Just like the heads of JPMorgan, Boots and Goldman Sachs, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy cited strengthening the company culture as one of the main reasonsThis is the reason for increasing the attendance requirement from three days to full time.

However, a new report from PwC suggests that the shift to full-time office work could have different effects than intended.

The Big Four accounting firm conducted a 13-month study for its new Workforce Radar report, surveying over 20,000 business leaders, HR managers and employees, and found that hybrid workers feel more integrated and productive than those who sit at their company desk five days a week.

“While many companies are pushing for a return to the office, hybrid workers are showing the highest levels of satisfaction,” the report highlights.

The researchers found that more than three-quarters of hybrid workers feel a sense of belonging, compared to 74% of on-site workers and 68% of remote workers.

Likewise, 74% of hybrid employees are engaged, compared to 72% of office workers and 63% of remote workers.

These may be marginal differences, but they have a ripple effect on company culture: An incredible 90% of hybrid employees said the culture at their company fosters community, collaboration, inclusion and belonging.

“The idea that you need to be on-site all day, every day to build and maintain a strong company culture is a myth,” the report concludes. “Don’t be afraid to offer flexible options for fear of weakening it.”

Why two extra days in the office can damage company culture

It may seem counterintuitive to strengthen company culture by encouraging employees to spend more time apart—not less. But in reality, when leaders enforce five days a week in the office, they often overlook engagement activities like team outings and after-work beers.

“The office becomes a crutch – engagement, recognition and connection are automatically given,” says Daan Van Rossum, author of the Future Work newsletter and founder of FlexOS. Assets.

“As companies move to a hybrid schedule, they begin to take more targeted actions to replace that engagement. In fact, the hybrid experience leads to improved engagements with more touchpoints.”

Besides, nobody likes to commute to sit in a noisy office to do the same work they could have done at home – especially not introverts. Experts say Assets that if employees only have to do this a few days a week, they can make the most of their office days and maximize Cooperation.

Then you have to deal with personality conflicts on a daily basis, instead of just in microdoses.

“When you’re forced to work in an office, you’re exposed to people who may have very different values ​​than you,” says Amrit Sandhar, CEO of the recruitment firm &Evolve. “Over time, it can be exhausting.”

“Don’t look back, look forward,” says PwC

Despite Amazon’s call for workers to return to “pre-COVID conditions,” PwC’s research shows that returning to old ways of working is simply not possible.

“We have seen that return-to-office measures have failed in many cases,” the report says, before adding: “The business-as-usual paradigm that some business leaders want to return to no longer exists.”

“Employees did not miss the long, stressful commutes and got used to the flexibility in scheduling, child-rearing, caregiving, etc. that remote work offered them,” it continues. “They were not keen on going into the office without a compelling reason.”

In fact, the main reason why company culture declines when employees are forced to collaborate on a daily basis is because they are forced to do so.

RTOs and attendance monitoring measures, including tracking badge swipes, give the impression that employee attendance is more important to the company than performance or meaningful collaboration.

It was “as if it was about the number of employees and not about what those employees were doing inside,” the report said.

For &Evolve CEO Sandhar, the problem for employees is that a full return to the office can feel like surveillance.

“The autonomy to make your own decisions helps foster a culture of appreciation for employees rather than undermine it,” Sandhar concludes. “Nobody wants to be controlled in a rigid environment, so forcing people back to their jobs can feel like control.”

“This theme is likely to continue into everyday work life. Instead of giving employees a sense of autonomy and freedom, this feeling of control, for example through micromanagement, is likely to undermine the vision of the company culture and lead to a lack of engagement.”