Are RTO Mandates Replacing Layoffs?
If you were to look at return to office mandates cynically, you could say that they are a good way to reduce headcount, weeding out the ‘none team players’ who refuse to bend to the company’s will, and reduce staff costs through natural wastage, rather than redundancies, which can be timely and expensive.
It’s perhaps no coincidence that both Dell, Amazon and Ubisoft have not only issued return to office mandates in the last two years, but also gone through rounds of redundancies. It’s no secret that many tech companies over-hired during the pandemic, as demands for their services ramped up, and the assumption was that this growth would only continue. When life got back to normal, and demand started to level out, many companies found themselves with too many staff. If a return to office mandate didn’t thin the herd, then you could argue that the next step would be mandatory redundancies, and this is the pattern that we’ve seen from these three companies.
As remote roles dry up, it will be the companies with flexible work policies that prosper, as they’ll naturally attract the disgruntled top talent from the RTO mandate organizations. We’re already seeing a huge number of staff at Amazon threatening to leave after September’s announcement – over 70%, according to a Blind survey. That’s quite a potential pool of talent for remote-friendly companies to draw from.
Is Collaboration to Blame?
Did you spot the same word come up in each company’s RTO memo? There’s plenty of crossover between all three, but the one that beams like a lighthouse in a storm is the C word – Collaboration. Collaboration is the crutch for the return to office CEO, the one point that everything hinges on.
It would be foolish to deny that collaboration isn’t key to any company’s success, but there is an entire industry built around enabling employees to communicate, no matter where they are. Messaging tools such as Slack, and video conferencing systems like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, all allow real time conversations as good as being in the office meeting room. They can also be democratize the meeting process and ensure that everyone has their say, with a Zoom call giving everyone the same amount of screen real estate and tools, offering everyone the same opportunities to speak.
We’ve never been more available to our colleagues, so the idea that collaboration isn’t happening unless we’re in the office from nine to five rings slightly hollow.
There have also been multiple studies on remote work over the last few years, and the vast majority have shown that workers are more productive and work longer hours when allowed to work from home. They also live longer, but that doesn’t benefit CEOs so let’s not dwell on that one.
Ultimately, the pandemic threw a brick into the staid waters of the traditional nine to five office job, and the ripples are still being felt keenly today. Companies such as Amazon and Dell are attempting to pull ahead of the pack by implementing the old ‘normality’ of office life, under the belief that they’ll benefit in terms of ‘culture and collaboration’, which will translate into a more profitable company, allowing them to outpace their competition.
What they’ve found though, is that workers are resisting return to office mandates, proving that company culture doesn’t come from top down. You can’t implement a culture any more than you can order people to buy your product.
The return to office debate will continue to rage for some time, and it will be a while before the dust settles and we can declare the victor. In the meantime, CEOs and employees will continue to trade blows, both remotely and in the office.