Should I stay or should I RTO?

Electronic Arts recently joined the hottest trend in corporate America: forcing remote employees to return to the office.

But these RTO mandates might not be especially effective at getting people to… return to the office.

We want you back

Flex Index has some curious stats on the RTO movement that may shatter your perception of office life in 2025:

• Companies like EA are the outlier: Only 33% of US companies require employees to be in the office full-time.
• It’s more common in Fortune 500 companies, but most of those have embraced hybrid schedules.

But while the average number of required in-office days has increased 13% in the last year, the average number of days people actually spend in the office has not.

In fact, it’s barely changed at all. So, just because workers are being told to return to the office, it doesn’t mean they are. 

Still…

… we seem to be at a standstill in the ongoing RTO/WFH conflict.

Just 20% of listings on LinkedIn are for remote jobs, per CNBC, but they get 60% of the applications.

Also, there’s not much data on whether working in the office is good for business — but there is data that shows RTO mandates lead to poor job satisfaction.

Case in point...

Employees of Georgia’s public university system are fighting back against a new RTO mandate, per the Daily Mail.

• Staff is being told to work on campus Monday through Friday — but some schools don’t have Friday classes.
• Employees say remote work is being blamed for problems caused by understaffing and that a sudden, full RTO mandate will drive overcrowded offices and overflowing parking lots.
• And yet, university leadership is so committed to RTO that it’s willing to lose employees over it.

So, essentially, RTO makes nobody happy, might not work, and will no doubt continue to be pushed anyway.