Study: Return-to-office mandates often about control, not profits
- As pandemic receded, many managers required return to office
- Study: Office mandates had no significant impact on profit, value
- Mandates did, however, correspond with declining job satisfaction
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(NewsNation) — Return-to-office mandates not only lower employee satisfaction but also don’t significantly boost profits, according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh.
The researchers’ findings contradict claims that managers require staff to return to an office setting because it increases company value. Instead, the study found leadership uses such mandates to “reassert control over employees and blame employees as a scapegoat for bad firm performance.”
Working from home became a more common practice during the COVID-19 pandemic, which required people to self-isolate and remain at home when possible. As pandemic restrictions eased, some employers urged workers to return to the office.
A quarter of managers say they primarily used intuition, not facts, to guide their decisions requiring employees to return to the office, according to the study.
Researchers also found significant declines in employees’ ratings of their overall job satisfaction, work-life balance and senior management after an employer announced a return-to-office mandate.
“Prior research shows that CEOs’ (desire) for power affect many different corporate policies, such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) focus, disclosure practice, and investment,” researchers wrote. “We further show that CEOs’ preference to hold power over employees have significant impacts on (return-to-office) mandates and, more generally, workplace flexibility.”
