In the ever-evolving return-to-office battle, many companies have pulled out all the stops to get their workers back at their desks. Some, like Google, have offered free concerts and pinball machines—alongside free food, of course. Others, like L’Oreal, have upped the ante considerably, offering personal concierges for every in-office worker who will take dogs to the vet and clothes to dry cleaners for just $5 an hour. And others still, like Amazon and Tesla, are taking a decidedly less forgiving approach: Threatening to withhold promotions and tracking badge swipes to those who don’t comply with in-person mandates.
In its new 2024 Workplace Trends report, Glassdoor uses a tongue-in-cheek metaphor to describe the difference between these two approaches: dangling carrots (the perks) or brandishing sticks (the penalties). The return-to-office push “started out with a focus on carrots, but evolved toward more sticks" over the course of this year as the labor market softened, the report's authors write.
But such tactics are likely leaving companies unsatisfied. Office occupancy rates have held flat at half-full in most major metro areas for over two years now, and 35% of workers in remote-capable jobs are working from home exclusively.
So, companies will likely try a more cautious approach next year that combines both carrots and sticks to get workers back in office as they grapple with both the need to manage costs prudently and keep their most valuable workers in good spirits, Glassdoor researchers predict.
This "carrot stick" approach refers to the unspoken rules that you can't really find in the handbook or that are readily enforced, "like face-to-face peer mentoring, recognition for voluntary participation in social activities, and empowering managers to have greater discretion in advancement or compensation," the report reads.
Bosses often insist that these more abstract activities can't be replicated remotely. Plenty of data, even from pro-remote experts, backs that up. Remote work is, on the whole, slightly less productive, and full-time at-home work could hamstring young workers’ attempts at climbing the corporate ladder—perhaps even eliminating the chance for them to become CEOs. Plus, at the extreme, working from home amid rampant proximity bias could mean being particularly vulnerable to layoffs or offshoring.
Even after nearly four years of remote work, companies remain stuck on how to balance the inarguable perks of in-person work with those of working from anywhere else. 2024 will see more experimentation, Glassdoor writes, but maybe not a resolution.
Return-to-office mandates have never been one-size-fits-all, and that won’t change next year, Glassdoor senior economist Aaron Terrazas tells Fortune. Large companies have thus far driven the RTO push, Glassdoor’s data has shown, “but remote work continues to thrive at mid-sized and small companies—regardless of how new or established they are.”
It’s also not so simple as kowtowing to any one group’s preferences; everybody wants different things, and their minds are always changing. Terrazas points to earlier Glassdoor research—which joins the scores of other such findings—showing that younger workers actually have more hesitations about remote work than older workers do. “Many large companies, particularly in innovative and intense industries like tech, finance, and consulting, have long catered their policies to attract these eager young workers,” he says. That puts to rest the thought that it would be any easier for companies to simply appease everyone by going remote-first.
“At a high level, the job market is gradually cooling and the quit rate has come down,” Terrazas adds. “But even if quits continue to decline, these data suggest that trust fractures are building beneath the surface of the workplace.” That’s something bosses should “keenly monitor” in 2024, he says; leaning more towards carrots and less sticks might be the best way to do so.
