Pressure from business leaders to return to full-time in-office work is growing louder, but data shows that hybrid work models are not going away quite so easily.
At a JPMorgan Chase employee town hall, when one attendee mentioned a petition opposing the company’s five-day return-to-office policy. CEO Jamie Dimon replied: “Don’t waste time on it. I don’t care how many people sign that f***ing petition.”
Companies like Amazon, Disney and Google have also reasserted in-office expectations, although in a less sweary manner.
But, data shows many employees are quietly rejecting those mandates.
Employees ignore stricter policies
Resistance to return-to-office policies has been underway for years. In 2022, a Stanford study found that 50% of workers asked to return full time simply ignored the request. Employees have continued to voice their frustrations, with online platforms like Reddit filled with backlash against remote work restrictions.
As firms pursue efficiencies and reduce headcount, employers appear more willing to enforce their RTO demands, but the effect on actual office attendance has been limited.
Stanford economist Nick Bloom, who led the 2022 study, shared in 2023 that most companies had landed on three days in the office, two days remote. “The return-to-office push seems to have died,” he wrote. “The RTO wars were over. Hybrid won.”
More recent data supports this view. According to Time: “While policy requirements for office attendance have jumped 10% since early 2024, actual attendance has barely moved, increasing less than 2% during the same time period.”
Firms with formal five-day mandates appear to be operating hybrid models in practice.
“According to Occuspace CEO Nic Halverson, whose workplace occupancy sensor technology is deployed across Fortune 500 companies, many firms mandating five days in office see almost the same rate of utilization as those with more flexible policies,” Time reported.
Most firms remain hybrid
The persistence of hybrid work spans across company sizes. About 67% of firms maintain a hybrid policy, and that figure climbs to 70% for those with fewer than 500 employees.
While hybrid arrangements hold steady, job listings offering remote or hybrid options have dropped. Indeed reports a decline from 10% in 2022 to 7.8%, and LinkedIn has seen a decrease from 26% to 21%.
A 2024 survey revealed that 75% of business leaders said their firms were still “terrible” at remote work. Employees also report wasting time “reassuring and performing busyness for anxious managers.”
Experts recommend measures such as establishing communication norms and setting core hours to help hybrid teams succeed.
Many leaders may continue to push for more in-office time. But with office attendance nearly unchanged and employees still favoring flexibility, companies may be quietly choosing to stay hybrid, even if their CEOs are not.