Is the Final Migration Back to the Office Happening in 2025?

People work in an office development. Oli Scarff/Getty Images, File Photo

With Amazon’s five-day-a-week return-to-office mandate about to take effect, many are wondering if remote working is coming to an end in 2025.

Remote working, a rarity before the COVID-19 pandemic, has become the norm in many sectors. According to surveys by WFH Research, as of August this year, approximately 28 percent of paid days in the United States were work-from-home days.

Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump will order the approximately 228,000 federal civilian workers who have been working from home to return to the office, according to his top adviser Stephen Miller.

The potential move may also create a catalytic effect on businesses.

Amid resistance from workers, CEOs are under pressure to retain top talent and to make the office experience feel worth it to their employees.

Starting Jan. 2, 2025, Amazon is requiring all of its 350,000 employees to return to the office five days a week to foster collaboration and strengthen company culture, according to an announcement made by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on Sept. 16.

While companies including Boeing, Disney, Apple, Starbucks, UPS, Dell and banks such as Chase, Barclays, and CitiGroup have called employees back to work on at least a hybrid schedule, Amazon’s move has heightened the belief that remote work options are drying up.

In recent months, various surveys have revealed that business leaders are becoming more resolute in their push to reinstate pre-pandemic work practices.

A September KPMG report highlighted that 83 percent of U.S. CEOs expect a full return to the office within the next three years, up from 64 percent in 2023. Likewise, an August survey by Resume Builder showed that 90 percent of businesses will have adopted return-to-office policies by next year, with 30 percent requiring full-time office attendance.

The latest Flex Index, which monitors the RTO activity of 100 million employees across more than 13,000 companies, showed that 43 percent of U.S. firms on an industry-adjusted basis have employed a structured hybrid model in the fourth quarter, up from 38 percent in the third quarter and 20 percent in the first quarter of 2023. Additionally, 32 percent of firms had fully returned to in-office work.

Reasons CEOs Push Return-to-Office Policies

The main reasons for return-to-office mandates include: fostering collaboration and teamwork, improving communication, strengthening company culture, boosting productivity, and simplifying employee management, according to a recent survey by Resume.org.

Kevelyn Guzman, the regional vice president at Coldwell Banker Warburg, is one of many business leaders that have embraced the return-to-office trend.

“We see the office as more than a workspace—it’s a hub for connection, collaboration, and growth,” Guzman told The Epoch Times.

“In-person collaboration has been a game changer for our agents, sparking spontaneous brainstorming sessions, allowing them to collaborate on listings, referrals, ideas, real-time problem-solving, and the kind of energy that can only come from face-to-face interaction.”

Tim Stassi, founder of Dwell One Realty echoed this sentiment. “Returning to the office feels a bit like reuniting with an old friend you forgot how much you missed—except this friend brings fresh ideas, spontaneous brainstorming sessions, and the undeniable aroma of freshly brewed coffee that no Zoom background can replicate,” he told The Epoch Times.

Cyndi Gave, leader of The Metiss Group, a consulting firm specializing in talent selection and development, offered another perspective on why companies are implementing return-to-office policies.

She said that while remote and hybrid work models have enabled flexibility and broadened talent pools, they have also posed challenges to collaboration, resulted in reduced engagement, and introduced phenomena such as “job stacking,” which refers to employees taking on multiple jobs simultaneously.

“They were just doing things on a list and then going out to fish or walk the dog. They became task focused,” Gave told The Epoch Times.

“So, then they realized they could get their tasks done in less than 40 hours, so they took on another full-time job and pulled in two salaries. I’ve heard of people actually taking on three. If you’re working multiple full-time jobs, you can’t tell me you’re putting in full-time work.”

Gave said that job stacking has started to wane now that employees are going back to the office.

Recent data from SurveyMonkey seems to bolster this opinion. According to its report, 46 percent of hybrid or remote workers admit to multitasking during a work call, with activities ranging from using bathroom to browsing social media or online shopping. Another 46 percent confessed to doing house chores during work, and 4 percent revealed they were working a second job simultaneously.

‘The Great Resistance’

On the other hand, it is no secret that many workers have resisted the call to return to their desks at a centralized location.

Two of the most common concerns about return to work are cost and control.

Last month, Owl Labs research found that workers spend more than $60 per day to work from the office, be it their commute or buying lunch.

“If you’re being asked to go into the office five days a week, an additional $300 a week in expenses is really, really high,” said Owl Labs CEO Frank Weishaupt in a statement.

This past spring, MyPerfectResume’s 2024 Return to Office Survey revealed that 77 percent of workers believe companies are mandating return to office because they seek more control over their staff members.

Some other concerns employees have with being asked to return to the office on a hybrid or full-time basis revolve around the disruption of family dynamics with commuting time and the need to begin paying for childcare again.

