Despite being nearly six years past the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the debate over return-to-office wages on, colliding with ongoing efforts to cut costs, drive efficiencies with AI and navigate an uncertain economy.
The RTO push took on new momentum at the start of 2025, as the Trump administration gave thousands of federal employees an ultimatum: Return to the office or resign, with some experts predicting private employers would follow suit. As predicted, the year is now closing out with a wave of similar headlines.
A report out this week from Business Insider detailed that in September, media conglomerate Paramount Skydance instructed employees to return to the office five days a week or resign, with severance. According to new financial filings, about 600 of the more than 18,000 employees took the company up on that offer, costing Paramount about $185 million in Q3 “restructuring” costs.
The move came at the same time that the company slashed about 1,000 jobs this fall, with another 1,600 layoffs expected in early 2026.
Performance or productivity?
Research has consistently found that American employees are resistant to full-time, in-office work; Connext Global Solutions recently reported that nearly 70% of employees see RTO mandates as performative. Meanwhile, less than one-third of employees believe they’re most productive when in the office full-time, the firm found.
Yet, Paramount Skydance and others are increasingly approaching the RTO topic with a more hard-line approach than they did in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic.
For instance, following pushback related to AT&T’s shift back to full-time, in-office work, CEO John Stankey issued a companywide memo suggesting employees resistant to the move may want to seek employment elsewhere: “If the requirements dictated by this dynamic do not align to your personal desires, you have every right to find a career opportunity that is suitable to your aspirations and needs,” Stankey wrote.
The RTO debate is set to reignite at JPMorgan Chase, as well. Company leadership instated a full-time, in-office policy starting in March 2025, which set off an employee-led petition fueled by organizers pledging to send the document to CEO Jamie Dimon if it reached 2,000 signatories, which it recently did, according to The Banker.
Yet, that effort likely won’t gain much traction. Leaked audio from a company town hall earlier this year made Dimon’s position clear: “I don’t care how many people sign that f***** petition,” he said. “It’s a free country, you can walk with your feet.”
What will 2026 bring for RTO?
While Paramount bet big on spending for severance, some organizations are instead looking to RTO as a “cheap way to reduce headcount,” avoiding layoff costs by pushing workers out the door who are resistant to in-office work, economist Nick Bloom recently told CNBC.
That assessment is supported by data out last year from BambooHR: About a quarter of C-suite executives acknowledged that they hoped their company’s RTO mandate would drive voluntary turnover.
At other organizations, the coming year may bring more “passive resistance,” Bloom predicted: CEOs announce a tough stance on RTO, but managers—strapped by ongoing efforts to thin the middle-management ranks—are too burnt out to truly enforce the rule.
HR is often caught in the middle of complicated layoff and RTO dynamics, which will likely continue to drive up already spiking burnout and stress among HR professionals.
HR Executive’s recent What’s Keeping HR Up at Night? survey, for instance, found that nearly 75% of the HR professionals polled said their stress levels increased over the past year—nearly 28% said they increased “dramatically.”
“HR professionals are caught in the middle between employees and leadership, and they’re expected to serve both sides,” Resume Now career expert Keith Spencer recently told HR Executive. “That can be really challenging.”
