How the Debate Over WFH and RTO Mandates Has Evolved

An employee works at an office in London.Source: Bloomberg
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During the pandemic lockdowns that began in 2020, millions of office workers suddenly abandoned their workplaces and started doing their jobs from home in what McKinsey & Co. researcher Ryan Luby called “a social experiment at scale.” The debate over what it proved rages on.

Does giving people agency over where they work, and on which days, reduce productivity? Erode company culture? The research isn’t conclusive. Still, managers and workers tend to have strong feelings based on their own experiences, leading to a broad range of office policies and reactions to them, now that the choice is back with employers.