Whatever the causes of pushback to returning to the office may be, Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research referred to this phenomenon in July 2022 as “The Great Resistance.”

As more companies move toward bringing remote workers back to the office, the prevailing question for some employees is, “Do they have the legal right to do this, and can they fire me if I don’t?”

Scott Herndon, an employment attorney in Berkeley, California, said the answer is “yes and yes.”

The vast majority of America’s non-union workforce is employed under an “at will” contract, meaning they can leave at any time or be let go for whatever reason their employer deems necessary, Herndon said.

“I think people are misled at how robust their rights are in the workplace. That doesn’t mean there aren’t key protections that might interfere with this return-to-work policy but not in general,” he told The Epoch Times.

“The employees have very little leverage. It’s basically supply and demand and there’s no intrinsic rights for those working remotely at all. They’re being called back because it’s a matter of businesses attempting to be more efficient.”

However, John Hubbard, an employment attorney with Hubbard Snitchler & Parzianello in Detroit, said that one of the most significant downsides for companies giving return to office ultimatums to employees is the potential to lose talented people.

“People moved due to prior policies and then are told the company changed policy. But many in that circumstance are not coming back and are leaving the company. Because everybody is on an at-will contract basis, they can make their own decisions,” he told The Epoch Times.

“Employers may be making the decision to have you back in the office, but it’s up to the employee to decide whether that is acceptable or not.”

A survey of 2,585 Amazon professionals conducted by the anonymous forum provider Blind, just one day after the company’s announcement, shows that 73 percent were considering quitting because of the five-day mandate.

However, the Resume.org survey also showed that almost half (49 percent) of employers were not concerned about the risk of their employees resigning due to their return to office policies, given the current state of the job market.

Another survey, conducted across six major cities—Paris, London, New York, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto—revealed that more than 60 percent of employees in each city will comply with their companies’ return-to-office policies. In New York, for instance, 72 percent said they would comply, with 44 percent doing so willingly while 28 percent reluctantly.

‘Not a One-Sided Initiative’

Nevertheless, businesses are trying all ways to attract workers to the office.

“Companies must fundamentally reimagine and reconfigure workspaces to provide seamless and immersive collaboration experiences,” said Snorre Kjesbu, senior vice president and general manager of collaboration devices at Cisco, in the company’s recent Global Hybrid Work Study.

This, said Kjesbu, consists of designing and installing customized collaborative workspaces, concentrating on room layouts, screen visibility, and audio coverage.

Understanding initial hesitation among personnel, Guzman’s office has tried to make the atmosphere more engaging. Over the past year, the business has hosted various art, charity, and wellness events.

Simply Noted, an Arizona-based handwritten notes platform, has utilized a hybrid model to facilitate the benefits of working in the office and remotely. While the company offers remote work options, management has stressed the importance of an in-office presence to bolster professional growth.

“Team members can build stronger relationships, learn through osmosis, and take advantage of mentorship opportunities that are harder to replicate remotely,” Rick Elmore, the founder of Simply Noted, told The Epoch Times.

“We’ve also communicated how collaboration in person can accelerate decision-making and innovation—benefits that positively impact everyone’s workload and outcomes.”

At the same time, it is not a one-sided initiative as return to office also requires improving in-office culture, says Elmore.

“We’ve been intentional about making the office a place employees enjoy coming to,” he said, alluding to different perks, like catered lunches, wellness programs, team-building activities, and flexible schedules.

“Ultimately, our goal is to create a workplace that everyone feels proud to be part of—whether they’re contributing from home or in the office,” Elmore stated.

Kevin Connor, founder and CEO of Modern SBC, told The Epoch Times that the company focused on making the office “worth coming back to.”

“We targeted our efforts on growing a workplace in which humans desired to be.”

Kraig Kleeman, founder and CEO of The New Workforce, said he encountered resistance. He told The Epoch Times the company handled it by offering flexibility in office hours and working on solutions “to the real challenges people face, like providing travel allowances and support for parents who are caring for children.”

These efforts are consistent with surveys.

A June BambooHR poll of human resources professionals and managers found that the objectives behind working from the office are to enhance employee development, boost customer interactions, and improve company culture.

Prakash Mana, the CEO of California-based cybersecurity firm Cloudbrink, has a message to other executives: “Work-from-anywhere isn’t going anywhere.”

Despite return-to-office mandates observed over the last year, Mana thinks remote work will persist in 2025 and beyond for two primary reasons.

“First, Gen Z, the first true digital-first generation, is fast becoming the primary new talent pool,” he told The Epoch Times. “Second, secure remote connectivity now offers the speed, performance, and security to match the in-office environment.”

RedBalloon’s December Freedom Economy Index, a monthly survey of 100,000 small businesses shared ahead of publication with The Epoch Times, found that a fifth of employers expect remote work to be more prevalent in the year ahead.