“They need us. They won’t force us to come back to the office!”
Or will they?
During the pandemic, remote work became a survival tactic. Some companies liked the new ways. They said they’d keep remote or hybrid working options available indefinitely.
For a time, stories abounded of employees who went remote, moved out of the cities, and bought homes further afield.
Now, news headlines point to high-profile companies calling people back to their office hubs. Are these return-to-office (RTO) policies causing people to ditch homes they bought during the height of the pandemic?
Some Say They’ll Move for Their Bosses; Some Say They Won’t
Several high-tech and financial companies want their employees back in the office — for at least part of the workweek. A Redfin study, reported by Business Insider and others, found about 10% of those who want to move in the year aheadare citing a return-to-office policy as the reason.
Redfin’s survey found many more than that who hope to move for different reasons. Some homeowners want more space. Some want to live closer to family. Some seek a lower cost of living. These are the top reasons they’d like to sell their current homes.
So, are new homeowners in Boise being told to return to their desks in Seattle — or scram? A few, yes. But many people will just say no to a move like that. This sentiment is echoed even by established professionals. Many of them will take a pay cut, if that’s what it takes to avoid RTO. Vox cites an international McKinsey survey suggesting people would accept 20% lower incomes to keep their remote or hybrid lives.
As we’ve noted before, mortgage rates are up in 2023. Home prices have remained at a steady high. That’ll make it especially hard for people to deal with the financial elements of selling, buying, and moving. Once you factor in all the closing costs, how can you break even on a home that you just bought two or three years ago? Expecting anyone to move in this market is a tall order.
☛ What happens if a buyer gets a mortgage that turns out to be impossible to pay? Here’s some information on what people do when they can’t pay their mortgages.
To Go or Not to Go: What Gets People to Move Back to an Office Hub?
Here’s a question for readers to ponder. For homeowners who right now have 4% mortgage rates or even lower, as many people now do… Is it worth it to let go of that because the boss wants you back in?
People who have adjusted to the remote or hybrid work style may find a number of advantages to their new routines:
- They save time by not having to drive or take transit to work.
- They save time to prepare food. And they enjoy more well-planned meals when at home than they do when they have to grab something for a day at the office.
- They can pencil in more exercise time when working from home.
- They don’t have to buy as many sets of business clothes. They can skip the dry cleaning.
- They can work more comfortably — and, in some households, with fewer interruptions.
All of these advantages can add up to easier day-to-day living. Some say working from home beats out most other things that make people feel good about their lives — including buying a home. What’s the point of owning a comfortable home, they ask, if they’re away from it so much of the week?
All of that said, we hear some of you… Not all jobs can be easily replaced. Some industries have no other openings, as they’re the ones doing RTO. Some new homeowners just have too much debt to take that big pay cut. I owe, I owe! It’s back to the office I go!
Each situation is unique, then. But the general trend is remote.
The Genie Has Left the Bottle—Or, Rather, the Office Building
No doubt, some workers have gone or are going back to offices. But remote office work is mainstream now. It has obvious cost-saving benefits for businesses. Remote work reduces turnover. It attracts job applicants. It helps companies hire people from a wider, more diverse pool of talent. It enables more people to work despite medical conditions or other circumstances that shouldn’t sideline a willing employee.
“Do you want to access talent everywhere, or just in specific markets?” That’s what Katie Burke, Chief People Officer of HubSpot, has been asking business owners for years. Burke continues:
If the answer is everywhere, you need to be at least open to the possibility of remote work — it opens doors to attracting and retaining talent around the world, literally and figuratively.
In that light, do rigid RTO policies make sense? Granted, some companies do have business reasons to call people back. At the same time, whole industries have adopted new, remote protocols. This includes mortgage consultancies and notaries.
No wonder current U.S. office occupancy is at a 30-year low. No wonder there’s so much talk about turning office space into something else.
☛ It’s a slow process, but unused office space can indeed be converted to other uses — including conversions to housing, we can hope.
Companies and agencies are finding that their remote employees are, on the whole, at least as productive as they ever were. Refreshed, comfortable workers, it turns out, have a whole lot to offer.
WFH Works: Praise for Working From Home
Could completely remote staffers feel stranded? Knowledgeable, motivated managers can address that challenge, and achieve excellent results. Research is mixed, but largely shows remote working is effective.
Remote staff members tend to get started on time, and focus on their tasks. With a home kitchen at hand, there’s no need to go trekking around on a lunch hour. And because distance protects staff members’ health when someone has a cold or other minor illness, remote teams need fewer days away from work.
Just look at how we’re doing from 2020 into the present time. Five times as many people are working in remote posts as we had before the pandemic. U.S. office productivity is going strong. Hours lost to commuting have been reclaimed — whether for working, playing, or community activity.
In short, yes, some well-known offices are calling people back. But for every RTO story, there’s a company counting on a work-from-home future.
Supporting References
Matthew Fox for Business Insider (Insider Inc., via Markets.Businessinsider.com): Return-to-Office Policies Are Driving People to Sell Their Homes, Even at a Loss (Sep. 13, 2023).
Rani Molla for Vox (Vox Media, LLC. via Vox.com): The “Return to the Office” Won’t Save the Office (updated Jun. 5, 2023).
Nick Bloom for The Hill (Nexstar Media Inc., via TheHill.com): Opinion – Does Working From Home Damage Productivity? Just Look at the Data (Sep. 29, 2023).
Interview of Katie Burke by Sophia Bernazzani for Owl Labs, via Resources.OwlLabs.com: How HubSpot Is Building Remote Work Into Its Company (Feb. 4, 2019).
And as linked.
More on topics: Home offices, Digital closings
Photo credits: Ryan Lee via Flickr, licensed as CC BY-2.0 generic; and Tima Miroschnichenko, via Pexels.