CEOs who insist workers return to the office are living in an ‘echo chamber,’ a future of work expert says

• For a while, hybrid work seemed like the new normal for many workers.
• But CEOs are increasingly demanding workers be in the office five days a week.
• Brigid Schulte, author of “Over Work,” spoke to BI about the CEO mindset driving these policies.

Most workers understood that the days of fully remote work ended with the pandemic and that they should show face in the office some of the time.

But increasingly, CEOs at major companies are saying even hybrid work won’t cut it anymore.

This month Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that all corporate staff must be back in the office five days a week from 2025.

“We continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant,” Jassy wrote in an internal memo to staff.

Computer maker Dell has just followed suit, changing a requirement that hybrid sales staff be onsite from three days a week to five. Dell execs said it would help the team harness a “high energy” environment and grow staff skills.

Several workers BI spoke to said they suspected the policy would eventually be rolled out companywide. A Dell spokesperson said they wouldn’t speculate on future plans.

Other CEOs also seem to be on board: 79% of the 400 chiefs of large US companies surveyed in a recent poll by KPMG US said that they expect workers to be back in the office full time within the next three years.

That marks a significant jump from a similar KPMG US survey of 100 CEOs, which found that only 34% expected workers to return full-time to their on-site desks.

The shift in their attitude flies in the face of data, expert warnings, and employees themselves who insist that having some flexibility in their working life is good for them and the business.

So why do some CEOs who spend their days strategizing how to boost productivity and generate profits not listen to these arguments?

Brigid Schulte, journalist, director of the Better Life Lab, and author of “Over Work,” told Business Insider that it’s because they’re operating in an “echo chamber.”

“Return to office is so based on a leader’s belief,” Schulte explained. “It has nothing to do with the evidence. It often has nothing to do with the performance and who’s a really good worker or innovative or coming up with great ideas. It all has to do with confirmation bias.”

Too many leaders simply think the way they achieved success is the best way to work and it’s all they’re comfortable with, she said.

“If you think businesses want to be efficient and effective and profitable, it is mystifying to me how powerful that leadership mindset and belief is,” Schulte told BI.

Their resistance to new approaches is reinforced when they talk to each other and see others making declarations to the media, Schulte continued, describing that pattern as a “circular echo chamber.”

“I do worry that more are looking at the boldness of these return-to-office mandates and thinking, well, if they did it, I can,” she added.

Worsening that echo chamber structure is the fact that CEOs are “largely white men,” Schulte said.

“Many of them have either virtually no care responsibilities or have somebody else taking care of them. So they have been able to devote themselves 150% to work.”

Schulte said it’s no surprise that some of the worst offenders when it comes to strict RTO mandates are in “very male-dominated overwork cultures, like finance, tech, and law.”

Pop the echo chamber bubble

Schulte’s research for the book showed her that many companies had taken advantage of the disruptions caused by COVID to rethink their methods and make positive and lasting changes.

“They started by talking down to the people in their organization, not just in this rarefied bubble of the C-suite,” Schulte told BI.

She said there is not a one-size-fits-all outcome; organizations are different and have different cultures and priorities. But what’s key is that leaders are willing to listen and act.

If that’s not forthcoming from your CEO, there are things you can do as an individual and an organization to bring about change.

“Run an internal pilot, gather your own data, make the case, and continue to make it,” Schulte said.

It’s also important to acknowledge that working effectively in a digital work environment means you have to be much more explicit about tasks, transparent in communication, and have a clear accountability system.

With that echo chamber, a couple of brave leaders are going to have to be willing to do something differently, but it can definitely happen, Schulte said. Some of the CEOs she spoke to have had “aha moments.”

Public policy is another route that will play a role in the future of how we work, Schulte added.

“That can have some important guardrails that can then create the pressure for leaders to change, for organizations to pay attention to what they’re doing rather than just going on with this inertia of the status quo.”