CEOs demanding that employees return to the office have many reasons for doing so, but a big one is real estate. Frustration quickly mounts in the corner office when a gleaming headquarters in a high-rent area goes largely unused by employees who feel more productive working at home. The result can be return-to-office mandates that are ignored, cause tension, or, worse, spur top talent to leave the company.
One way to fix the problem is to rethink office space entirely, suggests the experience of Atlassian. The global software firm, which makes collaboration tools such as Jira and has a $48 billion market cap, adopted a “Team Anywhere” policy in 2020 and has stuck with it—bucking the trend of more companies enforcing return-to-office mandates this year.
