RTO reality check: What employees want vs. what they’re getting among hot topics at BetterUp-sponsored HR leaders roundtable
The return-to-office debate has become one of the most contentious workplace issues of the post-pandemic era, but new data suggests the conversation is missing crucial nuances about what employees actually want versus what they’re being offered.
A discussion among senior HR executives at a recent dinner gathering in New York — hosted by WorkLife and sponsored by the employee coaching and development platform BetterUp — revealed surprising insights about employee preferences and the unintended consequences of current RTO mandates. At the event, Chatham House Rules applied, meaning that participants agreed to speak on the condition they would not be identified by name or company.
This is the third in a four-part editorial series exploring topics covered at the event.
Recent polling data shared at the gathering revealed an unexpected finding: when employees were asked about their ideal work arrangement, the top answer was five days in the office. However, that preference comes with important caveats.
“What was fascinating is that being fully remote was their lowest selection,” noted one executive. The breakdown showed generational differences, with only 25% of Gen Z wanting fully remote, while millennials, Xers and boomers each came in at around 30%.
Despite expressing a preference for more office time, employees are struggling with rigid implementation of RTO policies. The challenge isn’t necessarily the concept of returning to office, but how it’s being executed. “The most frequent thing that we hear is the RTO push and what’s the give-get, right? Outside of just ‘show up or you’re gonna get fired,'” explained one executive working with corporate clients.
A significant issue complicating RTO mandates is that many companies haven’t adequately prepared their physical spaces for returning employees. “They didn’t give us back all the seats that we had,” observed one participant. “So there’s the stress of commute, getting to the office, and then finding nowhere to sit—taking calls in stairwells and all kinds of stuff.”
That creates additional stress layers: “Added stress on top of the RTO mandate itself.”
Financial pressures are making RTO particularly challenging for employees. Research from Square found that the majority of employees said that paying for lunch after going back to the office was difficult or challenging for their budget.
That has led some companies to get creative with benefits. One executive described a food program where employers provide a $25 daily credit for employees to order lunch from wherever they want, to address both the financial burden and the lost flexibility of working from home.
The pandemic taught employees valuable lessons about work-life integration that are being disrupted by return-to-office mandates. “There was some sense of balance” during remote work, noted one executive. “I think certain companies are saying you’re back five days a week, and that’s adding back what you were able to manage when you were working from home.”
The cumulative effect includes commute time, work preparation, and reduced personal time management. “You never get back there,” observed one participant about the work-life balance achieved during remote work.
Many companies continue to see success with more flexible work arrangements. “We have hybrid—we say three days. We don’t enforce it. If you do two days, we’re good,” shared one executive. “We are remote-first, and that might change, but that’s where the stress is coming from.” That approach acknowledges that rigid enforcement often creates more problems than it solves.
A critical insight emerged around the need for better boundaries between work and personal time, regardless of location. “We were all home, and all of a sudden the expectation is you’re working all the time from home because you have Slack and Zoom,” explained one executive.
The solution isn’t just about where people work, but when they work: “We’re trying to install better guardrails. There’s going to be sprints and times where it’s a hair-on-fire project, but that can’t be all the time.”
Successful companies are seeing leaders model healthy boundaries. One executive shared their approach: “I block out my calendar from five o’clock till eight, and I’m like, do not schedule anything. And if you do, I won’t show up, because I’m home with my kids.”
That kind of behavior among leadership is crucial for establishing sustainable work patterns, whether employees are in the office or at home, the participants agreed.
Looking ahead, demographic trends suggest the RTO conversation needs to evolve. “The fastest growing demographic in the workforce today is people over the age of 75,” noted one participant. That trend, combined with smaller numbers among incoming generations, means companies need to think differently about workplace flexibility as a retention tool for all age groups.
The most successful companies are moving beyond the binary remote-versus-office debate toward a more nuanced approach that considers areas including:
Infrastructure readiness. Ensuring physical spaces can accommodate returning employees.
Financial support. Addressing the real costs of office attendance.
Boundary setting. Creating clear expectations about when employees need to be available.
Leadership modeling. Having executives demonstrate healthy work-life integration.
Flexibility within structure. Allowing some variability within clear guidelines.
One executive summarized the challenge: “How do you keep employees engaged and productive while respecting the lessons learned during the pandemic about work-life balance?”
The answer appears to lie not in choosing sides in the remote-versus-office debate but in creating thoughtful, flexible approaches that acknowledge both the benefits of in-person collaboration and the legitimate need for work-life integration that employees discovered during the pandemic.
The companies succeeding with RTO are those treating it as a design challenge rather than a compliance issue — focusing on creating compelling reasons for employees to want to be in the office rather than simply mandating their presence.