RTO vs. WFH: How CEOs are winning the hybrid work battle in 2025

Beyond the pervasive attention on tariffs and economic uncertainty, return to office (RTO) and its foil, work from home (WFH), remain hotly debated topics when it comes to hybrid work.

March 2025 marked the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID upended the workplace by sending millions of employees to work from home, and now, half a decade later, employers and employees remain at odds about the future of where we work.

Several big tech organizations and prominent banks — Amazon, Google, Uber, Meta and JP Morgan — have recently made waves for enforcing rigid RTO mandates. Some have even introduced strict five-day in-office schedules, citing concerns about declining culture, collaboration and innovation, including the federal government. However, while leaders push for FaceTime, employees don’t give up their hard-won flexibility without fighting.

Workers say that remote and hybrid work have allowed them to be more efficient, healthier and more balanced, expressing concerns about how RTO would negatively impact their work-life balance, finances, mental health, home life, relationships, diet, fitness and productivity. Furthermore, during the COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread adoption of remote and hybrid working, many employees relocated away from their company’s headquarters in city centers to suburban and rural areas.

RTO mandates are forcing these employees to either navigate lengthy and expensive commutes or upend their lives to relocate closer to an office. Cue the latest buzzwords entering the workplace lexicon, like “Revenge RTO,” “Resenteeism,” and “Quiet Cracking,” as employees express resentment and low engagement levels in response to rigid RTO requirements.

This is not the first time companies have tried to bring employees back to the office. However, it is their first time seeing traction with these efforts. The job market has cooled significantly since the white-hot days of The Great Resignation, and now, with an economy marked by instability, there are far fewer opportunities for employees to jump ship if they aren’t aligned with their company’s work arrangements.

Large organizations that can afford to risk losing talent are capitalizing on this pendulum swing, and many of their employees are (reluctantly) finding ways to make it work, at least in the near term, to shore up their job security.

But while Fortune 500 RTO mandates continue to dominate the headlines, the reality of the modern workforce isn’t so simple. In the Q1 2025 Vistage CEO Confidence Index survey, responses from nearly 1,800 small and mid-sized business leaders revealed that a whopping 75% have a hybrid workforce, 18% are fully in the office, and 7% are fully remote.

Since hybrid working became the norm in 2020, organizations and individuals have become more adept at navigating distributed work. Managers are adapting new KPIs and tools to measure output, rather than focusing on the number of hours worked. Employees are optimizing their flexible schedules to maximize productivity and drive value.

The advent of hybrid and remote work has expanded the talent pool for many employers, providing access to a broader range of individuals with specialized skills. Additionally, it offers financial savings, allowing employers to benefit from smaller office footprints and reduced operational costs. Many employees also express a willingness to accept salary decreases in favor of flexibility, which helps organizations keep salary inflation at bay.

Of course, in-person interaction still delivers irreplaceable benefits. Culture cannot yet transcend digital as easily as time spent together in person. Instilling accountability becomes significantly more challenging when managers don’t have direct reports in the office daily.

Teamwork and camaraderie often decline when you have only a two-dimensional digital relationship compared to the dynamics of working interactively with humans, and loneliness at work remains a real problem for many.

All in all, the benefits and challenges of hybrid and remote work haven’t changed significantly since the pandemic accelerated the adoption of hybrid work arrangements. Efficiency increases, but culture and connection lag.

Now that the job market has shifted, large employers are capitalizing on economic instability to revert to more traditional office work arrangements. However, many employers still favor the benefits of a more flexible work environment. In reality, the best companies aren’t choosing sides in the office vs. remote debate. They’re refining what leadership looks like in a digital-first world.

This story first appeared in Inc. 

Related Resources

The Hybrid Gap: How to create the ideal work environment

The first 90 days: Why employee engagement is crucial in 2025

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