With hindsight, it is easy to scoff at employers who were making firm plans for RTO — return to the office — in mid-2020, when the pandemic was really only just getting started.But offices loom large in the executive psyche. They can also be a skyscraping financial commitment, second only to pay. Combine that with the century-old presumption that work is best done in buildings tailor-made for working, and it should come as no surprise that many chief executives and chief financial officers wanted to refill these costly containers as soon as possible.
A few, of course, notably in the technology sector, went in the opposite direction, dictating that staff need never return and could remote-work for ever. Wise commentators pointed out to me at the time that companies veering to one or other extreme would be caught out, and so it has proved.
Wall Street banks, in the vanguard of those calling for a return to a five-day-a-week office presence, had to row back and allow more flexibility as coronavirus mutated and persisted. Technology companies, on the other hand, are now finding it hard to soften even temporary commitments to more remote work. Apple’s effort to bring staff back to the workplace in September for at least three days a week met with disquiet and dissent.