Labor Day return-to-office mandates fell flat because workers (still) value flexibility over money, says Harvard future of work professor

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At Harvard’s Future of Business conference on Thursday, Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, a professor at Harvard Business School, told attendees he was there on a mission: to present the undeniable business case for flexible work, and to instruct leaders on how to effectively pull off a work from anywhere model. 

Choudhury, a long-time proponent of flexible work, kicked off his presentation with the hard data from Kastle Systems, a building security and research firm, and WFH Research, a leading research group. Offices in the U.S. have stabilized at roughly 50% occupancy over the last two years. The percentage of remote work days for the entire population has held at around 30%—up from 5% pre-pandemic. That’s a six-fold increase, he pointed out, “and the trendline seems to be very stable.”