Ten years ago, I did what many only dreamed of at the time: I left my three-hour Bay Area commute behind, moved to Portland, Oregon, and started working remotely. I didn’t make the change because I hated my job. I made it because I wanted my life back.
I was fortunate because my company at the time, Upwork, allowed me to retain my role and work from wherever I’d be happiest. This was long before the pandemic drove more distributed work. That decision by my employer unlocked more focus, energy, and meaningful contributions from me than any promotion would have.
Since then, I’ve seen remote models that thrive, and ones that fail. And when they’re being undone I can tell you: Remote work is not the problem. The problem is leaders who don’t know how to lead, especially without looking over someone’s shoulder.
‘Return to office’ is the new fear-based management strategy
Let’s cut through the corporate euphemisms. When companies walk back remote policies, it’s rarely about restoring “culture” or “collaboration.” It’s about control.
And increasingly, that control is driven by fear. Some leaders are reacting to investor pressure. There’s still a persistent, and mostly unproven, belief that in-person work leads to better performance. Others are trying to justify sunk costs in empty corporate real estate. For companies sitting on long-term leases, an empty office isn’t just a cultural liability; it’s a financial embarrassment.
I saw this dynamic play out years ago when IBM issued a return-to-office (RTO) mandate. I responded with an open letter to IBM’s remote workers. Thousands of reactions showed that people want to work, deliver results, and be trusted. Instead, what they were getting was a policy that constrained their daily existence.
That same story is playing out again now. In the past year, Amazon began tracking employee badge swipes. Meta mandated three days a week in office. Google tied attendance to performance reviews. And Zoom, ironically, ordered employees within 50 miles of an office to return twice weekly. It is clear that many companies are retreating from flexibility and have yet to establish the optimal work model for both their teams and business results.
The data is clear: remote work works, when done right
The debate shouldn’t be about whether remote work can be productive, since evidence shows it is.
Gallup found that employees who have flexibility, working remotely three to four days a week, are the most engaged and productive overall.
Microsoft research found that remote work improves productivity for individual tasks. That said, it can weaken cross-team collaboration if not actively managed. The fix? Not forcing everyone back, but designing systems that support connection and visibility.
Great remote companies are designed, not defaulted
What we’re seeing isn’t a debate over location. It’s a test of whether a company actually knows how to manage. The best distributed organizations don’t wing it. They know that, just as great in-person teams require effort to build, so do great distributed ones.
The companies winning today aren’t pro-remote or pro-office, they’re pro-empowerment. They trust people to do their best work and give them the clarity, flexibility, and infrastructure to succeed. They’re intentional, from the tools they use to the way they communicate. They rely on clear documentation over hallway chatter, use platforms like Miro, Notion, Loom, and ChatGPT to support async work, and train managers on how to empower distributed teams.
They also know that human connection matters. In-person offsites, optional coworking, and team rituals help prevent isolation. Most importantly, they invest in internal communications. In remote settings, comms aren’t a side function, they’re the glue. Without clear information, even the most talented teams lose direction.
AI talent is pushing back on ‘return to office’
To attract and retain AI talent, companies will have to support remote work, as evidenced by the fact that AI-related roles are nearly three times more likely to offer remote work options compared to other tech jobs.
As companies navigate AI-driven transformation, this competition for top AI talent will continue to pushback on remote work restrictions. LinkedIn research shows that in the U.S., the number of companies with a Head of AI position has tripled in the past five years, more than doubled in just the past two, and is expected to continue its rapid growth. The AI transformation may help foster further work model transformation.
What employees can do when leadership isn’t getting it right
If your company is still finding its best approach to an effective geographical work model, you can help improve your situation from the inside by putting more of the practices in this article into place. Champion async communication, tools, and rituals that help your team communicate better and more intentionally. Doing so not only improves your experience, it increases your value as someone who knows how to operate in flexible environments. These skills are competitive advantages because companies cannot compete effectively without mastering them.
That said, if your company is failing to support remote work, or actively pushing back on your attempts to foster it, see it for what it is: a red flag. It may be a sign of reactive leadership, misaligned priorities, or financial struggles. It might be time to quietly start looking elsewhere.
Yes, the market is tough. But top talent still has options. Also, there’s a reality that many leaders ignore: The best talent is often remote, and some roles are nearly impossible to fill locally. When you build with location flexibility in mind, you can hire the best person for the role, not just a person who lives within commuting distance. That gives you access to deeper talent pools and helps you stand out in competitive industries where recruiting is difficult.
The next wave of fallout from return-to-office mandates is already unfolding
At JPMorgan, employees reportedly petitioned against RTO requirements. I recently read that satisfaction scores in areas like internal mobility, work-life balance, and health and well-being dropped. And despite a 10% increase in mandated in-office days since early 2024, actual attendance only rose by 2%.
The companies that understand that in-office mandates don’t drive performance, trust their people, and design systems that support how they actually work, will keep the best talent, outperform peers, and shape the future of work. Everyone else will be left managing offices nobody wants to return to.