If Remote Work Is More Productive, Why Are We Going Back?

Remote workers are 12% more productive than their in-office counterparts. That’s not opinion, it’s backed by data. At the same time, companies enforcing return-to-office (RTO) mandates are seeing 13% higher turnover, with the people leaving first being the most experienced, highest-paid, and hardest to replace.

So the question isn’t whether remote work works. It does. The real question is:

Why are companies forcing people back anyway?

The Demand for Remote Work Hasn’t Changed

Remote roles make up roughly 20% of job postings. Yet they attract over 60% of applications. That gap tells you everything. Workers have made their preference clear.  Flexibility isn’t a perk anymore, it’s an expectation. And when that expectation isn’t met, they leave.

This Was Never Just About Productivity

If RTO was truly about performance, the rollout would look very different. Instead, we’ve seen the opposite. At companies like Amazon and JPMorgan Chase, employees returned to offices that couldn’t even accommodate them not enough desks, not enough space, not enough infrastructure.

These are organizations that spent years reducing their real estate footprint to cut costs. Then, almost overnight, they reversed course. No redesign.  No reinvestment.  No clear purpose for being there. If this was about productivity, they would have prepared for it. They didn’t.

RTO as a Quiet Restructuring Strategy

There’s another layer to this. Roughly 25% of executives who issued RTO mandates have admitted they expected — or even hoped — employees would quit. No layoffs.  No severance.  No headlines. Just policies that make staying harder than leaving.

Even leaders like Elon Musk have publicly supported this approach, framing full-time office requirements as a way to trigger “voluntary” departures. It’s not about where work happens.  It’s about who stays.

The Office Came Back — But the Experience Didn’t

Here’s the disconnect: Employees are being asked to return  to do the exact same work  in spaces that are objectively worse.

• Longer commutes. 

• Less autonomy. 

• Shared desks.  

• Overcrowded environments.

Nothing about that improves productivity. And it certainly doesn’t improve culture. The Real Problem Is Spatial

Companies didn’t just change policy. They changed space and then expected behaviour to follow. But space shapes experience.

And right now, most offices aren’t designed to support:

• Focused work

• Meaningful collaboration

• Cultural connection

They’re designed for a version of work that no longer exists.

You Can’t Mandate Presence. You Have to Earn It.

This is the shift most organizations are missing. People won’t come back because they’re told to. They’ll come back if there’s a reason.

Something they can’t get at home:

• Better collaboration

• Stronger connection

• Clearer purpose

• A more valuable use of their time

Right now, most offices offer none of that. What This Means for Real Estate and Design

This isn’t just an HR issue. It’s a design and strategy problem. The companies that win in this next phase won’t be the ones enforcing stricter policies. They’ll be the ones who understand that in 2026 space is no longer a container. It’s leverage.

Leverage for:

• attracting and retaining talent

• shaping culture

• driving performance

• building long-term value

The office isn’t dead. But the old model is. And until space evolves to meet how people actually work, RTO will continue to feel exactly like what it is:

A policy without a product.

If RTO was truly about performance, the rollout would look very different. Instead, we’ve seen the opposite. At companies like Amazon and JPMorgan Chase, employees returned to offices that couldn’t even accommodate them not enough desks, not enough space, not enough infrastructure.

These are organizations that spent years reducing their real estate footprint to cut costs. Then, almost overnight, they reversed course. No redesign.  No reinvestment.  No clear purpose for being there. If this was about productivity, they would have prepared for it. They didn’t. RTO as a Quiet Restructuring Strategy

There’s another layer to this. Roughly 25% of executives who issued RTO mandates have admitted they expected — or even hoped — employees would quit. No layoffs.  No severance.  No headlines. Just policies that make staying harder than leaving.

Even leaders like Elon Musk have publicly supported this approach, framing full-time office requirements as a way to trigger “voluntary” departures. It’s not about where work happens.  It’s about who stays.

The Office Came Back — But the Experience Didn’t

Here’s the disconnect: Employees are being asked to return  to do the exact same work  in spaces that are objectively worse.

• Longer commutes. 

• Less autonomy. 

• Shared desks.  

• Overcrowded environments.

Nothing about that improves productivity. And it certainly doesn’t improve culture.

The Real Problem Is Spatial

Companies didn’t just change policy. They changed space and then expected behaviour to follow. But space shapes experience.

And right now, most offices aren’t designed to support:

• Focused work

• Meaningful collaboration

• Cultural connection

They’re designed for a version of work that no longer exists.

You Can’t Mandate Presence. You Have to Earn It.