred either a hybrid (48%) or fully remote (25%) arrangement. A recent Gallup poll of remote U.S. workers indicated that 64% would seek a new job if they weren’t allowed to work remotely some of the time. And a Stanford University global study of 16,000 college graduates across 40 countries showed that, on average, the graduates expect to work outside the office half of the week.
Nevertheless, RTO is gradually replacing WFH with the average days per workweek spent out of the office in the Stanford study inching down to 1.27 in 2024 (from 1.33 in 2023 and 1.61 in 2022). National office occupancy statistics tracked by Kastle Systems also show incremental increases in 2025 compared with previous years with many individual cities hitting multi-year highs off of the pandemic lows.
If RTO is becoming more prevalent despite its unpopularity with workers, what are its silver linings?
Many of the calls to increase RTO by government and company leaders center around the desire to increase collaboration among employees. While it can be argued that “collaboration” is just a catch-all term leaders use to get employees back into the office no matter the reason, collaborative time remains an important part of work. A recent webinar by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) listed the average time spent in the office as follows: 48% focused work (i.e., head-down, individual), 29% face-to-face collaborative work, and 23% virtual collaborative work.
Intuitively, it makes sense that collaborating in-person is more effective than collaborating over Zoom or Teams calls. This seems especially true for deep dive and other solution-oriented meetings as opposed to status-type calls. Therefore, it is not surprising that some studies have shown a permanent boost in collaboration due to RTO compared to pre-RTO arrangements.
The JLL webinar also lists several other activities that have value that aren’t purely focused or collaborative time. These include social connections with colleagues, informal advice and knowledge sharing, rest and recharging, time in shared spaces and company culture, learning and development, and development of professional relationships. These are interesting since they touch upon “soft skills,” the umbrella term for interpersonal and other non-technical skills that indirectly contribute to success in the workplace.
In addition, JLL clients have asked them to design offices to encourage a spectrum of social interaction that occurs in the workplace. A variety of specialized spaces that support both focused and collaborative work is designed to bring out five key types of social interaction among employees. These include planned collaboration, spontaneous discussions, informal learning, team connectivity, and community or belonging. All five are activities that appear to be more effective conducted in-person than remotely.
The articles and webinars I’ve cited above suggest that RTO will lead to greater long-term collaboration and innovation within companies and government organizations. But these benefits tend to accrue to the employer more so than to the employee.
What are the main benefits to more in-person work from the employee’s perspective?
It may be hard to find a subject that has more of an emotional response for both employees and employers than RTO. The pandemic helped usher in the age of remote work by proving it was possible to conduct most business remotely. Workers benefited by gaining scheduling flexibility and eliminating commuting and other in-office costs, benefits of WFH that they are rightfully trying to maintain.
However, it was only a matter of time before the labor market swung in a direction favorable to employers. With RTO gaining steam year after year, employees are staring at an inevitability. There are pros and cons to both remote and in-person work. Looking at the bright side of RTO may actually help employees get to a new, long-term equilibrium where both remote and in-person work peacefully coexist.