As full five-day RTO mandates continue to make waves in companies like Amazon, Dell and AT&T, fresh headaches are also emerging.
It turns out that rowing back on hybrid work has been complicated by a shortage of free desks, parking spaces, and even restricted capacity in lifts.
As bullish dictums from CEOs highlight the importance of in-person working for corporate culture, the practicalities of implementing RTO policies hasn’t been plain sailing, and employees are pushing back too.
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As the world’s fifth-largest employer, Amazon is one of the most high-profile organisations championing a full five-day RTO.
It reportedly isn’t going so well either. Due to space shortages, many hubs, including Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, New York, and Phoenix, are now delaying a full return.
Even worse, according to a November 2024
survey, 68% of Amazon employees impacted by the RTO mandate say they are likely to leave the company within the year.
Flexible tech
Yet, despite one of the biggest tech companies leading this charge, the tech industry in general is still dubbed to be the most flexible.
That’s according to
Flex Index’s Q4 2024 Flex Report, which digs into workplace trends across the pond, and states that 96% of tech companies offer work location flexibility.
It also highlights that financial services has climbed back into the top five most flexible industries.
Some 83% of financial services offer work location flexibility, beaten only by insurance (92%) and tech (96%), which makes it doubly-good news for fintech workers.
Also completing the top five are professional services (83%) and media and entertainment (82%), despite the Jeff Bezos-owned
Washington Post moving to full-time in-office.
Welcome surge
This surge in flexibility within financial services marks a significant shift from the industry's initial post-pandemic stance, when major banks were among the most vocal advocates for a return to office.
It even jars with very
recent reports of JPMorgan Chase & Co. gearing up to require its 300k+ employees to return to the office full-time.
However, it does reflect a growing recognition that flexible work arrangements can be a powerful tool for talent attraction and retention, particularly as firms compete with tech companies for skilled professionals in emerging areas like decentralised finance
(DeFi), embedded finance, and open banking APIs.
Though it must be noted that flexibility varies significantly across different roles and institutions.
Trading floors and client-facing positions typically maintain stricter in-office requirements, while technology and operations teams often enjoy more flexible arrangements.
Overall, hybrid isn’t dead; it’s just that its critics are very loud. In fact, hybrid is thriving. Some 43% of US businesses now use a structured hybrid strategy, which is an increase from 38% in Q3 2024, and 20% in Q1 2023.
Many fintechs continue to invest in technology and workspace redesign to better support working models, while maintaining the security and compliance standards essential to the industry.
Size matters
When it comes to flexible work arrangements, there are significant differences between smaller businesses and larger corporations. Just 14% of businesses with 25,000 or more employees are fully flexible, compared to 70% of businesses with less than 500 employees.
However, the likelihood of large enterprises being structured hybrid is far higher. Only 15% of businesses with 500 or fewer people are structured hybrid, compared to 73% of enterprises with 25,000 or more employees.
Ultimately, the majority of U.S. companies still allow employees to choose their work location, despite loud proclamations from prominent company leaders.
Over the past two quarters, the percentage of U.S. companies that require corporate workers to work full-time in the office has remained relatively stable at 32%.
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